1.
Arab culture
–
Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy, mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the pan-Arab world. The Arab world is divided into separate regions including Nile Valley, Al-Maghrib Al-Arabi, Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab culture is divided into three parts, the urban culture, the rural culture, and the nomad culture. Typically, most of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, along parts of Jordan. Other countries countrysides such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and their cities are considered to be urban cultures. In fact, most of the Arab major cities are recognized with urban cultures, like Jaffa, Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Baghdad, Alexandria, Damascus, etc. The Levant, particularly Palestine, Lebanon, Syria as well as Egypt are known to have an urban culture history. Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language and it does not include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language such as Persian and Urdu literature. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning to invite someone for a meal and implies politeness, culture. Arabic literature emerged in the 6th century, with fragments of the written language appearing before then. The Quran, from the 7th century, had the greatest, al-Khansa, a female contemporary of Muhammad, was an acclaimed Arab poet. The Muallaqat is the given to a series of seven Arabic poems or qasida that originated before the time of Islam. Each poem in the set has a different author, and is considered to be their best work, Muallaqat means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, and comes from the poems being hung on the wall in the Kaaba at Mecca. The seven authors, who span a period of around 100 years, are Imru al-Qais, Tarafa, Zuhayr, Labīd, Antara Ibn Shaddad, Amr ibn Kulthum, all of the Mu’allaqats contain stories from the authors’ lives and tribe politics. This is because poetry was used in time to advertise the strength of a tribe’s king, wealth. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, the individual stories were created over several centuries, by many people from a number of different lands. The nucleus of the collection is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah, during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad, during this time, many of the stories that were originally folk stories are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later compiled into a single book
2.
Nabataean architecture
–
Nabatean architecture refers to the building traditions of the Nabateans in Jordan. It includes the temple and tombs of Petra in the cliffs of Jordan’s Negev desert. The style appears a mix of Mesopotamian and Hellenistic influences, much of the surviving architecture was excavated out of rock cliffs. So the columns do not actually support anything, ceramics and coins were also part of the culture. In addition to the most famous sites in Petra, there are also Nabatean complexes at Obodas and residential complexes at Mampsis and a religious site of et-Tannur
3.
Umayyad architecture
–
Umayyad architecture developed in the Umayyad Caliphate between 661 and 750, primarily in its heartlands of Syria and Palestine. The Umayyad caliphate was established in 661 after Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, was murdered in Kufa, muawiyah I, governor of Syria, became the first Umayyad caliph. The Umayyads made Damascus their capital, the Umayyads built new cities, often unfortified military camps that provided bases for further conquests. Wasit, Iraq was the most important of these, and included a square Friday mosque with a hypostyle roof, the empire was secular and tolerant of existing customs in the conquered lands, creating resentment among those looking for a more theocratic state. In 747 a revolution began in Khorasan, in the east, by 750 the Umayyads had been overthrown by the Abbasids, who moved the capital to Mesopotamia. A branch of the Umayyad dynasty continued to rule in Iberia until 1051, almost all monuments from the Umayyad period that have survived are in Syria and Palestine. The sanctuary of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the oldest surviving Islamic building, the Umayyads adopted the construction techniques of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires. There was some innovation in decoration and in types of building, most buildings in Syria were of high quality ashlar masonry, using large tightly-joined blocks, sometimes with carving on the facade. Stone barrel vaults were used to roof small spans. Wooden roofs were used for spans, with the wood in Syria brought from the forests of Lebanon. These roofs usually had shallow pitches and rested on wooden trusses, wooden domes were constructed for Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, both in Jerusalem. Baked brick and mud brick were used in Mesopotamia, due to lack of stone, where brick was used in Syria, the work was in the finer Mesopotamian style rather than the more crude Byzantine style. The Umayyads used local workers and architects, some of their buildings cannot be distinguished from those of the previous regime. However, in many eastern and western elements were combined to give a distinctive new Islamic style. For example, the walls at Qasr Mshatta are built from cut stone in the Syrian manner, the horseshoe arch appears for the first time in Umayyad architecture, later to evolve to its most advanced form in al-Andalus. Umayyad architecture is distinguished by the extent and variety of decoration, including mosaics, wall painting, sculpture, the Umayyads are known for their desert palaces, some new and some adapted from earlier forts. The largest is Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, the palaces were symbolically defended by walls, towers and gates. In some cases the outside walls carried decorative friezes, the palaces would have a bath house, a mosque, and a main castle
4.
Abbasid architecture
–
Abbasid architecture developed in the Abbasid Caliphate between 750 and 945, primarily in its heartland of Mesopotamia. The Abbasids inherited Persian architectural traditions in Mesopotamia, and were influenced by Central Asian styles. They evolved distinctive styles of their own, particularly in decoration of their buildings, while the Abbasids lost control of large parts of their empire after 850, their architecture continued to be copied by successor states in Iran, Egypt and North Africa. In 750 the Abbasids seized power from the Umayyad rulers of the Arab empire, the Abbasid caliphs based in what is now Iraq ruled over Iran, Mesopotamia, Arabia and the lands of the eastern and southern Mediterranean. The period between 750 and 900 has been described as the Islamic Golden Age, where the Umayyads had typically reused pre-Islamic buildings in the cities they had conquered, by the Abbasid era many of these structures required replacement. The spread of Muslim beliefs had also brought changes in needs, the Abbasids had to erect mosques and palaces, as well as fortifications, houses, commercial buildings and even facilities for racing and polo matches. In 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded a new capital of Baghdad on the Tigris, in 836 the caliph al-Mutasim transferred the capital to Samarra. The Abbasids began to control over the outlying parts of the empire, with local dynasties gaining effective independence in Khorasan in eastern Iran, Egypt. The caliph al-Mutamid, by now the effective ruler only of Iraq, in 945 the Buyids, followers of Shia Islam, became effective rulers as amirs, while the Abbasid caliphs retained their nominal title. With Caliph al-Nasir the Abbasids once again gained control of Iraq, early Abbasid architecture was very similar to the architecture of the Sassanid Empire, as exemplified by the Palace of Ukhaidhir. It used the techniques, the same materials of mud brick, baked brick and rough stone blocks set in mortar. With the conquest of Central Asia, the influence of Soghdian architecture increased, in Samarra the stucco and wall paintings are similar to that of the palaces of Panjakent in what is now Tajikistan. Later, in the 12th and 13th centuries, architecture in the lands ruled by the Abbasids became dominated by Seljuk architecture, Abbasid cities were laid out on huge sites. The palaces and mosques of Samarra sprawled along the shores of the Tigris for 40 kilometres. To match the scale of the sites, monumental buildings were erected, such as the huge spiral minarets of the Abu Dulaf Mosque and the Great Mosque of Samarra, which had no counterparts elsewhere. The two-centered pointed arch and vault had appeared before the Abbasids took power, the first fully developed example of the four-centered pointed arch was at the Qasr al-Ashiq, built between 878 and 882. Three new types of decoration were developed in Samarra and rapidly became popular elsewhere. The first two styles may be seen as derivative from Late Antique or Umayyad decorative styles, but the third is entirely new, style C used molds to create repeating patterns of curved lines, notches, slits, and other elements
5.
Fatimid architecture
–
The wealth of Fatimid architecture was found in the main cities of Mahdia, Al-Mansuriya and Cairo. The Fatimid Caliphs competed with the rulers of the Abbasid and Byzantine empires and their palaces, their greatest architectural achievements, are known only by written descriptions, however. Several surviving tombs, mosques, gates and walls, mainly in Cairo, retain original elements, notable extant examples of Fatimid architecture include the Great Mosque of Mahdiya, and the Al-Azhar Mosque, Al-Hakim Mosque, Juyushi and Lulua of Cairo. They typically had features such as portals that protrude from the wall, domes above mihrabs and qiblas, and façade ornamentation with iconographic inscriptions, the woodwork of the doors and interiors of the buildings was often finely carved. The Fatimids also made considerable development towards mausoleum building, the mashad, a shrine that commemorates a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, was a characteristic type of Fatimid architecture. Three Fatimid-era gates in Cairo, Bab al-Nasr, Bab al-Futuh and Bab Zuweila, though they have been altered over the centuries, they have Byzantine architectural features, with little trace of the eastern Islamic tradition. Recently a Neo-Fatimid style has emerged, used in restorations or in modern Shia mosques by the Dawoodi Bohra, in 899 his grandson, to be known as Abd Allah al-Mahdi, became leader of the movement. He fled from his enemies to Sijilmasa in Morocco, where he proselytized under the guise of being a merchant, the empire grew to include Sicily and to stretch across North Africa from the Atlantic to Libya. The Fatimid caliphs built three capital cities, which they occupied in order, Mahdia and al-Mansuriya in Ifriqiya. Mahdia was a city located on a peninsula that projected into the Mediterranean from the coast of what is now Tunisia. The Carthaginian port of Zella had once occupied the site, Mahdia was founded in 913 by Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, the first Fatimid imam, and later was the port from which the Fatimid invasion of Egypt was launched. Al-Mahdi built the Great Mosque of Mahdiya, the earliest Fatimid mosque, the other buildings erected nearby at that time have since disappeared, but the monumental access gate and portico in the north of the mosque are preserved from the original structure. Al-Mansuriya, near Kairouan, Tunisia, was the capital of Fatimid Caliphate during the rules of the Imams Al-Mansur Billah, built between 946 and 972, it was a circular walled city holding elaborate palaces surrounded by gardens, artificial pools and water channels. The caliph Al-Muizz moved from the city to the new city of al-Qāhira in 973, in 1057 it was abandoned and destroyed. Any useful objects or materials were scavenged during the centuries that followed, the Fatimid general, Jawhar al-Siqilli built a new palace city near to Fusṭāt upon conquering Egypt in 969, which he at first called al-Manṣūriyya after the capital in Tunisia. When Al-Muizz arrived in 973, the name was changed to al-Qāhira, the new city incorporated elements of the design of Al-Mansuriya, although it was rectangular rather than circular in plan. Both cities had mosques named al-Azhar after the Prophets daughter, Fatima al-Azhar, both cities had two palaces, for the caliph and for his heir, opposite and facing each other. Al-Aziz Billah is generally considered to have been the most extensive of Fatimid builders, similar to the first mosque, Al-Azhar Mosque, it had some fourteen gates but was later destroyed by fire, leaving only its green mihrab
6.
Moorish architecture
–
Moorish architecture is the architectural tradition that appeared in the Maghreb region and the Iberian peninsula after the Arab Islamic conquest. Other notable buildings include the palace city of Medina Azahara, the church San Cristo de la Luz in Toledo. The term is used to include the products of the Islamic civilisation of Southern Italy. The Palazzo dei Normanni in Sicily was begun in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo, there is archeological evidence of an eighth-century mosque in Narbonne, France. Arabic architecture Islamic architecture Arab-Norman culture Islamic influences on Christian art Moorish Revival* Moroccan architecture Mudéjar Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon Curl, a Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
7.
Mamluk architecture
–
Mamluk architecture was a flowering of Islamic art during the reign of the Mamluk Sultanate which is most visible in medieval Cairo. Religious zeal made them generous patrons of architecture and art, it was influenced by the Ancient Egyptian. Trade and agriculture flourished under Mamluk rule, and Cairo, their capital, became one of the wealthiest cities in the Near East and the center of artistic and intellectual activity. This made Cairo, in the words of Ibn Khaldun, the center of the universe and the garden of the world, with domes, courtyards. The architectural identity of Mamluk religious monuments stems from the purpose that individuals erected their own memorials. Each building reflected the individual tastes, choices, and name. Mamluk architecture is oftentimes categorized more by the reigns of the sultan, than a specific design. Interestingly, the elite were often more knowledgeable in the art of buildings than many historians. Mamluk sultans and emirs were known for their zealous patronage of art and their projects could include a single mausoleum or a small charitable building, while their larger architectural complexes typically combined many functions into one or more buildings. These could include charitable functions and social services, such as a mosque, khanqah, madrasa, bimaristan, maktab, sabil, or hod, or commercial functions, such as a wikala/khan or rabʿah. These buildings and their institutions were protected by waqf agreements, which rendered them the status of charitable endowments or trusts which were legally inalienable under Islamic law. As such, the zeal of the Mamluk rulers was also motivated by very real pragmatic benefits. While the organization of Mamluk monuments varied, the funerary dome and these attributes are prominent features in a Mamluk mosques profile and were significant in the beautification of the city skyline. In Cairo, the dome and minaret were respected as symbols of commemoration. Patrons used these visual attributes to express their individuality by decorating each dome, patterns carved on domes ranged from ribs and zigzags to floral and geometric star designs. The funerary dome of Aytimish al-Bajasi and the dome of Qaitbays sons reflect the diversity. The creativity of Mamluk builders was effectively emphasized with these leitmotifs, expanding on the Fatimid Caliphates development of street-adjusted mosque façades, the Mamluks developed their architecture to enhance street vistas. In addition, new concepts and architectural solutions were created to reflect their assumed role in history
8.
Ablaq
–
Ablaq is an architectural style involving alternating or fluctuating rows of light and dark stone. Records trace the beginnings of this type of technique to the south parts of Syria. It is associated as an Arabic term, especially as related to Arabic Islamic architectural decoration, the first recorded use of the term ablaq pertained to repairs of the Great Mosque of Damascus in 1109, but the technique itself was used much earlier. This technique is a feature of Islamic architecture, the ablaq decorative technique is a derivative from the ancient Byzantine Empire, whose architecture used alternate sequential runs of light colored ashlar stone and darker colored orange brick. The first known use of the term ablaq in building techniques is in work in reconstruction improvements to the walls of the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. According to records, these reconstruction masonry improvements to the wall began in the early twelfth century. The local stone supply may have encouraged the use of alternating courses of light, in the south part of Syria there is abundance of black basalt as well as white-colored limestone. The supplies of each are equal, so it was natural that masonry techniques of balanced proportions were used. The technique itself, however, was used earlier, Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba being a notable example, Medina Azahara. The Mamluks utilized mottled light effects and chiaroscuro in their buildings, finely dressed ashlar stones was often combined with brickwork for vaults. These Mamluk and Syrian elements were applied and shared by the Ayyubids and Crusaders in Palestine, Syria, in 1266 –1269 Sultan al-Zahir Baybars al-Bunduqdari built a mosque known as Mosque of al-Zahir Baybars or the Qasr Ablaq Palace which was constructed with alterations of light and dark masonry. Based on this mosque, ablaq as a technique of alternate rows of light. The Mamluk architecture of Syria, Egypt and Palestine adopted the technique in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In these countries at about this black and white stone were often used as well as red brick in recurring rows. The ablaq masonry technique is used in the Azm Palace in Damascus, in fact, Dr. Jerusalem mamluk architecture include multi-colored mansonry in white, yellow, red and black. The origins of the marble ablaq treatments at the Dome are controversial, some theorizing them original, in Jordan, the Mamluk fortified khan at Aqaba is a medieval fortress modeled after those used by the Crusaders. It contains an arch above the protected entrance, the horsesoe arch has ablaq masonry, harkening to Mamluk architecture in Egypt. Various architectural motifs—ablaq, the arch, and voussoir were used
9.
Hypostyle
–
In architecture, a hypostyle hall has a roof which is supported by columns. The word hypostyle comes from the Ancient Greek ὑπόστυλος hypóstȳlos meaning under columns, the roof may be constructed of with bridging lintels of stone, wood or other rigid material such as cast iron, steel or reinforced concrete. The architectural form has many applications, occurring in the cella of Ancient Greek temples and in many Asian buildings, with a combination of columns and arches, the hypostyle hall became one of the two main types of mosque construction. In many mosques, especially the early congregational mosques, the hall has the hypostyle form. One of the finest examples of the mosques is the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the city of Kairouan. The hypostyle is widely used in modern architecture, peristyle Portico Apadana Ancient Egyptian architecture This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Hypostyle
10.
Mashrabiya
–
The mashrabiya is an element of traditional Arabic architecture used since the Middle Ages up to the mid-20th century. It is mostly used on the side of the building, however. Mashrabiyas were mostly used in houses and palaces although sometimes in buildings such as hospitals, inns, schools. They are found mostly in the Mashriq – i. e. the eastern part of the Arab world and they are very prevalent in Iraq, the Levant, Hejaz and Egypt. They are mostly found in settings and rarely in rural areas. Basra is often called the city of Shanasheel, Mashrabiya is derived from the triliteral root Š-R-B, which generally denotes drinking or absorbing. There are two theories for its name, the most common one is that the name was originally for a small wooden shelf where the drinking water pots were stored, the shelf was enclosed by wood and located at the window in order to keep the water cool. Later on, this shelf evolved until it became part of the room with a full enclosure, the second theory is that the name was originally mashrafiya, derived from the verb Ashrafa, to overlook or to observe. During the centuries the name changed due to changing accents. Whatever is left in Arabic cities is mostly built during the late 19th century, in Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s, the designs of the latticework was affected by the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements of the time. This was evident in Al Rasheed street Mashrabiyas up to the late 1960s before most of them were demolished, traditionally, houses are built of adobe, brick or stone or a combination of that. Wooden houses are not popular and hardly ever found, building heights in urban setting range from two to five floors with the Mashrabiyas on the second level and above. The roofs are built using wooden or steel beams with the areas between filled with brick in a semi vault style. These beams were extended over the street, enlarging the footprint of the upper floor, the upper floor is then enclosed with latticework and roofed with wood. The projection is cantilevered and does not bear the weight of building materials. There are different types of Mashrabiyas, and the designs differ from region to region. One of the purposes of the Mashrabiya is privacy, an essential aspect of Arabic culture. A good view of the street can be obtained by the occupants without being seen, the wooden screen with openable windows gives shade and protection from the hot summer sun, while allowing the cool air from the street to flow through
