Dar al Hajar – The Rock House
There are a fair number of countries which can be identified by a single iconic landmark. When one thinks of France, the image of the Eiffel Tower often comes to mind. Dar al…
Arches of Sheikh Zayed Mosque
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is a heaven for photographers. A simple google search will reveal stunning images of the mosque with enough detail to write numerous blog posts. However this is just a…
Coins of Abd al-Malik
These two dinar coins sum up one of the greatest political and religious upheavals ever – the permanent transformation of the Middle East in the years following the death of the Prophet Muhammad….
Exploring the Damascus Room
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened the museum’s Islamic art galleries to display roughly 1,200 works spanning 13 centuries and dozens of Islamic-influenced cultures. One highlight is the Damascus Room, a 26-foot-long…
From Cuneiform to Topkapi
In the Islamic world, where reading and literacy have always been highly prized for the access they provide to the word of God and the world of knowledge, books were objects of both…
Silver Speaks
Throughout the Middle East, Silver, jewellery speaks about the lives of women and girls and the talents of artisans. It provides a window into social status, religion, regional identities and changing lives in…
The Masterpiece Minbar
Until relatively recent times, wooden furniture—in the sense of tables and chairs was little known in traditional Islamic societies. Throughout the warm and dry lands of North Africa, the Middle East, India and Central…
Old Walled City of Shibam
Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. Its impressive tower-like structures rise…
Sana’a Rising – “a Venice built on sand.”
In mid-February 1978, on my first morning in Sana‘a, I woke up before first light. Illuminated by the flame of a single bedside candle, the undulating overhead ceiling beams, plastered in white gypsum,…
London’s Arab Hall
“…The Arab Hall in this fine house, without being at all like the Al-hambra in detail, gives the grand impression which Eastern art awakes in many minds.” An English vicar’s wife was so…
Calligraphy in Islamic art – beyond pen and paper
The development of sophisticated calligraphy as an art form is not unique to Islamic culture. Other examples include Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and illuminated bibles from north-west Europe including the famous Book of…
Domestic Culture of Cities in the Middle East (16th to 19th century)
This article invites the reader to enter and enjoy wealthy urban homes in Turkey, Egypt and Iran between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was a period of flourishing traditional culture and also of…
