Shrine of Bibi Ruakaya
Photographs of the Shrine of Bibi Rukaya in Damascus, Syria. syrian islamic architecture bibi rukaya damascus zarih of imam hussain syria islamic architecture
The Islamic Dyansties
This schematic chart provides a simplified picture of the political complexities of certain periods. (Large parts of Central Asia, China, South-east Asia and Africa have been omitted.) islamic dynasties mamluk manuscripts…
The Enamelled Glass, Mosque Lamps
Mosque lamps of glass, enamelled and often with gilding, survive in considerable numbers from the Islamic art of the Middle Ages, especially the 13th and 14th centuries, with Cairo in Egypt and Aleppo and Damascus in Syria as the most important centres of production. These are oil…
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….
The Farjam Collection of Islamic Art
The Farjam Collection is one of the most impressive privately-owned collections in the world today. Featuring Islamic and pre-Islamic art, Contemporary Middle-Eastern art and International Modern and Contemporary Art, the Collection is born…
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…
Aleppo – Architecture and History
“The city is as old as eternity, but still young, and it has never ceased to exist. Its days and nights have been long; it has survived its rulers and commoners. These are…
Science and Islam – a BBC documentary
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th…
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…
The Mosque in the Medieval Islamic World
Why study the mosque? For historians of architecture and culture alike, the answer is gratifyingly simple. This is the Islamic building par excellence, and as such the key to Islamic architecture. Moreover,…
The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
Also known as Principal (Great) Mosque of Damascus, founded by the Umayyad caliph al-Walid in 706 CE. The Great Mosque stands in the centre of the old city of Damascus on the site…
Damascus – history, arts and architecture
Capital city of Syria and one of the chief cities of the Middle East. Damascus is located in southern Syria on the banks of the Barada river. The area of Damascus forms an…
