Architecture (Islamic Studies)

Introduction

The term “Islamic architecture,” as conventionally used today in the scholarly world, refers to works of architecture created in cultures in which the Islamic political and cultural component is dominant. The term may also encompass works created by Muslim architects working in non-Muslim societies for non-Muslim patrons (such as mudejar buildings created for Christian patrons in Spain after the Reconquista) or by non-Muslim architects working in Muslim societies for Muslim patrons (such as the Balyan family of architects under royal patronage in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire). In defining the nature of “Islamic” architecture, the primary and dominant consideration here is that of visual style, rather than the geography, ethnicity, language, or religion of either architect or patron. One can argue that the primacy of architecture among the arts of Islam was enhanced by the sometimes tenuous position often occupied by arts other than architecture. Figural art of all kinds, whether painting or sculpture, has long been viewed with hostility by Islamic theologians, and Hadith traditions militate strongly against it, largely on the fear that figural art might lead to idolatry. Likewise, Islamic puritanism, again exemplified in Hadith traditions, demands that luxury arts, such as silk fabrics or jewelry, should be avoided by pious Muslims. On the other hand, architecture in its many manifestations has a highly positive relationship not only with Islamic theology but also with kingly or bourgeois traditions of conspicuous consumption. Religious buildings may exemplify the religious obligation of zakat or charity, serving functions of worship, education, health, economic development, and public welfare. Royal palaces may serve as highly private locales for forbidden activities and luxuries, or as highly public manifestations of royal power. The representative books selected here from a vast amount of published material have been chosen taking into account a balance of quality of scholarship, accessibility, quality of illustrative material, and, where possible, their proven usefulness in research and teaching over recent decades.

General Overviews

Building on better printing and the availability of better photographs and architectural drawings, a group of later introductory works attempting to cover the entire spectrum of Islamic architecture gives today’s reader a useful, affordable, and well-illustrated entry into this vast and rapidly developing field. The latest incarnation of Creswell’s shorter history (Creswell 1989) is still of use to students, although various aspects of his work have been superseded. Oleg Grabar’s magisterial work on the early period (Grabar 1987) remains today one of the most influential works in the field, and its approach can be usefully contrasted with that of John Hoag and later of Robert Hillenbrand (Hoag 2004, Hillenbrand 1994), works that in their new illustrations and architectural drawings provide a more object-centered approach. In contrast to the historical/geographic organization of these works, Michell’s work (Michell 2006) is organized with various topical cross sections of the field, including architectural genre and a canonical list of major monuments.

Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Revised and supplemented by James W. Allan, this new edition brings Creswell’s seminal work to today’s readers in a better-illustrated and more accessible format, reflecting the results of subsequent scholarship. Originally published in 1958.
Find this resource:

Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. Rev. ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1973, this remains the most widely influential and wide-ranging general work dealing with the early period, and is often used as a textbook in university courses. Focusing largely on architectural and architectural decoration, it in part reconceptualizes Creswell’s work in a wider theoretical and historical context.
Find this resource:

Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form, Function, and Meaning. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most recent encyclopedic survey of Islamic architecture, arranged by architectural genre; insightful and well written, it is extensively illustrated by axonometric drawings, which combine the information of ground plan and elevation/section in a single illustration. A compendium of small plans and sections republished from earlier works is added at the end of the work for reference.
Find this resource:

Hoag, John D. Islamic Architecture. London: Paidon, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1977. A successor to the same author’s Western Islamic Architecture (New York: G. Braziller, 1963), this comprehensive work, illustrated in black and white with extensive ground plans and sections, is organized by dynasty; it was republished in paperback by Rizzoli in 1987.
Find this resource:

Michell, George, ed. Architecture of the Islamic World Its History and Social Meaning: With a Complete Survey of Key Monuments. Text by Ernst J. Grube. London: Thames and Hudson, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Incorporating a complete survey of key monuments as well as chapters on individual building types written by major authorities, this long-lived work has remained in print for several decades. Color illustrations and a medium-sized format add to its effectiveness, and a paperback edition has increased its influence as a college text.
Find this resource:

Foundational Works

Islamic architecture of specific sites was treated early on in travel literature, often beautifully illustrated with engravings, but the earliest scholarly surveys devoted to Islamic architecture largely appeared early in the 20th century. Rivoira 1975 was among the very first to attempt to treat the broader subject. These scholarly studies for the most part concentrated on specific sites. The beautifully printed two-volume portfolio Gurlitt 1908, illustrated with large photographs and impressive architectural plans and sections, whose second volume was devoted to Ottoman architecture, is perhaps the most impressive of these. Research conducted between the world wars resulted in landmark publications such as Percy Brown’s two-volume distillation of the Architectural Survey of India, Brown 1995, the second volume of which was devoted to the Islamic period; the Creswell 1979 enormously influential two-volume large-format study of the earliest Islamic architectural monuments; and the Pope and Ackerman 2005 foundational attempt to cover all the arts of Persia from Achaemenian times onward. Among Jean Sauvaget’s many contributions to the history of Islamic architecture, Sauvaget 1932 (on Damascus) is of special importance. Cresswell 1969 is largely the result of fieldwork undertaken between the wars. It was never completed; the planned second part would have dealt with the later architecture of the Burji Mamluks.

Brown, Percy. Indian Architecture. Bombay: Taraporevala, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published 1942 and later reprinted on better paper, the work is still useful not so much for its photographs as for the author’s often elaborate drawings and compilations of various architectural elements.
Find this resource:

Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron. Early Muslim Architecture: Umayyads, Early ʻAbbāsids and Ṭūlūnids. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published 1952–1959 and reprinted at a later date, this work was later distilled into a shorter version than in its latest incarnation, by James Allan (see below), but it is still of great use.
Find this resource:

Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron. Ayyūbids and Early Bahrite Mamlūks A.D. 1171–1326. Vol. 2. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt. New York: Hacker Art, 1979.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published 1932–1940, Creswell’s magnificent photographs and architectural drawings have contributed to the longevity of this work as a basic resource for its field.
Find this resource:

Gurlitt, Cornelius. Die Baukunst Konstantinopels. Berlin: Wasmuth, 1908.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Succeeding generations of scholars have relied extensively on the plans and sections of Ottoman buildings in this work, while the photographs provide a useful view of works before recent restorations.
Find this resource:

Pope, Arthur Upham, and Phyllis Ackerman, eds. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
First printed in 1938–1939 in the original six huge volumes by Oxford and later in Japan in a multivolume set, with huge numbers of illustrations, the Survey remains an indispensable starting point for scholarship in this area.
Find this resource:

Rivoira, Giovanni. Moslem Architecture, Its Origins and Development. New York: Hacker Art, 1975.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pioneering work on the development of Islamic architecture, still useful as a mirror of the attitudes and state of research of a century ago, by a scholar specializing in the European medieval traditions. First published in 1914.
Find this resource:

Sauvaget, Jean. Les monuments historiques de Damas. Beirut, Lebanon: Imprimerie Catholique, 1932.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Trained as a historian, Sauvaget brought a knowledge of documents and context to his many works on architectural history.
Find this resource:

Reference Works

Numerous earlier reference works on Islamic architecture exist, but these are today almost entirely superseded by the works included here. The contributions of numerous authors under the editorial supervision of Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom found in Turner 1996 provided such a wealth of new information in the burgeoning Islamic field that Grove brought out all the Islamic entries in a single volume in Bloom and Blair 2009. Petersen 1996 is a useful way to deal with the often complex and sometimes even arcane terminology that inevitably arises in a field where the subject is rooted in non-European cultures, language, and terminology.

Bloom, Jonathan M., and Sheila S. Blair, eds. The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Drawing on and combining material from Turner 1996 in a single volume, and incorporating recent bibliographical information, this encyclopedic work is today the primary introduction to the various topics of Islamic architecture and their source materials.
Find this resource:

Petersen, Andrew. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London: Routledge, 1996.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203203873Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A compact and useful dictionary of terms for the beginner or established scholar.
Find this resource:

Turner, Jane, ed. The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Islamic entries in this standard reference, edited by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, are found throughout the thirty-four volumes, but are primarily concentrated in Volume 16.
Find this resource:

Bibliographies

Creswell 1961 and Pearson 1958 were conceived as major ongoing projects with periodic updates to be published; the former concentrated, as its title suggests, on the arts, while the latter attempted to cover the entire periodical literature dealing with the Islamic world. Creswell 1961 and Creswell 1973 were enormously ambitious in both scope and format, but the limitations of print costs and the emergence of digital databases ensured the eventual demise of such printed bibliographies. Pearson 1984 encountered the same problems; although the publications had small margins, small typefaces, and thin paper, their attempt to cover all fields in the Islamic world—not just art and architecture—proved an ultimately futile task for the printed page in the face of a huge expansion in publications and rapidly evolving scholarship. Nevertheless, despite the digital revolution in information, both works are highly useful for undergraduates or established scholars within their chronological limits. Fairbanks 1981 reflected the ambitions of the Aga Khan program before it moved into the digital arena; this work is still quite useful for pre-1981 sources, especially for those less comfortable with digital search programs.

Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron. A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam to 1st January 1960. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1961.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Beautifully printed in oversize format, with large type friendly to older users and an easily accessible organization, together with ample margins, this work is a reminder of how print reference works could be beautiful as well as useful.
Find this resource:

Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron. A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts, and Crafts of Islam: Supplement, Jan. 1960 to Jan. 1972. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1973.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume, in addition to following the format of the original 1961 volume for its layout and organization, included a list of works overlooked in the earlier volume.
Find this resource:

Fairbanks, Dolores. Islamic Architecture: A General Bibliography. Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Documentation Center, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
With the early establishment of the Aga Khan Program, this was a first attempt to provide a useful working bibliography on Islamic architecture for scholars and the general public.
Find this resource:

Pearson, J. D. Index Islamicus, 1906–1955: A Catalogue of Articles on Islamic Subjects in Periodicals and Other Collective Publications. Cambridge, UK: Heffer, 1958.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The first volume covered periodical literature from 1906 to 1955. Subsequent supplements published by Heffer and later by Mansell in London brought the coverage up to 1976. Finally, from 1976 to 1980 supplements were published by the Harvard University Libraries, available online to subscribers.
Find this resource:

Pearson, J. D. A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts, and Crafts of Islam by Sir K.A.C. Creswell, C.B.E. Second Supplement, Jan. 1972 to Dec. 1980 (With Omissions from Previous Years). Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Pearson’s updating of Creswell’s monumental work to 1980, with assistance from Michael Meinecke and George Scanlon.
Find this resource:

Image Sources and Digital Libraries

Today, in addition to numerous individual sources on specific topics found on the Internet, there are three major online sources of images of Islamic architecture available for students and scholars. In the case of ARTstor, a program of the Andrew Mellon Foundation, institutional subscriptions are necessary, access being provided through an institutional e-mail address and a password. ArchNet, run by the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is open to all; the Creswell Archive allows access to Creswell’s superb archive of early large-negative black-and-white photographs for a fee.

ArchNet.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An online program of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ArchNet is “an international online community for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, conservationists, and scholars, with a focus on Muslim cultures and civilizations.” Its large digital library of images of Islamic architecture is a starting point in seeking images for publication, as ArchNet facilitates contact between scholars and copyright donors.
Find this resource:

ARTstor.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A program of the Mellon Foundation, consisting of a library of digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and the social sciences, available to institutions through a site-wide license. It includes a sizable component of images of Islamic art and architecture, and even some illustrations of Islamic cultural and social institutions. It may also be used by scholars as a starting point in seeking images for publication.
Find this resource:

Creswell Archive. Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford University.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Consists of a large collection of photographic negatives and black-and-white photographs, primarily of Islamic architecture, amassed by the late Professor K. A. C. Creswell, bequeathed in 1975 to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University and now available in digitized form. The collection is accessible on the Internet and is also available as a CD-ROM. Images are available for publication by permission, with a fee.
Find this resource:

Journals and Series

Islamic architecture has been covered in the 20th century by a series of serial publications, most of which have succumbed to increased printing and editorial costs. Thanks to the support of the Aga Khan Program, Muqarnas is today the principal vehicle for new articles on Islamic architecture, but worthwhile articles also appear in a wide variety of publications that do not necessarily specialize in Islamic art, including the venerable Ars Orientalis, a publication that succeeded the older Ars Islamica. See also Islamic Art and Kunst des Orients.

Ars Orientalis: The Arts of Islam and the East. 1954–.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published by the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from 1954 (when it, in effect, succeeded Ars Islamica) on an irregular basis.
Find this resource:

Islamic Art. 1981–.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Described as an annual, this journal was edited by the late Ernst J. Grube, and published from 1981 by Oxford University Press in New York and from 1987 onward by the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art, Genoa.
Find this resource:

Kunst des Orients. 1950–1979.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published by F. Steiner, Wiesbaden, from 1950, ceasing publication with Volume 12 in 1979. In its time, it was a very important vehicle for new scholarship, and the bulk of its articles are still important today.
Find this resource:

Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. 1983–.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published since 1983, first by Yale University Press in New Haven (Volumes 1–2) and subsequently by Brill in Leiden through Volume 27 (2010), and today edited by Professor Gülru Necipoğlu, Muqarnas is the preeminent English-language journal in the field. It has been retitled as Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. A series of occasional supplements to Muqarnas includes some volumes devoted specifically to architecture.
Find this resource:

Studies by Region

Considering the vast scope of Islamic architecture, it is helpful in this bibliography to focus on studies by region, since they tend to form the most important body of original scholarship for today’s specialist or student apart from scholarly articles. As the Islamic world is increasingly seen as a complex combination of many different cultures rather than a monolithic phenomenon, studies of regional architectural traditions, in addition to being written by scholars with regionally specialized languages, fieldwork, and academic training, focus on the many different material cultures within the broader Islamic framework.

Iberia, Sicily, and the Maghreb

Architecture in the Islamic west has long been studied by Europeans, and new studies are constantly appearing; the selection here was therefore made with difficulty. For architecture in Spain and Andalusia, see Bargebuhr 1968, Grabar 1978, and Ruggles 2006. For an introduction to architecture in Italy, see Cilento and Vanoli 2007. Marçais 1954 discusses major sites in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, and Sicily. Paccard 1980 and Parker 1981 focus on Morocco.

Bargebuhr, Frederick P. The Alhambra: A Cycle of Studies on the Eleventh Century in Moorish Spain. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1968.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110818598Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Pioneering modern studies on Islamic architecture in Spain.
Find this resource:

Cilento, Adele, and Alessandro Vanoli. Arabs and Normans in Sicily and the South of Italy. New York: Riverside Books, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A beautifully illustrated and comprehensive introduction to the Arab architecture of Sicily under Norman rule.
Find this resource:

Grabar, Oleg. The Alhambra. London: Allen Lane, 1978.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Of the dozens of books on the Alhambra, this small volume is perhaps the best and most readable, and is a useful portal to further study.
Find this resource:

Marçais, Georges. L’architecture musulmane d’occident: Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne et Sicile. Paris: Arts et métiers graphiques, 1954.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A revision of the author’s original work of 1926–1927, this venerable study is still a useful introduction to the major sites and monuments of the area.
Find this resource:

Mauro, Eliana, Ettore Sessa, and Jamila Binous. Arabisch-normannische Kunst: Siziliens Kultur im Mittelalter. Tübingen, Germany: Wasmuth, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contributions by Eliana Mauro, Ettore Sessa, Jamila Binous, Mahmoud Hawari, Manuela Marin, and Gönül Öney on the Arab architecture of Sicily.
Find this resource:

Paccard, André. Traditional Islamic Craft in Moroccan Architecture. 2 vols. Translated by Mary Guggenheim. Saint-Jorioz, France: Atelier 74, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Paccard’s lavishly illustrated, large-format, two-volume study concentrates heavily on techniques exemplified in contemporary versions of historical architectural decoration practice in Morocco. First published as Le Maroc et l’artisanat traditionnel islamique dans l’architecture (Éditions Atelier 74, 1979).
Find this resource:

Parker, Richard B. A Practical Guide to Islamic Monuments in Morocco. Charlottesville, VA: Baraka, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This small book remains after three decades an essential introduction to the Islamic monuments of the major Moroccan cities.
Find this resource:

Ruggles, D. Fairchild. Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important work on Spanish garden architecture in the context of royal palaces.
Find this resource:

Egypt, Greater Syria, and the Arabian Peninsula

In the wake of Cresswell’s earlier studies (see Foundational Works), there is a wealth of new material on Islamic Cairo, such as Behrens-Abouseif 2007, Bloom 2007, and Warner 2005, and of studies incorporating a political and cultural approach to the architecture of the Mamluks (Kenney 2009, Rabbat 2010). Grabar 1996 is one beautifully illustrated work among many new explorations of the early Islamic period in Jerusalem, and Flood 2001 has cast new light on often-published early monuments, while Yasser Tabbaa’s study of Aleppo (Tabbaa 1997) will doubtless assume greater importance in the light of the destruction caused by recent political events there.

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of the Architecture and Its Culture. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A general overview of Mamluk Cairo by one of the foremost authorities on the city.
Find this resource:

Bloom, Jonathan M. Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
While focusing on Cairo, this study includes Fatimid material outside of Egypt, and has a major emphasis on architecture.
Find this resource:

Flood, Finbarr Barry. The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A thoughtful and original study of the first great Islamic mosque.
Find this resource:

Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An excellent introduction to Jerusalem and the oft-published Dome of the Rock.
Find this resource:

Kenney, Ellen V. Power and Patronage in Medieval Syria: The Architecture and Urban Works of Tankiz al-Nāṣirī. Chicago: Middle East Documentation Center, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Developed from the author’s dissertation, this is an exemplary study of a single important patron, his monuments, and his times.
Find this resource:

Rabbat, Nasser. Mamluk History through Architecture: Monuments, Culture and Politics in Medieval Egypt and Syria. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An adept and useful contextualization of architecture and history in the Mamluk realms.
Find this resource:

Tabbaa, Yasser. Constructions of Power and Piety in Medieval Aleppo. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A contextual approach to the Ayyubid capital and its royal monuments.
Find this resource:

Warner, Nicholas. The Monuments of Historic Cairo: A Map and Descriptive Catalogue. American Research Center in Egypt Conservation Series 1. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This large-format book contains numerous detailed architectural plans of Cairo’s various quarters and an exhaustive catalogue of monuments.
Find this resource:

The Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia

Archaeological studies from the early 20th century by German and French scholars are still important for this area; the political environment in the past several decades has led to a dearth of recent material, especially in northern Syria, the Jazira, and Iraq. Despite this, we are fortunate to have recent important work on Samarra—Northedge 2007 and Robinson 2001—superseding Sarre’s century-old German studies, and on much-ravaged Baghdad (Strika 1987). Allan 2012 is an attempt at a defining work on architecture under Shiʿite patrons and for Shiʿite publics, while Yasser Tabbaa has done the same for the so-called “Sunni Revival” in the 13th century (Tabbaa 2001).

Allan, James W. The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shiʻism: Iraq, Iran and the Indian Sub-continent. London: Azimuth Editions, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Covering a wide geographical range, this volume is especially useful for its coverage of Iraq and Iran, as well as its inclusion of sometimes-neglected monuments of the Subcontinent.
Find this resource:

Northedge, Alastair. The Historical Topography of Samarra. Supported by the Foundation Max van Berchem. 2d rev. ed. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Maps and extensive documentation on the great Abbasid palace city.
Find this resource:

Robinson, Chase F., ed. A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Samarra. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art 14. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Stemming from the May 1996 Samarra Symposium at Wolfson College, Oxford, this work contains a wealth of articles on the architecture and culture of Abbasid Samarra by some of the field’s most capable scholars.
Find this resource:

Strika, Vincenzo. The Islamic Architecture of Baghdād: The Results of a Joint Italian-Iraqi Survey. Naples, Italy: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Architectural topography of the Iraqi capital, an especially valuable source given the dearth of architectural studies in Iraq in the past two decades.
Find this resource:

Tabbaa, Yasser. The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author’s second major work on this important period, especially valuable for its coverage of Ayyubid and Zangid monuments.
Find this resource:

Anatolia and the Ottoman Empire

There is a massive amount of scholarship on Ottoman architecture in print, making it difficult to decide which works to include in a small selection. By contrast, there is no recent overall survey in English of the rich traditions of Anatolian architecture under the Seljuks and Beyliks to supersede Tamara Talbot Rice’s venerable but flawed survey, Talbot Rice 1961. Recent works include important annotated translations of crucial documents—Ca‘fer Efendi 1987 and Crane and Esra 2006— and studies integrating Ottoman and European sources with new photographs, architectural drawings, and state-of-the-art methodology (Necipoğlu 1991 and Necipoğlu 2011). Goodwin 2003 is of great use, and new directions of research in vernacular domestic buildings, such as Kuban 1995 and Watenpaugh 2004, attest to the vibrant scholarly activity in this area.

Ca‘fer Efendi, ed. Risāle-i miʻmāriyye: An Early-Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Treatise on Architecture. Translated by Howard Crane. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The volume includes a facsimile of the original Ottoman text (Y.Y. 339, Topkapı Palace Museum Library) and presents a critical transcription of a seminal text.
Find this resource:

Crane, Howard, and Esra Akin. Sinan’s Autobiographies: Five Sixteenth-Century Texts. Introductory notes, critical editions, and translations by Howard Crane and Esra Akin; edited with preface by Gülru Necipoğlu. Studies in Islamic art and architecture 11. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
These five texts, long available only in modern Turkish transcription, are finally available in English in a definitive translation.
Find this resource:

Goodwin, Godfrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1971; while more recent studies have tapped the vast archival documentary record unavailable to Goodwin, his unparalleled knowledge of the monuments makes this long-lived work an essential classic on the subject.
Find this resource:

Kuban, Doğan. The Turkish Hayat House. Istanbul: Muhittin Salih Eren, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Among a host of important works on Ottoman-era domestic architecture in the lands of the former Empire, this well-illustrated volume by a noted teacher, architect, and scholar presents perhaps the best introduction in the English language.
Find this resource:

Necipoğlu, Gülru. Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: The Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. New York: Architectural History Foundation, 1991.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This most comprehensive of many recent studies on the most important Ottoman palace is dense and thoughtful.
Find this resource:

Necipoğlu, Gülru. The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London: Reaktion, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The latest and most important of the dozens of books on Sinan, this 2011 reprinting with its excellent axonometric drawings corrects a few aspects of the original version; a paperback edition appeared in 2010.
Find this resource:

Talbot Rice, Tamara. The Seljuks in Asia Minor. London: Thames and Hudson, 1961.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pioneering work, now out of date, but still the only comprehensive work in English on the period.
Find this resource:

Watenpaugh, Heghnar Zeitlian. The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A paradigm of how recent scholarship utilizes a full spectrum of documentary, archaeological, and art-historical sources to deal with an important Ottoman provincial urban center and its architecture.
Find this resource:

Greater Iran, Turan, and Central Asia

The long shadow of Arthur Upham Pope’s massive, multivolume Survey of Persian Art (Pope and Ackerman 2005, under Foundational Works) and the political climate since 1978 have both affected today’s scholarship. Despite this, important new studies include the Babaie 2008 groundbreaking study of Safavid palaces; the Golombek and Wilber 1988 major survey of the Timurid period, with new drawings, plans, documents, and perspectives created in the footsteps of Wilber 1969; and a number of regional studies, from O’Kane 1987 to Chuvin and Degeorge 2001. Utilizing her own field research and the accumulated archival material of decades of scholarship, Sheila Blair has produced an exhaustive work on monumental epigraphy that will serve future generations of scholars for years to come (Blair 1992).

Babaie, Sussan. Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shiʿism, and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A long-awaited survey of palace architecture in the context of royal entertainment and the close association between Shiʿism and the Safavid monarchy.
Find this resource:

Blair, Sheila. The Monumental Inscriptions from Early Islamic Iran and Transoxiana. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A major epigraphic survey of building inscriptions and an exhaustive commentary by a leading scholar on the subject.
Find this resource:

Chuvin, Pierre, and Gérard Degeorge. Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. Paris: Flammarion, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Degeorge’s photographs accompany a text by Chuvin in this introductory volume, which includes architectural drawings borrowed from earlier works.
Find this resource:

Golombek, Lisa, and Donald Wilber. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan. 2 vols. Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology 46. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A massive two-volume work by two major authorities on the period from different generations, providing a comprehensive overview of the architecture of Iran in the late 14th and 15th centuries.
Find this resource:

O’Kane, Bernard. Timurid Architecture in Khurasan. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazdâ, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This survey of 15th-century Islamic architecture in Khurasan reflects an intimate knowledge of sites, illustrated with the author’s own photographs.
Find this resource:

Wilber, Donald N. The Architecture of Islamic Iran: The Il Khānid Period. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pioneering work of “modern” scholarship produced in the historical wake of the mammoth Survey of Persian Art by Arthur Upham Pope, Donald Wilbur’s study remains today a useful basic introduction to the architecture of the Il Khanid epoch.
Find this resource:

Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia

The Mughal architecture of northern India has been extensively studied, and many beautifully illustrated volumes have appeared in print. Chief among recent studies on the Mughal tradition are Asher 1992 and Koch 2002. Of the literally dozens of books on the Taj Mahal, one in particular has taken a fresh approach (Begley and Desai 1989) by placing the monument in a context of written documentation from sources at home and abroad. More recent scholarship has begun to focus on two areas: pre-Mughal architecture of central and northern India, sometimes referred to as “Sultanate” architecture (Hasan 2007, Lambah and Patel 2006), and the many provincial courts of the Deccan in central India from the 16th century onward. The former is important for the sources of Mughal style and the extraordinary syncretism of Indian Islamic art; the second area of study unveils a complex culture with strong ties to Iran and extensive commerce with Europe and Japan through the Dutch East India Company.

Asher, Catherine B. Architecture of Mughal India. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521267281Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Part of the New Cambridge History of India, this is a comprehensive study starting with the roots of the imperial Mughal style and following the course of architectural history into the late Mughal and post-Mughal periods.
Find this resource:

Begley, Wayne E., and Z. A. Desai, trans. and eds. Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources. Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A documentary history of the building and reception of what is perhaps the most famous of all architectural monuments from the Islamic world.
Find this resource:

Hasan, Perween. Sultans and Mosques: The Early Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A recent survey of the monuments of this little-studied but important area.
Find this resource:

Koch, Ebba. Mughal Architecture: An Outline of Its History and Development, 1526–1858. New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in German in Munich in 1991, this is a short introductory volume by one of the field’s most distinguished scholars.
Find this resource:

Lambah, Amha Narain, and Alka Patel, eds. The Architecture of the Indian Sultanates. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Articles by important scholars reflecting more recent research since the publication of Nath’s survey volume.
Find this resource:

Mosques, Gardens, Tombs, and Tents

Among the vast array of topical studies in the field, the following have been selected as introductions to further study, either because of their scholarly importance or because of the manner in which the quality and quantity of their illustrations may contribute to both interest and enlightenment on the part of their readers. Tents, a neglected genre of enormous historical importance, are treated in a magisterial and exemplary study by Andrews 1999. Works on forms and genres such as the mosque, as in Frishman and Khan 1994; the minaret, as in Bloom 1989; gardens, as in Conan 2007; and the medieval mausoleum, as in Leisten 1998 vary from highly scholarly to eminently readable by an informed lay public. Mayer 1956 has one enduring benefit: to remind us of the individuality and importance of builders and architects throughout the Islamic world, where too often we think of artistic works as coming from anonymous creators.

Andrews, Peter Alford. Felt Tents and Pavilions: The Nomadic Tradition and Its Interaction with Princely Tentage. London: Melisende, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In two volumes, a grand summation of the author’s lifetime work on portable architecture in the Islamic world and its enduring (if frequently ignored) importance.
Find this resource:

Bloom, Jonathan. Minaret, Symbol of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
After dozens of articles on the minaret, its meaning, and its origins, this is the first major study to tackle the big questions of Islam’s most distinctive architectural form.
Find this resource:

Conan, Michael, ed. Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity: Questions, Methods and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Papers by eminent authorities on wide-ranging topics related to the architecture and culture of Islamic gardens; an essential starting point for study of issues, bibliography, and authors in the field.
Find this resource:

Frishman, Martin, and Hasan-Uddin Khan, eds. The Mosque: History, Architectural Development, & Regional Diversity. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sixteen authors contributed to this far-ranging and well-illustrated volume on the most important Islamic architectural genre.
Find this resource:

Leisten, Thomas. Architektur für Tote: Bestattung in architektonischem Kontext in den Kernländern der islamischen Welt zwischen 3./9. und 6./12. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Reimer, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important study of funerary architecture in Islam during the medieval period, with an extensive bibliography of earlier works.
Find this resource:

Mayer, Leo Ary. Islamic Architects and Their Works. Geneva, Switzerland: Kundig, 1956.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An early attempt at a roster of architects in the Islamic world, and although now somewhat out-of-date, still an indispensable starting point for research on named architects in the various Islamic cultures.
Find this resource:

Defensive, Domestic, and Commercial Architecture

With certain exceptions, such as the wealth of studies on Ottoman domestic architecture, there has not been much research on house architecture in the Islamic world. Part of this is due to the fragility of urban and village architecture, often due to the vicissitudes of earthquakes, fires, or civil disorder. Studies on the impact of the Prophet’s courtyard house in Medina (Fentress 1987) and the early domestic architecture of Islamic Iran (Wilkinson 1986) have attempted to redress this imbalance. Another neglected area is defensive architecture; given the amount of expense and societal effort spent on defensive walls and architecture in the Middle Ages, castles almost never appear in textbooks among the plethora of religious structures. A few relatively recent works—Kennedy 2006, Necipoğlu 1993, Djelloul 1999, and Edwards 1987—illuminate both Islamic defensive architecture and its important impact on medieval European castles and fortresses. While a comprehensive view of commercial architecture is not yet available, Weiss and Westermann 1998 gives a good overview of the bazaar as a commercial and social institution.

Djelloul, Néji. Les fortifications en Tunisie. Tunis, Tunisia: Ministère de la Culture, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses the castles and citadels of Tunisia, a battleground between Europe and Islam in the early modern era.
Find this resource:

Edwards, R. The Fortifications of Cilician Armenia. Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A survey of the great castles of Turkey’s south coast and Armenia Minor dating from the Crusades era.
Find this resource:

Fentress, Elizabeth. “The House of the Prophet: North African Islamic Housing.” Archeologia Medievale 14 (1987): 47–68.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An article on the courtyard house tradition of North Africa and its links to the prototypical house and mosque in Islam.
Find this resource:

Kennedy, Hugh, ed. Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period. History of Warfare 35. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Includes urban fortifications such as the citadel of Aleppo and the great Crusader castles, with their links to European fortifications of Gothic times.
Find this resource:

Necipoğlu, Gülru, ed. Special Issue: Pre-modern Islamic Palaces. Ars Orientalis 23 (1993).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A topical volume of a leading journal devoted to early Islamic royal dwellings, including their defensive aspects.
Find this resource:

Weiss, Walter M., and Kurt-Michael Westermann. The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although primarily concerned with the bazaar as a commercial institution, this beautifully illustrated picture book also includes numerous photographs of commercial architecture from throughout the Islamic world, together with a useful bibliography.
Find this resource:

Wilkinson, Charles K. Nishapur: Some Early Islamic Buildings and Their Decoration. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Metropolitan Museum’s excavations of domestic quarters in Nishapur are discussed in this important study.
Find this resource:

Modern Islamic Architecture, City Planning, and Urbanism

Especially with the rise of nation-states in what we conventionally call the Islamic world, and despite the centralizing impetus of international conferences and such institutions as the Aga Khan Prize for Islamic Architecture, useful general works on modern and contemporary Islamic architecture are inevitably few and far between: the journal Mimar and the various volumes published by the Aga Khan Awards show the diversity of contemporary architecture and various efforts at architectural preservation, and architecture in the service of economic and cultural development. Controversies exist between an essentially nationalistic, nostalgic, and historical approach to both monumental and vernacular architecture on the one hand, and the rise of new generations of internationally reputed architects more concerned with issues of city planning, economic development, and the cutting edge of architectural technology on the other. Most published studies in English on modern and contemporary Islamic architecture focus on individual countries; a small representative selection is presented here. These vary from a volume of essays accompanying an exhibition Evin and Holod 2005 to the proceedings of an international symposium (Jodidio 2004), a biography of a great architect and his movement (Hamid 2010), and a regional study of the Arab world (Kultermann 1999).

Evin, Ahmet, and Renata Holod, eds. Modern Turkish Architecture. Ankara, Turkey: Chamber of Architects of Turkey, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, covering architecture under the Republic. Previously published in 1984.
Find this resource:

Hamid, Ahmed. Hassan Fathy and Continuity in Islamic Architecture: The Birth of a New Modern. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.5743/cairo/9789774163418.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An architectural biography of the great Egyptian visionary architect that treats the impact of his architecture in very broad terms.
Find this resource:

Jodidio, Philip, ed. Iran, Architecture for Changing Societies: An International Seminar Co-sponsored by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation, Iranian Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Aga Khan Award for Architecture; 11–17 October 2002, Yazd and Tehran, Iran. Turin, Italy: Umberto Allemandi for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Proceedings of a seminar cosponsored by the Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art, including architecture under the Islamic Republic.
Find this resource:

Kultermann, Udo. Contemporary Architecture in the Arab States: Renaissance of a Region. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An overview of contemporary architecture in the Arab lands.
Find this resource:

Mimar. 1981–1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
General work on contemporary architecture. Published quarterly by Concept Media, Singapore, from Volume 1 (July 1981) through 43 (June 1992).