Contact information

Course purpose:

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Course description:

The course material is discussed chronologically with an eye toward stylistic change, and thematically in order to emphasize the central concepts of Islamic architecture, including sacred space, palace culture, the question of figural representation, the role of geometry, and the centrality of calligraphy and ornament. This course will provide a basic understanding of the historical evolution and regional variation of Islamic architecture and a deeper appreciation of its major themes and concepts.

This course will also be unique as a survey course on Islamic architecture in that it brings together specialized expertise on the subject of Islamic architecture from both inside and outside Jordan. 

Instructor and visiting lecturers:

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The course will be conducted by Professor Yasser Tabbaa’ (biography provided below). A number of lectures will also be delivered by visiting lecturers (biographies provided below). These are Professor Wijdan Ali, who will lecture on contemporary artistic production, Professor Mohammad al-Asad, who will lecture on the architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Professor Ghazi Bisheh, who will lecture on the Umayyads. The visiting lecturers will deliver 6 of the course’s 45 lectures.

Admission and prerequisites:

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Admission to the course will be limited to 25 persons, and will be on a first come, first served basis. There are no prerequisites for the course, and it does not require a prior knowledge of Islam or architecture. However, a good working knowledge of English (reading, writing, and speaking) is required.

Dates and times:

The course will take place over a period of three weeks, from June 2 to June 22, 2004.  It will meet five days a week, three hours a day, and therefore will consist of 45 hours of lectures. It will be scheduled from 4:00 – 7:00 PM to facilitate attendance for those engaged in full-time employment.

Location:

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The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Jabal al-Luweibdeh, Amman.

Language of instruction:

The language of instruction will be English so as to open the course to non-speakers of Arabic who might be residing in Jordan, or who may decide to come to Jordan to attend the course.  Arabic might be used as the language of instruction if all the participants in the course are speakers of the language. The course readings, however, will be in English. The course essay might be written in Arabic or English.

Course requirements:

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The course will include reading materials and discussions, as well as a midterm exam, a 2-3 page essay, and a final exam. Upon passing the exams and submitting the written essay, the course participant will be awarded a certificate for course completion. Otherwise, the participant will only receive a certificate of attendance (see Certification).

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The participants will be offered one of two certificates.  Those who fulfill the course requirements (passing the midterm and final, and writing the course paper) will receive a certificate of completion for the course.  Those who do not fulfill these requirements will receive a certificate of attendance.

Registration fees:

Registration fees for the course are offered at the subsidized rate of 200 JD (285 USD), which will also cover course handouts.

Participants from outside Jordan who wish to participate in the course can make their own accommodation arrangements.  Also, CSBE will help them identify suitable accommodations in Amman.

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An average of one article or book chapter is assigned every week; and these readings will be available as a course pack.  But the best way to keep up with the flow of the course is also to regularly read about the relevant monuments in any of the following books:

• Wijdan Ali, The Arab Contribution to Islamic Art from the Seventh to the Fifteenth Centuries (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, and Amman: The Royal Society of Fine Arts, 1999).

• Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800  (New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press, 1995).

• Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar, The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 (Hammondsworth: Penguin, 1987).

• Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning (New York: Columbia University Press, and Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994).

• John Hoag, Islamic Architecture (New York: Abrams, 1977).

Course program

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Wednesday, June 2

I.  Introduction

4:00 - 5:00

1. Introduction to the course:  The Resonance of Islamic Art

2. Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem

II.  The Formation of Islamic Art (650-950)

II.A.  The Umayyads (650-750)

6:00 - 7:00

3. Strident Islam:  The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (692-5) and Its Contemporary Resonance

Suggested readings:

• Oleg Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), 46-71.

Thursday, June 3

II.A.  The Umayyads (650-750)

4. From Jerusalem to Damascus

5. The Great Mosque of Damascus (705-15) and the Question of Religious Iconography

6. The Umayyad Desert Palace and the Question of Secular Iconography:  Amra, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and Mshatta

Suggested readings:

• Klaus Brisch, "Observations on the Iconography of the Mosaics in the Great Mosque at Damascus," in Content and Context of the Visual Arts in the Islamic World, ed. P. Soucek (State Park, PA:  Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), 16-27.

Sunday, June 6

II.A.  The Umayyads (650-750)

7. The Umayyad Desert Palace in Context (Ghazi Bisheh)

8 & 9.   Visit to the Amman Citadel

Suggested readings:

• Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, 72-98; 132-69. 

Monday, June 7

II.B.  The ‘Abbasids (750-950)

10. Grandeur in Baghdad and the Palaces of Samarra:  The Round City, Samarra: Jawsaq al-Khaqani and Balkuwara

11. Creation of a Sacred Space: The Mosques of Samarra and of Ibn Tulun in Cairo and Samarra

III.  Political Breakdown and Artistic Peaks (900-1150)

III.A.  The Umayyad Dynasty of Spain (785-1006)

12. Architecture at the Edge:  The Great Mosque of Cordoba, 8th-10th Centuries

Suggested readings:

• Alistair Northedge, "An Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph at Samarra (Dar al-Khilafa or Kawsaq al-Khaqani)," Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces, pp. 143-61, in Ars Orientalis 23 (1993). 

Tuesday, June 8

III.A.  The Umayyad Dynasty of Spain (785-1006)

13. The Great Mosque of Cordoba and Its Legacy in Europe:  Toledo, Mosque of Bab Mardum; Interlaced Arches and Rib Vaulting in Spain and Southern Europe

14. The Pavilions and Gardens of Madinat al-Zahra

III.B.  The Fatimid Dynasty of Egypt (925-1172)

15. Early Fatimid Architecture, from Tunisia to Egypt: Mahdiya, al-Qahira, Mosques al-Azhar and al-Hakim

Suggested readings:

• Jerrilynn Dodds, "The Great Mosque of Cordoba," in Al-Andalus (New York: Abrams, 1992): 11-26. 

Wednesday, June 9

III.B.  The Fatimid Dynasty of Egypt (925-1172)

16. Late Fatimid Architecture and Sicily.  Cairo:  Mosque al-Aqmar and al-Salih; Palermo, The Palatine Chapel

IV.  Transformations in Medieval Islamic Art (1100-1250)

17. Geometric Ornament:  from Arranged Bricks to Star Patterns

18. Rise of the Muqarnas Dome

Suggested readings:

• Jonathan Bloom, "The Mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo," Muqarnas 1 (1983):  15-36.

• Yasser Tabbaa, "The Muqarnas Dome: Its Origin and Meaning," Muqarnas 3 (1985):  61-76. 

• __________, "Muqarnas," in The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (New York: Macmillan, 1996), vol. 22, 321-325.

Thursday, June 10

19. Midterm

IV.  Transformations in Medieval Islamic Art (1100-1250)

20. Architecture and Geometry I:  The Four-Iwan Plan in Mosques:  Isfahan, Masjid-i Jami and Other Seljuq Mosques

21. Architecture and Geometry II:  Madrasas in Syria.  Damascus, al-Madrasa al-Nuriyya; Aleppo, al-Madrasa al-Zahiriyya  (the stone muqarnas); Aleppo, Madrasa al-Firdaws

Suggested readings:

• Yasser Tabbaa, "Geometry and Memory in the Design of the Madrasat al-Firdaws in Aleppo," in Theories and Principles of Design in the Architecture of Islamic Societies  (Cambrdige, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1988): 23-34 (A longer discussion of this madrasa is published in Yasser Tabbaa, Constructions of Power and Piety in Medieval Aleppo (State Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996).   

Sunday, June 13

IV.  Transformations in Medieval Islamic Art (1100-1250)

22. Architecture and Geometry III:  Madrasas in Anatolia 

V.  Fulfillment in the Later Medieval Period (1250-1500)

V.A.  Nasrid Spain

23. The Alhambra Palace in Granada

24. The Arab-Islamic Garden

Suggested readings:

• Yasser Tabbaa, "Typology and Hydraulics in the Medieval Islamic Garden," in Landscape and Garden History: Issues, Approaches, Methods, ed. J. D. Hunt (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992), 303-329. 

Monday, June 14

V.B.  Mamluk Egypt and Syria

25. Architecture and the City:  Mamluk Architecture in Cairo

26. Later Mamluk Architecture in Cairo

27. Mamluk Architecture in Jerusalem and Damascus

Suggested readings:

• Howyda al-Harithy, "The Complex of Sultan Hasan in Cairo: Reading between the Lines," Muqarnas 13 (1996): 68-79.    

Tuesday, June 15

28. Geometric Planning in Timurid  Architecture

VI.  Grandeur in the Art of the Gunpowder  Empires (1500-1700)

VI.A.  Ottomans (1350-1700)

29. Early Ottoman Architecture

30. Videotape:  Suleyman the Magnificent

Suggested readings:

• Gulru Necipoglu, "Plans and Models in 15th and 16th Century Ottoman Architectural Practice," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 45, no. 3 (1986): 224-243.   

Wednesday, June 16

VI.A.  Ottomans (1350-1700)

31. Classical Ottoman Architecture in the 15th  Century

32. Classical Ottoman Architecture in the 16th Century

VI.B.  Safavids  (1500- 1700)

33. The Maydan-i Shah Complex in Isfahan

Suggested readings:

• G. Necipoglu, "The Suleumaniye Complex in Istanbul:  An Interpretation,"  Muqarnas 3 (1986):  92-117.   

Thursday, June 17

VI. B.  Safavids  (1500- 1700)

34. Timurid and Safavid Tilework

VI.C.  Mughals  (1525-1800)

35. Sultanate Architecture (12th – 15th Century)

36. Mughal Palaces

Suggested readings:

• James Dickie, "The Mughal Garden:  Gateway to Paradise," Muqarnas 3 (1985): 128-137.   

Sunday, June 20

VI.C.  Mughals  (1525-1800)

37. The Mughal Garden

38. The Taj Mahal in History

VII.  The Advent of Modernism

VII.A.  Harbingers of Modernism in the 18th and 19th Centuries

39. The Tulip Period and the Ottoman Baroque

Suggested readings:

• Wayne Begley, "The Myth of the Mahal," The Art Bulletin 61 (1979): 7-37.   

Monday, June 21

VII.A.  Harbingers of Modernism in the 18th and 19th Centuries

40. Istanbul in the 19th Century

41. Cairo in the 19th Century (Mohammad al-Asad)

VII.B.  The Twentieth Century

42. Modernism (Mohammad al-Asad)

Suggested readings:

• Mohammad al-Asad, "The Mosque of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara:  Breaking with Tradition," Muqarnas 16 (1999): 155-168.

• __________, "The Re-invention of Tradition: Neo-Islamic Architecture in Cairo," Akten des XXVIII. Internationalen Kongresses fur Kunstgeschichte Berlin, 15. - 20. Juli 1992 (Berlin:  Akademie Verlag, 1993): 425 - 36. 

• __________, "The Mosque of al-Rifa'i in Cairo," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 108-24.

• __________, "The Mosques of Abdel Wahed El-Wakil,"  Mimar, no. 42 (1992): 34-39.  (Also see "Feedback: Letters to Mimar," Mimar, no. 43 (1992): 6-8.

• Blair and Bloom, The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800, 303-314.

Tuesday, June 22

VII.B.  The Twentieth Century

43. The Calligraphic Style in Modern Islamic Art (Wijdan Ali)

44. Returns to the Past

45. Final Exam

Biographical information on the course instructor:

Yasser Tabbaa’ is a historian of Islamic architecture.  He studied anthropology at Ohio State University, and history of art and architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, from where he obtained his Ph.D.  He has taught at a number of leading universities in the US, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the University of Texas, Austin, and Oberlin College, where he currently is a visiting professor.  He is the author of numerous publications on the architecture of the Islamic world, including Constructions of Power and Piety in Medieval Aleppo (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997); and The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2001; paperback edition, 2002).

Biographical information on the visiting lecturers:

Wijdan Ali is an art historian, painter, and art curator.  She received her Ph.D. in Islamic Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.  She is founder and president of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan (1979) and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (1980).  She has edited, contributed to, and authored numerous publications on traditional and contemporary Islamic art.  Her publications include The Arab Contribution to Islamic Art From the Seventh to the Fifteenth Centuries (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press; Amman: The Royal Society of Fine Arts, 2000); Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997); and also Contemporary Art from the Islamic World (London: Scorpion Publishing; Amman: The Royal Society of Fine Arts, 1989), which she also edited.  She currently is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design, which she established in 2001 at the University of Jordan. 

Mohammad al-Asad is an architect and architectural historian, and director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment in Amman.  He studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and history of architecture at Harvard University.  He held post-doctoral research positions at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.  He taught at the University of Jordan, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He has published on the architecture of the Islamic world in edited books and in academic and professional journals.  He is author of Old Houses of Jordan:  Amman 1920 – 1950 (Amman: TURAB, 1997), and co-author of The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art (Brussels: Museum With No Frontiers, 2000).  He is a member of the board of directors of the Royal Society of Fine Arts – the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. 

Ghazi Bisheh is an archaeologist and former Director General of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.  He studied archaeology at the University of Jordan, and history of Islamic art and architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from where he holds his Ph.D.  He was affiliated with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities for most of the period between 1980 and 1999, and was its Director General twice (1988 - 1991 & 1995 - 1999).  He was also an associate professor of archaeology at Yarmouk University during the early 1990s.  He is the author of numerous publications, including The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art (Brussels: Museum With No Frontiers, 2000), of which he is a co-author.  He has carried out excavation work both inside and outside Jordan in sites such as Qasr al-Hallabat, Madaba, Carthage, and Bahrain.  He is a member of the German Archaeological Institute, and is the Deputy Director of the International Council of Museums for the Arab countries.

Contact information:

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If you have any inquiries, or wish to register for the course, please contact CSBE at (00 962 6) 461 5297 or email us.