Intellect is happy to announce that the International Journal of Islamic
Architecture 8.1 is now available! For more information about the issue,
click here >> https://bit.ly/2PxfRE9

*Contents*

*Architect-Designed Houses: From Traditional to Modern, a Changing Paradigm
in the Islamic World*
Authors: Hasan-Uddin Khan

Architect-designed houses for the richer segments of society in the Islamic
world are often seen as indulgent excursions into personal expression, and
hence are also often given short shrift in academic discourse. Although
these houses are the result of individual tastes of a certain group of
people – the elite – they are also indicators of collective aspirations and
can be models for analysing the development of new housing typologies. By
digging into the traditional memory of cities and architectural designs of
single residences one can learn about the possibility for high-density
living and also produce models of housing not only for the wealthy but also
for the poor. The design and image of houses are discussed here through a
number of built examples. Despite being located in different regions and
areas of Muslim habitation, these houses indicate attempts to synthesize
‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ and have produced a new typology that could
serve as a paradigm for a way forward for the production of new housing.

*Reflections on Architectural Education of the Muslim World within a global
World*
Authors: Ashraf M. Salama

This commentary is premised on more than three decades of research into
architectural education and design pedagogy. It argues that architectural
education in the Muslim world must be able to operate effectively within
the global condition. It contends that the body of knowledge on
architectural education can be enriched and its scope can be expanded when
both historical and contemporary imperatives are clearly contextualized.
The text raises important questions for future discussions on this theme.
Notwithstanding, the article discusses some of the negative idiosyncrasies
that follow models inherited from the past and adopt techniques practiced
by their Western counterparts. It proposes a framework for incorporating
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a paradigm for critical consciousness and the
way in which key techniques can be utilized. The thrust is that these
techniques offer students learning opportunities that invigorate their
capabilities to shift from passive listeners to active learners and from
knowledge consumers to knowledge producers.

*Destruction as Layered Event: Twentieth Century Ruins in the Great Mosque
of Gaza*
Authors: Eli Osheroff And Dotan Halevy

The destruction of architectural and archeological sites by ISIS in
2014–2015 exposed conflicting, yet co-constitutive, perceptions of the
historical past, its material remains, and the relevance of both for
modernity. This claim is valid for ISIS’s destruction campaign, as it took
place in sites already celebrated for their former ruination. Destruction
emerges out of these sites as historically multi-layered, just like the
loci it is inflicted upon. In this paper we thus argue that events of
destruction should be similarly excavated to reveal their historical
stratigraphy and to illuminate critical aspects not obvious to the first,
shocked, glance. We demonstrate this argument through two events of
destruction that occurred in the Great Mosque of Gaza in the twentieth
century. Firstly, we examine the shelling of the mosque during the First
World War to show how debris of war may be transformed into artistic and
literary displays. Secondly, we analyze an intellectual debate over a
Jewish candelabrum engraving on one of the mosque’s pillars and its later
defacement. By so doing, we question the motivations preceding acts of
destruction, especially in relation to their portrayal by the destructors
themselves, and expose the making of historical relics into evidence of
violence.

*Medieval Reports of the Preservation and Looting of Pre-Islamic Burials in
South Arabia*
Authors: Daniel Mahoney

In the tenth century, the polymath Abu Muhammad al-Hamdani compiled a
ten-volume compendium, entitled al-Iklı-l (The Crown), which narrates the
history of South Arabia from the pre-Islamic to the early Islamic periods
with the aim of extolling the various achievements and virtues of this
region. The eighth volume of this compendium contains a collection of
reports that describe the uncovering of pre-Islamic burials in the early
Islamic period. Although the veracity of some reports may be questioned due
to their inclusion of fantastical elements, these accounts portray a vivid
imagining of the ancient tombs themselves and the stories of those buried
within, as well as show the varied reactions to these sites. In some
reports, the interred are revered and the chambers are returned to their
former state. But in others, ambivalence is shown toward those buried, even
when the inscriptions found at the site communicate that the interred
testified to a belief in one god, and the tombs are looted. Overall, these
rich reports do not merely depict encounters with pre-Islamic funerary
remains, but also serve to connect South Arabia’s past with major
narratives and themes of Islamic history.

*Claiming the Classical Past: Ottoman Archaeology at Lagina*
Authors: Amanda Herring

In 1891 and 1892, an Ottoman team led by Osman Hamdi Bey, director of the
Imperial Museum in Istanbul, conducted the first archaeological excavations
of the site of Lagina in western Anatolia. Lagina was home in the ancient
period to the Temple of Hekate. Constructed in the Hellenistic period, the
temple was the only monumental sanctuary to the chthonic goddess Hekate in
the ancient world. This article examines the excavations at Lagina within
their original context in the late Ottoman Empire, considering contemporary
politics surrounding archaeology and the collection of antiquities. It
argues that the campaigns at Lagina represent a pivotal moment in the
history of Ottoman archaeology. While the dig at Lagina was not the first
archaeological excavation conducted on behalf of the Ottoman state, it was
the first that was part of a larger program that involved long-term
scientific excavation, a new model of collaboration with European
colleagues, and a plan for the monumental recreation of the Temple of
Hekate in Istanbul. Building upon both European archaeological models and
precedents established during his work at Nemrud Dağı (Mount Nemrut) and
Sidon, Osman Hamdi established a new template for Ottoman archaeology with
his work at Lagina.

*Translocating Metropolitan Display Strategies in Nineteenth-Century
Europe: Frederick Stibbert, Henri Moser, and their Orientalist Style Rooms*
Authors: Francine Giese And Ariane Varela Braga

In the nineteenth century, the display of Islamic art and furniture was not
only integrated into ethnographic collections and international
exhibitions, but also formed an essential part of the home of amateurs as
well as of the political, social, and cultural elites. Private collections
accounted for an important step towards the valorization and reception of
Islamic art in the west. This article examines the display strategies of
collections located at the crossroads between private and public space by
closely examining two style rooms integrated in private museums – the
Stibbert collection in Florence, Italy, and the Moser collection in
Neuhausen, near Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Both collectors had first-hand
experience of the Orient due to their travels, with Stibbert focusing on
al-Andalus and Moser on Central Asia, which inspired them to build up
extensive art collections. The examples illustrate the importance of
transnational relations for the establishment and display of collections
that re-contextualized objects by presenting them within seemingly
authentic oriental atmospheres specifically created for this purpose.

*From Architectural Entities to Social Spaces: Redefining the Notions of
Takiyeh and Takiyeh Dowlat*
Authors: Ashkan Rezvani-Naraghi

This article demonstrates how the production of an architectural discourse
through the works of nineteenth-century European travellers and
orientalists has had a long-term effect on the studies of takiyeh spaces in
Iranian cities, where mourning ceremonies were held during the month of
Muharram. By analysing takiyehs as fluid social spaces, rather than as
fixed architectural sites, this article argues that the co-presence of
social relations was the main criterion for the production of takiyehs and
the physical and architectural manifestations were the byproducts of the
sociality of spaces. Moreover, it shows that the Royal Takiyeh of Tehran,
Takiyeh Dowlat, became a flexible sociopolitical concept that had various
architectural manifestations in different times. In contrast to the general
assumption that a giant circular building in late nineteenth-century Tehran
constituted the sole takiyeh dowlat, this article argues that takiyeh
dowlat was a well-established sociopolitical practice that can be traced
back to the early nineteenth century. Through these investigations, this
article suggests that instead of applying foreign architectural discourses
to nineteenth-century Iran, social analysis provides an alternative
framework for understanding social spaces in nineteenth-century Iranian
cities.

*Parallel Processes: Spatial Production at Aceh’s Baiturrahman Mosque*
Authors: Julie Nichols

This article examines the Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh and its
similarities of spatial production from precolonial to colonial periods,
initially under Sultan Iskandar Muda and later under the Dutch
administration. To what extent does the shift in spatial production at the
Baiturrahman Mosque from its seventeenth-century vernacular design to its
rebuilding by the Dutch in the nineteenth century reveal a parallel
narrative of identity construction? ‘Difference’ typified historical
relations between the Dutch and Acehnese, yet over time the mosque’s
architecture together with the spatiality of prayer inscribed meaning at
the site for Banda Aceh’s community. The Baiturrahman Mosque’s various
incarnations represent cases whereby similarities in processes of spatial
production enabled the building to endure despite adverse socio-political
circumstances. This article highlights the potential of built space to
recast associations of spiritual upheaval and colonial occupation in ways
that reveal intricate historical narratives and provide a model for the
future production of influential and enduring architecture.

Book Reviews
*Authors: Jeremy Kargon And Zeynep Kezer And Richard Piran McClary And
Deniz Türker And Alexis Wick *

   - HOMELAND: ZIONISM AS HOUSING REGIME, 1860–2011, YAEL ALLWEIL (2017)
   - SEIZING JERUSALEM: THE ARCHITECTURES OF UNILATERAL UNIFICATION, ALONA
   NITZAN-SHIFTAN (2017)
   - VIOLENCE AND THE CITY IN THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST, EDITED BY NELIDA
   FUCCARO (2016)
   - IN THE SHADOW OF THE CHURCH: THE BUILDING OF MOSQUES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL
   SYRIA, MATTIA GIUDETTI (2017)
   - MEDITERRANEAN ENCOUNTERS: ARTISTS BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE OTTOMAN
   EMPIRE, 1774–1839, ELISABETH A. FRASER (2017/)
   - DISLOCATING THE ORIENT: BRITISH MAPS AND THE MAKING OF THE MIDDLE
   EAST, 1854–1921, DANIEL FOLIARD (2017)

*Exhibition Reviews*
Authors: Jack Schneider And Mira Xenia Schwerda

   - MOUNIRA AL SOLH: I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN OUR RIGHT TO BE FRIVOLOUS, THE
   ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, IL, FEBRUARY 8, 2018–APRIL 29, 2018
   - THE PRINCE AND THE SHAH: ROYAL PORTRAITS FROM QAJAR IRAN, FREER
   SACKLER GALLERIES, WASHINGTON DC, FEBRUARY 24–AUGUST 5, 2018

*Précis*
Authors: Işıl Baş

MODERN BODIES: DRESS, NATION, EMPIRE, SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN THE MODERN
MIDDLE EAST, LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, MARCH 15, 2018

*Free(?)Space at the 2018 Venice Biennale*
Authors: Şebnem Yücel

Venice Architecture Biennale 2018, exhibiting architecture,Yvonne Farrell
and Shelley McNamara, Alejandro Aravena, national pavilions


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