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Exploring the aristocratic villas and court culture of C?ba, during its 'golden age' under the reign of the Umayyad dynasty (r. 756-1031 AD), this study illuminates a key facet of the secular architecture of the court and its relationship to the well-known Umayyad luxury arts. Based on textual and archaeological evidence, it offers a detailed analysis of the estates' architecture and gardens within a synthetic socio-historical framework. Author Glaire Anderson focuses closely on the C?ban case study, synthesizing the archaeological evidence for the villas that has been unearthed from the 1980s up to 2009, with extant works of Andalusi art and architecture, as well as evidence from the Arabic...
A Bridge to the Sky explores the close connections between science, arts, and visual culture as they developed in the medieval Islamic lands. It presents a significant study of the career of 'Abbas Ibn Firnas, (d. 887), the most celebrated 'scientist' and polymath of early Islamic Spain, best known for conducting an experiment that has been celebrated as a milestone in the history of human flight.
This book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Islamic palace architecture in Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and southern Italy, presenting all known palace buildings in ground plans, sections and individual descriptions. The author traces their evolution from the 8th to the 19th century and places them within the context of the history of Islamic culture.
Just in time for the centennial of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, this volume of studies dedicated to the leading expert on the "boy king" brings together scholars from all over the world to celebrate the career of C. Nicholas Reeves. It includes a biography and bibliography of Reeves along with cutting-edge discussions of a wide variety of topics concentrating on New Kingdom Egypt and Tutankhamun.
First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
In Articulating the Ḥijāba, Mariam Rosser-Owen analyses for the first time the artistic and cultural patronage of the ‘Amirid regents of the last Cordoban Umayyad caliph, Hisham II, a period rarely covered in the historiography of al-Andalus. Al-Mansur, the founder of this dynasty, is usually considered a usurper of caliphal authority, who pursued military victory at the expense of the transcendental achievements of the first two caliphs. But he also commissioned a vast extension to the Great Mosque of Cordoba, founded a palatine city, conducted skilled diplomatic relations, patronised a circle of court poets, and owned some of the most spectacular objects to survive from al-Andalus, in ivory and marble. This study presents the evidence for a reconsideration of this period.
Consists of 20 chapters in 2 parts; pt. 1 contains chapters on Aegean prehistory and the East and pt. 2 contains chapters on classical Greece, Etruria, and Rome.
Despite the prominence of ancient temples in the landscape of Egypt, books about them are surprisingly rare; this new and essential publication from a prominent Czech scholar answers the need for a study that goes beyond temple architecture to examine the spiritual, economic and political aspects of these specific institutions and the dominant roles they played. Miroslav Verner presents a deeper and more complex study of major ancient Egyptian religious centers, their principal temples, their rise and decline, their religious doctrines, cults, rituals, feasts, and mysteries. Also discussed are the various categories of priests, the organization of the priesthood, and its daily services and customs. Each chapter offers the reader essential and up-to-date information about temple complexes and the history of their archaeological exploration, in the context of the spiritual dimension and cultural legacy of ancient Egypt.
This volume is the second in the series of publications on the Museum's excavations in the South Cemeteries of Lisht, Egypt. The series will eventually include contributions on a wide range of subjects, such as religious architecture, wall decoration and religious texts, works of art and funerary equipment. While the first volume described the funerary complex of an Egyptian king, the inscriptions published here supply important information about the organization of labor at an ancient construction site: the workmen, the scheduling of transport and building activities, and the control of the compulsory labor system. The inscriptions are inconspicuous, most of them were written by untrained hands with rough brushes on the coarse surface of building stones, yet they provide a behind-the-scenes view of the construction process of pharaonic architecture. Philippe de Montebello Director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the director's foreword
This volume covers the transition period stretching from the reign of Justinian I to the end of the 8th century, focusing on the experience of individuals who lived through the last decades of Byzantine rule in Egypt before the arrival of the new Arab rulers. The contributions drawing from the wealth of sources we have for Egypt, explore phenomena of stability and disruption during the transition from the classical to the postclassical world.