Nasser Rabbat

Selected Conferences and Lectures

May 16, 2003
"Words into Images: the Transformation of Umayyad Iconography," School of Architecture, American University of Beirut (AUB)

Feb 4, 2003
"Le prisme contraignant de l’adab : les façons de voir l’art dans la littérature arabe médiévale," La Chaire de L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris.

Jan 28 2003
"L’iwân, un agent de la monumentalité dans l’architecture islamique médiévale," La Chaire de L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris.

Jan 21, 2003
"La salle du trône chez les Mamelouks : évocation éloquente de modèles classiques," La Chaire de L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris

Jan 14, 2003
"La militarisation du goût dans le Moyen-Orient médiéval," La Chaire de L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris

Jan 7, 2003
"Les images deviennent mots : les prémisses de l’art islamique," La Chaire de L’Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris

Nov 4, 2002
"Climatic Responsiveness in the Traditional Islamic Houses," Building Technology lecture Series, Department of Architecture, MIT

Oct 25, 2002
"Pictures into Words: on the beginnings of Islamic Art,"The Arab American Educational Foundation Lecture Series, Department of History, Rice University, Houston, TX

July 6, 2002
Keynote lecture, “Doing Cultural History in the Fifteenth Century,” 3rd International Symposium, De-placing Difference: Architecture, Culture and Imaginative Geography, Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture, Adelaide University, South Australia

May 18, 2002
"Islamic Architecture Surveys, World History, and the Impact of the Web," in Surveys on Islamic Art and Architecture, symposium organized by Prof. Gulru Necipoglu, Harvard University, held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA

May 9, 2002
"Was Maqrizi's Khitat the first Khaldunian History?" Ibn Khaldun Conference, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

April 25, 2002
"For the Love of Cairo: Maqrizi and his Khitat Book," The Stanley Ferber Lecture, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY

March 14, 2002
"On Words and Images: Rethinking the Formation of Islamic Art," Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

February 23, 2002
Discussant, "Authorship in Architecture: Uncovering the Art and Craft of Building in Islamic Societies," Session, CAA 90th Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA

January 21, 2002
"Lessons from the Past and for the Future of the Dead Cities in Syria," (In Arabic), The Friends of Damascus Association, Al-Asad Library, Damascus, Syria.

January 16, 2002
"I am the Son of Caesar and Marwan is My Father: The Imperial Aspirations of Umayyad Art and Architecture," Islamic Art Circle, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

October 11, 2001
"The Omphalous of the Earth: Imperial Aspirations in Umayyad Art," Religion Dept., Amherst College

September 28, 2001
"Maqrizi: A Critical Biography," in A Symposium on Medieval Arabic Historiography: The Legacy of al-Maqrizi (1364-1442), University of Notre Dame, South Bent, Indiana,

Aug 30, 2001
"In the Prison-House Of Adab: Architecture in Mamluk Sources," the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley

May 30, 2001
"History, the City, and Criticism: Maqrizi and his Book on the Khitat," the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS), Oxford, England

May 25, 2001
"On al-Maqrizi's Notion of Decline," in "Efflorescence in the Period of Decline: A Workshop on Arabic Cultural Production 1400-1800," Organized by RRAALL and sponsored by the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

May 18-19, 2001
Organizer and participant, Exploring the Frontiers of Islamic Art and Architecture, symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program For Islamic Architecture, MIT

April 9-11, 2001
Organizer and Discussant, Architectural Education Today The 8th Architecture and Behavior Colloquium, Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland

January 10-11, 2001
Lecture and discussion with graduate students on the Islamic City, School of History, University of Fez SAIS, Morocco.

April 3, 2000
"‘Ajib and Gharib: Perception of Art in Mamluk Sources," Department of Arabic Studies, American University in Cairo

February 7, 2000
"For the Love of Cairo: Maqrizi and the Writing of his Khitat," Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.

November 20, 1999
Discussant, "Gender, Slavery, and Sexuality in Medieval Islamic Society," Panel, MESA 33rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.

October 16, 1999
"The Visual Milieu of The Counter-Crusade," in the 32d Annual Conference, The Crusades: Other Experiences, Alternate Perspectives, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University—SUNY

February 27, 1998
Chair, "The Making of the Discourse on Islamic Architecture," Session, CAA 86th Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada

Books

Thaqafat al Bina’ wa Bina’ al-Thaqafa (The Culture of Building and Building Culture). A book of essays on architecture in Arabic (Riad Alrayyes Publisher, Beirut, Lebanon, 2002.)

The Citadel of Cairo : A New Interpretation of Royal Mamluk Architecture. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1995.

Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, Co-author (with K. Brustad, M. Cooperson, J. J. Elias, N. N. Khoury, J. Lowry, Sh. Toorawa, D. F. Reynolds, and D. Stewart), ed. D. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

Selected Articles

"Who Was al-Maqrizi? A Biographical Sketch," Mamluk Studies Review 7, 2 (2003): 1-19.

"Hassan Fathy and the Identity Debate," in Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes, Gilane Tawadros and Sarah Campbell, eds., (London: Institute of International Visual Art, 2003), 196-203.

"The Dialogic Dimension in Umayyad Art," RES 43 (Spring 2003): 78-94.

"In the Beginning Was the House: On the Image of the Two Noble Sanctuaries of Islam," Thresholds 25 (Fall 2002): 56-59.

"Concluding Remarks: The Boundaries of Architectural Education Today," in Architectural Education Today: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, A. Salama, W. O'Reilly, and K. Noschis, eds. (Lausanne: Comportements, 2002), 149-53.

"Le classicisme, version arabe contemporaine," Qantara 42 (Hiver 2001-2002): 30-34.

"Perception of Architecture in Mamluk Sources," Mamluk Studies Review 6 (2002): 155-76

"The City, History, and Power: al-Maqrizi and his Pioneering Book'al-Mawa‘iz wa al-I‘tibar bi Dhikr al-Khitat wa al-Athar,'" (in Arabic) Annales Islamologiques 35 (2001): 77-100.

"Salâh al-Dîn et l'imaginaire," Qantara 41 (Automne 2001): 30-36.

"The Shaping of the Mamlouk Image," in Hadeeth al-Dar 10 (Kuwait, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya, 2001): 2-5.

"On Freedom and Belonging in the Arab World," (in Arabic) Wughat Nazar 29 (June 2001): 64-69.

"Maqrizi's Khitat: An Egyptian Lieu de Mémoire" in The Cairo Heritage. Papers in Honor of Layla Ali Ibrahim, Doris Behrens-Abouseif, ed. (Cairo, AUC Press, 2001), 17-30.

"Islamic Architecture: Trying to Break out of the Old Paradigm," (in Arabic) Majallat al-Funun 1 (January 2001): 39-41.

"Architecture and Memory: An Invitation to Think," (in Arabic) Wughat Nazar 23 (December 2000): 62-64.

"Representing the Mamluks in Mamluk Historical Writing," in The Historiography of Islamic Egypt, c. 950-1800, Hugh Kennedy, ed. (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 2000), 59-75.

"Adonis, l’homme critique et poète d’un même souffle," in Adonis, un poète dans le monde d’aujourd’hui, 1950-2000 (Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 2000), 314-16.

"Remarks on the Document, Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past, Did the Pope Apologize to the Muslims?" (in Arabic) Wughat Nazar 18 (July 2000): 46-49.

"Restoration Projects in Islamic Cairo Critiqued," in Medina 13 (May-June 2000): 48-51.

"The Changing Concept of Mamluk in the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria," in Slave Elites in the Middle East and Africa: A Comparative Study, Miura Toru And John Edward Philips, eds. (London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 2000), 81-98.

"Toward a Reevaluation of the Umayyad Artistic Culture," (in Arabic) Abwab 19 (Winter 1999): 88-107.

"Signs of the Built in ‘Asfar al-Bunyan': Architecture in the Writings of Jamal al-Ghitani," (in Arabic) Al-Hilal 107, 1(January 1999): 152-59.

"The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahiriyya in Damascus: A Classical Syrian Medium Acquires a Mamluk Signature." Aram 9-10 (1997-1998 [1999]): 1-13.

"The Interplay of History and Archaeology in Beirut," in Projecting Beirut: Episodes in the Construction and Reconstruction of the Modern City. Peter G. Rowe and Hashim Sarkis, eds. (Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 1998), 19-22.

"Architects and Artists in Mamluk Society: The Perspective of the Sources," Journal of Architectural Education 52, 1 (Sept. 1998): 30-37.

"The Iwan: Its Spatial Meaning and Memorial Value," (in Arabic) Bulletin d'Études Orientales 49 (1997): 249-67.

"The Formation of the Neo-Mamluk Style in Modern Egypt." In The Education of the Architect: Historiography, Urbanism and the Growth of Architectural Knowledge. Essays Presented to Stanford Anderson on his Sixty-Second Birthday. Martha Pollak, ed., (Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1997), 363-86.

"My Life with Salah al-Din: The Memoirs of ‘Imad al-Din al-Katib al-Isfahani." Edebiyat 7: 2 (Fall 1996): 61-81.

"Al-Azhar Mosque: An Architectural Chronicle of Cairo's History." Muqarnas 13 (1996): 45-67.

"The Ideological Significance of the Dar al-‘Adl in the Medieval Islamic Orient," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 27, 1 (Feb 1995): 3-28.

"The 'Militarization' of Architectural Expression in the Medieval Middle East: An Outline." al-‘Usur al-Wusta 6, 1 (April 1994): 4-6.

"Writing the History of Islamic Architecture in Cairo." Design Book Review 31 (Winter 1994): 48-51.

"Mamluk Throne Halls: Qubba or Iwan." Ars Orientalis 23 (1993): 201-18.

"The Dome of the Rock Revisited: Some Remarks on al-Wasiti's Accounts." Muqarnas 10 (1993): 67-75 (Special Issue: Festschrift for Oleg Grabar).

"The Meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock." Muqarnas 6 (1990): 12-21.

Selected Articles in Arabic

"On Freedom and Belonging in the Arab World," Wughat Nazar 29 (June 2001): 64-69.

"Islamic Architecture: Trying to Break out of the Old Paradigm," Majallat al-Funun 1 (January 2001): 39-41.

"Architecture and Memory: An Invitation to Think," Wughat Nazar 23 (December 2000): 62-64.

"Toward a Reevaluation of the Umayyad Artistic Culture," Abwab 19 (Winter 1999): 88-107.

"Signs of the Built in 'Asfar al-Bunyan': Architecture in the Writings of Jamal al-Ghitani," Al-Hilal 107, 1(January 1999): 152-59.

"The Iwan: Its Spatial Meaning and Memorial Value," Bulletin d'Études Orientales 49 (1997): 249-67.

"Dar al-'Adl, the History of a Medieval Islamic Institution," Al-Ijtihad 6, 22 (Winter 1994): 57-82.

"The Development of the Souk in Damascus, 700-1900," Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes 37 (1988-89 [1991]): 75-104.

"The Concept of the Residence Quarter in 19th c. Damascus," Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes 35 (1985): 537-64.

Books in Preparation

An edited book of essays on the courtyard house, sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, to be published in late 2002.

A book on the fifteenth-century historian al-Maqrizi and his Khitat book which represents the summation of writing on the city in the medieval Islamic tradition. The book is to be published in 2003.

A book on the problems of representation in Mamluk sources and how they shape our understanding of the Mamluk elite, their culture, and their artistic and architectural endowments.

A Co-edited book (with Irene Bierman of UCLA) of the 1999 Kevorkian Lectures, NYU, to be published under the tentative title A Medieval Cairo for A Modern World.

Birthplace