4.611/13 Civil Architecture in Islamic History (HASS)
Instructor: Nasser Rabbat

1-Precedents and Prototypes:

The Architectural Repertoire Available to the Arabs before Islam:

Tent: The Dwelling of the Nomad

The spatial and functional division of the tent.

The Architecture of Urban Settlements in Arabia:

Mecca: The cult and trade center.

The Atam in Medina: fortified common dwellings in oases.

The Palaces of Yemen.

Old Arabian Cities (Qaryat al-Faw).

The Architecture of Urban Centers in the Levant and Mesopotamia:

Petra: the Nabatean Capital Carved in the Rock.

Palmyra: A Caravan City turned Imperial Center.

Qasr Ibn Wardan: A pre-Islamic outpost and monastery in central Syria.

Rusafa (Sergiopolis): Capital of the Ghassanids, the Christian Arab tribe allied with Byzantium.

The Mesopotamian and Persian Models:

The Assyrian palaces of Nineveh and Assur.

The Iwan Kisra at Ctesiphon: The seat of Sassanian Kings.

Al-Hira (Hatra) in northern Mesopotamia: The Hiri style.

The Byzantine and Greco-Roman Models:

Bostra: a Syrian-Roman city and the capital of the Nabateans; the illustration of urban splendor in the eyes of the Prophet Muhammad.

The "Dead Cities" in Byzantine northern Syria.

The Roman Limes along the borders with the Sassanian Empire.

The Poetic and Visual Images of Imperial palaces in Constantinople: The representation of the Palace of Theodoric at St. Apollinaire Nuovo in Ravenna.