Elective Course
Credits: 3-0-3 (3 semester hours)
Type of Course: Lecture
Instructors: Ronald Lewcock, Sabir Khan
Prerequisites: None
Course Overview:A. A survey of the entire field of architecture and urbanism in Islam, approached in 3 ways.
First, a brief chronology and stylistic account to establish general trends and responses to new issues and influences as they become important.
Second, a series of discussions of buildings and urban solutions, from mosques to markets, from citadels to cemeteries, from palaces to public baths, from schools to caravan-serasis, with emphasis upon their function and meaning, their complex rituals and infinitely varied activities.
Third, a discussion of the way in which Islamic architecture is characterized by tensions between delight in pattern and color and the prohibition of images, between worldly pleasures and asceticism. From Morocco and Spain to India, encompassing Persia, Egypt and Arabia, Islam contains some of the greatest designed environments in the world; accounts of their serious study by contemporary scholars are presented.
B. A brief survey of contemporary architecture in Asia and Africa
Learning Objectives: (See above)