Stealing From The Saracens

Author : Diana Darke
Publisher : Hurst & Company
Page : 484 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781787383050

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Stealing from the Saracens by Diana Darke Pdf

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western history, its traces can still be detected in some of Europe's most recognisable monuments, from Notre-Dame to St Paul's Cathedral. In this comprehensively illustrated book, Diana Darke sets out to redress the balance, revealing the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. She tracks the transmission of key innovations from the great capitals of Islam's early empires, Damascus and Baghdad, via Muslim Spain and Sicily into Europe. Medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants from Europe later encountered Arab Muslim culture in journeys to the Holy Land. In more recent centuries, that same route through modern-day Turkey connected Ottoman culture with the West, leading Sir Christopher Wren himself to believe that Gothic architecture should more rightly be called 'the Saracen style', because of its Islamic origins. Recovering this overlooked story within the West's long history of borrowing from the Islamic world, Darke sheds new light on Europe's buildings and offers rich insights into the possibilities of cultural exchange.

Author : Diana Darke
Publisher : Haus Publishing
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2014-08-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781908323651

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My House in Damascus by Diana Darke Pdf

The ongoing conflict in Syria has made clear just how limited the general knowledge of Syrian society and history is in the West. For those watching the headlines and wondering what led the nation to this point, and what might come next, this book is a perfect place to start developing a deeper understanding. Based on decades of living and working in Syria, My House in Damascus offers an inside view of Syria’s cultural and complex religious and ethnic communities. Diana Darke, a fluent Arabic speaker who moved to Damascus in 2004 after decades of regular visits, details the ways that the Assad regime, and its relationship to the people, differs from the regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya—and why it was thus always less likely to collapse quickly, even in the face of widespread unrest and violence. Through the author’s firsthand experiences of buying and restoring a house in the old city of Damascus, which she later offered as a sanctuary to friends, Darke presents a clear picture of the realities of life on the ground and what hope there is for Syria’s future.

Author : Dominique Clévenot
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Decoration and ornament, Architectural
ISBN : 0500343322

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Ornament and Decoration in Islamic Architecture by Dominique Clévenot Pdf

Surface decoration has always played a fundamental role in Islamic architecture. As human representation is forbidden in Islamic religious monuments, designers employed mosaics, stucco, brickwork and ceramics, and the vigorous use of brilliant colour to reach unparalleled heights of expression. It is this ornamental dimension of Islamic architecture that is explored in this magnificent volume. Rather than limiting itself to an exclusively historical or chronological perspective, Ornament and Decoration in Islamic Architecture presents four successive approaches to its subject. The first part offers an overview of Islamic architecture, discussing the great diversity it contains. Dealing exclusively with techniques, the second part considers the materials most often used as well as the expertise of the builders and Muslim decorative artists, and the third part explores themes in Islamic ornamentation. Section four discusses aesthetics, and studies the relationship between the buildings - the structures or their architectonic components - and their ornamental coverings. Each of these topics is presented through a number of outstanding examples and then through comparable monuments from all over the Islamic world. For anyone in thrall to such great wonders as the Taj Mahal and the Alhambra, and for everyone interested in the world of Islam, this lavish publication will be indispensable

Author : Rosie Whitehouse
Publisher : Hurst & Company
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Holocaust survivors
ISBN : 9781787383777

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The People on the Beach by Rosie Whitehouse Pdf

One summer's night in 1946, over 1,000 European Jews waited silently on an Italian beach to board a secret ship. They had survived Auschwitz, hidden and fought in forests and endured death marches--now they were taking on the Royal Navy, running the British blockade of Palestine. From Eastern Europe to Israel via Germany and Italy, Rosie Whitehouse follows in the footsteps of those secret passengers, uncovering their extraordinary stories--some told for the first time. Who were those people on the beach? Where and what had they come from, and how had they survived? Why, after being liberated, did so many Jews still feel unsafe in Europe? How do we--and don't we--remember the Holocaust today? This remarkable, important book digs deep and travels far in search of answers.

Author : Jonathan M. Bloom
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-06-30
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780300218701

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Architecture of the Islamic West by Jonathan M. Bloom Pdf

An authoritative survey situating some of the Western world’s most renowned buildings within a millennium of Islamic history Some of the most outstanding examples of world architecture, such as the Mosque of Córdoba, the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, the Giralda tower in Seville, and the Alhambra Palace in Granada, belong to the Western Islamic tradition. This architectural style flourished for over a thousand years along the southern and western shores of the Mediterranean—between Tunisia and Spain—from the 8th century through the 19th, blending new ideas with local building practices from across the region. Jonathan M. Bloom’s Architecture of the Islamic West introduces readers to the full scope of this vibrant tradition, presenting both famous and little-known buildings in six countries in North Africa and southern Europe. It is richly illustrated with photographs, specially commissioned architectural plans, and historical documents. The result is a personally guided tour of Islamic architecture led by one of the finest scholars in the field and a powerful testament to Muslim cultural achievement.

Author : Henri Stierlin,Anne Stierlin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 319 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 0500511004

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Islamic Art and Architecture by Henri Stierlin,Anne Stierlin Pdf

More than five hundred full-color illustrations and reproductions capture a panoramic array of Islamic art and architecture in a study that examines the sources, forms, themes, and symbolism of Islamic artistry, as exemplified in mosques, palaces, landscape architecture, caligraphy, miniature painting, tapestries and textiles, and other artforms.

Author : David Levering Lewis
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2009-01-12
Category : History
ISBN : 0393067904

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God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis Pdf

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author, God’s Crucible brings to life “a furiously complex age” (New York Times Book Review). Resonating as profoundly today as when it was first published to widespread critical acclaim a decade ago, God’s Crucible is a bold portrait of Islamic Spain and the birth of modern Europe from one of our greatest historians. David Levering Lewis’s narrative, filled with accounts of some of the most epic battles in world history, reveals how cosmopolitan, Muslim al-Andalus flourished—a beacon of cooperation and tolerance—while proto-Europe floundered in opposition to Islam, making virtues out of hereditary aristocracy, religious intolerance, perpetual war, and slavery. This masterful history begins with the fall of the Persian and Roman empires, followed by the rise of the prophet Muhammad and five centuries of engagement between the Muslim imperium and an emerging Europe. Essential and urgent, God’s Crucible underscores the importance of these early, world-altering events whose influence remains as current as today’s headlines.

Author : Raymond Khoury
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2006-01-19
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101158555

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The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury Pdf

The first thrilling novel in Raymond Khoury’s New York Times bestselling Templar series. In 1291, a young Templar knight flees the fallen holy land in a hail of fire and flashing sword, setting out to sea with a mysterious chest entrusted to him by the Order's dying grand master. The ship vanishes without a trace. In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights stage a bloody raid on the Metropolitan Museum of Art during an exhibit of Vatican treasures. Emerging with a strange geared device, they disappear into the night. The investigation that follows draws archaeologist Tess Chaykin and FBI agent Sean Reilly into the dark, hidden history of the crusading knights—and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers—as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Templars.

Author : Carolyn Yerkes,Heather Hyde Minor
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2020-09
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780691206103

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Piranesi Unbound by Carolyn Yerkes,Heather Hyde Minor Pdf

Layers / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Lost and found / by Carolyn Yerkes -- Pages / by Carolyn Yerkes -- Dedicated and sent / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Bound / by Heather Hyde Minor -- Sold / by Carolyn Yerkes.

Author : Bayard Taylor
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1855
Category : Middle East
ISBN : MSU:31293103799643

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The Lands of the Saracen by Bayard Taylor Pdf

Author : Terry Hayes
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 624 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2014-12-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781439177730

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I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes Pdf

"The astonishing story of one man's breakneck race against time ... and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square. A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard. Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan. A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey. Pilgrim"--

Author : Jennifer Roberson
Publisher : Kensington Books
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-06-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780758292216

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Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson Pdf

A beautiful synthesis of Robin Hood legends. --Marion Zimmer Bradley With her king a captive and her coffers drained, England is left in turmoil during the Crusades. After the death of her father in the Holy Land, Lady Marian of Ravenskeep finds herself alone--and at the mercy of men vying for her lands and her beauty. Thrust into games of political intrigue, the sheltered knight's daughter soon learns to trust no one. . . Afforded a hero's homecoming, Sir Robert of Locksley returns from the Crusades a shattered man. In a country he barely recognizes, one torn apart by treachery and betrayal, he finds in Marian a kindred soul. Their quest for justice will take them into the depths of Sherwood Forest, where the dream of a new England will be born. . . "An imaginative and riveting novel, impossible to put down." --Booklist "Robinson expertly evokes the sensations and frustrations of medieval life." --Kirkus "A diverting, delightful book." --Publishers Weekly

Author : Eric Broug
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Art
ISBN : 0500516952

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Islamic Geometric Design by Eric Broug Pdf

Combines wide-ranging research with the author's artistic skills to reveal the techniques used to create the patterns adorning buildings in the Islamic world

Author : Diana Darke
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780190874858

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The Merchant of Syria by Diana Darke Pdf

"Barely literate, and supporting his mother and sisters from the age of ten, Abu Chaker built up a business empire--despite twice losing everything he had. Diana Darke follows his tumultuous journey, from instability in Syria and civil war in Lebanon, to his arrival in England in the 1970s, where he rescued a failing Yorkshire textile mill, Hield Bros, and transformed it into a global brand. The Merchant of Syria tells two parallel stories: the life of a cloth merchant and his resilience, and the rich history of a nation built on trade. Over millennia Syria has seen great conflict and turmoil, but like the remarkable story of Abu Chaker, it continues to survive."--Provided by publisher.

Author : Jonathan Lyons
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2011-02-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781608191901

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The House of Wisdom by Jonathan Lyons Pdf

For centuries following the fall of Rome, western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse of the scientific advances coming from Baghdad, Antioch, or the cities of Persia, Central Asia, and Muslim Spain. T here, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge and revitalizing the works of Plato and Aristotle. I n the royal library of Baghdad, known as the House of Wisdom, an army of scholars worked at the behest of the Abbasid caliphs. At a time when the best book collections in Europe held several dozen volumes, the House of Wisdom boasted as many as four hundred thousand. Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, thirsty for knowledge, traveled to Arab lands and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. I n this brilliant, evocative book, Lyons shows just how much "Western" culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization, and reveals the untold story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.