4.619 | Fall 2014 | Graduate

Historiography of Islamic Architecture

Course Description

This seminar offers a critical review of scholarship on Islamic architecture through close reading of scholarly texts, museum exhibitions, and architectural projects. It also tackles methodological and historiographical questions about the field's formation, genealogy, recent expansion, and its evolving historical and …
This seminar offers a critical review of scholarship on Islamic architecture through close reading of scholarly texts, museum exhibitions, and architectural projects. It also tackles methodological and historiographical questions about the field’s formation, genealogy, recent expansion, and its evolving historical and theoretical contours.
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments
Instructor Insights
Arab Hall in the Leighton House Museum located in London shown with gold, blue and turquoise Islamic tile mosaics.
The Leighton House Museum in London was once home to the Victorian artist Frederic Leighton. Over the course of 30 years, the house was built to Leighton’s specifications and eventually included the Arab Hall, which showcased a gold dome and elaborate mosaics constructed of Islamic tiles. (Image courtesy of Context Travel on flickr.)