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PATTERNS OF MOON, Domes PATTERNS OF SUN Written by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom Written by Pa ul Lunde Like , domes are one of the signature forms in . Since the reve- lation of in the seventh century of the until today, they have been used THE HIJRI in most—if not all—Islamic lands and cultures. Technically, a is a rounded , set In 638 CE, six years after the death of the Prophet , Islam’s second caliph, over a room that is usually square. Builders adopted various means to connect the square ‘Umar, recognized the necessity of a calendar to govern the affairs of Muslims. This was room to the dome’s circular base. first of all a practical matter. Correspondence with military and civilian officials in the newly Long before Islam, the dome was a popular architectural form throughout the Medi- conquered lands had to be dated. But Persia used a different calendar from Syria, and Egypt terranean and southwest Asia. Indeed the English word dome derives from the Latin word used yet another. Each of these had a different starting point, or . The Sasa- domus, which means “house.” In , the most common term for a dome is qubba, nids, the ruling dynasty of Persia, used June 16, 632 CE, the date of the accession of the last which comes from a Syriac word meaning “canopy” or “umbrella”—a reference to the Sasanid monarch, Yazdagird III. Syria, which until the Muslim conquest was part of the Byz- much earlier domical tents of Turkoman and other nomads. antine Empire, used a form of the Roman “Julian” calendar, with an epoch of October 1, The first major work of Islamic architecture, the in , 312 BCE. Egypt used the Coptic calendar, with an epoch finished in 691 under the sponsorship of the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik, is covered of August 29, 284 CE. Although all were solar calendars, by a monumental dome on a wooden frame. A few years later, when his son the Caliph and hence geared to the seasons and containing 365 days, “It is he who made the al-Walid had the Prophet Muhammad’s in Madinah reconstructed, a shallow each also had a different system for periodically adding sun to be a shining wooden dome was installed over the space in front of the , to emphasize its impor- days to compensate for the fact that the true length of the tance, and today the Prophet’s Mosque, rebuilt over the centuries, retains this feature. solar year is not 365 but 365.2422 days. glory, and the moon to Additionally, the palaces of the Umayyad caliphs in Syria invariably had a domed audi- In pre-Islamic Arabia, various other systems of measur- be a light (of beauty), ence hall, known as a qubbat al-khadra’ or a “dome of heaven.” These three types of ing time had been used. In South Arabia, some calendars domes—commemorative, sacred and royal (or official)—continue to be used in Islamic apparently were lunar, while others were lunisolar, using and measured out architecture to this day. months based on the phases of the moon but intercalating In the Islamic lands and cultures around the Mediterranean, the domed interior was days outside the lunar cycle to synchronize the calendar stages for her, that generally regarded as more important than the exterior, which was often either plain or with the seasons. On the eve of Islam, the Himyarites ye might know the covered with a practical, weather-resistant pyramidal tile roof. Thus the ribbed domes appear to have used a calendar based on the Julian form, added to the Great Mosque of Córdoba in the 10th century are magnificently decorated but with an epoch of 110 BCE. In central Arabia, the number of years and on the interior, especially the one on the cover of this calendar, which rises above the front course of the year was charted by the position of the stars the count (of time).” of the mihrab. By the 12th century, the development of the , the quintessentially relative to the horizon at sunset or sunrise, dividing the Islamic form of architectural decoration that is often likened to stalactites, gave builders ecliptic into 28 equal parts corresponding to the location —Qur‘an 10:5 new means of decorating interior vaults. The plaster interior of the Qubbat al-Baadiyyin of the moon on each successive night of the month. The (English by Yusuf Ali) in combines the Córdoban tradition of ribbed vaults with muqarnas in the names of the months in that calendar have continued in corners. Perhaps the most magnificent examples to survive are the two Nasrid muqarnas the to this day and would seem to indicate that, before Islam, some sort of domes in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, in which thousands of plaster elements suggest lunisolar calendar was in use, though it is not known to have had an epoch other than memo- the rotating dome of heaven. rable local events. In Egypt, from the 10th century onward, domes were often used commemoratively to There were two other reasons ‘Umar rejected existing solar calendars. The Qur’an, in mark the graves of important people. While some domes were constructed of wood cov- Chapter 10, Verse 5, states that time should be reckoned by the moon. Not only that, cal- ered with lead sheets, the most famous are a series of carved stone domes for rulers and endars used by the Persians, Syrians and Egyptians were identified with other religions and courtiers of the Mamluk period (1250 to 1517). Builders vied with each other to erect cultures. He therefore decided to create a calendar specifically for the Muslim community. It taller, larger, more elegantly decorated domes that would be visible from afar, the better would be lunar, and it would have 12 months, each with 29 or 30 days. to glorify the memory of the deceased patron. Masons strove to coordinate the increas- This gives the lunar year 354 days, 11 days fewer than the solar year. ‘Umar chose as ingly complicated exterior decoration of the dome with its curving profile and diminish- the epoch for the new Muslim calendar the year of the hijra, the emigration of the Prophet ing surface. As a result, in contrast to domes in the Islamic lands, the interiors of Muhammad from Makkah to Madinah, where Muslims first attained religious and political most Mamluk domes are often uncomfortably attenuated, revealing the challenges build- autonomy. The hijri epoch thus began on 1 of the year 1 according to the Islamic ers faced in combining exterior monumentality with a comfortable interior. calendar, which corresponds to July 16, 622 CE, on the . Today in the Domes became most popular in medieval Iran and surrounding regions, where an abun- West, it is customary, when dance of brick encouraged builders to experiment with myriad forms. In the 11th and 12th writing hijri dates, to use centuries, Seljuq rulers enlarged many Iranian by adding large dome chambers in the abbreviation ah, which CONVERTING DATES front of the mihrab. Under the Mongol rulers from the 13th century, domes grew bigger stands for the Latin anno The following equations convert roughly from and taller still, and they were decorated in innovative ways. To combine exterior monu- hegirae, “year of the hijra.” Gregorian to hijri and vice versa. However, the mentality with interior commodity, builders developed an extravagant double-dome system Because the Islamic results can be slightly misleading: They tell you in which the interior and exterior profiles were entirely independent, somewhat like a toque is 11 days only the year in which the other calendar’s year perched on a chef’s head, as in both the Tilla-Kari mosque and madrassah at . shorter than the solar, it is begins. For example, 2014 Gregorian begins at The double-shelled dome was also used later in Iran under the Safavids, who tiled not therefore not synchronized only the dome’s exterior but also its interior with starburst designs, as at the Shaykh Lut- to the seasons. Its festivals, the end of , the second month, of Hijri 1435 fallah mosque in Isfahan. In Mughal India, builders developed a distinctive, swelling type which fall on the same days and ends in Rabi‘ I of Hijri 1436. of double dome, immortalized in such royal monuments as the Taj at Agra, which of the same lunar months Gregorian year = was begun in 1632. Mughal architects also integrated domes into their mosques, covering each year, make the round prayer halls with three bulbous domes, often built of white marble. of the seasons every 33 solar [(32 x Hijri year) ÷ 33] + 622 In Anatolia, builders erected domed mosques that combined Iranian Seljuq with Byz- years. This 11-day difference Hijri year = antine Greek traditions. In the 14th and 15th centuries, builders there experimented with between the lunar and the ways of expanding and unifying the space covered by a dome. The perfect union of exte- solar year accounts for the [(Gregorian year – 622) x 33] ÷ 32 rior and interior domed space was achieved by later Ottoman architects in the 16th cen- difficulty of converting dates Alternatively, there are calculators available at tury, notably by the great Mimar Sinan, whose 1567 Selimiye mosque in Edirne combined from one system to the other. www.rabiah.com/convert/ www.ori.unizh. an enormous single-shelled dome with cascading semi-domes to create an exquisitely unin- and terrupted interior space. THE GREGORIAN ch/.html. Today, many contemporary domed mosques refer to historical precedents. For example, CALENDAR the Jumeirah mosque in Dubai is a modern interpretation of Qaitbay’s in Cairo. Oth- The early calendar of the ers take new directions. Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei abstracted the Mamluk-era Roman Empire was lunisolar, containing 355 days divided into 12 months beginning on Jan- domed fountain in Cairo’s Ibn Tulun mosque for his design of Doha’s new domed uary 1. To keep it more or less in accord with the actual solar year, a month was added every Museum of ; on the interior, its cupola recalls the sculptural qualities of the tra- two years. The system for doing so was complex, and cumulative errors gradually misaligned ditional muqarnas dome. Thus the architectural traditions of domes remain vibrant in it with the seasons. By 46 bce, it was some three months out of alignment, and Julius Caesar Islamic cultures today. oversaw its reform. Consulting Greek astronomers in Alexandria, he created a solar calendar in which one day was added to February every fourth year, effectively compensating for the Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, a wife-and-husband team, share the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at College and the Hamad solar year’s length of 365.2422 days. This was used throughout Europe until bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Commonwealth University. 1582 ce. In the Middle Ages, the Christian liturgical calendar was grafted onto the Julian one, and the computation of lunar festivals like Easter, which falls on the first after the first full moon after the spring equinox, exercised some of the best minds in Christendom. The use of On the cover: During the exten- the epoch 1 ce dates from the sixth century, but did not become common until the 10th. sion of the Mosque of Córdoba in The Julian year was nonetheless 11 minutes and 14 seconds too long. By the early 16th 976 under the Spanish Umayyad saudiaramcoworld.com century, due to the accumulated error, the spring equinox was falling on March 11 rather Caliph al-Hakam II, this ribbed dome was erected over the mih- than where it should, on March 21. Copernicus, Christophorus Clavius and the physician rab, which indicates the direction Aloysius Lilius provided the calculations, and in 1582 Pope Gregory xiii ordered that Thurs- of prayer. Entirely covered with glass and gold , its unique day, October 4, 1582, would be followed by Friday, October 15, 1582. Most Catholic coun- form was probably meant to recall tries accepted the new “Gregorian” calendar, but it was not adopted in England and the a dome in the Umayyad mosque Americas until the 18th century. Its use is now almost universal worldwide. The Gregorian domes of Damascus, as were the mosa- ics, which were said to have been year is nonetheless 25.96 seconds ahead of the solar year, which by the year 4909 will add produced by a workman sent by the Byzantine emperor in Constantino- up to an extra day. ple. Photo by Tor Eigeland/SAWDIA; inset (right) by Dick Doughty/SAWDIA. Paul Lunde ([email protected]) is a senior research associate with the Civilizations in Con- Inside: The captions that accompany each month’s images were written by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan tact Project at Cambridge University. His most recent publication, with co-author Caroline Stone, M. Bloom. The quotations and historical notes were compiled by Robert W. Lebling. Mary Kathryn Flores is Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin, 2012). He lives provided photo research and editing. in Seville and Cambridge, England. The Tilla-Kari (Goldwork) madrassah in Samarkand was erected in the mid-17th “If it is said that a paradise is to be seen in this world, century as the third and largest structure facing the city’s Registan, or public then the paradise of this world is Samarkand.” square. The prayer hall is crowned by a double dome: The interior one is set on —‘Ata-Malik Juvaini, Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini and richly decorated with painted and gilded plaster; the outer dome (The History of the World-Conqueror), ca. 1260 CE is raised on a tall drum and tiled in turquoise blue. Photo by Robert Preston / Alamy january safar — rabi‘ I 1435 february rabi‘ I1

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Notes: Notes: 1 30 2 1 32 4 3 1 1

Farouk El-Baz, NASA India’s Mughal scientist, born in classical era Egypt 1938 begins 1556 5 4 5 76 6 87 98 109 11 10 2 2 3 3 4 4 55 66 77 8 8

Construction Cornerstone is laid Egypt’s singing Danny Thomas Al-Mu’tasim, caliph begins on Egypt’s at Washington, legend Umm founds St. Jude’s who introduced Aswan High Dam DC, Islamic Center Kulthum dies for children in mamluks, dies 842 1960 1949 1975 Memphis 1962 1211 13 12 14 13 1514 1615 1716 18 17 99 10 10 11 11 1212 13 13 1414 15 15

Hadji Ali of US us Pres. ‘Abd al-Rahman III Army Camel Corps Roosevelt, Saudi becomes caliph of arrives in Texas Mongols sack King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Andalus 929 1856 Baghdad 1258 meet 1945 1918 20 19 21 20 2221 2322 2423 25 24 1616 17 17 18 18 1919 2020 2121 22 22

Shah Waliullah, Caliph ‘Umar US raid against First air crossing Archeologist Sir scholar & introduces Islamic pirates in First over Sahara Desert Leonard Woolley reformer, born in calendar 638 Barbary War 1804 1920 dies 1960 India 1703 2625 27 26 28 27 2928 30 29 31 30 2323 24 24 25 25 2626 27 27 28 28

Experts say Freya Stark, humans reached British explorer Traveler Ibn Arabia 125,000 of the Mideast, Persian-Byzantine Battuta born in years ago 2011 born 1893 war ends 628 Tangier 1304

2013 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 29 30 31 Paule Seux / Hemis / Corbis 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 saudiaramcoworld.com 30 31 From 1400 to 1411, Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq built an enormous or com- “This khanqah and is the sum total of Faraj’s dura- memorative complex in Cairo around the grave of his father, Barquq. Its two massive stone domes are the largest of the Mamluk period, which lasted from ble legacy. It neatly integrates architecture and urbanism and is 1250 to 1517. This dome, decorated on the interior with polychrome designs and the earliest of the noble landmarks of the Northern Qarafa.” supported by muqarnas pendentives, stands over the graves of both the sultan —Cairo Historic Buildings Survey, 2009 and his father, while the other was intended for female members of the family. Photo by B. O’Kane / Alamy march rabi‘ II — jumada I april jumada 11 —

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Antoine Galland, Kha b’ Nisan, Istanbul’s Topkapı translator of traditional Assyrian Palace becomes a Arabian Nights, New Year museum 1924 born 1646 2 1 3 2 4 3 54 65 76 8 7 66 7 87 8 99 1010 1111 12 12

Traveler Khusraw Heinrich First commercial begins seven- Twitter launches Saudi Prince Al- Schliemann Mt. Tambora Dead Sea flow of Saudi year journey Arabic Waleed bin Talal begins to dig for volcano erupts in Scrolls discovery Arabian oil 1938 1046 version 2012 born 1955 ancient Troy 1870 Indonesia 1815 announced 1948 98 10 9 11 10 1211 13 12 1413 15 14 13 13 14 14 15 15 1616 1717 1818 19 19

Romans defeat Palestinian Ibn Rushd Carthaginians in Facebook UK maps out Iraq, poet Mahmoud (), First Punic War launches Arabic Palestine & Gulf Darwish born philosopher, born Ottoman architect 241 BCE version 2009 states 1921 1941 1126 Sinan born 1489 1615 17 16 18 17 1918 2019 2120 22 21 2020 21 21 22 22 2323 2424 2525 26 26

Khaleda Pres. Obama hails Caliph Abu Bakr Zia named Nowruz, Poet-philosopher Mamluks defeat Mamluks admitted The 99 Muslim unifies Arabian Bangladesh’s 1st traditional Persian Sir Muhammad Mongols in to French Imperial comics series Peninsula 633 female PM 1991 New Year’s Day Easter Iqbal dies 1938 Syria 1303 Guard 1815 2010 2322 24 23 25 24 2625 27 26 2827 29 28 27 27 2828 29 29 30 1 Notes: Harun al-Rashid, fifth Abbasid caliph, dies 809 30 29 31 30

Mahmoud Mokhtar, Saudi King Faisal Egyptian sculptor, Muslim army assassinated 1975 dies 1934 lands in Spain 711

1 1 2 3 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 23 24 25 26 27 28 John Feeney / SAWDIA 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 saudiaramcoworld.com Composed of small molded plaster elements fit together with extraordinary “Everything here appears calculated to inspire kind and happy precision, the muqarnas dome over the Hall of the Two Sisters is one of the feelings, for everything is delicate and beautiful. The very light highlights of the 14th-century Palace of the Lions within the Alhambra palace falls tenderly from above, through the lantern of a dome tinted in Granada, Spain. Retaining traces of its original gold and blue paint, the dome and wrought as if by fairy hands.” would have twinkled like stars in the sky when sunlight shone through the windows onto its faceted surface. —Washington Irving, Tales of the Alhambra, 1832 Photo by Dick Doughty / SAWDIA may rajab — sha‘ban june sha‘ban —

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Tanker loads first Beirut holds Saudi crude oil Nargis (b. Fatima Sir Wilfred first Arab World exports at Ras First Indian feature Rashid) of Indian Thesiger born in Environment Tanura 1939 film released 1913 cinema born 1929 Addis Ababa 1910 Day 2003 47895 5 6 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 81110 9 11 10 12 13 12 14 13 15 14 16

Kublai Khan Pope John Paul II dome NBA player Rony Prophet Alexander the becomes Mongol visits Damascus collapses in Con- Seikaly born in Muhammad dies Great, age 32, ruler 1260 mosque 2001 stantinople 558 Beirut 1965 in Madinah 632 dies 323 BCE 1112 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 1517 16 18 17 19 18 20 19 21 2022 21 23

Thor Heyerdahl First Kazakh Abbasid envoy Ibn Soviets begin departs Morocco Assyrians satellite First Egyptian Fadlan arrives Volga withdrawal from in papyrus boat record solar launched into motion picture in River region 922 Afghanistan 1988 1970 eclipse 763 BCE orbit 2006 Cairo 1907 1819 19 20 20 21 2122 2223 2324 24 25 22 24 23 25 24 26 25 27 26 2827 29 28 1

Youssef Chahine Vasco da Gama’s North and South The Assassins fail Kahlil Gibran Persian polymath Isabelle Adjani, wins lifetime award ships reach India Yemen agree to kill Saladin near immigrates to Nasir al-Din al-Tusi French actress, at Cannes 1997 from Europe 1498 to merge 1990 Aleppo 1176 America 1895 dies 1274 born 1955 2526 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 1 31 2 29 2 30 3 Notes:

Historian Ibn Ottomans conquer Timbuktu captured Volcano Khaldun born in Constantinople by Moroccan threatens Tunis 1332 1453 mercenaries 1591 Madinah 1256

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Dick Doughty / SAWDIA 27 28 29 30 31 saudiaramcoworld.com The white marble Taj Mahal in Agra, India, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan “The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs, • And the sun in the 17th century, is flanked by two red sandstone structures crowned with white and the moon shed tears from their eyes. • In this world this edifice marble domes. While the domes’ exterior profiles are bulbous, the hemispheric has been made • To display thereby the creator’s glory.” dome on the interior of the mosque is made of red sandstone delicately decorated with a network pattern picked out in white marble. —Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor, 1628-1658 Photo by Charles O. Cecil / Alamy july ramadan — august shawwal — dhu al-qa‘dah

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Iraq’s Saladin defeats Romans capture occupation of Crusaders at Alexandria, Egypt Kuwait sets off Hattin 1187 30 BCE Gulf War 1990

69 10 87 11 912 1013 1114 12 15 367897 8 54 9 10 11 12 13

Habib Bourguiba, Singer & child South gains Abbasids defeat first president advocate Raffi independence Tang China at of Tunisia, born born in Cairo 1948 2011 Talas 751 1903 13 16 14 17 15 18 1619 17 20 1821 19 22 1014 11 15 12 16 13 17 1418 1519 16 20

Muslims Arab-Berber army surrender At age 98, master founds Queen Cleopatra Bahrain T.E. Lawrence Jerusalem to Ottoman architect al-Andalus in dies by her own Pakistan independence (of Arabia) Crusaders 1099 Sinan dies 1588 Iberia 711 hand 30 BCE founded 1947 1971 born 1888

2023 21 24 22 25 2326 2427 2528 26 29 1721 18 22 19 23 2024 2125 2226 23 27

Tsunami kills 50,000 Genghis Khan Abu Bakr, first in Alexandria, dies in Western Muslim caliph, Egypt 365 Xia 1227 dies 634

27 30 28 1 29 2 30 3 31 4 24 2825 29 26 30 27 1 282 29 3 30 4

31 5

Lunar crater Tamerlane writes named for Abbasids take Physician- Egyptologist French King Andalusian Damascus, polymath Al-Razi “Mo” Amin, Kenyan William Flinders Charles VI seeking aviation pioneer ending Umayyad born in Persia Ottomans occupy photographer, born ‘Id al-Fitr Petrie dies 1942 trade 1402 Ibn Firnas 1976 rule 750 865 Belgrade 1521 1943

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 29 30 Nik Wheeler / SAWDIA 28 29 30 saudiaramcoworld.com “In this Mosque Mohammed spent the greater part of the day with From the early eighth century, a dome marked the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, his companions, conversing, instructing, and comforting the poor…. the second holiest site in Islam, and domes have been associated with this Here he received worldly envoys and embassies, and the heavenly structure ever since, throughout its many repairs, restorations and expansions messages conveyed by the Archangel Gabriel. And within a few over the centuries. The most recent expansion included a series of 27 domes, yards of the hallowed spot, he died, and found a grave.” decorated on the interior with traditional geometric patterns, which are each ingeniously designed to slide open to let in air and light. —Richard F. Burton, Personal Narrative of a Photo by Peter Sanders to Al-Madinah and Meccah, 1855 dhu al-qa‘dah — dhu al-hijjah — september dhu al-hijjah october muharram 1436

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Mamluks save Cairo by defeating Queen’s Freddie Alexander defeats Saladin retakes Mongols at ‘Ain Mercury born Persians at Jerusalem from Jalut 1260 in Zanzibar 1946 Gaugamela 331 BCE Crusaders 1187 ‘Id al-Adha

71011121312 8 13 9 14 15 16 17 18 5 11 12 76 13 814 915 1016 11 17

Henry Every captures a Mughal ship and becomes Palestinian-Israeli Genghis Khan’s TV’s “Monk,” Tony Quake hits Aleppo the world’s richest Oslo I Peace palace uncovered Shalhoub, born killing 200,000 or pirate 1695 Accords 1993 in Mongolia 2004 1953 more 1138 141915 20 16 21 17 22 18 23 1924 20 25 1218 13 19 14 20 1521 1622 1723 18 24

Hormuzd Rassam, Caliph al-Ma’mun, finder of Epic of Ottomans abandon Egypt opens House of Wisdom Gilgamesh, dies siege of Vienna New Library of founder, born 786 1910 1529 Alexandria 2002 2126 22 27 23 28 24 29 251 262 27 3 1925 20 26 21 27 2228 23 29 2430 25 1

Crusaders Abdülhamid II, last Kingdom of surrender Arwad Vandals from Translator and Seljuks defeat Ottoman sultan, is Island, last base in Germany seize explorer Sir Richard Peter the Hermit born 1842 proclaimed 1932 Levant, 1302 Carthage 439 F. Burton dies 1890 1096 Hijri New Year

284 29 5 30 6 262 27 3 28 4 29 5 30 6 31 7 Notes:

Cervantes, author & Barbary pirate Persian poet Jalal Egypt’s Taha captive, born al-Din born Hussein, dean of Ottoman armistice 1547 1207 literature, dies 1973 with Allies 1918

1 2 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Abdullah Al-Dobais / SAWDIA 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 saudiaramcoworld.com 31 30 “I think that geometry is the fundamental element of ar- I. M. Pei’s design for the recently opened Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, chitecture. It doesn’t matter if it’s Islamic or Renaissance. combines traditional motifs within a modernist esthetic. The rigorous geometry of the vast interior atrium recalls Islamic geometric patterns, while the crowning cupola Geometry is the framework.” is a modernist take on traditional muqarnas domes. The interior is subtly illuminated — I.M. Pei, designer of the Museum of Islamic Art, by an enormous circular chandelier inspired by Mamluk and Ottoman lamps. The Independent, 2008 Photo by Dick Doughty/SAWDIA november muharram—safar december safar—rabi‘ I

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Petra, Jordan, Al-Jazeera satellite US Egyptologist declared a UNESCO television channel James Breasted World Heritage launched 1996 dies 1935 Site 1985 2 9 3 10 4 11 512 613 714 8 15 71011121315 8 16 9 17 18 19 20 21

Last great Estebanico of ‘Abd al-Rahman UK Balfour Mughal emperor, Morocco is first al-Sufi, Persian Khazars defeat Novelist Naguib Declaration on Aurangzeb, born Muslim in Texas astronomer, dies Umayyad army Mahfouz born in Palestine 1917 1618 1528 903 at Marj Ardabil 730 Egypt 1911 916 10 17 11 18 1219 13 2014 21 15 22 142215 23 16 24 1725 1826 1927 20 28

Kingdom’s Mustafa Kemal Scotsman James founder King ‘Abd Atatürk, first Bruce reaches Persian poet Jalal Morocco is first to al-‘Aziz ibn Sa‘ud president of source of the Blue al-Din Rumi officially recognize dies 1953 Turkey, dies 1938 Nile 1770 dies in Konya 1273 new USA 1777 1623 17 24 18 25 1926 2027 2128 22 29 2129 22 30 23 1 242 253 264 27 5

For 1st time since Fourth sea link Émigré novelist “Walk Like an 1492, ‘Id al-Adha of “Med & Red” Paul Bowles, 88, Lebanese Egyptian” by The Verdi’s Aida marked officially in Seas, Suez Canal, dies in Tangier superstar singer Bangles is No. 1 Roger II of Sicily premieres in Cairo Spain 2010 opens 1869 1999 Fairuz born 1935 single 1986 born 1095 1871 Christmas

231 24 2 25 3 264 27 5 286 29 7 28 6 29 7 30 8 31 9 Notes:

30 8 Howard Carter, Oldest Philippine Lord Carnarvon mosque (1380) Muhammad Khedive Isma‘il open King Tut’s made national Iqbal’s two-nation Pasha born in tomb 1922 2006 proposal 1930 Cairo 1830

2014 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 Dick Doughty / SAWDIA 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 saudiaramcoworld.com