Department of Architecture MIT, Spring 2021 4.616: OUT OF ANTIQUITY: ON THE ORIGINS OF ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
Instructor: Nasser Rabbat, [email protected], x3-1417 TA: Chantal El Hayek
‘Islam resembles what was later to be called “the Western tradition” in so many ways—the intellectual efforts to fuse Judeo- Christian scripture with the categories of Greek philosophy, the literary emphasis on courtly love, the scientific rationalism, the legalism, puritanical monotheism, missionary impulse, the expansionist mercantile capitalism—even the periodic waves of fascination with “Eastern mysticism”—that only the deepest historical prejudice could have blinded European historians to the conclusion that, in fact, this is the Western tradition.’ David Graeber, “There Never Was a West. Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between,” 2007
Garth Fowden wrote in Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity, “There are roads out of Antiquity that do not lead to the Renaissance.” This powerful statement challenges the dominant historical narrative, which posits the West as the only heir to the classical tradition, and opens the door for other cultures that share the heritage of Antiquity—like the Islamic culture— to reclaim it. This seminar studies Early Islamic artistic and architectural culture and its relationship to Late Antiquity in depth. It examines the sequence of well-known Umayyad and early Abbasid monuments (7th-8th c), which appear to have engaged in a vibrant process that treated the Late Antiquity of the Levant as a heritage to build upon, copy, or, sometimes, modify or deconstruct. These patterns of appropriation, modification, transposition, scaling, and distortion of classical elements in Early Islamic architecture are interpreted as a conscious attempt to chart a novel, or, perhaps more accurately, a Post-Classical architecture. In other words, the seminar challenges the exclusive historiography that posits the Western Renaissance as the sole heir of Antiquity and proposes another scenario with a more hybrid genealogy. This conclusion can be corroborated by examining other fields of knowledge in the early Islamic period that stemmed from the Classical heritage, such as philosophy or jurisprudence, which developed in the Islamic milieu before being passed on to the nascent European Renaissance.
1 Class Requirements
Each session includes a lecture and a discussion of the reading material. One student (or two depending on enrollment) will lead the discussion every meeting, but everyone is expected to participate. The requirements are two papers/projects. The first paper (10-15 pp) will respond to historical and theoretical issues specific to the Late Antique/Early Islamic setting and can be in the form of a book review or a discussion of the life and transformation of an idea in a series of examples (buildings, ornamental pattern, objects) or a series of scholarly publications. The second project is an open assignment whereby the student will choose a topic, format, and means of representation and presentation under the general rubric of cross-culturalism. The student can choose historical or contemporary examples, from any location, in any form or media (including storytelling, graphic essay, video, or architectural envoi), and analyze how they respond, adapt, or embody cross- culturalism in scholarly, graphic, or creative means or a combination thereof. The student will decide on not just the topic but the medium in which they can best present their ideas in consultation with the instructor. Both assignments will be presented in class before their final submission and the presentation count as integral to the assignment. The first assignment represents 35% of the final grade; the second 45%. Readings and active class participation count for 20% toward the final grade and are meant to form the basis of the seminar and ensure its liveliness.
Required Texts Garth Fowden, Before and After Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused (Princeton University Press: 2014). Oleg Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (Yale University Press, 2nd Edition: 1987). David Graeber, "There never was a West: Or, Democracy emerges from the spaces in between," Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2007), 329-374. Available online https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber- there-never-was-a-west.pdf Recommended Texts G. W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Olge Grabar, eds. Interpreting Late Antiquity: Essays on the Postclassical World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001). Available online via Hathi Trust: http://library.mit.edu/item/002172729 F. B. Flood, The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000). Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). Available online. http://library.mit.edu/item/000670208 Garth Fowden, Quṣayr ‘Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004). Available online via ACLS: http://library.mit.edu/item/001284458
2 Alan Walmsley, Early Islamic Syria: An Archaeological Assessment (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2007). SYLLABUS
1: Feb 16: Introduction and Mechanics of the Course
David Graeber, "There never was a West: Or, Democracy emerges from the spaces in between," Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire (2007): 329-40.
2: Feb 23: Antiquity and Late Antiquity: Definitions and Debates Required: Jas Elsner, “The Birth of Late Antiquity: Riegl and Strzygowski in 1901.” Art History 25 (2002), 358 –79. Edward James, “The Rise and Function of the Concept “Late Antiquity,’” Journal of Late Antiquity 1, 1 (2008), 20-30. J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, “The Birth of Late Antiquity.” Antiquité Tardive 12 (2004): 253- 61. Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth, 138-175. Garth Fowden, Before and After Muhammad, 18-48, 92-126 (chapters 2 and 4). Glen Warren Bowersock, “The East-West Orientation of Mediterranean Studies and the Meaning of North and South in Antiquity,” in Rethinking the Mediterranean, William V. Harris, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 169–78.
3: March 2: Pre-Islamic Orient and Antiquity Required: Michael Lecker, “Pre-Islamic Arabia,” The Cambridge New History of Islam, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 153-70. Irfan Shahid, Ghassan Post Ghassan. In Essays in Honor of Benard Lewis: The Islamic World from Classical to Modern Times, edited by C. E. B. et. al. (Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1989), 323-36. Kamal S. Salibi, “Islam and Syria in the Writings of Henri Lammens.” In Historians of the Middle East, edited by B. Lewis and P. M. Holt eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 331-42. Robert Hoyland, “Early Islam as a Late Antique Religion,” The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2012), 1053-77. Angelika Neuwirth, “Locating the Qur’an in the Epistemic Space of Late Antiquity,” Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 54, no. 2 (2013): 189–203. Suggested:
3 Barbara Finster, “Arabia in Late Antiquity: An Outline of the Cultural Situation in the Peninsula at the Time of Muhammad.” In the Qur’an in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur’anic Milieu, edited by Angelika Neuwirth et al., (Leiden, 2010), 61-114.
March 9: Monday schedule of classes to be held
4: March 16: Situating the Discourse on Islam and Antiquity
Required: Garth Fowden, “Gibbon on Islam,” The English Historical Review 131, no. 549 (2016): 261–92. Peter Brown, “Mohammed and Charlemagne by Henri Pirenne,” Daedalus, 103, 1, (Winter, 1974): 25-33. Garth Fowden, Before and After Muhammad, 1-17 (chapter 1). Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth, 3-36. Peter Brown, “Late Antiquity and Islam: Parallels and Contrasts.” In Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam, edited by Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley, 1984), 23-37. Hugh Kennedy, “Islam.” In Interpreting Late Antiquity: Essays on the Postclassical World Bowersock, Brown, and Grabar eds. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2001), 219-37.
Suggested: Chase F. Robinson, “The rise of Islam, 600-705,” The Cambridge New History of Islam, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 2010), 173-225. Sarah C. Johnson, ‘“Return to Origin Is Non-Existence”: Al-Mada’in and Perceptions of Ruins in Abbasid Iraq’, International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6, 2 (2017): 257–83. Garth Fowden: inaugural lecture in the Faculty of Divinity on 4 December 2013, Abraham or Aristotle http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1635186
March 23: Student holiday
5: March 30: Discussion/Presentations of First Paper
6: April 6: Archeology and Early Islamic Architecture
Required: Marcus Milwright, “Early Islam and Late Antiquity,” in An Introduction to Islamic Archaeology (Edinburgh University Press, 2010), 24–43.
4 Jeremy Johns, “Archaeology and the history of early Islam: the first seventy Years.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 46 (2003), 411-436. Clive Foss, “Syria in Transition, AD 550 -750: An Archeological Approach.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51 (1997), 189-269. Alan Walmsley, Early Islamic Syria, 9-30. Denix Genequand, “Umayyad Castles: The Shift form Late Antique Military Architecture to Early Islamic Palatial Building.” In Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period, edited by Hugh Kennedy (Leiden, 2006), 3 – 35. Suggested: G.R.D. King, “The Sculptures of the Pre-Islamic Haram at Mekka,” in Cairo to Kabul: Afghan and Islamic Studies Presented to Ralph Pinder-Wilson, edited by Warwick Ball and Leonard Harrow (London, 2002), 144 – 150. G.R.D. King, “The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Ka’ba,” Muqarnas 21 (2004), 219 – 229. G.R.D. King, “The Prophet Muhammad and the Breaking of the Jahiliyyah Idols.” In Studies on Arabia in Honour of Professor G. Rex Smith, edited by John F. Healey and Venetia Porter (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 91 -122.
7: April 13: Dome of the Rock
Required: “Al-Ya’qubi: On the Dome of the Rock as a Pilgrimage Site,” in Islamic Art & Visual Culture D. Fairchild Ruggles, ed. (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 101-102. “Dome of the Rock Inscriptions,” Islamic Art & Visual Culture, 99-101 Oleg Grabar, “The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem,” Ars Orientalis 3 (1959), 33– 62. Nuha Khoury, “The Dome of the Rock, the Ka’ba and Ghumdan: Arab Myths and Umayyad Monuments.” Muqarnas 10 (1993), 57-65. Rina Avner, “The Dome of the Rock in Light of the Development of Concentric Martyria in Jerusalem: Architecture and Architectural Iconography,” Muqarnas 27 (2011), 31-50.
Heba Mostafa, “From the Dome of the Chain to Miḥrāb Dāʾūd: The Transformation of an Umayyad Commemorative Site at the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem,” Muqarnas 34 (2017), 1-22.
Suggested: Amikam Elad, “Why did ‘Abd al-Malik Build the Dome of the Rock? A re-examination of the Muslim Sources.” In Bayt al-Maqdis, vol. 1, ‘Abd al-Malik’s Jerusalem, Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns, eds. (Oxford, 1992), 33-58.
5 Nasser Rabbat, “The Meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock.” Muqarnas 6 (1989), 12-21. Heba Mostafa, “The Dome of the Rock: Original Mosaics,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 28 August 2020, https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen/short-form- videos/2020/dome-of-the-rock-original-mosaics/
April 20: Student holiday
8: April 27: Umayyad Mosques Required: Alan Walmsley and Kristoffer Damgaard, “The Umayyad Congregational Mosque of Jarash in Jordan and Its Relationship to Early Mosques.” Antiquity 79 (2005): 362-78. Jack Tannous, “Finding Their Way The Mosque in the Shadow of the Church,” The Making of the Medieval Middle East Book Subtitle: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018), 400-28. Mattia Guidetti, “Sacred Topography in Medieval Syria and Its Roots between the Umayyads and Late Antiquity.” In Umayyad Legacies: Medieval Memories from Syria to Spain, edited by Antoine Borrut and Paul M. Cobb, (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 339-63. “Al-Baladhuri: How the Muslim Community Obtained the Site for the Mosque of Damascus,” in Islamic Art & Visual Culture. D. Fairchild Ruggles ed., 102-103. Finbarr Barry Flood, The Great Mosque of Damascus, 1-14. Klaus Brisch, "Observations on the Iconography of the Mosaics in the Great Mosque at Damascus," in Priscilla Soucek, ed., Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World (Philadelphia, 1988), 13-20. Alain George, “Paradise or Empire? On a Paradox of Umayyad Art,” In Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites Alain George and Andrew Marsham, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 39-67.
Suggested: Jeremy Johns, “The ‘House of the Prophet’ and the Concept of the Mosque.” In Bayt al- Maqdis, vol. 2, Jerusalem and Early Islam, edited by Jeremy Johns, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 59-112. Finbarr Barry Flood, The Great Mosque of Damascus, 184-246. Nasser Rabbat, "The Dialogic Dimension in Umayyad Art," RES 43 (Spring 2003): 78-94.
9: May 4: Umayyad settlements Hugh Kennedy, “From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria.” Past and Present 106 (1985), 3- 27.
6 Oleg Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, 43-71. Rebecca M. Foote, “Commerce, Industrial Expansion, and Orthogonal Planning: Mutually Compatible Terms in Settlements of Bilad al-Sham during the Umayyad Period.” Mediterranean Archeology 13 (2000): 25-38. Lara G. Tohme, “Spaces of Convergence: Christian Monasteries and Umayyad Architecture in Greater Syria.” In Negotiating Secular and Sacred in Medieval Art: Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist, edited by Alicia Walker and Amanda Luyster (London: Ashgate, 2009), 129- 45. Jere Bacharach, "Marwanid Umayyad Building Activities: Speculations on Patronage," Muqarnas 13 (1997): 27-44. Garth Fowden, Qusayr ‘Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria. Berkeley, 2004), 197-226, 248-326. Suggested: Alan Walmsley, Early Islamic Syria: An Archaeological Assessment, 71-112. Alexander Brey, “The Baths of al-Walid at Qusayr ‘Amra,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 28 August 2020. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen/short-form- videos/2020/the-baths-of-al-walid-at-qusayr-amra/
10: May 11: Final Presentations
11: May 18: Islamic Architecture and Late Antiquity
Required: Oleg Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, 1-42, 72-98. Garth Fowden, “Late-Antique Art in Syria and Its Umayyad Evolutions.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 17 (2004), 282-304. Oleg Grabar, “Umayyad Art: Late Antique or Early Islamic?” In Residences, Castles, Settlements: Transformation Process from Late Antiquity to Early Islam in Bilad al-Sham, edited by Karin Bartl and Abd al-Razzaq Moaz (Rahden, 2008), 1-12. Oleg Grabar, “The Shared Culture of Objects,” in Henry Maguire ed., Byzantine Court Culture from 829-1204 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1997), 115-129. Nadia Ali, “The Road from Decadence: Agendas and Personal Histories in the Study of Early Islamic Art,” in Empires of Faith in Late Antiquity: Histories of Art and Religion from India to Ireland, ed. Jaś Elsner (Cambridge University Press, 2020), 189–222.
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