A fully illustrated history of the man, the mosque, and the city by a leading scholar
Tarek Swelim obtained his Ph.D. in Islamic art and architecture from Harvard in 1994. He leads and lectures to American tour groups from prestigious institutions throughout Egypt, the Middle East, and North Africa, and he is the author or co-author of a number of publications on Cairo's Islamic and Roman architecture. He has taught at the American University in Cairo and Ain Shams University and is currently associate professor of Islamic art and architecture at the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies of the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar.
"The Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo (876-79) is not only the most
complete Abbasid-style mosque to survive anywhere but also one of
the very few mosques Westerners can still visit. Mentioned in every
survey of Islamic architecture, the mosque has never received due
treatment . . . generously illustrated with 19th-century and newly
commissioned photographs, 3-D reconstructions, and evocative
drawings. In the first of the book's two parts, the author puts the
mosque in its historical and urban contexts; in the second part he
meticulously describes the building and its parts, indicating how
it changed over time as it was used not only for worship but also
to house pilgrims and the poor. Commendably--and unusually--the
author takes the story right up to the present, showing how the
"authentic" mosque that tourists see today is really the product of
decades of repeated renovations and restorations."--Choice
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