This book, the first of three, offers an anthology of Western descriptions of Islamic religious buildings of Spain, Turkey, India and Persia, mostly from the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries, taken from books and ambassadorial reports. As travel became easier and cheaper, thanks to viable roads, steamships, hotels and railways, tourist numbers increased, museums accumulated eastern treasures, illustrated journals proliferated, and photography provided accurate data. The second volume covers some of the religious architecture of Syria, Egypt and North Africa, while the third deals with Islamic palaces around the Mediterranean. All three deal with the impact of Western trade, taste and imports on the East, and examine the encroachment of westernised modernism, judged responsible for the degradation of Islamic styles.
Michael Greenhalgh (PhD Manchester, 1968) is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Australian National University, and the author of many books and articles dealing with the dilapidation of ancient marble architecture and its later re-use.
Contents
Preface for the Three Volumes List of Illustrations
1
Introduction 1 Overview
2 Crusades in East and West
3 Contacts through Trade Trigger Westernised Modernisation
4 Constantinople
5 Arrangement of the Book
2
Churches, Mosques and Travellers 1 Westerners Travel around the East
2 Ambassadors Study the Empire
3 Viewing Mosque Architecture
4 Drawing Mosque Exteriors and Interiors
5 A Conflicting Mix of Ideas and Beliefs
6 Forgotten? Westerners and the Eastern Crusades
7 Dress and Doctors
8 Western Habits and Actions Offend Muslims: Footwear and Spitting
9 The End of Islam? The Empire in Decline?
10 The Various Inhabitants of the Empire
11 Architecture in the Empire: Wood, Maintenance and Competence
12 Advice to Western Travellers from Western Authors
13 East Is East: The Development of Curiosity Travel
3
Spain 1 Christians versus Muslims
2 The Alhambra, Granada (Reconquered 1492)
3 Charles V and Architecture
4 Córdoba: the Great Mosque (Mezquita)
5 Seville (Recaptured in 1248)
6 Girault de Prangey and Arab Architecture
4
Constantinople and Adrianople with a Note on Greece 1 The Imperial Firman
2 The Ottoman Building Programme
3 Collecting Manuscripts in Constantinople
4 Adrianople
5 Constantinople
6 Cityscape: “‘Tis Distance Lends Enchantment to the View”
7 Cityscape: Strolling the Streets
8 Seeing Hagia Sophias Everywhere They Look: Royal Mosques
9 Domes, Minarets, and Dimensions
10 Some Constantinople Mosques Visited by Travellers
11 Topkapi / Seraglio
12 Greece: Athens
13 Tripolitza
5
Asia Minor 1 On and Off the Beaten Track
2 Aleppo
3 Alexandria Troas
4 Ankara
5 Ayasoluk – Selçuk – Ephesus
6 Bursa
7 Cyzicus
8 The Dardanelles and Its Cannon
9 Erzerum
10 Karaman, Mut and Nigde
11 Konya
12 Lampsacus
13 Magnesia / Manisa
14 Miletus
15 Mylasa
16 Nicaea
17 Pergamum
18 Smyrna
6
India and Persia 1 India
2 Persia
3 Collecting Persian Tiles
4 A Miscellany of Mosques
7
Coda: Mecca and Medina Bibliography – Sources Bibliography – Modern Scholars Index Illustrations
All interested in the development of architectural history as encouraged by travel in the East and Islamic Spain, and in the impact of Western trade, ideas and modernism.