Events

Abstract

My lecture builds upon a quotation from Garth Fowden, “There are roads out of Antiquity that do not lead to the Renaissance,” to re-claim Antiquity as the soil from which Islamic architecture emerged. Focusing on the architecture of the Umayyads (7-8^th century), I argue that their builders engaged in a creative process that treated local classical examples as a heritage to build upon, copy, or modify in a conscious attempt to chart a new, Post-Classical architecture. The argument allows me to revisit the dominant art history paradigm that posits the West as the sole heir to the Classical Tradition and to advance another genealogy that highlights the significance of transcultural dialogue across time and place. My ultimate aim is to chart a historiographical model that integrates the art history of the Global South and other marginalized cultures everywhere in its scholarly narrative.

Bio

Nasser Rabbat is the Aga Khan Professor and the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. His interests include Islamic architecture, urban history, Modern Arab history, contemporary Arab art, heritage studies, and post-colonial criticism. He has published numerous articles and several books on topics ranging from Mamluk architecture to Antique Syria, 19^th century Cairo, the courtyard house, Arabism and history, and urbicide. His most recent book is Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). His co-edited book, Construction as Destruction: The Case of Syria will be published in 2024 from AUC Press. He is currently editing a book on the cultural history of Syria, tentatively entitled, Syria: The Land Where Cultures Met, and writing a history of Mamluk Cairo.

Prof. Rabbat worked as an architect in Los Angeles and Damascus and served as visiting professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich; École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris; and New York University in Abu Dhabi. He held research fellowships in the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, the I Tatti in Florence, the Institut d’études avancées and the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg in Bonn, the American Academy in Rome, the Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge MA, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Escuela de estudios arabes, Granada, the QFIS, Doha, and the American Research Center in Cairo. He contributes to several Arabic newspapers and consults with international design firms on projects in the Islamic World.