Carel Bertram

Domestic Architecture in Islam and the Poetics of Space

Type
syllabus

This document is a syllabus reflecting course content developed for "Domestic Architecture in Islam and the Poetics of Space.," by Dr. Carel Bertram at the University of Texas, Austin. 


Course Description:
This course investigates the domestic sphere in an Islamic context. Students will become familiar with the history, structure, and social use of residential forms in areas that are now a part of Arabia, North Africa and Egypt, Greater Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and the Ottoman Balkans. They also will be introduced to the ways these spaces have been imaged and imagined in art, literature, films, and scholarly texts.  By viewing residences both as built forms and as they are textually and artistically depicted, students will learn how the boundaries, the meaning-loads, and the stability of what is public and what is private reveal important cultural information. The domestic spaces that will be addressed include the Bedouin Tent, the North African multi-house compound, the Arab courtyard house, the Yemeni tower house, the Irani Wind-tower house, the Ottoman Konak, and the grand palaces of Sultans and Shahs

Introduction 
Introduction to Domestic Architecture and Domestic Space
The Floor Plan, the Felt Plan 

Reading:
  •  Weber 1991  "The Myth of Meaningful Forms" 
  •  Heschong 1979.  "Delight" 
  •  Marcus 1995  p 37-43 includes assignment
Further Reading:  
  •  Giuliani, Bonner et al. 1988 Home and the theory of place 
  •  Szondi 1986   On Textual Understanding 
  •  Seamon and Mugerauer 1985  Dwelling, place and environment, towards a phenomenology of person and world 
  •  Geertz 1979
  •  Tergeman 1994  Chapter 1 in week 3, below can be compared to  (Marcus 1995)   p 37-43, above
Depicting, Describing and Enframing
The House in the Islamic Miniature Tradition 
The Orientalist House of Cairo
Cairo

Reading:
  • Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977   "Courtyards Which Live," p 560-564 
  • Said 1978 pp 81-87 and 157-164 
  • Lane 1966 (1842)    Table of contents and pp 1-25 of the Introduction 
  • Fathy 1972  The Qa'a of the Cairene Arab House 
  • Canter, Krampen et al. 1988  "Action and Place" 
Further Reading:
  • Ettinghausen 1962  Byzantine Art in Islamic Garb pp  67-124 
  • Lane 1966 (1842) Chapters V, VI and VII on Domestic Life 
  • Lane-Poole 1973 (1898)
  • Olufsen 1903  another early ethnographer of the domestic sphere 
  • Noor 1984  Function and Form of the Courtyard House. 
  • Abdulac 1982 on courtyards and parts of the house. 
  • Campo 1991
  • Mahfouz 1956 A Novel in a Grand House in Cairo 
  • Rifaat 1983  Distant View of a Minaret 
  • Raymond 1979  on the Cairene apartment
"The Arab House"
Baghdad and the sociology of space 
Damascus and Aleppo and the Iwan Courtyard 
"Sabriya or Daughter of Damascus"

Reading:
  • Fethi and Roaf 1984   The traditional house in Baghdad  pp 41-52 
  • Al-Azzawi 1984  The Courtyards of Oriental Houses in Baghdad pp 53-59 
  • Tergeman 1994 p 200-201  Street sellers calls from Damascus, 
  • Idilbi 1997 (1980)   Sabriya, Damascus Bitter Sweet or 
  • Tergeman 1994  Daughter of Damascus (Ya Mal al-Sham) [Out of Print]
Further Reading:
  • Tabaa 1986   The "Salsabil" and 'Shadirwan' in Medieval Islamic Courtyards¨
Greater Syria; Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan and the "Lesser Traditions" of Village Houses
Lebanon and Jordan 
Palestine 
Villages and the Vernacular issue

Reading: 
  • Ragette 1974  The Lebanese House, pp 13-14, 67-70, 181-183 
  • Amiry and Tamari 1989  the house: p 17-32  ] 
  • Khammash 1995   Sumia  49-53  and map p 1
Iran and the Gulf 
Iran, Wind Towers 
Poetics 
The Blindfold Horse

Reading:
  • Guppy 1988  The Blindfold Horse 
  • Bachelard 1994 (1958)   Chapter 2 "House and Universe" pp 38-72 
  • Roaf 1982   Wind-Catchers pp 57-73
Additional Reading: 
  • Bachelard 1994 (1958)   
  • Carswell 1968   pp 65-68  Tabriz and Shiraz 

The North African Courtyard House  Morocco
North Africa and Spain, 
Some women of Marrakech 
Dreams of Trespass

Reading:
  • Mernissi 1994  Dreams of Trespass: tales of a harem girlhood 
  • Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977)   "Household Mix" p 188-191
Further Reading:
  • Pandolfo 1997  Impasse of the Angels 
  • Geertz 1979    The View from Within [another way of finding meaning] 
  • Munson 1984    The House of Si Abd Allah : The Oral History of a Moroccan Family

The North African Courtyard House Algeria and Tunisia
The Orientalist Gaze, the Idea of Public and Private 
The Silences Of The Palace  Part I 
The Silences Of The Palace  Part II

Reading:
Celik 1997  "The Indigenous House" 
Bahloul 1996 [1992]  The Architecture of Memory, A Jewish Muslim Household in colonial Algeria

The Architecture of Memory 
Palaces and Harems.  and female space 
The Royal Tent and male spaces

Reading:
Peirce 1992   Beyond Harem Walls 87-149 
Mansel  Traveling Palaces, pp 30-35

The Turkish House
The Wooden Turkish House, the Yali and  the Konak   NEW PLAN: Ottoman House 
Bosnia 
Amasya

Reading:
Kucukerman 1978   Room Entrances and Doors  pp 129-138 
Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977  "Window Place," p833-837 and "Low Sill", 1050-1052 
Cerasi 1998 The Formation of Ottoman House Types, pp116-156 
Edib 1926   Memoirs 
Edib 1935   The Clown and His Daughter 

Additional Reading: 
Grabrijan 1951 
Kuban 1995 
Garnett 1905 
Bringa 

Arabia and Saudi Arabia
Saudia Arabian Climates and Dwellings 
The Door 
Sheltered Quarter

Reading:
  • Talib  Shelter in Saudi Arabia  "Hot Dry Region' and "Hot Humid Zone" 50-86 
  • Bogary 1991   Sheltered Quarter 
  • Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977  Main Entrance  pp  540-544 
  • Lang 1985  The Dwelling Door: Towards a Phenomenology of Transition
Additional Reading:  
  • Waly 1992  Private Skies: The courtyard Pattern in the Architecture of Bahrain 
  • Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977  The Family  376-380

Yemen 
Sana and Shibam
Yemeni Houses 
Jewish Houses in Yemen

Reading:
  • Lewcock 1989   The Walled City of Shibam pp 71-100 
  • Alexander, Ishikawa et al. 1977  South Facing Doors 513-515
Additional Reading:
  • Travelers 
  • Mackintosh-Smith 1997
  • Rathjens 1957

"Muslim" Domestic Space 
The House in The Qur'an and Hadith,  and the Prophet's House 
The House as Holy, the House as Identity...[Hajj's houses] 
The House as experience and dreams, 
Weddings, Ceremonies, Circumcision , Mevlut

Reading:
  • Campo 1991   Ch 1 Images of Domestic Space in the Quran  pp 7-27 and Ch 6 Domestic Space in the Pilgrimage Murals of Egypt pp 139-165 Tapper 1983   and  Tapper 1990)  Gender and Religion in a Turkish Town, pp 71-88 (Seyfeddin 1996(1923))   "Butt" a short story about the Turkish Mevlut
Additional Reading:
  • Parker and Neal 1995 
  • Rosen-Ayalon 

Tents
Beduins and Tents
Nomads on the Savanna. / University Park, PA / 1994(1991) 
The Poetics of Space

Reading:
  • Talib   "The Bedouin" 
  • Al-Shahi 1984  "Welcome, My House is Your House" pp 26-32 
  • Bachelard 1994 (1958)   Chapter 2 "House and Universe" pp 38-72
Suggested Reading:
  • Abu-Lughod 1986

Leaving Home, Rebuilding Home

Identity  [Boujad]   [[[new House as an Image of self, loss and Leave Samia A. Halaby ]]

Wedding song: Henna art among Pakistani women in New York City. 

VIDEO In English or in Urdu with English subtitles.: Shenaz Hooda illustrates the traditional art of mehendi, the henna decoration of women's hands and feet for weddings and other festive occasions. The film includes the ceremonies as well as the Urdu songs (with English sub-titles) that are part of a traditional Ismailite wedding. 

Either Sunlight on A Broken Column or Meatless Days

Reading:
  • Hosain 1988 (1961)   Sunlight on A Broken Column 
  • Suleri 198  Meatless Days 
  • Khan 1998  The Home and the World: the Architecture of Autobiography, pp 87-90 discusses Meatless Days and Sunlight on A Broken Column 
"Muslim Style"
The Islamic House

Suggested Reading:

  • Waly 1992 
  • Yerasimos 1992  Turkish Style 
  • Knecht 1993  "Representations of Turkey
  • Reading is from the following sources:
  • Abdulac, S. (1982). Traditional Housing Design in Arab Countries. Designing in Islamic Cultures 2: Urban Housing. Cambridge, MA, The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture: 2-9.
  • Abu-Lughod, L. (1986). Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  • Al-Azzawi, D. S. (1984). The Courtyards of Oriental Houses in Baghdad. The Arab House, Proceedings of the Colloquium held in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A. D. C. Hyland and A. Al-Shahi, CARDO, Center for Architectural Research and Development Overseas: 53-59.
  • Al-Shahi, A. (1984). "Welcome, My House is Yours" : values related to the arab house. The Arab House, Proceedings of the Colloquium held in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A. D. C. Hyland and A. Al-Shahi, CARDO, Center for Architectural Research and Development Overseas: 26-32.
  • Alexander, C., S. Ishikawa, et al. (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns Buildings, Construction. New York, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-50191 9-9.
  • Amiry, S. and V. Tamari (1989). The Palestinian Village House. London, Trustees of the British Museum, British Museum Association.
  • Bachelard, G. (1994 (1958)). The Poetics of Space. Boston, Beacon.
  • Bahloul, J. (1996 [1992]). The Architecture of Memory, A Jewish Muslim Household in colonial Algeria. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Bogary, H. (1991). The Sheltered Quarter, A Tale of a Boyhood in Mecca.  Austin, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Univeristy of Texas at Austin.
  • Bringa, T. Being Muslim the Bosnian Way, Princeton University Press.
  • Campo, J. E. (1991). "Orientalist Representations of Muslim Domestic Space in Egypt."  Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 111(1): 29-42.
  • Campo, J. E. (1991). The Other Sides of Paradise: Eplorations into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam. Columbia, South Carolina Press  ISBN 0-87249-738-0.
  • Canter, D., M. Krampen, et al. (1988). Environmental Perspectives; Ethnoscapes: Current Challenges in the Environmental Sciences. Hong Kong, Avebury.
  • Carswell, J. (1968).  New Julfa: the Armenian churches and other buildings.  Oxford.
  • Celik, Z. (1997). Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  • Cerasi, M. (1998). "The Formation of Ottoman House Types: A comparative study in interaction with neighboring cultures." Muqarnas 15.
  • Edib, H. A. v. (1926). Memoirs of Halide Edip. New York, The Century Company.
  • Edib, H. A. v. (1935). The Clown and His Daughter. London, George Allen and Unwin.
  • Ettinghausen, R. (1962). Arab Painting. (Geneva?) Skira; (distributed by 
  • World Pub. Co., Cleveland, 1962).
  • Fathy, H. (1972). The Qa'a of the Cairene Arab House, its development and some mew usages for its design concepts. Colloque International sur l"histoire du Caire, 1969, General Egyptian Book Org: 135-146 .
  • Fethi, I. and S. Roaf (1984). The Traditional House in Baghdad.. some socio-climatic considerations. The Arab House, Proceedings of the Colloquium held in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A. D. C. Hyland and A. Al-Shahi, CARDO, Center for Architectural Research and Development Overseas: 41-52.
  • Fuchs, R. (1998). "The Palestinian Arab House and the Islamic 'Primitive Hut'." Muqarnas 15.
  • Garnett, L. M. J. (1905). Turkish Life in Town and Country. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons.
  • Geertz, H. (1979). The View from Within, Proceedings of Seminar Four in the series "Architectural Transformations in the Islamic World".
  • Giuliani, V., M. Bonner, et al. (1988). Home and the theory of place. Ethnoscapes: volume 1, Environmental Perspectives. D. Canter, M. Krampen and D. Stea. Aldershot (England), Avebury, Gower Publishing: 39-53.
  • Grabrijan, D. a. (1951). The Bosnian Oriental Architecture in Sarajevo, with special Reference to the Contemporary One, Dopisna Delavska Univerza Univerzum.
  • Guppy, S. (1988). The Blindfold Horse, Memories of a Persian Childhood.  London, Heinemann.
  • Heschong (1979.). Thermal delight in architecture. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press ISBN: 0262081016.
  • Hosain, A. (1988 (1961)). Sunlight on A Broken Column. New York, Viking Penguin.
  • Idilbi, U. (1997 (1980)). Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet (Dimashq Ya Basmat a-Huzn). Brooklyn, Interlink Books.
  • Khammash, A. (1995). Notes on Village Architecture in Jordan. Amman, Arabesque ISBN 0936819014.
  • Khan, S. (1998). The Home and the World: the Architecture of Autobiography. Memory and Architecture, ACSA West Central Regional Conference, St. Louis MO, Washington University in St. Louis School of Architecture.
  • Knecht, B. (1993). "Representations of Turkey." Design Book Review 29/30(Summer/Fall): 36-43.
  • Kuban, D. a. (1995). The Turkish Hayat House. Istanbul, Eren Yayincilik ve Kitapcilik Ltd.
  • Kucukerman, O. (1978). Turkish House in Search of Spatial Identity. Istanbul, Tu rkiye Turing ve Otomobil Kurumu.
  • Lane, E. W. (1966 (1842)). Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. London, J. M. Dent & Sons.
  • Lane-Poole, S. (1973 (1898)). Cairo: sketches of Its History, Monuments, and Social Life, 3d ed. London: J.S. Virtue, 1898; and New York: 1973, Arno Press.
  • Lang, R. (1985). The Dwelling Door: Towards a Phenomenology of Transition.  Dwelling, place and environment, towards a phenomenology of person and world. D. Seamon and R. Mugerauer. Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster, Martinus Nijoff ISBN 90-247-3192-5: 201-213.
  • Lewcock, R. (1989). Wadi Hadramawt and the walled city of Shibam, Unesco ISBN 92-3-102338-1.
  • Mackintosh-Smith, T. (1997). Yemen, Travels in Dictionary Land. Picador, Picador.
  • Mahfouz, N. (1956). Palace Walk. New York, Anchor Books.
  • Mansel, P. "Travelling Palaces." Hali 39: 30-35.
  • Marcus, C. C. (1995). House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. Berkeley, Conari.
  • Mernissi, F. (1994). Dreams of Trespass: tales of a harem girlhood. Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley.
  • Mitchell (1991 (1988)). Colonising Egypt. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  • Munson, H. (1984). The House of Si Abd Allah: The Oral History of a Moroccan Family. New Haven, Yale University Press.
  • Noor, M. (1984). The Function and Form of the Courtyard House. The Arab House, Proceedings of the Colloquium held in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A. D. C. Hyland and A. Al-Shahi, CARDO, Center for Architectural Research and Development Overseas: 61-72.
  • Olufsen, O. (1903). Through the unknown Pamirs, the second Danish Pamir Exhibition, 1898-99. New York, Greenwood Press, Publishers.
  • Pandolfo, S. (1997). Impasse of the Angels. Chicago, University of Chicago Press ISBN 0226645312 (cloth : alk. paper) 0226645320 (pbk. : alk. paper) .  Parker, A. and A. Neal (1995). Hajj Paintings, Folk Art of the Great Pilgrimage. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution Press.
  • Peirce, L. (1992). Beyond Harem Walls: Ottoman Royal Women. Gendered Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History. D. O. Helly. Ithaca, Cornell University Press: 27-39.
  • Ragette, F. (1974). Architecture in Lebanon, the Lebanese House during the 18th and 19th centuries. Beirut, American University of Beirut.
  • Rathjens, C. (1957). Jewish Domestic Architecture in Sana, Yemen. Jerusalem, The Israel Oriental Society.
  • Raymond, A. (1979). The Rab': A Type of Collective Housing in Cairo During the Ottoman Period, Proceedings of Seminar Four in the series" Architectura l Transformations in the Islamic World".
  • Rifaat, A. (1983). Distant View of a Minaret. London ; New York : Quartet Books, Quartet Books .
  • Roaf, S. (1982). Wind-Catchers. Living with the Desert. E. Beazley and M.  Harverson. Warminster, Wilts, England, Aris & Phillips, Ltd: 57-72.
  • Rosen-Ayalon, M. "Murals in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem."
  • Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York, Pantheon Books.
  • Seamon, D. and R. Mugerauer (1985). Dwelling, place and environment, towards a phenomenology of person and world. Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster, Martinus Nijoff 
  • Seyfeddin, O. (1996(1923)). Butt. An Anthology of Turkish Literature. K.  Silay. Bloomington, Indiana University: 275-279.
  • Suleri, S. (1989). Meatless Days. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.  Szondi, P. (1986). Walter Benjamin's "City Portraits". On Textual Understanding. P. Szondi. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press. 15: 133-159.
  • Tabaa, Y. (1986). The "Salsabil" and 'Shadirwan in Medieval Islamic Courtyards. The Garden as a City, the City as a Garden, Carucci Editore.  Environmental Design, Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Center: 34-37.
  • Talib, K. Shelter in Saudi Arabia. New York, St. Martin's Press.
  • Tapper, N. (1983). Gender and Religion in a Turkish Town: A comparison of two types of formal women's gatherings. Women's Religious Experience, Cross Cultural Perspective. P. Holden. London, Croom Helm.
  • Tapper, N. (1990). Ziyaret: gender, movement, and exchange in a Turkish community. Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, Migration, and the Religious Imagination. D. Eickelman and J. Piscatori. Berkeley: 236-255.  
  • Tergeman, S. (1994). Daughter of Damascus (Ya Mal al-Sham). Austin, Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
  • Waly, T. (1992). Private Skies: The courtyard Pattern in the Architecture of Bahrain. Bahrain, al-Handasah Center Publications.
  • Weber, R. (1991). "The Myth of Meaningful Forms: Comparing the Forms of Indigeous and Classical Architecture." Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 11(11  Spring): 65-75.
  • Yerasimos, S. (1992). Turkish Style, Vendome Press//Rizzoli

Citation

Bertram, Carel. "Domestic Architecture in Islam and the Poetics of Space." Syllabus, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, [date not provided.]

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Copyright

Carel Bertram

Country

Egypt
Syria

Language

English

Keywords