Sacred Precincts

This book examines non-Muslim religious sites, structures and spaces in the Islamic world. It reveals a vibrant portrait of life in the religious sites by illustrating how architecture responds to contextual issues and traditions. Sacred Precincts explores urban context; issues of identity; design; construction; transformation and the history of sacred sites and architecture in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from the advent of Islam to the 20th century. It includes case studies on churches and synagogues in Iran, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco and Malta, and on sacred sites in Nigeria, Mali, and the Gambia.

With contributions by Clara Alvarez, Angela Andersen, Karen Britt, Karla Britton, Jorge Manuel Simão Alves Correia, Elvan Cobb, Daniel Coslett, Mohammad Gharipour, Mattia Guidetti, Suna Güven, Esther Kühn, Amy Landau, Ayla Lepine, Theo Maarten van Lint, David Mallia, Erin Maglaque, Susan Miller, A.A. Muhammad-Oumar, Meltem Özkan Altınöz, Jennifer Pruitt, Rafael Sedighpour, Ann Shafer, Jorge Manuel Simão Alves Correia, Ebru Özeke Tökmeci, Steven Thomson, Heghnar Watenpaugh, Alyson Wharton and Ethel S. Wolper.

Mohammad Gharipour, Ph.D. (2009), Georgia Institute of Technology, is Associate Professor of Architecture at Morgan State University. He is the author and editor of several books including Persian Gardens and Pavilions: Reflections in History, Poetry and the Arts (I.B.Tauris, 2013), Calligraphy in the Muslim World (Edinburgh University Press, 2013), and The Bazaar in the Islamic City (American University Press, 2012). He is the founding editor of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture.

"... a timely and sorely needed compilation of essays that accounts for the long-standing history and complexity of pluralism within many Muslim-majority cities and contexts throughout the world... Without question, texts from this vitally important volume should not only be read by specialists, but assigned in every introductory art historical, theological, historical, or anthropological course that even touches on Islam, for these essays are the interlocutors that can simultaneously dismantle the logic of both Islamophobia and radicalism through innumerable historical exemplars of coexistence. Within the existing body of scholarship in architectural history and urban studies, this volume expands our knowledge of the vibrant pluralism and religious and ethnic diversity of cities throughout the Islamic world, while productively obliterating the Orientalist, monolithic conception of the "Islamic city." - Nancy Demerdash-Fatemi, in: H-AMCA, H-Net Reviews, April (2017)
"... a volume beautiful enough to adorn my coffee table, yet useful enough to merit a place on my office book-shelf... [...] a fascinating volume for potential courses on World-Christianity, Christian-Muslim relations, or anthropology of religion, among other possibilities." - Lucina Allen Mosher, in: Anglican Theological Review 99/1