21: Global Materials and Techniques of Islamic Architecture with Christian Hedrick (GAHTC)

““Islamic architecture can be both autonomous...and fit into the global.””

This week we discuss Islamic architecture through the lens of materiality with MIT, Architecture History, Theory and Criticism graduate, Christian Hendrik. This episode is guided by Christian’s GAHTC module, which is the most downloaded module to date. 

Timestamp Outline

1:00 A Global History of Islamic Architecture GAHTC module with colleague Mohammed Alkhabbaz
4:25 The Afro-Eurasian history of the pointed arch (lecture): Islamic, Gothic, Persian, Roman Bridge
6:45 Mosque at Isfahan photographed by Arthur Upham Pope, framed as a Gothic Cathedral
8:28 Orientalist separation of round arch (Christian/western) vs pointed arch (Islamic) and Christopher Wren
10:06 Out of the Earth: The Global Journeys of Ceramic Tile (lecture); Great Mosque of Kairouan in Uqba, Tunisia; the Abbasid Empire; and the chemical analysis of polychrome and monochrome tiles
14:27 Tiles from China
16:34 Abbasid aesthetics, Dome of the Rock and the mud-origin architecture of Sumara and the Great Mosque of Samarra
18:41 The Silk Road, Battle of Talas and tiles as high currency
19:26 Stucco and tile vs brick and stone; Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Egypt
20:23 The spread of ceramic glazing secrets: iznik tiles
22:27 Ceramic terms: delftware, cuerda seca, etc
24:22 Stucco work of mukarnas in Safavid dynasty in the Persian world, Andalusia, Alhambra, Isfahan
28:26 Islamic Architecture and the Taj Mahal, Quwwat-ul-Islam, Qutb Minar
33:57 What does the term “Islamic Architecture” mean to you?
36:20 “Islamic Architecture can be both autonomous...and fit into the global.”
37:47 “Everybody has to deal with materials.”