May Farhat
Lebanese American University, Department of Architecture and Interior Design, Department Member
- Architectural History, Art History, Art and Architecture of Pre-Modern Islamic Cultures, Maghrib and the Mediterranean Basin, Islamic shrines, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal History, Ottoman-Safavid Relations, Early and Medieval Islamic Art and Architecture, and 37 moreMedieval Islamic, Byzantine, Crusader, and Mamluk Eras in Palestine, Collecting and Collections, Beirut Urban Archaeology, Islamic Archaeology, Qajar Architecture, Orientalism (Architecture), Architecture and ideology, Architecture and Public Spaces, Ibn Abi Jumhur al-Ahsa'i, history of Islamic art in Timurid era, Timurid Iran, Timurids (Islamic History), Islamic art and architecture, Ottoman History, Safavids (Islamic History), Islamic Studies, Beirut, Medieval Islamic History, Lebanon, Middle East Studies, History of Ottoman Art and Architecture, Iranian Studies, Seljuks (Islamic History), Mamluk Studies, Iranian History, Late Ottoman Period, Islam, Islamic' Architecture, Orientalism, Turco-Iranian World, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Islamic History, Contemporary Mosque Architecture, Vernacular Architecture of Middle East, Paolo Portoghesi, and Fatimid Art and Architectureedit
Mashhad, the site in northeastern Iran of the shrine of the eighth Shiʻi imam, is arguably one of the largest and wealthiest sacred shrines in the world. The gilded dome over the imam's mausoleum stands amidst an expansive complex of... more
Mashhad, the site in northeastern Iran of the shrine of the eighth Shiʻi imam, is arguably one of the largest and wealthiest sacred shrines in the world. The gilded dome over the imam's mausoleum stands amidst an expansive complex of courts, monumental gateways, libraries, museums, guesthouses, and administrative offices that cater to thousands of pilgrims each year. This paper examines the period, under the aegis of the early Safavid shahs, when Mashhad was established as the preeminent Shiʻi pilgrimage center in Iran. Appropriating the Timurid ecumenical vision for the shrine, the Safavid shahs refashioned the holy city into a site that celebrated the triumph of Twelver Shiʻism in the Safavid realm and reinforced Safavid claims of legitimacy. While highlighting Shah Tahmasb's personal devotion to Mashhad, and his privileging of the shrine within Safavid sacred topography, the paper focuses on Shah ʻAbbas's urban reshaping of Mashhad and the architectural and institutional expansion of the shrine during his reign, thereby enhancing its status as the leading spiritual center in the Safavid empire.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Mashhad, the site in northeastern Iran of the shrine of the eighth Shiʻi imam, is arguably one of the largest and wealthiest sacred shrines in the world. The gilded dome over the imam's mausoleum stands amidst an expansive complex of... more
Mashhad, the site in northeastern Iran of the shrine of the eighth Shiʻi imam, is arguably one of the largest and wealthiest sacred shrines in the world. The gilded dome over the imam's mausoleum stands amidst an expansive complex of courts, monumental gateways, libraries, museums, guesthouses, and administrative offices that cater to thousands of pilgrims each year. This paper examines the period, under the aegis of the early Safavid shahs, when Mashhad was established as the preeminent Shiʻi pilgrimage center in Iran. Appropriating the Timurid ecumenical vision for the shrine, the Safavid shahs refashioned the holy city into a site that celebrated the triumph of Twelver Shiʻism in the Safavid realm and reinforced Safavid claims of legitimacy. While highlighting Shah Tahmasb's personal devotion to Mashhad, and his privileging of the shrine within Safavid sacred topography, the paper focuses on Shah ʻAbbas's urban reshaping of Mashhad and the architectural and institutio...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Publikationsansicht. 32187665. The funerary complex of Qāytbāy in the Eastern cemetery : an interpretation / (1995). Farhat, May. Abstract. Thesis (MA )--University of Victoria, 1990. Details der Publikation. Download,... more
Publikationsansicht. 32187665. The funerary complex of Qāytbāy in the Eastern cemetery : an interpretation / (1995). Farhat, May. Abstract. Thesis (MA )--University of Victoria, 1990. Details der Publikation. Download, http://worldcat.org/oclc/60507238. ...
(https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-friday-mosque-in-the-city) This edited volume explores the dynamic relationship between the Friday mosque and the Islamic city, addressing the traditional topics through a fresh new lens and offering a... more
(https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-friday-mosque-in-the-city)
This edited volume explores the dynamic relationship between the Friday mosque and the Islamic city, addressing the traditional topics through a fresh new lens and offering a critical examination of each case study in its own spatial, urban, and socio-cultural context. While these two well-known themes—concepts that once defined the field—have been widely studied by historians of Islamic architecture and urbanism, this compilation specifically addresses the functional and spatial ambiguity or liminality between these spaces.
Instead of addressing the Friday mosque as the central signifier of the Islamic city, this collection provides evidence that there was (and continues to be) variety in the way architectural borders became fluid in and around Friday mosques across the Islamic world, from Cordoba to Jerusalem and from London to Lahore. By historicizing different cases and exploring the way human agency, through ritual and politics, shaped the physical and social fabric of the city, this volume challenges the generalizing and reductionist tendencies in earlier scholarship.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Hilal Uğurlu and Suzan Yalman, Introduction
Section I: Spatial Liminalities: Walls, Enclosures, and Beyond
Susana Calvo Capilla, Liminal Spaces in the Great Mosque of Cordoba: Urban Meaning and Politico-Liturgical Practices
Mehreen Chida-Razvi, Lahore’s Badshahi Masjid: Spatial Interactions of the Sacred and the Secular
Fadi Ragheb, City as Liminal Space: Islamic Pilgrimage and Holy Sites in Jerusalem During the Mamluk Period 75
Section II: Creating New Destinations, Constructing New Sacreds
Suzan Yalman, Sanctifying Konya: The Thirteenth-Century Transformation of the Seljuk Friday Mosque into a ‘House of God’
Farshid Emami, Inviolable Thresholds, Blessed Palaces, and Holy Friday Mosques: The Sacred Topography of Safavid Isfahan
Abbey Stockstill, From the Kutubiyya to Tinmal: The Sacred Direction in Mu’minid Performance
Section III: Liminality and Negotiating Modernity
A. Hilâl Uğurlu, Perform Your Prayers in Mosques!: Changing Spatial and Political Relations in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Istanbul
May Farhat, Urban Morphology and Sacred Space: The Mashhad Shrine During the Late Qajar and Pahlavi Periods
Nebahat Avcıoğlu, Towards a New Typology of Modern and Contemporary Mosque in Europe, including Russia and Turkey
* The Friday Mosque in the City: Liminality, Ritual, and Politics is a part of the Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East series of Intellect Books, edited by Mohammad Gharipour and Christiane Gruber. (https://www.intellectbooks.com/critical-studies-in-architecture-of-the-middle-east)
This edited volume explores the dynamic relationship between the Friday mosque and the Islamic city, addressing the traditional topics through a fresh new lens and offering a critical examination of each case study in its own spatial, urban, and socio-cultural context. While these two well-known themes—concepts that once defined the field—have been widely studied by historians of Islamic architecture and urbanism, this compilation specifically addresses the functional and spatial ambiguity or liminality between these spaces.
Instead of addressing the Friday mosque as the central signifier of the Islamic city, this collection provides evidence that there was (and continues to be) variety in the way architectural borders became fluid in and around Friday mosques across the Islamic world, from Cordoba to Jerusalem and from London to Lahore. By historicizing different cases and exploring the way human agency, through ritual and politics, shaped the physical and social fabric of the city, this volume challenges the generalizing and reductionist tendencies in earlier scholarship.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Hilal Uğurlu and Suzan Yalman, Introduction
Section I: Spatial Liminalities: Walls, Enclosures, and Beyond
Susana Calvo Capilla, Liminal Spaces in the Great Mosque of Cordoba: Urban Meaning and Politico-Liturgical Practices
Mehreen Chida-Razvi, Lahore’s Badshahi Masjid: Spatial Interactions of the Sacred and the Secular
Fadi Ragheb, City as Liminal Space: Islamic Pilgrimage and Holy Sites in Jerusalem During the Mamluk Period 75
Section II: Creating New Destinations, Constructing New Sacreds
Suzan Yalman, Sanctifying Konya: The Thirteenth-Century Transformation of the Seljuk Friday Mosque into a ‘House of God’
Farshid Emami, Inviolable Thresholds, Blessed Palaces, and Holy Friday Mosques: The Sacred Topography of Safavid Isfahan
Abbey Stockstill, From the Kutubiyya to Tinmal: The Sacred Direction in Mu’minid Performance
Section III: Liminality and Negotiating Modernity
A. Hilâl Uğurlu, Perform Your Prayers in Mosques!: Changing Spatial and Political Relations in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Istanbul
May Farhat, Urban Morphology and Sacred Space: The Mashhad Shrine During the Late Qajar and Pahlavi Periods
Nebahat Avcıoğlu, Towards a New Typology of Modern and Contemporary Mosque in Europe, including Russia and Turkey
* The Friday Mosque in the City: Liminality, Ritual, and Politics is a part of the Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East series of Intellect Books, edited by Mohammad Gharipour and Christiane Gruber. (https://www.intellectbooks.com/critical-studies-in-architecture-of-the-middle-east)