Yitzchak Schwartz, Intern, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters
Posted: Thursday, June 21, 2012
Born in Mecca and raised in Medina, the two most holy sites of Islam, the fifth caliph, Abd Al Malik Ibn Marwan, spearheaded the creation of many of the institutions that centralized the Islamic empire around his capital in Damascus and asserted its independence from Byzantine traditions.
Read More
Betsy Williams, Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow, Department of Islamic Art
Posted: Monday, May 14, 2012
For a while now I've been obsessed with a group of buildings in the New York City area known as "Wonder Theaters." Constructed in the waning years of the roaring 1920s, they embody the experience of the silver screen in their fantastical ornamental mash-ups, many of which incorporate Byzantine and Islamic motifs.
Read More
Annie Labatt, Chester Dale Fellow, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters
Posted: Wednesday, May 9, 2012
In an address to the citizens of Damascus, the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715) proclaimed: "Inhabitants of Damascus, four things give you a marked superiority over the rest of the world: your climate, your water, your fruits, and your baths. To these I wanted to add a fifth: this mosque."
Read More
Betsy Williams, Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow, Department of Islamic Art
Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2012
Few figures embody the transitional spirit of the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. as fully as does John of Damascus. His life gives a sense of the multicultural milieu of the early Islamic city and its diverse population of Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Greeks.
Read More
