(Part 2) Top products from r/arabs

Well I studied in the UK, so not sure. However, I did go to Kuwait University one summer and I met with the head of the architecture department. I was spending time there and wanted to study traditional Islamic architecture, and I had a family contact to the department head. Anyway he was surprised and said sorry, we don't have any classes on that. So I asked.. 'well.. what do you teach here?' He responded: 'You know... Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright...'

So that's not a good sign.

Regarding architectural trends, my feeling is that the GCC states are going through a phase of tribal modern. My own theory is that in the 50s and 60s, Gulf nations were building in what can be called Islamic Classicism. Iraqi architect Mohamed Makkiya designed Kuwait's Grand Mosque. He used Abbasid and Moorish elements in the design, and he was extremely popular across the new oil-rich states. You see other examples, such as this Islamic centre in Doha. It's based on the 9th century Samarra Mosque in Iraq, and the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo from the same century. In general, the architecture of the GCC states was a schizophrenic development - famous foreign architects building straightforward modernist cities and buildings, with local architects following more classical Islamic style.

After a few decades, these states began to exert more focus on their own sovereignty and heritage. So you start to see lots of buildings rejecting Islamic architecture, and basing their design on sand dunes, dhows, pearling, waves, and most of all, malqafs (wind towers), and crenellations. If you visit Kuwait or especially the UAE, you'll see wind towers on everything - shopping malls, garages, gas stations, bridges. Look at Souq Sharq in Kuwait. Of course these aren't real wind towers. Just decorative. In Oman, everything has crenellations. Because Oman is famous for its forts and fortified villages, very similar to Qasbahs and crenellated mosques in the Maghreb and Andalusia (because they were actual military structures). So now everything has to have crenellations. Qatar has gone the same route, just check out the new Ministry of Interior building. I'm not sure whether the famous Qatari forts are even Qatari, or whether they are Ottoman built.. but whatever. The point is that each state is exerting its own style evoking a patriotic national bedouin past. Kuwait's parliament building was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, and is one of the earliest examples of this in my opinion. It's based on the bedouin tent.

In terms of domestic architecture, traditional Arabic-Islamic design is non-existent. The building regulations and codes don't allow for the density needed for vernacular architecture of the region, and the masterplans that created the codes were all done by European, mainly British, architects.

In terms of sources, it depends on what your main interest is. I mainly used academic papers, because the topic of urban transformation of the GCC isn't well researched at all. There are a few interesting academics writing about the tragedy of urbanism in the GCC. Like Saleh al-Hathloul, Ashraf Salama, Yasser Mahgoub, and Fadl al-Buainain. I relied heavily on the Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and the now defunct Mimar magazine and Muqarnas journal.

This is an excellent book by a Tunisian author, but it's very dry and academic, and the pictures all black and white, so not sure that's what you're looking for.

Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands is an excellent book. It covers geometry and calligraphy and has lots of instructional stuff. Not really about architecture.

Contemporary Architecture In the Arab States is a classic. It looks at the best MENA architecture from the 70s to the 90s. Doesn't talk about urbanism though.

The book I linked to previously, Kuwait Transformed, by Farah al-Nakib, is a great book, but focuses entirely on Kuwait.

This is an absolutely fantastic book, but I could only find it at the uni library. It's a collection of research papers from a conference in the 1980s. I even contacted the organization in SAudi to try to find out if they have any copies i could get, but predictably, didn't get a response.

If you're interested in regular traditional architecture of the MENA region, with some nice pictures (hand sketches), that covers each country, then this is absolutely fantastic.

I could go on forever with these sources, but I think mine may be too specific for your interest. Something like this or this cover general Islamic architecture well, but they focus always on mosques and monuments. That's why I really enjoy Raguette's book, because it focuses on domestic and vernacular architecture.

Sorry for the long rambly reply.

This author is right on the money! So many of us blame the current Arab situation on some kind of moral failing on the part of the people, but the reasons are usually tied to the bigger picture and the world around us.

'Guns, Germs, and Steel' by Jared Diamond expands on this so much in terms of the basic idea. Although its not specifically about the arab world and about all societies in general, its a fantastic read and i recommend it wholeheartedly.

And the take from all of this is quite positive in my opinion. The Arab world is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in terms of demography, economics, and education. As the Arab world starts to reach its full potential in these areas in the coming decades, I foresee wonderful advancement in our societies and resurgence of our historical status in the world as a whole.

Well everything is a shade of grey. But generally the more violent, the less successful. I'm getting my info from this book FYI. Good read overall.

There have been pretty effective nonviolent movements though. The Velvet Revolution was pretty fricken nonviolent.

Different context of course.

By the way, this guy Robert Hoyland, is considered one of the best scholars of pre-Islamic Arabia.

https://nyu.academia.edu/RobertHoyland

His articles are awesome. He also wrote a really good book:

http://www.amazon.com/Arabia-Arabs-Bronze-Peoples-Ancient/dp/0415195357

This is the lecture he refers to, if anyone is interested.. It is one of the best pieces I read about the history of the Turkish language and certainly more informative than any other article on the subject.

And this is the book

1984 George Orwell

Rated by many the best book of all times very important for the arab world right now

http://www.amazon.com/1984-60th-Anniversary-Edition-George-Orwell/dp/0452262933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370510383&sr=8-1&keywords=1984

Hi there, I've just seen this, but you may be interested in the book The Qur'an in it's Historical Context edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds and featuring essays by Fred Donner, Robert Hoyland, Andrew Rippin and others who delve into the latest (as of 2007 when it was published) academic scholarship on precisely these questions.

As /u/kerat mentioned, the fringe-revisionist claim about the Quran being written two centuries after the fact is not held up by the evidence, particularly early manuscript evidence. That being said there are open questions about how our contemporary received mus'haf might have varied in that time period, particularly as we do not have the kind of manuscript databases for the Qur'an to examine variant readings the way that we have, for example, with the bible. I discuss some of these problems in an /r/askhistorians post Here and Here if it's of any interest.

You know what? I know of a few anthologies that are just about Arab woman poets and poetry. They're not all "feminist" or "rights" centric, but some do have material from the modern or post-colonial eras.

• The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology
  
  
• Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology
  
  
• Women of the Fertile Crescent: An Anthology of Arab Women's Poems
  
  
• Opening the Gates, Second Edition: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing
  
  I'll see if I can dig up the pdfs from undergrad.

Not a short story per se but you have to read this.

Its about this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P77P1V4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

There seems to be a distinct "Yale school" of Arab history, which states that the Islamic conquest developed out of Bedouin raids. This book basically falls in line with that school.

If you think that's what Karl Marx wrote, I'm pretty sure you have actually have never studied Karl Marx. Karl Marx was never an opportunist politico. He lived most of his life in misery and refused several well-paying jobs to continue his writting passion.

He was an intellectual and philosopher who lived in the beginning of 19th century Europe.

At the time, every single European country was an absolute dictatorship like Syria or Egypt. Labor laws literally did not exist. Labor Unions did not exist. The United Kingdom, the least dictatorial country, was a Feodal Nation where 95% of the population did not have the right to vote.

The 19th century started with the death of the French Revolution dream and Napoleon and the return of the French Absolute Monarchy to power. The century ended with the fall of several Dictators and progressive democratization throughout all of Europe. Marx's genius was that he lived through all this. Industrialization, the emergence of Modern Finance, Modern Capitalism and Democracy.

Marx argued that every society throughout history is based on a hierarchical structure. Elites at the top enjoy great wealth and free time. Non-elites have no free time or restrained free time.

Marx himself did not argue against capitalism or oppose capitalism in any way. He described Capitalism as a formidable economic system. He saw the emergence of a new class, the bourgeoisie, replacing the feodal one, as a formidable event in human history.

At the time, millions of rural people moved to cities, working up to 12, 16 hours a day in terrible conditions. This led to regular episodes of extreme violence in England. Marx predicted that the bourgeoisie in a capitalist system was a formidable class because the most educated bourgeois would eventually realize that to keep their power and privileges, they would have to make concessions on social grounds. For decades, UK strikers were beaten up, killed, and riots broke out until labor unions were finally recognized. Wealthy families such as the Cadburries started taking care of their workers and arguing for stronger norms to protect the most vulnerable people.

Marx believe that the business bourgeoisie played a key role in in the emergence of parliamentary democracy in England then in France, and the establishment of rule of law. The 1789 French Revolution failed and in 1820, the French Monarchy was back to power. Marx predicted that it would not last. He said Capitalism, by diffusing power, would create the condition to destroy the old order. All European Kingdoms would fall under the anger of Labor and the pressure of the Bourgeoisie. This happened in the great 1848 European Democratic Spring.

Marx predicted that Capitalism would fall into crisis because of accumulation. Lack of profits because lack of a consumer base would become a major problem and would lead to falling stocks unless the government, whichh represented the common interest of the elite, decided to intervene with major public spending. He argued that Financial Crisis would happen regularly because they are normal features of the Capitalist system.

Marx personally opposed all forms of authoritarianism and hated religious intolerance. What he described as "dictatorship of the proletariat" was the Commune de Paris in 1870 where democratically elected workers tried to run Paris themselves. He supported the revolutionary movements everywhere but he was always worried that another exploitative group, pretending to represent the working class, would seize power and create a dictatorship as savage and ferocious as ever before. This is sadly exactly what happened in both Russia and China and they have stained his name.

Things he predicted would happen include :

• How life under Capitalism could be hard but richer than ever before
  
• The emergence of public health laws
  
• How elites would accept Labor Unions instead of facing further violence
  
• The fall of dictatorships in every country in Europe
  
• The right to vote for every individual, regardless of his income
  
• The Soviet Union, Communist China. Corrupt elites would mobilize exploited masses to overthrow Emperors but they would now rule brutally in the name of the same exploited masses
  
• How Financial Crisis are normal and will happen regularly
  
• How the financial success of some European Minorities could lead to terrible violence against them and the same minorities turning against capitalism (Trotsky, Lenin)
  
• How Business would never resist the urge to go global
  
  He is a man who foresaw the modern world from scratch. That's what make his work fascinating.
  
  Now I certainly don't agree with everything Marx wrote, but I recognize his work can't just be dismissed. He inspired John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, and dozens of other prominents thinkers. Everyone should read him at least once.
  
  
  https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/marx-was-right-five-surprising-ways-karl-marx-predicted-2014-237285/
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Marx-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0198821077/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=marx&qid=1573247974&s=books&sr=1-8