(Part 3) 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.

Hey, so I'll try to give you my point of view, that is somewhat aligned with the view of the majority of secular people opposing Assad.

> What was Syria before war?

It was a dictatorship, with the apparent stability, the rooted corruption, and lack of freedom of speech that usually characterize one. The 30 years of Hafez al Assad ruling was an iron fist type of dictatorship, banning of parties, news papers and media, imprisonment of opposition, praising of the eternal leader. despite the seemingly peaceful era, Assad the father's rule faced several external challenges and was involved in several regional wars (October War aka. Yom Kippur War, Lebanese Civil War, and The Gulf war I&II, as well as internal challenges (Muslim brotherhood uprising that resulted in 1982 Hama massacre, and a coup attempt by his brother Refaat in 1984, and the death of his eldest son Bassel that he was preparing to be his successor).

When Bashar al Assad assumed power in the early 2000s he tried to lessen up the iron fist by opening up the market (did I mention that the market was pure socialist before?), introducing the internet to Syria, and giving permission for new newspapers, in a prior called Damascus Spring. But what seemed as an attempt of a soft transitioning to democracy was soon revealed to be just an aesthetic make-over, with an new wave of prosecution of the opposition after what is called Damascus Deceleration, the assassination of Rafic al Hariri the prime minister of Lebanon, the following Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, that resulted in kicking out the Syrian army from Lebanon (that's another long story), and the 2004 Qamishli riots

> Why did Syrians started revolution against Assad?

The short answer: To follow the steps of the rest of the Arab world, hoping for reforms, transition of power, and more freedom of speech.

The long answer: With the transition to an open market system, and almost no reforms to the judicial system, the corruption that Assad the father kept under control by holding all the strings, exploded. And since Assad the son tried to appeal to the public by getting the old guards out of the picture, he lost control over many of the corrupted personals that his father kept in place. Add to that the drought that hit Syria around 2006 forcing millions of people to leave there rural areas and move to the cities. All of this widened the gap between the classes of the Syrian population practically eliminating the middle class.

> What would you tell them?

Since Assad took power he persecuted, imprisoned, and exiled every possible alternative, and presented himself as the only option.
During the uprising he continued persecuting and targeting any opposing voice including secular activists, journalists, and aid workers.
He actively helped turn the uprising into an Islamic one, by releasing some of his radical prisoners from Sednaya prison like Zahran Alloush who went to become the commander of Jaysh al-Islam.
The civilian death toll of the government force continues to be by far the highest among all other factions.
So I can't seem to understand how will Assad secure and rebuild the country when he's been actively destroying it for the past almost 7 years.

> By your flair, I see you support Syrian Opposition. As I mentioned earlier, they are often described as religious extremists. What is your opinion?

I do not support the opposition, for the same reason I don't support Assad, they are corrupted, power thirsty assholes who don't present a solution for Syria. This flag was the Syrian flag after the independence, not the opposition flag, most Islamist factions has their own flags and most of them ban the use of this flag in areas under their control.

> Are you a refugee? Where do you live now?

I'm living in Lebanon, I'm not a refugee.

> What do Syrians think about Assad?

If there was one answer to this question there wouldn't be a civil war right now, a lot of them oppose him for various reasons, and a lot of them support him also for various reasons.

> Could you recommend me some books about Syria, Arabs, religion or whole region of ME to better understand your point of view? I am mostly interested in history books, but fiction is also welcomed.

I'd say Patrick Seale's Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East (1989) is a good read to understand Hafez al Assad's period, it will give you a glimpse into the structure of the regime and helps you build a foundation for further readings.

Hope that wasn't too long (it was), and you didn't get bored half way through, if you have some more time and would like to read more about the Syrian civil war and what caused it the wiki page on the subject is fairly good.
Also if you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer.

Cheers.

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

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

لغة هيغل شائكة وعرة ولا شك : تشبه قراءته تعلُّم لغة جديدة لها مفرداتها وتراكيبها وكليشيهاتها الخاصة. ولكنّك قد ذقت اثار هذه اللغة عند ماركس وججيك ولاكان فلن يصعب تعلّمها عليك بقدر ما يصعب على البعض. أنصحك بالبدء بظاهريات الروح لأنها، في رأيي، أسهل بكثير وأهم من علم المنطق. ثمة كتابان سيساعدانك كثيرا في ذلك : مثالية هيغل لروبرت بيبين^1 واجتماعية العقل لتيري بينكارد^2 . لو شرعتُ في قراءة الظاهريات دونما هذين الكتابين لما فهمت منها شيئا : فتؤطر "مثالية هيغل" مشروع هيغل الفكري ويفسّره بناء على سياقه الفلسفي وقد قلّب هذا الكتاب دراسات هغيل رأسا على عقب حين صدر في التسعينيات. أما اجتماعية العقل فهي عبارة عن تفسير للظاهريات، يتناول كل فصل منه فصلا من الظاهريات. أنا شخصيا قرأت مثالية هيغل بأكملها ثم تطرقت إلى الظاهريات وكنت أقرأ الفصل في بينكارد قبل أن أقرأ الفصل المطابق من الظاهريات

بالتوفيق والنجاح إن شاء الله
:D

^1 Hegel's Idealism: The Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness

^2 Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason

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.

Since we're recommending books, I think everyone in the sub needs to read these two books before mouthing off in their respective topics.

Naked Economics

White City Black City

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Arab-World-Cambridge/dp/0521316855

I don't know what books you've read, but you are totally wrong, Uqba ibn Nafi didn't come with roses. In my research all the book and studies have mentioned the brutal massacres of converting north of Africa. it is like : ISIS is coming (they are committing slaughters and massacres) so better convert or I die...

you can start from here :
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/maghrib.asp
http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Maghrib-Islamic-Period/dp/0521337674