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Full-Text Articles in Architecture
Greenlaw’S Suakin: The Limits Of Architectural Representation And The Continuing Lives Of Buildings In Coastal Sudan, Nancy Um
Art History Faculty Scholarship
Despite its ruined modern state, the coral-built architecture of the island city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast is well known to scholars of vernacular architecture. Its enduring reputation may be attributed to the copious documentation of its houses, mosques, and public buildings that appeared in the 1976 publication The Coral Buildings of Suakin by the artist Jean-Pierre Greenlaw. This paper considers the visual project of Greenlaw and its legacy, with a focus on the intertwined relationship between the processes of architectural documentation, the writing of architectural history, and the directives of preservation during the last years of British …
From The Port Of Mocha To The Eighteenth-Century Tomb Of Imam Al-Mahdi Muhammad In Al-Mawahib: Locating Architectural Icons And Migratory Craftsmen, Nancy Um
Art History Faculty Scholarship
This article introduces and analyzes the tomb of the Qāsimī Imām al-Mahdī Muhammad (r. 1686-1718) in the village of al-Mawāhib, northeast of Dhamār. Unlike many of the mosques and tombs associated with the other Zaydī imams of Yemen, al-Mahdī’s mausoleum has never been published, but merits close examination. While most historians consider his imamate to have been an era of both religious and political decline, this period was marked by increased cross-cultural interaction and artistic production. In particular, the tomb of al-Mahdī features unique decoration above its mihrāb and a remarkable wooden cenotaph. In order to explain the meaning and …