1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910966718903321

Autore

Akkach Samer

Titolo

Cosmology and architecture in premodern Islam : an architectural reading of mystical ideas / / Samer Akkach

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : State University of New York Press, c2005

ISBN

9780791483442

0791483444

9781423744054

1423744055

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxv, 262 pages) : illustrations

Collana

SUNY series in Islam

Disciplina

726/.2/01

Soggetti

Islamic art and symbolism

Symbolism in architecture

Islamic architecture

Islamic cosmology

Sufism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-253) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Note to the Reader -- Preface -- Introduction -- Abbreviations -- Discursive Order -- Metaphysical Order -- Cosmic Order -- Architectural Order -- Afterword: Architecture and Cosmic Habitat -- Notes -- List of Arabic Manuscripts Cited -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This fascinating interdisciplinary study reveals connections between architecture, cosmology, and mysticism. Samer Akkach demonstrates how space ordering in premodern Islamic architecture reflects the transcendental and the sublime. The book features many new translations, a number from unpublished sources, and several illustrations.Referencing a wide range of mystical texts, and with a special focus on the works of the great Sufi master Ibn Arabi, Akkach introduces a notion of spatial sensibility that is shaped by religious conceptions of time and space. Religious beliefs about the cosmos, geography, the human body, and constructed forms are all underpinned by a consistent spatial sensibility anchored in medieval



geocentrism. Within this geometrically defined and ordered universe, nothing stands in isolation or ambiguity; everything is interrelated and carefully positioned in an intricate hierarchy. Through detailed mapping of this intricate order, the book shows the significance of this mode of seeing the world for those who lived in the premodern Islamic era and how cosmological ideas became manifest in the buildings and spaces of their everyday lives. This is a highly original work that provides important insights on Islamic aesthetics and culture, on the history of architecture, and on the relationship of art and religion, creativity and spirituality.