Islamic Landscapes: Cities, Frontiers & Monuments: Glossary

This page will be dedicated to terms of peoples, places and things that we encounter throughout the course of the semester. If there are any that do not appear and you would like to have them please add them and I will work with you to fill out the definitions.

A | B |C | D |E | F | G |H | I |J | K |L | M |N | O |P | Q |R | S |T | U |V | W |X | Y |Z

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Haram: The Arabic term referring to a sacred precinct or sanctuary. Examples are the haram al-shareef in Jerusalem (“the noble sanctuary” aka the Temple Mount) and the haram of Mecca which houses the kaaba the sacred house of God, in the direction of which Muslims pray and perform the hajj, the annual pilgrimage. It should not be confused with the term haraam which means forbidden, though the two are etymologically linked.

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Ibn Battuta: Medieval (14th c.) traveler from North Africa who traversed the whole of the Muslim world and beyond and provided a narrative account of his journey. Part geographer, part ethnographer, and gifted story teller, his life was part of a long standing tradition of those who would travel in search of knowledge.

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Muqarnas: A honeycombed decorative device used in many medieval Islamic monuments. It was sometimes used for doorways (such as the Maristan Nur ad-Din in Damascus) but was most often employed in the geometric transition of a square room so that it could support a domed roof.

Maristan: The Arabic word denoting an institution of healing. Not exactly a hospital, these were often dedicated to what today we would call mental illnesses. Many of these structures used various spatial devices as curative techniques as well as such holistic approaches as water and music therapy. They were introduced into the Muslim world sometime in the 11th century.

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Umayyad Dynasty: The first hereditary ruling dynasty of the Muslim world (c. 660-750 CE) that followed the reign of the “so-called” rightly guided caliphs who led the Muslims after the death of the prophet Muhammad. The Umayyads controlled territory from Spain to India while establishing Syria as their home territory.

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Waqf (pl. awqaf): the Arabic term that refers to pious charitable foundations that could be used to support anything from a mosque to infrastructure to the upkeep of any form of social services. Often they were funded using the revenue from agricultural land or by a commercial enterprise. They were seen to provide spiritual rewards for their benefactor that continued in perpetuity after their death.