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Successfully completing the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Any Muslim whose circumstances permit is required to make hajj at least once in a lifetime. In earlier centuries, it was a dangerous and lengthy journey,…

The hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, during Dhu’l Hijjah, the twelfth lunar month in the Islamic calendar, takes place at locations in and around Mecca, including the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the running between Safa and Marwa hills, and…

Khulays has a spring of abundant waters to which are joined underground conduits whence water is drawn... At these men renew their supplies of water, for there is little of it upon the way on account of the continuous drought. May God send rains in…

Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel Persepolis, was interviewed for an article by Simon Hattenstone in the London Guardian newspaper in March 2008, just before release of the film version of Persepolis.

As Anthony Shadid (1968-2012) was renovating and restoring his ancestral home in Marjayoun, Lebanon, he arranged to record the construction and his reflections on the process. Ten videos were filmed by Katia Jarjoura and produced by Houghton Mifflin…

Anthony Shadid, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of House of Stone, was born September 26, 1968, in Oklahoma City, and died February 16, 2012 in Damascus, Syria of an asthma attack while covering events in Syria. The interview with his…

The Cairo Genizah, mostly discovered late in the nineteenth century but still resurfacing in our own day, is a collection of over 200,000 fragmentary Jewish texts (which may well equal three times that number of folios). Many of these were stored in…

This brief video describes the Islamic arts of the book and book illustration in the form of miniature painting. Related primary resource: Ibn al-Nadim on the Transmission and Authorization of Books, The Qur'an on Paradise (image).

This brief video expores the effect of geometric lines and curves on ornamental design in Islamic art, and illlustrates how they also characterize the timeless, breathtaking architecture of the Muslim world. Related primary resources: Al-Wansharisi…

This brief video describes the arts of weaving, knotting, and dyeing fabrics, including patterned carpets, woven calligraphy and their uses in Muslim cultures at all levels of society. Related primary resource: A Geniza Letter Regarding Trade and…

This brief video describes the forms, functions, features, and significance of the garden in Islamic societies, and the motif of gardens in various artistic genres. Related primary resources: The Qur'an on Paradise, Babur on the Construction of the…

The obligation to make the pilgrimage (known as the hajj) to Mecca, combined with the tradition of global trade in Muslim societies, makes international travel important in the lives of many Muslims. This brief video highlights the arts associated…

This brief video describes the structure, architecture and decoration of mosques and other religious buildings and discusses theirvariations in Muslim societies across geography and time. Related primary sources: The Qur'an on the Qibla,…

This brief video describes the arts of Islamic calligraphy, the artistic practice of handwriting based on the Arabic script. Related primary sources: The Qur'an on Paradise,Ibn al-Nadim on the Transmission and Authorization of Books.

In 914 (1508-09), I had constructed a charbagh garden called the Bagh i-Wafa on a rise to the south of the Adinapur fortress. [A charbagh garden is a rectangular garden divided into four parts by paths or waterways.] It overlooks the river, which…

The Chinese pottery (porcelain) is manufactured only in the towns of Zaytun and Sin-kalan. It is made of the soil of some mountains in that district, which takes fire like charcoal, as we shall relate subsequently. They mix this with some stones…

He began dictation of this book, Kitab al-yaqut (The Book of the Gem) on Thursday, 29 Muharram in the year 326 (December 6, 937) in the principal mosque of Abu Ja’far’s city (Baghdad), from memory, without any books or notes, and he…

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain is a documentary film and companion website. Inspired by Rosa Maria Menocal’s Ornament of the World, the documentary explores the European society in which Muslims, Jews and Christians lived…

A walker’s-eye view of a 1,000-year-old palace is provided in the Alhambra Virtual Walking Tour. The Alhambra is a hilltop stronghold in Granada, a city in the Spanish province of Andalusia. Called Al-Andalus in Arabic, Andalusia was ruled by…