Architectural and Urban Forms of the Islamic World

ArCHIAM Centre (www.archiam.co.uk) based at the University of Liverpool, UK has worked with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture since 2017 to undertake original research and produce high-quality research and learning/teaching outputs. The material will be of value to a wide spectrum of learners from university entrants to graduates to postgraduates, as well as advanced researchers. 

This series of presentations (narrated and unnarrated) presents a comparative picture of urban and architectural form across the vast geographical region commonly referred to as the Islamic World. Examples from both the so-called ‘high’ and ‘peripheral’ Islamic traditions are presented in the lectures, aiming at providing a thorough understanding of both the distinctiveness and diversity of outlying cultures and their established architectural practices. Alongside examples drawn from the great centres of Islamic cultures, such as Aleppo, Cairo, Delhi, Herat, and Isfahan, various sites from Oman in the Arabian Peninsula are presented here to highlight the richness of Islamic architecture and urbanism. Notions of integrated restoration and rehabilitation, which bring together preservation and developmental concerns, as well as community engagement are addressed in these lectures.