The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus

Alain George offers the results of a fascinating investigation into the earliest mosque of Islam. Mobilizing literary as well as documentary sources, archaeology, art history, and old photographs, the book provides a vivid picture of the monument as it was designed and erected at the very beginning of the eighth century. At the crossroads of wars against Byzantium, theological debates and imperial construction, the Umayyad mosque stands as a stone palimpsest and a poem to the glory of Islam. An amazing scientific and aesthetic tour de force, which will become an indispensable reference for historians and will seduce architecture lovers. Mathieu Tillier, Sorbonne Universite; The Umayyad mosque in Damascus is one of the great monuments of Islamic architecture and the most impressive surviving eighth century building in Western Eurasia. It also has a long and complex history of rebuilding after fires and other disasters. For the first time we now have a book which does full justice to it. Alain George has used text, archaeology and perhaps most revealingly, old photographs to produce a rich scholarly, readable and exciting account of the mosque. This book marks a major advance in our understanding of the building and will be the first port of call for scholars and students alike who want to understand it. It is a magnificent achievement.- Hugh Kennedy SOAS, London University; This is an important study that brings many fresh insights to a building that has already generated much scholarship. Alain George is to be commended on his masterful examination of architectural, archaeological, textual, and photographic evidence. The author is sensitive to the need to resolve discontinuities between primary textual accounts and the physical record of the standing structures and excavated material. Comparative evidence is used effectively to illuminate the ways in which practices or features located in the Damascus mosque are part of a larger cultural framework. This book will be read by specialists, but will also gain a wider readership among researchers engaged with similar problems in other regions and historical periods -Marcus Milwright, University of Victoria, Canada.