Constructions of power and piety in medieval Aleppo
By: Yasser Tabbaa.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: University Park
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
Subjects: Architecture, Ayyubid -- Syria -- Aleppo; Architecture, Islamic -- Syria -- Aleppo; Architecture and state -- Syria -- Aleppo; Aleppo (Syria) -- Buildings, structures, etc
Description: In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Ayyubid dynasty brought unprecedented architectural development to Aleppo, the most important city in medieval Syria. While early Islamic empires usually expressed their grandeur by founding new cities with vast extra-urban palaces, the Ayyubids asserted their power by "modernizing" existing towns.

With its large, well-preserved citadel and a wide variety of pious institutions, Aleppo is the ideal subject for Yasser Tabbaa's study of the pan-Islamic transformation in urban architecture.

Tabbaa argues that the intense palatial and religious architectural activity of the period was intended to create a royal image of the Ayyubid state while also fostering links between it and the urban population. His study is based on an entirely new evaluation of the architectural and epigraphic aspects of the standing monuments of the period.

It presents for the first time full photographic coverage of these monuments, as well as many new plans and other renderings, and pays close attention to monumental inscriptions, correcting and augmenting previous studies. The book utilizes the full panoply of the available literary sources, including topographies, chronicles, travel accounts, and poetry.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-205) and index.