Glories of Islamic Art, the DVD

An inspirational journey of discovery into the glories of Islamic Art We begin with a look at the achievements of the first Islamic dynasty the Umayyads who established their capital at Damascus. Their regime spread throughout greater Syria and they left a rich architectural heritage. This includes two of the great surviving Islamic buildings the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The programme emphasises how the early Islamic builders and architects used ideas and materials inherited from their Byzantine predecessors - for instance columns... and capitals are clearly borrowed from earlier buildings and earlier ages. In just the same way Islam inherited a strong Christian tradition in the Middle East and adapted Christian tenets and beliefs within their new faith. Christianity may have been to a large extent superseded in the Middle East - it was still respected. For instance in the middle of the prayer hall of the Damascus mosque stands the burial shrine of St. John the Baptist. This programme does not just deal with mosque or religious architecture. At Jericho we see the remains of one of the Arab conquerors' luxurious desert palaces with its famous gazelle mosaic that has become an icon of Islamic visual art. From the Ayyubid period we see the mighty citadel of Aleppo only really conquered by Tamerlane himself. One building was specially holy to both lines of Islam - albeit at different times. This was the Al-Azhar Mosque built by the Fatimids but today a pillar of Sunni orthodoxy. But Al-Azhar in many ways transcends these divisions - it is renowned throughout Islam as the world's oldest university. It is still regarded as a major guardian of religious knowledge and wisdom whose opinions are respected all over. In closing we learn of the last great Islamic dynasty the Ottomans and their great capital at Istanbul and the man mainly responsible the pre-eminent architect of Islam Sinan exponent of the cascading domes which glorify traditional Turkish religious architecture. But Sinan's mark was not just on religious buildings. He designed the harem the secretive inner court buildings within the beautiful Topkapi Palace. The palace itself shows off the marvellous and colourful Iznik tilework - the trademark of the Islamic middle ages. The presenter Akbar Ahmed is the leading Islamic scholar in the western world. The author of numerous books on Islam and associated topics he is Ibn Khaldun Professor of Islamic Studies at the American University Washington DC. Akbar Ahmed was the Pakistani High Commissioner in London and has taught at Cambridge and Princeton Universities. [show more]

Read More