Output details

Manah: Omani Oasis, Arabian legacy; architecture and social history of an Omani Oasis settlement

This is a major ground-breaking study of Omani vernacular architecture, drawing on extensive fieldwork but also on wide-ranging material from across the Arabian cultural region and beyond. Supported by analytical drawings it studies the close relationship between architecture and social history, showing how tribal dynamics had shaped settlement development. An important contribution to the study of Middle Eastern Islamic architecture has been the discovery of strong continuity of pre-Islamic ideas concerning sanctity, and their impact on the making of sacred territories and mosque forms. The inclusion of sepulchral forms of Semitic (but non-Arab) origin into mosques demonstrate architectural inventiveness.