HAA 127M - Medieval Architecture in Greater Iran and Central Asia

David Roxburgh

The pro-seminar examines cities and monuments built in Greater Iran and Central Asia from the late 10th through early 15th centuries, spanning three principal dynastic periods (Seljuq, Mongol, and Timurid). Various functional types—mosques, madrasas, minarets, tombs—, urban systems, and spatial organization are studied including the cities of Bukhara, Herat, Isfahan, Mashhad, Nishapur, Rayy, Samarqand, and Yazd. We will examine the materials, construction and design processes of buildings, their typologies and morphologies, as well as their relationships to law, religion, climate, social and political life, and factors of topography and landscape. A variety of primary sources are also considered ranging from geographies to histories and travel narratives.