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Ablaq
''Ablaq'' (; particolored; literally 'piebald') is an architectural technique involving alternating or fluctuating rows of light and dark stone. It is an Arabic term describing a technique associated with Islamic architecture in the Arab world. It may have its origins in earlier Byzantine architecture in the region, where alternating layers of white stone and orange brick were used in construction. The technique is used primarily for decorative effect. Origins The ''ablaq'' decorative technique is thought to possibly be a derivative from the ancient Byzantine Empire, whose architecture used alternate sequential runs of light colored ashlar stone and darker colored orange brick. The first clearly recorded use of ''ablaq'' masonry is found in repairs to the north wall of the Great Mosque of Damascus in 1109. The technique may have originated in Syria, where the local stone supply may have encouraged the use of alternating courses of light and dark stone. In the southern part of Sy ...
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Mamluk Architecture
Mamluk architecture was the architectural style that developed under the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), which ruled over Egypt, the Levant, and the Hijaz from their capital, Cairo. Despite their often tumultuous internal politics, the Mamluk sultans were prolific patrons of architecture and contributed enormously to the fabric of historic Cairo. The Mamluk period, particularly in the 14th century, oversaw the peak of Cairo's power and prosperity. Their architecture also appears in cities such as Damascus, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Tripoli, and Medina. Major Mamluk monuments typically consisted of multi-functional complexes which could combine various elements such as a patron's mausoleum, a madrasa, a khanqah (Sufi lodge), a mosque, a sabil, or other charitable functions found in Islamic architecture. These complexes were built with increasingly complicated floor plans which reflected the need to accommodate limited urban space as well as a desire to visually dominate their urban en ...
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Ashlar
Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, and is generally rectangular (cuboid). It was described by Vitruvius as ''opus isodomum'' or trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of requiring only very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be Quarry-faced stone, quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect. One such decorative treatment consists of small grooves achieved by the application of a metal comb. Generally used only on softer stone ashlar, this decoration is known as "mason's drag". Ashlar is in contrast to rubble masonry, which employs irregularly shaped stones, sometimes minimally worked or selected for simi ...
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Umayyad Mosque
The Umayyad Mosque (; ), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. Its religious importance stems from the eschatological reports concerning the mosque and historic events associated with it. Christian and Muslim tradition alike consider it the burial place of John the Baptist's head, a tradition originating in the 6th century. Two shrines inside the premises commemorate the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali, whose Battle of Karbala, martyrdom is frequently compared to that of John the Baptist. The site has been used as a house of worship since the Iron Age, when the Aram-Damascus, Arameans built on it a temple dedicated to their god of rain, Hadad. Under Roman Syria, Roman rule, beginning in 64 CE, it was converted into the center of the imperial cult of ancient Rome, imperial cult of Jupiter, the Roman god of rain, becoming one of the largest templ ...
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Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as () and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine" ( ), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. Situated in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area. Nestled among the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau above sea level, Damascus experiences an arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada, Barada River flows through Damascus. Damascus is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. First settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. Afte ...
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Karatay Madrasa
Karatay Madrasa () is a madrasa (a school with a frequently but not absolutely religious focus) in Konya, Turkey located at the foot of the citadel hill, across from the ruins of the Seljuk palace and in view of the Alâeddin Mosque. Since 1954, the building has served as a museum displaying a collection of historic tile art, particularly from the Seljuk period. The madrasa and the Karatay Han, a caravanserai completed in the 1240s, are the largest extant monuments in Konya and its immediate regions. History It was founded in 1251 by the vizier Jalal al-Din Qaratay (d. 1254) during the joint rule of the brothers Kayqubad II, Kaykaus II, and Kilij Arslan IV. The madrasa was built next to the Küçük Karatay Madrasa, which no longer exists. The monument was built after the Mongol invasions of Anatolia and as a result the design is not strictly Seljuk in nature. Jalal al-Din is most likely buried in a side room of the Karatay Madrasa, which contains a cenotaph. In the records o ...
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Alaeddin Mosque
Aladdin (, commonly ) (various spellings and transliterations) is a male given name which means "nobility of faith" or "nobility of creed/religion". It is one of a large class of names ending with ad-Din. The name may refer to: Given name * Ala al-Din Husayn (died 1161), king of the Ghurid dynasty from 1149 to 1161 * Ala al-Din Atsiz (died 1214), Sultan of the Ghurid dynasty from 1213 to 1214 * Zia al-Din Ali, known as Ala al-Din Ali, last Sultan of the Ghurid dynasty, from 1214 to 1215 * Kayqubad I or Alā ad-Dīn Kayqubād bin Kaykāvūs (1188–1237), Seljuq Sultan of Rûm * Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari (1196–1291), Sufi saint *Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qurashi al-Dimashq, or Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288), Arab Muslim polymath *Ata-Malik Juvayni (in full: Ala al-Din Ata-ullah) (1226–1283), Persian historian * Al al-Din (died 1312), Muslim Persian military expert who served in Kublai Khan's army * 'Ala al-Din al-Baji (1234 - 1315), a Shafi'i jurist, legal theoretic ...
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Konya
Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in English its name is usually spelt Konia or Koniah. In the late medieval period, Konya was the capital of the Seljuk Turks' Sultanate of Rum, from where the sultans ruled over Anatolia. As of 2024, the population of the Metropolitan Province was 2 330 024 of whom 1 433 861 live in the three urban districts (Karatay, Selcuklu, Meram), making it the sixth most populous city in Turkey, and second most populous of the Central Anatolia Region, after Ankara. City has Konya is served by TCDD high-speed train ( YHT) services from Istanbul, Ankara and Karaman. The local airport ( Konya Havalimanı, KYA) is served by frequent flights from Istanbul whereas flights to and from İzmir are offered few times a week. Name Konya is believed to corre ...
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Anatolian Seljuk Architecture
Anatolian Seljuk architecture, or simply Seljuk architecture, refers to building activity that took place under the Sultanate of Rum (late 11th to 13th centuries), ruled by an offshoot of the Seljuk dynasty that emerged from the Great Seljuk Empire (11th–12th centuries) alongside various other local dynasties. The Anatolian Seljuks patronized their own tradition of architecture whose surviving examples are generally found in present-day Turkey. Anatolian Seljuk architecture was eclectic and influenced by multiple traditions including Armenian architecture, Armenian, Byzantine architecture, Byzantine, Iranian architecture, Iranian, and Syrian architecture. Unlike earlier Great Seljuk architecture to the east, their buildings were generally constructed in stone and featured significant Stone carving, stone-carved decoration as well as tile decoration. While the Seljuk Sultanate declined and ended in the late 13th century, architecture continued to flourish and diversify under the s ...
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Ayyubid Dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurds, Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid dynasty, Zengid ruler Nur al-Din Zengi, Nur al-Din, leading the latter's army against the Crusader invasions of Egypt, Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made vizier (Fatimid Caliphate), vizier. Following Nur al-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond Lower Egypt, Egypt to encompass most of Syria (region), Syria, in addition to Hijaz, Southern Arabia, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tripolitania and Upper Mesopotamia. Saladin's military campaigns set the general borders and sphere of influence of the sultanate of Egypt for the almost 350 years of its existence. Mos ...
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Artuqids
The Artuqid dynasty (alternatively Artukid, Ortoqid, or Ortokid; Old Anatolian Turkish: , , plural, pl. ; ; ) was established in 1102 as a Turkish people, Turkish Anatolian beyliks, Anatolian Beylik (Principality) of the Seljuk Empire. It formed a Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman dynasty rooted in the Oghuz Turks, Oghuz tribe, and followed the Sunni Muslim faith. It ruled in eastern Anatolia, Northern Syria (region), Syria and Northern Lower Mesopotamia, Iraq in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. The Artuqid dynasty took its name from its founder, Artuk Bey, who was a member of Döger branch of the Oghuz Turks and ruled one of the Turkmen Anatolian beyliks, beyliks of the Seljuk Empire. Artuk's sons and descendants ruled the three branches in the region: Sökmen of Artukids, Sökmen's descendants ruled the region around Hasankeyf between 1102 and 1231; Ilghazi, Ilghazi's branch ruled from Mardin and Mayyafariqin between 1106 and 1186 (until 1409 as vassals) and Aleppo from 111 ...
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