The Prophet Muhammad - acknowledged by his followers to have been the hand with which God wrote his definitive Word enshrined in the Koran - was born into the Quraishi tribe at Mecca c. 570 and died in Medina in 632. The dramatic career of the great religion founded on that Word and which first claimed the submission (Islam) of the Arabs, rapidly expanded across north Africa, into southern Europe and east as far as China. This book examines the architectural tradition which developed with the religious culture. Essentially heir to the Roman development of space, it had its source in the ubiquitous courtyard house, while the development of the mosque as both place of worship and the centre of the community, its form a response to the requirements of prayer set out in the Koran, was given a range of forms as the conquests of Islam came up against the traditions of Egypt, Persia, India and China. The tradition developed further in tombs, palaces and fortifications, all of which are described and illustrated here. The story continues with the glorious architecture of the Timurids, the Saffavids and the Ottomans, using architects and craftsmen from a broad swathe of the world from Spain to India and beyond. The size of mosques increased to unprecedented vastness, while colour and pattern were used to dazzling effect.

And in Mughal India, a synthesis of traditional forms with those imported from Persia produced a series of magnificent imperial mosques, citadels and tombs. The architecture of Islam comprises a high proportion of the worldoD'„¢s most beautiful buildings, from perhaps the most perfect images of the lost Eden in the gardens of the Alhambra, to the built expression of the boundless expansion of the faith to be seen in the mosques of Ottoman Istanbul. This book covers the whole range in unprecedented depth, placing the development of the tradition in the context oD" religious, political, economic and technological oD" of the times.