JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip
Latest editorial
The long reach of the medieval Islamic workforce
WILL PODMORE is enthralled by the convincing case that guilds of Islamic craftsmen were responsible for the European gothic style
EVOLUTION OF GOTHIC FROM ISLAMIC: Arches of the former mosque, the Cordoba Mezquita, in traditional Islamic style and completed in 971, are incorporated into the Gothic style of the transept of the Main Chapel (1523)
[Daderot/CC]
NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain
New releases from Rosa Walton, Paul McCartney, and Aidan Thorne & Jason Ball
RON JACOBS welcomes a sharp, intelligent and witty exposé of the corruption and right-wing politics that have taken over international professional football
ALEX HALL welcomes the memoir of a prominent British academic of Ugandan/Zimbabwean heritage
JONATHAN TAYLOR reviews a collection of short stories wherein news - and the absence of news - changes lives
Islamesque: the forgotten craftsmen who built Europe’s medieval monuments
Diana Darke, Hurst, £25
THIS is a wonderful book, fully and colourfully illustrated. Diana Darke is an Arabist and cultural expert who has lived and worked in the Middle East for over 30 years. She describes beautifully hundreds of cathedrals, churches, monasteries, palaces and castles.
She challenges the conventional wisdom that only Rome could be the source of Christian architecture. The accepted idea is that the “Romanesque” style simply emerged between 1000 and 1250 across the whole of Europe, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman.
Similar stories
KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
HENRY BELL notes the curious confluence of belief, rebuilding and cheap materials that gave rise to an extraordinary number of modernist churches in post-war Scotland
This is a concert of ambition and courage by organist and improviser Wayne Marshall, says SIMON DUFF
SYLVIA HIKINS casts an eye across the contemporary art brought to a city founded on colonialism and empire