Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:04:32.531Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The origin of ‘desert castles’: Qasr Bani Muqatil, near Karbala, Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

B. Finster
Affiliation:
Domstrasse 11, 96049 Bamberg, Germany (Email: barbara.finster@t-online.de)
J. Schmidt
Affiliation:
Domstrasse 11, 96049 Bamberg, Germany (Email: barbara.finster@t-online.de)

Abstract

The ‘desert castles’ are key structures of the early Islamic expansion. They resemble Roman forts – which may have provided models for those in Jordan. But the authors show that a well-researched example in Iraq is likely to have been a palace site before the area was Islamicised.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

‘Abd Al-Sitar Al-’Azawi. 1989–90. Al-mash al-athari fi as-sahra’al-gharbiyya-Darb as-Sa’i. Sumer 46: 20 (Arabic).Google Scholar
Al-Kassar, A. 1979. Tanqibat Tell Abû Sha’af. Sumer 35: 468–71.Google Scholar
Bergamini, G. 1987. Parthian fortifications in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia 22: 195214.Google Scholar
Bier, L. 1993. The Sassanian Palaces and their influence in early Islam. Ars Orientalis 23: 5766.Google Scholar
Caskel, W. 1964. al-Uhaidir. Der Islam 39: 2837.Google Scholar
Caskel, W. 1966. Gamharat an-nasab. Das genealogische Werk des Hisam ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi I. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Creswell, K.A.C. & Allan, J.W.. 1989. A short account of early Muslim architecture. Aldershot: Scholar Press.Google Scholar
Finster, B. & Schmidt, J.. 1976. Sasanidische und frühislamische Ruinen im Iraq, Tulul al Uhaidir, Erster vorläufiger Grabungsbericht. Baghdader Mitteilungen 8: 57150.Google Scholar
Genequand, D. 2005. From ‘desert castle’ to medieval town: Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi (Syria). Antiquity 79: 350–61.Google Scholar
Helms, S. 1990. Early Islamic architecture of the desert: a Bedouin station in eastern Jordan. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Hillenbrand, R. 1994. Islamic architecture: form, function and meaning. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Jabir, K.I. 1980. The excavation of Khirbet Jaddâlah. Sumer 36: 163–8.Google Scholar
Kröger, J. 1982. Sasanidischer Stuckdekor (Baghdader Forschungen 5). Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Massignon, L. 1910. Mission en Mésopotamie (1907–1908), Mémoires de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire tome 28. Paris.Google Scholar