So this is the Golden Road. Eight centuries ago, the minaret of Khosrugird watched the traffic as it watches us. “What strikes the researcher, is the very scant information that one can find about the minaret.” This is what I wrote on a post-it while searching the web and the books for more information on…
Category: reading inscription
Vikings and Square Kufic?
On the 3rd of October, the University of Uppsala published an article that was to generate much discussion on the social media. The title of the article was pretty sensationalistic, as it claimed that the words Allah and ‘Ali were written in Square Kufic on woven bands of silk in burial costumes found in Viking Age…
Tarik Khana Mosque
its round squat pillars recall an English village church of the Norman period The last monument Robert Byron visits in Damghan on the 13th of November 1933 is the Tarik Khana Mosque, that he compares to an English village church. Byron loves comparing Iranian buildings to more familiar architectural forms: it already happened, for instance,…
Gunbad-i Pir-i ‘Alamdar
inscribed and dated as built in the eleventh century On the 13th of November 1933, while taking a photo of the Gundab-i Pir-i ‘Alamdar in Damghan, Robert Byron probably did not realize he was in front of the oldest monument of Damghan. He recorded this tomb tower together with the Gunbad-i Chihil Dukhtaran, devoting to…
The Minaret of Semnan
I heard of an old minaret, which I found before the police found me. We cannot say that Robert Byron visited the Friday Mosque of Semnan. It is more correct to say that he passed by and took a photo, at least as long as we trust what’s written in his travelogue. Also, he does not…
Gunbad-i Qabud
built of plum-red brick […] transferred as it were from an English kitchen garden to the service of Koranic texts Robert Byron arrives in Maragha on the 16th of October 1933 where he visits and takes pictures of one of the three tombs that are to be found there: the Gundab-i Qabud. Byron himself recognizes the…
The Mosque al-Nuri in Mosul: what was lost
It is a pity that you get the chance to talk about certain monuments only after that they are destroyed. Until yesterday, the general public did not know anything about the Mosque of Nur al-Din, and its minaret. ISIS has destroyed, once again, Middle Eastern heritage: the destruction of the Mosque of Nur al-Din has been…
#IslamicForgeries – Episode 2, part 3 | The Blue Room in Palermo (to sum up)
The last part of the ‘episode’ on the Blue Room in Palermo. After having narrated how it came to light, and what’s in there, it is time now to provide my own interpretation.
#IslamicForgeries – Episode 2, part 2 | The Blue Room in Palermo (reading its content)
The story of the finding of the blue room is interesting, full of opinions and full of gaps. I am following its developments, as much as I can, since it started, in late 2013. Many interpretations have been proposed so far, but before providing an interpretation on my own, it is necessary to step back…
#IslamicForgeries – Episode 2, part 1 | The Blue Room in Palermo (a story in three chapters)
A blue room with decorations clearly inspired by Islamic epigraphy is found in a private house in Palermo. Since its discovery, a carousel of authorities, scholars and onlookers have visited the house, and everyone seems to have something to say. Including myself.
SquareKufic 