1-Precedents and Prototypes: (Click on images to enlarge)

The Architectural Repertoire Available to the Arabs before Islam:

Tent: The Dwelling of the Nomad
The spatial and functional division of the tent.

Axonometric of the Three-pole Tent

View of a Nomad Tent

 

The Architecture of Urban Settlements in Arabia:

Mecca: The cult and trade center.

Axonometric and Plan of the Ka'ba, also called Bayt-Allah "The Abode of God"

 

The Atam in Medina: fortified common dwellings in oases.

The typology of Atam

Present day agricultural settlement from Southern Hijaz in Arabia that preserves some aspects of the Pre-Islamic Atam

Present day agricultural settlement from Southern Hijaz.

 

The Palaces of Yemen.

A modern day house of Old Sana'a, Yemen

Plan of a large residence from Qaryat Al-Faw

The Hellenistically influenced fresco of an Arabian King from Qaryat Al-Faw

 

The Architecture of Urban Centers in the Levant and Mesopotamia:

Petra: The Nabatean Capital Carved in the Rock.

Frontal view of the so-called Khaznet-Fir'awn (the Treasury of Pharoah), a second century A.D. rock tomb in Petra

Rock cut tomb

Palmyra: A Caravan City turned Imperial Center.

Aerial view of the Decumanus of Palmyra showing heavy Roman influences in its plan.

Aerial view of the Baal Temple Temenos

Rusafa (Sergiopolis): Capital of the Ghassanids, the Christian Arab tribe allied with Byzantium.

View of the remains of the Palace of the Ghassanid King Al-Munther outside Rusafa

Plan of the walled city of Sergiopolis (Rusafa)

Aerial view of the Roman city of Sergiopolis (Rusafa)

The Mesopotamian and Persian Models: The Assyrian palaces of Nineveh and Assur.

Plan of the Assyrian palace in Assur

The Iwan Kisra at Ctesiphon: The seat of Sassanian Kings.

A photo of the iwan taken before 1883 when the flood destroyed the monuments right wing

Al-Hira (Hatra) in northern Mesopotamia: The Hiri style.

The facade of the temple of Hatra showing Persian and classical influence

The Byzantine and Greco-Roman Models:

Bostra: Present-day Busra. A Syrian-Roman city and a capital of the Nabateans; the illustration of urban splendor in the eyes of the Prophet Muhammad.

View of the Roman amphitheatre

Mosaic panels from Busra dating to the 6th century and showing an Arabian caravan

 

The "Dead Cities" in Byzantine northern Syria.

Remains of a tower from the village of Bariha in the Dead cities region

Facade of a residential building from the dead cities region

Reconstruction of a farm house from the Dead Cities

Reconstruction of a farm house from the Dead Cities

 

The Poetic and Visual Images of Imperial palaces in Constantinople:

The representation of the Palace of Theodoric at St. Apollinaire Nuovo in Ravenna.

St. Apollinaire