Miroslav Melčák

The book examines the destruction of the architectural heritage in Mosul perpetrated by Islamic State between 2014 and 2017. It identifies which structures were attacked, the ideological rationale behind the destruction, and the significance of the lost monuments in the context of Mosul’s urban development and the architectural history of the Middle East. This methodologically innovative work fills an important gap in the study of both current radical movements and the medieval Islamic architecture of Northern Iraq.

International Journal of Islamic Architecture

Special Issue

Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies

In honor of the life of Dr. Khaled al-Asaad

Guest Editor: Stephennie Mulder
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2017/00000006/00000002

The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism.

But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia.

This special issue presents scholars from across disciplines who engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the ancient past in Islamic societies.

More than fifteen sites of either confirmed or conjectured urban status existed between the 6th and 19th centuries in the particular region of northeastern Mesopotamia, bounded by the rivers Great Zāb, Little Zāb and Tigris. This present study concentrates on the investigation of this urban network. The archaeological substance of the deserted sites is mostly very well preserved in the relief of the arid steppe environment and can be excellently identified in satellite images of several types. The archaeological investigation of these settlements, augmented by a revised historical topography, offers a unique opportunity for the holistic study of the diversity, temporal dynamics and mutual relationships within the urban network that developed in the hinterland of Baghdad and Samarra, the two largest super-centres of the Old World.

This collective monograph puts together archaeological and historical data available for the individual sites, including analyses of pottery obtained by surface survey. The materially rich final report of the three-year project is supplemented by an interpretative chapter that focuses on detailed topographical comparisons of the sites, their landscape contexts, and the dynamics of the urban system within the framework of studies on Near-Eastern Islamic-period cities.

This article examines the rationale behind ISIS’s (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) destruction of the historical monuments in the Iraqi town of Mosul. Their demolition campaign started shortly after this radical organization seized control of the town on June 10, 2014 and was systematically tracked by the authors during the first fifteen months of their control of Mosul. Analysis of satellite imagery, historical literature and ISIS’s propaganda material shows that the main object of their destruction was funerary architecture. The collected data has been interpreted within the context of the discourse regarding the destruction of graves in Salafi teachings. The article assumes that among the range of possible reasons for ISIS’s behaviour toward Mosul’s architecture, special importance should be ascribed to the religious doctrine of taswiyat al-qubur (the levelling of graves). This particular policy has been supported by Salafi scholars and ideologists and often vigorously invoked by religious institutions within Saudi Arabia.

More than fifteen sites of either confirmed or conjectured urban status existed in the Central Tigris and Adiabene regions between the 6th and 17th century AD. The presented project investigates their diversity, temporal dynamics and mutual relations.

Kulturní genocidě páchané na severoirácké metropoli se snaží čelit členové České archeologické mise v severním Iráku, kteří pod záštitou Orientálního ústavu AV ČR zahájili projekt Ohrožená architektura města Mosulu. Jeho předmětem je podrobná dokumentace veškerých destrukčních událostí v systematicky likvidovaném městě. Ve světovém měřítku jde o projekt unikátní; jeho podporou se OÚ AV ČR připojuje k úsilí
několika institucí v USA, Velké Británii a Německu, které se zasazují o záchranu hmotného i duchovního dědictví v zemích Blízkého východu ohrožených aktuálními válečnými konflikty.

We are releasing a list and interactive map of destroyed monuments of Mosul created through analysis of satellite imagery. The list and map are interconnected with profile lists of individual monuments showing satellite images documenting the scope of the destruction. The map documents the situation as of the end of August 2015.

During the occupation of Mosul by ISIS, the entire group of large shrines constructed by Badr al-Din Lu’luʼ in the first half of the 13th century was deliberately demolished, together with other funerary architecture. Since there was a lack of satisfactory survey and documentation for them, in our ex-post analysis of these structures we sought to consistently use a stratigraphic method and a broad temporal perspective, viewing the building artefact as a subject of continual development with a fluid change of meaning. The surviving documentation contradicts established ideas about the shrinesʼ original purposes. They should be seen as part of a single spatial concept providing the citizens of Mosul with universal, inclusive spaces without any specific dedication (accentuating expressions of devotion to the Prophet Muhammad and his family), which could be used by visitors to commemorate the founder. This universalistic message became subject to transformation in the Ilkhanid and later periods, which blurred the shrines’ original purpose and marked a shift towards the promotion of Imami Shiʽa through the application of the symbolism of the Twelve Imams in the shrinesʼ decoration.

بناءً على بحث آثاري وتاريخي شامل، يتتبع هذا المقال تطور مدينة آلتون كوبري (پردێ)، والتي تقع في جزيرة صغيرة في نهر الزاب الأسفل، من أصلها الآشوري المفترض حتى القرن التاسع عشر. تعتمد الدراسة على مجموعة بيانات غنية، أمكن الحصول عليها من تحليل صور الأقمار الصناعية، فضلاً عن المسح الميداني للموقع، والذي أجرته البعثة الآثارية التشيكية في كردستان العراق (مشروع "شبكة المدن في شمال شرق بلاد الرافدين في العصور الوسطى") بين عامي (2013–2014)، وبالتعاون مع علماء الآثار من جامعة صلاح الدين أربيل، ومفتشية آثار كركوك. لقد مكنتنا مؤلفات البلدانيين التاريخية والصور الفوتوغرافية، إضافة إلى الرسومات العثمانية والمخططات، من فهم الأصول والتطور لمعالم المدينة بالتفصيل، ولاسيما الجسور التي كانت تربط الجزيرة بالضفة الجنوبية والشمالية للنهر. وبالاستناد إلى تحليل المعلومات، أمكن تأريخ المرحلة الأخيرة من الجسرين العثمانيين – تم هدمهما في عام 1918 – في وقت ما قبل عام 1736، ولا تزال بقاياهما ظاهرة للعيان، إلى جانب آثار الجسور القديمة غير المعروفة التاريخ. وعليه نؤكد خضوع المدينة لتحول شامل في تركيبها الحضري، ولاسيما شبكات طرقاتها ومظهرها المعماري العام، ما بين القرنين (16–20 م).