Deconstructing the American Mosque: Space, Gender, and Aesthetics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is the outgrowth of my research and study of the formation of Muslim aesthetics in the United States over the last five decades. Each chapter introduces an incisive discourse apropos to three individual debates, which will explain the impetus behind the appearance of Muslim aesthetics in North America.The first debate concerns the opposing views held by the North American Muslim community—made up of an ethnically dissimilar body of adherents, and consisting of both immigrant and indigenous Muslims —with regard to the meaning, purpose, and function of visual religious expression. The second debate deals with the interpretation of the term ‘‘spatial sunnah,’’ which finds its origin in the architecture and function of Islam’s seminal mosque: the Prophet’s mosque, constructed in the seventh century .. at Madinah, Arabia. This debate also examines the spatial and visual affinities between American mosques and the diverse architectural and aesthetic themes that have evolved outside of Arabia since the seventh century .. The third debate investigates the relevance of culture, place, and identity vis-à-vis the making of contemporary religious expression in North America. In general, these three debates inform the process and the evolution of Muslim aesthetics in the United States; in particular, they point to the roles of the architect and the individual patron or client. Each debate is complex and problematic; thus, it affects our understanding and may even disorient our sense of space and time with regard to the visual treatment of art and architecture. I hope to deconstruct these complexities in this book and, in so doing, to demonstrate different ways to understand the nuances of each debate. In Saudi Arabia in the late seventies, I was first introduced to the rather acute problem of designing a contemporary mosque.This initial assignment occurred during my tenure as a senior architect, designer, and project manager with the international architectural firm Zuhair Fayez and Associates, based in Jeddah. At that time, Saudi Arabia was an exciting and stimulating place for a young architect like myself. Living and working in Jeddah, I was able to visit the holy cities of Makkah (Mecca) and Madinah and several medieval cities, such as Cairo, Damascus, and Fes (Fez). I also had firsthand contact with some of the finest specimens of contemporary Muslim architecture. In particular, I gained firsthand knowledge of the architectural styles of Abdel Wahed el-Wakil, Hassan Fathy, Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM), Perkins and Will, and a number of other well-known Arab, European, and American architects. Over the course of two decades of professional architectural practice in the Middle East, I completed several difficult design and construction projects. My experience as project manager for the design of the Dhahran mosque for ARAMCO, and for several other mosques, and later my experience working on a major project in Cairo, forced me to consider the hypothetical design concepts of Muslim art, architecture, and urbanism. Pursuing this interest, I took a hiatus from my professional practice to investigate these concepts in greater detail. My graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and my affiliation with the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard University, allowed me to research the mosque as a building type. I also studied the philosophy of design, theories for contemporary Muslim societies, and the urbanism of medieval Muslim cities. The latter was the topic of my doctoral dissertation at Princeton University. My research on the hermeneutics of Muslim art, architecture, and urbanism has led to several publications and the development of a handful of courses and seminars,which I now teach at the Universityof Texas at Austin. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my students, who deserve credit for many of the stimulating insights that are incorporated in this book. The University of Texas at Austin has also provided me with several research grants to pursue advanced research related to the degree program in Islamic studies, and to lecture at scholarly symposiums at other U.S. and international institutions. Several people have influenced my intellectual development over the years prior to the undertaking of this project. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to work with Professor Oleg Grabar (now at the Institute for xii Deconstructing the American Mosque Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey) during my graduate studies at MIT and later during the preparation of my doctoral dissertation at Princeton...