Сокровища исламской архитектуры

This book is devoted to the finest works of medieval masters of the art of construction who lived and created in the countries of Islam. The medieval artist left no memory of himself other than the product of his creativity. We know almost nothing about the architects of the Muslim Middle Ages, but the surviving monuments can tell much about their creators – their religious views and ethnic affiliation, their artistic tastes, their level of education and professionalism, as well as their talent and inventiveness. Islamic architecture was born and formed within the framework of the first and greatest Muslim state – the Arab Caliphate (632-1258). This theocratic state, governed by a spiritual head, owed its emergence and rapid development to the religious authority and successful political activity of Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim doctrine and ideology and a native of the ancient and long-sacred Arabian city of Mecca. In the understanding of Muslims, Muhammad is the messenger of the one and only God, Allah, who endowed him with the mission of a prophet and transmitted through him to people the divine revelations contained in the sacred book – the Qur’an. The prophetic and political activity of Muhammad, which began around 610, at first took place in Mecca, and from the second half of 622 in Medina, which became the first capital of the first Muslim state.