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Tag Archives: Abbasid

Book on Abbasid Palaces by Matt Saba Published

Impermanent Monuments, Lasting Legacies: The Dār al-Khilāfa of Samarra and Palace Building in Early Abbasid Iraq, by AKDC Visual Resources Librarian Matthew Saba, has recently been released by Reichert Publishing. The book, available in electronic or print format, was developed from Saba’s dissertation research offering a new interpretation of the palaces built by the Abbasid dynasty of Iraq at the apex of its political power from 750 to 900 A.D. As a case study, it focuses on the palace known as the Dār al-Khilāfa (Abode of the Caliphate), constructed in the city of Samarra, founded by the Abbasids in 836 […]

AKDC Visual Resources Librarian to lecture on Palace Building and Poetry at Abbasid Samarra

Dr. Matt Saba, Visual Resources Librarian in the Aga Khan Documentation Center, will speak on “Durability through Verse: Palace Building and Poetry at Abbasid Samarra,” at 6 pm on Monday, February 10 in 3-133 at MIT.  The presentation “examines the relationship between palace building and poetry writing at Samarra, the capital of the Abbasid Empire in Iraq from 836 to 892 CE.” and is part of the Spring 2020 lectures of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. The series continues on February 24 with a presentation by Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, […]