Category Archives: Architecture

What’s Up with Our Mosques?

Architecture, Ethics, Gender and Sexuality, Islamic Rituals, United Arab Emirates


Image: Rihanna’s Instagram

by Fatimah Jackson-Best, Aquila Style, October 28, 2013

International pop icon Rihanna recently made the news after being asked to leave the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. According to a statement issued by the mosque, the singer’s removal from the grounds was based on several reasons, which include attempting to enter the mosque through a gate that was not allowed for visitors, failing to get the proper permission to visit and tour the mosque, and failing to behave in a way that was in accordance with the sanctity of the mosque.[i] Instagram photos of the singer posing in front of the mosque also sparked reactions from Muslims and non-Muslims around the world.

I learnt that she had been barred from entering the mosque on my Facebook wall, from a friend who jokingly reminded me that I could relate to the story, because I had also been prevented from visiting a mosque here in Barbados – twice. Continue reading What’s Up with Our Mosques? →

In the steps of Ibn Battuta

Archaeology and Antiquities, Architecture, Books You Should Read, China, Film and Video, Literature, Morocco, Scholars, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, YouTube Watch


Mackintosh-Smith in China

One of the most celebrated Arab travelers was the 14th century Ibn Battuta. For a book on the travels of Ibn Battuta, Timothy Mackintosh-Smith literally followed in the footsteps that the Arab savant had taken some seven centuries earlier. In addition to the book, a documentary film was made. An excerpt of the film on Tim’s experience int he Chinese city of Zaytun is available on Youtube and well worth watching. Other Youtube excerpts are on an Ibn Battuta shopping mall in Dubai and on Turkey. Vimeo provides access to the entire first part of the three-part series. For more information on the work of Mackintosh-Smith, check out his website. An earlier documentary on the English Sheikh and the Arab Gentleman by Bader Ben Hirsi is available in its entirely on Youtube.

Moroccan Photography Museum

Architecture, Gender and Sexuality, Morocco, Photography


اما المراكشي داود ولد سيد، المتأثر بالمصورين هنري كارتييه بريسو وروبرت فرانك وريتشارد افيدون، فقد تخصص بتصوير الرحلات المنفردة التي قام بها في ارجاء المغرب. في هذه الصورة، ينقل رجل جهاز تلفاز في الرباط.

The Arabic BBC website has presented several photographs for a proposed Moroccan Photography Museum in Marrakesh. Here are two of the photographs.


حسن حجاج الذي ولد في المغرب عام 1961 غادر بلاده الى لندن في سن مبكرة. تجمع اعمال حجاج العناصر المرئية لفن تصوير الازياء المعاصر مع فن البوب.

Up against a wall mural

Architecture, Contemporary Art, Iran, Jordan, Shi'a


Martyrdom is the inheritance of the Prophet and his family to their followers (translated title). Three-storey high mural located on Mudarris Freeway, Abbas-Abad, Tehran, Iran, Fotini Christia, photographer.

Harvard College Library site. Here are two examples.


“You athletes should follow Ali (peace be upon him)”, Fotini Christia, photographer,