Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Ahmadabad, India, Mughals, Qutb Minar
Further reading:
Z.A.Desai, ‘Some Mughal inscriptions from Gujarat’,
Epigraphia Indica: Arabic and Persian Supplement,
1970,
63–92.
J.Jain-Neubauer, 
The Stepwells of Gujarat in Art Historical
Perspective,
New Delhi 1981.
E.Koch, ‘[The] Influence [of Gujarat] on Mughal
architecture’, in 
Ahmadabad,
ed. G.Michell and S.Shah,
Bombay 1988, 168–85
M.Shokooy, M.Bayani-Wolpert and N.H.Shokooy,
Bhadresvar: The Oldest Islamic Monuments in India,
part of
Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture, Supplements to
Muqarnas, vol. 2, Leiden 1988.
guldasta
An ornamental pinnacle in the shape of flowers.
gunbad
An Iranian and Mughal term for dome, usually used
for a domed tomb.
gunbad

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104
Hadramawt
A large wadi in Yemen with distinctive mud-brick
architecture. It runs from west to east and meets the Indian
Ocean at Qishn.
The wadi is exceptionally fertile and has been settled
since ancient times. The tall mud-brick tower houses,
which from a distance resemble sky-scrapers are the
most characteristic feature of the architecture. The
form of these houses is probably derived from the
stone-built tower houses of the highlands adapted
into a mud-brick form for the plains at the bottom
of the wadi. The best example of this architecture is
the city of Shibam which has houses over eight
storeys high. The exceptional height of the Shibam
houses may partly be due to the wall which encloses
the city, for whilst this provides protection it limits
the available building land. The houses are usually
built on stone foundations with mud-brick walls
tapering from one metre at the bottom to a quarter
of a metre at the top. The strongest part of the house
is the stair-well which is often built of stone to the
full height of the house. The exteriors have wooden
window screens and ornamental relieving arches,
and the upper parts of the houses are generally
white-washed.
The main door for each house has a wooden
latch attached to a cord enabling the door to be
opened from the apartments above. The ground
floors of the houses are either storerooms or shops
whilst the first-floor rooms may be used for animal
stalls. The second floor was used a reception area
for business, and the rooms above were private
apartments; the lower parts of the private rooms
were functional whilst those at the top were
reception rooms and open-air terraces. The
reception room or majlis is usually a tall room
decorated with carved plaster designs which may
include a mihrab niche. At the upper levels there
are often doorways to neighbouring houses so that
women may visit each other without having to go
out on to the streets. There are efficient waste-
disposal systems with separate chutes for water and
sewage. The age of the houses is difficult to
determine although locally they are thought to last
300 years or more after which they will be replaced
with another house on the same spot.