Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
bayt, masjid, mihrab, minaret
Further reading:
K.A.C.Creswell, 
A Short Account of Early Muslim
Architecture,
ed. by J.Allen, Aldershot 1989.
R.Ettinghausen, 
From Byzantium to Sassanian Iran and the
Islamic World,
Leiden 1976.
R.Hillenbrand, ‘La dolce vita in Early Islamic Syria: the
evidence of later Umayyad palaces’, 
Art History
5(1): 1–
35, 1982.
H.N.Kennedy, 
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The
Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century,
London and New York 1986.
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Federation composed of the seven emirates of Fujairah,
Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Umm al-
Quwain and Sharjah. The country previously known as
the Trucial Coast is located on the Arabian side of the
Gulf between Qatar and Oman. The eastern part of the
country bordering on Oman is mountainous whilst the
western part is flat sandy coastal plain.
The traditional materials of construction in the
emirates are coral, mud brick, dry stone and wood
and thatch. Coral obtained from the coastal reefs is
the prime building material on the coast. Two forms
are used, irregular rubble blocks set into a thick
mortar known as ‘sarooj’ and thin coral slabs used
as panels between load-bearing pillars. Mangrove
wood obtained from East Africa is used both as
strengthening for walls and for roof beams. The
maximum length of mangrove poles is 3.5 m which
imposes a rigid geometry on the coastal houses.
Ceilings resting on the mangrove beams are made
of planks of date-palm wood and are sometimes
painted.
In oasis towns, such as al-Cain on the Omani
border, houses are built out of mud brick with split-
palm beams used for roofing in a manner common
throughout the Arabian peninsula. Often the lower