Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
India, Mughals, Qutb Minar and
Mosque, Red Fort
Further reading:
R.E.Frykenberg, 
Delhi through the Ages: Essays in Urban
History, Culture and Society,
Delhi 1986.
S.A.A.Naqvi, 
Delhi: Humayun’s Tomb and Adjacent
Buildings,
Delhi 1946.
R.Nath, 
Monuments of Delhi,
New Delhi 1979.
A.Petruccioli, ‘Modelli cultural! nell’impianto e nelle
transformazioni di Old Delhi’, 
Storia della città
31–2:
123–44, 1985.
Y.D.Sharma, 
Delhi and its Neighbourhood,
2nd edn., New
Delhi 1974.
desert
The definition of desert varies with different au-
thors, but it is generally agreed that any area with
less than 50 mm annual rainfall may be counted as
desert. For practical purposes, however, areas with
less than 200 mm (the limit of dry farming) may
reasonably be regarded as desert. Although deserts
are a common feature of the Islamic world, most
cities and areas of settlement are either outside this
area or located next to large river systems such as
the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates and Indus.
Until recently the majority of desert inhabitants
have been nomadic pastoralists keeping either sheep
and goats or camels and living in some form of tent.
Important exceptions to this have been oasis trading
settlements, Hajj routes and mining centres which are
generally dependent on outside support for their
survival. In certain periods, such as the early Islamic,
political conditions, or more recently the exploitation
of oil in Arabia, have made desert settlements more
viable.
The architecture of the desert may be divided into
three categories: permanent, semi-permanent and
temporary. Temporary structures are either portable
tents or made of expendable materials such as palm
fronds, requiring minimum input of labour. Semi-
permanent structures may be made out of a
combination of portable and non-portable materials
(e.g. a tent with stone walls) or may be made of
perishable materials which need frequent renewal
such as the palm-frond huts of the Tihama in Yemen.
Permanent structures may be built of pisé, mud
brick, baked brick, stone or, more recently, cement
blocks and reinforced concrete.
Any desert settlement must make some provision
for obtaining and storing water, usually from wells
or seasonal rainfall, although occasionally sites are
dependent on water brought from elsewhere (this
was often the case with Hajj routes). The
unpredictability of rain and the high evaporation
rates in the desert (in many areas of the Middle East
the rate of evaporation can exceed 2,000 mm
desert

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annually) mean that elaborate water catchment and
storage facilities are developed. Sites dependent on
seasonal and sometimes erratic rain usually employ
a system of dams, cisterns and run-off channels to
maximize the catchment area. If water needs to be
transported some distance, underground channels
(qanats) are built to minimize evaporation.