Building Arabness in Transition: Architectural Continuity, Material Spatiality, and Identity in Arab Architecture of Gathering during the Late Antique–Early Islamic Turn, 550–750 CE

Información del proyecto

BAYT

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 101280885

DOI

10.3030/101280885

Fecha de la firma de la CE 24 Febrero 2026

Fecha de inicio 1 Septiembre 2027

Fecha de finalización 31 Agosto 2029

Financiado con arreglo a

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

€ 214 344,72

Coordinado por

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Austria

Objetivo

For decades, scholars of Islamic Archaeology and Art History have regarded the Roman and Sasanian worlds as the principal influences on the formation of Umayyad formal architecture. Yet this perspective has not yielded compelling prototypes for the distinctive spatial concepts of the Umayyad audience halls that emerged in Syria and Mesopotamia during the 7th–8th centuries CE. Thus, the relationship between early Islamic reception architecture and its late antique background—together with its embodied material spatiality—remains an open and fundamental question. BAYT seeks to shed light on these issues along two main lines. First, it undertakes a new analysis of formal parallels between Arabian pre-Islamic and Umayyad architecture, in order to identify previously unexplored patterns of continuity in forms of meeting and reception that extend beyond the conventional Roman–Sasanian dichotomy. Second, it investigates Arabic and Syriac textual sources to reconstruct the material performativity of these spaces, and to assess how certain architectural features and related social customs were understood in terms of their presumed intrinsic Arabness within Umayyad circles. The working hypothesis is that the conceptualisation of Umayyad audience halls may reflect an active process of assimilating architectural forms—and their associated rituals—from pre-Islamic contexts that the early Islamic elite perceived as quintessentially Arab. Architecture and space functionality will therefore be considered for the first time as a potential important aspect in the making of the Arab ethnos in this period. This bifocal methodology will enable a more nuanced understanding of the architectural roots, conceptual genesis, and functioning of Umayyad sreception paces. It will also provide a framework for examining how the Umayyad elite forged a royal consciousness and articulated it in relation to the socio-religious landscape of Late Antique Western Asia.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

• humanidades › historia y arqueología › historia › historia antigua
• humanidades › historia y arqueología › arqueología

Palabras clave

• Early Islamic Architecture
• Early Islamic Archaeology
• Umayyads
• Arabian Architecture
• Arabs
• Late Antiquity
• Material Spatiality

Programa(s)

• HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) PROGRAMA PRINCIPAL
  

Tema(s)

• HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF-01-01 - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
  

Régimen de financiación

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

Convocatoria de propuestas

HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

Coordinador

UNIVERSITAT WIEN

• Aportación neta de la UEn: € 214 344,72
• Dirección: UNIVERSITATSRING 1 ; 1010 WIEN ; Austria
• Región: Ostösterreich › Wien › Wien
• Tipo de actividad: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Coste total: Sin datos