Architecture | Islam Information Center

New Islamic Art Exhibits Planned to Counter Islam’s Militant Image...

(Reuters) — Art from the Islamic world will be shown in the heart of the British Museum, instead of on the sidelines, in two new galleries funded by a Malaysian foundation which hopes to offset the image created by Islamic militants. The museum, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of art and artefacts, said on Thursday it plans to open two new galleries in its south wing devoted to its extensive collection of art from the Islamic world. Until now works from the collection have been displayed in a gallery tucked away on the north side of the massive building, a long walk from the main entrance. The two new galleries, which will complement the existing...

posted on: Apr 8, 2015 | author: Islam Information Center

Gardening: An Islamic Philosophical Architecture...

If heaven, the ultimate reward that we are striving for, is described as “gardens underneath which rivers flow”, then what places on Earth could give us better foretaste of Paradise than gardens? Gardens, and specifically traditional Islamic gardens, are the reflections of heaven on Earth. But they are also much more: they are the places where our minds can rest and our souls can reconnect with nature; they are the places of respite in the cooling shadow of trees and representations of ultimate timeless beauty. They provide nutrition for our souls, but on a more basic level, gardens also provide us with fruit and vegetables to feed our bodies. Gardens have profound meaning in Islam on both symbolic...

posted on: Mar 22, 2014 | author: Islam Information Center

Andalusian fusion: Christianity and Islam...

BY GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO ASSOCIATED PRESS For the third time in a week, I’m touring the Alhambra, one of the most popular sites in the world’s fourth most-visited country, and finally I have it all for myself. Not a pushy guide but a bullfrog in one of the fountains is the loudest sound on a late May night in this hilltop Islamic palace complex in southern Spain. I linger to stick my nose into the cabbage-size roses lining the pathways and to gaze over the floodlit red-tinged ramparts. Their massive simplicity belies the infinite intricacy of the palaces inside, and I can easily believe the legend that the last Muslim ruler wept as he left Granada. Centuries later, we...