Yunus Emre InstituteYunus Emre Institute in London, in collaboration with Hurst Publishers, hosted a talk and book signing by Diana Darke, on her fascinating book, Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe, on Thursday 31st March 2022 at 7 pm. The event, moderated by noted architect Samie Iqbal Kayani, started with a talk by the author and the Middle East Cultural Expert Diana Darke and followed by a Q&A session and book signing.
The book’s author, Diana Darke, led the audience through an unrevealed history of architectural ‘borrowing’ by tracing the origins of European architecture. Challenging normative Eurocentric narratives, the talk touched on the Islamic architectural influence present across the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Iberia.
Visiting different structures, regions, cultures and spaces in time, Darke took the audience on a whistle-stop tour of the architectural history and styles of monumental buildings. Starting with St Paul’s Cathedral, Darke drew on the misnomer that is ‘Gothic architecture’ and highlighted the Saracen style it was based on. Harking back to the title of her book, ‘Stealing from the Saracens’, she pointed to its hidden irony as she played on the idea that Europe ‘stole’ from the Saracens who named after a derivation of the Arabic word to steal.
The Islamic influences, Darke pointed out, were repeatedly removed from Europe’s history while appearing repeated in its architectural heritage. From Notre Dame Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament, countless buildings in Venice to the White House, the vibrant Arab and Islamic roots are unmistakable and unmissable as cultures interact and build on one another.
Darke’s talk ended on a pertinent point often forgotten: the culture we see around us today is built by civilisations and people across history, pushed forwarded and added to by countless hands to reach us today. Darke’s history of architecture was a rich tale of cultural exchange and a signal to all we have achieved by learning from one another.
Following the event, traditional Turkish refreshments were served.
For more information on the event please visit our website: https://yeelondon.org.uk/ or email at londra@yee.org.tr.
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About the Book:
Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, Europeans are increasingly airbrushing from history their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But this Islamic legacy lives on in some of Europe’s most recognisable buildings, from Notre-Dame Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament. Fully illustrated and footnoted, the book unearths the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe’s architectural heritage, tracing ideas and styles from vibrant Middle Eastern centres like Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, via Muslim Spain, Venice and Sicily into Europe. The author, Diana Darke, describes how medieval crusaders, pilgrims, and merchants encountered Arab Muslim culture on their way to the Holy Land; and explores more recent artistic interaction between Ottoman and Western cultures, including Sir Christopher Wren’s inspirations in the ‘Saracen’ style of Gothic architecture. Recovering this long yet overlooked history of architectural ‘borrowing’, Stealing from the Saracens is a rich tale of cultural exchange.
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About the Author:
Diana Darke is a Middle East cultural expert with a special focus on Syria. With degrees in Arabic from Oxford University, and in Islamic Art & Architecture from SOAS, London, she has spent over 30 years specialising in the region, working for both government and commercial sectors. Among her publications are the highly acclaimed My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Crisis (2016), The Merchant of Syria (2018) and The Last Sanctuary in Aleppo (2019). Her most recent book, Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe, received three Book of the Year 2020 awards. Her next book, The Ottomans and Their Cultural Legacy will be published in October 2022. Frequently invited to speak at international events and media such as the BBC, PBS, TRT, Al-Jazeera and France24, her work on Syria has been published by the BBC website, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Financial Times. She is a Non-resident Scholar at Washington’s think-tank MEI (the Middle East Institute).
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About the Moderator:
Samie Iqbal Kayani is the director at IK Architecture Ltd and a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool’s Centre for the Study of Architecture and Cultural Heritage. He has worked on numerous culturally significant projects in the UK and abroad, including restoring the last historic structure inside the Grand Mosque of Makkah and recently designing plans for the only Grade I listed mosque in the UK. He is also Aziz Foundation Scholar for creating future leaders in communities.
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This talk formed part of the Arts & Culture Lecture Series organised by Yunus Emre Institute in London since 2017.
This event was streamed live and can be rewatched on the Yunus Emre Institute in London YouTube channel, @yeelondra.