The majority of historic buildings preserved today reflect multiple events and vicissitudes that have changed the appearance, the meanings, and even the functions of the structures over time. The centuries have left traces, sometimes wounds, and the unraveling of these effects of time is the task of the art historian. In The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, Alain George seeks to reconstruct the story of the initial stages of the mosque through evidence found in the building itself.
In the first chapter, “Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts: The Multiple Histories of the Umayyad Mosque,” the author exposes the reality that historians face. Like texts, buildings are complex palimpsests, as multilayered constructions. While successive fires and earthquakes have damaged the Mosque of Damascus, the building has always recovered, retaining many of its distinctive features and identifying elements, including its mural mosaics, transept and crenellated roofline. George explores a varied range...
University of California Press