Moorish Architecture

Moorish architecture is a variation of Islamic architecture. There are many motifs, or repeated patterns, in Moorish architecture. This photo gallery illustrates just a few. The first slide gives an overview of the motifs: different styles of arches, calligraphy, vegetative design, and decorative tiles.

Moorish architecture is named after the Moors, North African people who conquered the Iberian Peninsula and many islands in the Western Mediterranean beginning in the 700s. The Moors controlled what is now Spain, Portugal, and the Pyrenees region of France for hundreds of years.

The Moors were Muslim and influenced by the Islamic architecture that developed in the Middle East. Although mosques are the most common examples of Moorish architecture, motifs spread to the design of homes and places of businesses. One of the most famous examples of Moorish architecture, the Mezquita or Grand Mosque of Cordoba, Spain, is today the region's Catholic cathedral.

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Rajput Architecture

Rajput Architecture represents different types of buildings, which may broadly be classed either as secular or religious. The secular buildings are of various scales. These include temples, forts, stepwells, gardens, and palaces. The forts were specially built for defense and military purposes due to the Islamic invasions . Rajput Architecture continued well into the 20th and 21st centuries, as the rulers of the princely states of British India commissioned vast palaces and other buildings, such as the Albert Hall Museum , Lalgarh Palace , and Umaid Bhawan Palace . These usually incorporated European styles as well, a practice which eventually led to the Indo-Saracenic style . The Hill Forts of Rajasthan ( Amer , Chittor , Gagron , Jaisalmer , Kumbhalgarh , Ranthambore ), a group of six forts built by various Rajput kingdoms and principalities during the medieval...

Ottoman Architecture

Ottoman architecture is the architecture of the Ottoman Empire , which emerged in northwestern Anatolia in the 13th century. The architecture of the empire developed from earlier Seljuk Turkish architecture , with influences from Byzantine and Iranian architecture along with architectural traditions of the Balkans and other parts of Middle East . Early Ottoman architecture experimented with multiple building types over the course of the 13th to 15th centuries, progressively evolving into the Classical Ottoman style of the 16th and 17th centuries, a mixture of native Turkish tradition and influences from the Hagia Sophia . One of the best representatives of the Classical period is Mimar Sinan , whose major works include the Şehzade Mosque , Süleymaniye Mosque , and Selimiye Mosque . Beginning in the 18th century, Ottoman a...

Abbasid Architecture

Abbasid architecture developed in the Abbasid Caliphate between 750 and 945, primarily in its heartland of Mesopotamia . The Abbasids were influenced mainly by Mesopotamian architectural traditions and later influenced Persian as well as Central Asian styles. They evolved distinctive styles of their own, particularly in decoration of their buildings. While the Abbasids lost control of large parts of their empire after 870, their architecture continued to be copied by successor states in Iran, Egypt and North Africa. Abbasid Geometric arch decorations Characteristics Typical features of the more important buildings inc...

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