Lesson 11: Between Portable and Permanent Architecture

The eleventh lesson in a 22 lesson course on Monuments of Islamic Architecture developed by Professors Gulru Necipoglu and David Roxburgh at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University. This lesson will explore how new kinds of cities and palaces developed under the Mongols to reflect forms of cultural and artistic adaptations and assimilations.

These adaptations were driven by Mongol lifestyle which was nomadic, and the sedentary territories over which they ruled.
What were the effects of adapting to aspects of sedentary culture? How did this relate to changes in artistic and architectural practices?
How do we define permanent and portable architecture? How do these differences relate to nomadic and sedentary lifestyles?
Another part of what we will focus on today involves the very close connections that are established between Qubilai Khan, the Great Khan of China and Mongolia, and the lands of Greater Iran ruled over by the Ilkhanid dynasty founded by Hülegü, Qubilai Khan’s brother.

How does urban planning in contemporary China compare and contrast with Iran?

Citation
Necipoglu, Gulru and David Roxburgh. “Between Portable and Permanent Architecture.” Lesson 11/22 presentation developed for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Education Programme, 2019.