Stealing from the Saracens

rdf:langString Stealing from the Saracens

rdf:langString Big Ben. Rowan Moore and Vaughan Hart were not convinced by Darke's argument that the two towers are related.

rdf:langString Minaret of the Great Mosque of Aleppo

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rdf:langString Big_Ben_.jpg

rdf:langString Great Mosque of Aleppo 01.jpg

rdf:langString Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe is a non-fiction book by British writer Diana Darke, published by Hurst & Co in 2020. In the book, Darke proposes a theory of Middle Eastern influence on European architecture of the Middle Ages. Several leading academics in architecture history, including Aaron Betsky, Vaughan Hart and William Whyte reviewed the book. Some of its proposals, such as Big Ben being influenced by a minaret in Syria, or a pre-Islamic Syrian church being an Islamic influence on Notre-Dame de Paris, were criticised by reviewers, some of whom perceived a simplified narrative that reduced the scale of Persian and Byzantine influence on both Islamic and Western architecture.