ARCE Digital Library
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://localhost:4000/handle/123456789/33
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Ramesses the Great : Egypt's king of kings(Yale University Press, 2023) Wilkinson, TobyRamesses II ruled the Nile Valley and the wider Egyptian empire from 1279 to 1213 B.C., one of the longest reigns in pharaonic history. He was a cultural innovator, a relentless self-promoter, and an astute diplomat--the peace treaty signed after the Battle of Kadesh was the first in recorded history. He outbuilt every other Egyptian pharaoh, leaving behind the temples of Abu Simbel; the great hypostyle hall of Karnak; the tomb for his wife Nefertari; and his own memorial, the Ramesseum. His reputation eclipsed that of all other pharaohs as well: he was decried in the Bible as a despot, famed in literature as Ozymandias, and lauded by early antiquarians as the Younger Memnon. His rule coincided with the peak of ancient Egypt's power and prosperity, the New Kingdom (1539-1069 B.C.).Item Tree of pearls : the extraordinary architectural patronage of the 13th-century Egyptian slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr(Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2020) Ruggles, D. FairchildThe woman known as "Tree of Pearls," who ruled Egypt in the summer of 1250 was unusual in every way. A rare case of a woman ruler, her reign marked the shift from Ayyubid to Mamluk rule, and her architectural patronage of two building complexes changed the face of Cairo and had a lasting impact on Islamic architecture. Rising to power from slave origins, Tree of Pearls-her name in Arabic is Shajar al-Durr-used her wealth and power to add a tomb to the urban madrasa (college) that had been built by her husband, Sultan Salih, and with this innovation, madrasas and many other charitably endowed archite++654ctural complexes became commemorative monuments, a practice that remains widespread today. This was the first occasion in Cairo in which a secular patron's relationship to his architectural foundation was reified through the actual presence of his body. The tomb thus profoundly transformed the relationship between architecture and its patron, emphasizing and emblematizing his historical presence. Indeed, the characteristic domed skyline of Cairo that we see today is shaped by such domes that have kept the memory of their named patrons visible to the public eye. This dramatic transformation, in which architecture came to embody human identity, was made possible by the sultan-queen Shajar al-Durr, a woman who began her career as a mere slave-concubine.Her path-breaking patronage contradicts the prevailing assumption among historians of Islam that there was no distinctive female voice in art and architecture