Machine summary:
The photographs vary in quality and vantage, and not all of the mosques discussed have images and architec- tural drawings – serious omissions in a field that is so visual, systematic com- parative analysis requires analogous efforts with visual representation for the argument to sustain itself.
After explaining the meaning and importance of mosque and including shrines in her argument as part of the network of devotional spaces, she crit- ically addresses arguments of postmodern architecture in mosque design and critiques the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA), which “scarcely ac- knowledges their [mosques] existence” (p.
Chapter 1, “Turkey and a Neo-Ottoman World Order: History as Ethno- Imperialism,” begins with a narrative of her arrival at Berlin’s Türk Şehitlik Mosque followed by various segments: “Diaspora and Turkish Patronage in Germany,” “Islam and the Turkish Republic,” “Mosque of the People,” “Competing Discourse of the Nation,” “The Royal Architect,” “Architecture of Diplomacy,” “Conceptualizing the Diaspora,” and “ Histories of the New Present.
Chapter 2, “Global Islam and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: An Archi- tecture of Assimilation,” begins with an anecdote of approach to Jeddah’s Amir Juffali Mosque and is divided into “Cosmopolitan Roots,” “The Mosque Strategy,” “The Visual Aesthetic,” “The National Mosque,” “Controlling the Minds of Believers,” “Patronage and Propaganda,” “Diplomacy through Ar- chitecture,” “Asserting a Sunni Presence,” “Diplomacy East and West,” and “An Iconography of Belief.
The chapter is divided into “Oil Wealth and New National Narratives,” “Creating Indigenous Histories,” “Architecture as Negotiation,” “The Jumeirah Mosque and the Egyptian Con- nection,” “A Cosmopolitan Aesthetic: The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque,” and “Global Ambitions at Home and Abroad.