4to. 287 pp., [2], profusely illustrated in b/w photographs, plans, figures, tables, illustrated endpapers, hard back binding in d/w, biblio, faint scratch on upper jacket, otherwise copy in mint condition, Municipal Administration Modernisation Program, Damascus, 2009.

Synopsis

The Umayyad Mosque is the greatest treasure of Damascus. The author, Professor Talal Akili spent many years and extraordinary efforts to document the Mosque and review its architectural and urban development throughout its various historical stages. The Mosque used to be the Temple of the Aramaic deity Hadad in the ancient past, and of Damascus Jupiter in the more recent past, before becoming the Church of St. John the Baptist, and the Grand Umayyad Mosque of today. In each of those stages, it remained the unique wonder of its time, and the exemplary prototype initiated in temple construction elsewhere.