Absurdity and Metaphysical Rebellion in the Philosophies of Albert Camus and Omar Khayyam

The first time Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyiat were brought to the Western world, it was through a translation from their original Persian to English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Over the next century, Khayyam’s verses saw extraordinary popular success among intellectuals both in England and beyond. This paper, however, explores what these verses meant to Persians in Omar Khayyam’s context, long before the quatrains reached the West. Although whether the meaning of his poetry is esoteric or hedonistic in nature is debated, his quatrains express an existential longing and grieving that can be compared to parallel feelings described by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel. In this project, I explore the similarities in the notion of the absurd as defined by Albert Camus with the expressions of absurd experience in The Ruba\u27iyat of Omar Khayyam. Through this exploration of the absurdist experience across cultures and centuries, I propose Omar Khayyam\u27s Ruba\u27iyat as an example that the spirit of metaphysical rebellion can exist in a non-Western context, and that it existed nearly a millennium before Albert Camus developed it as an idea in the 20th century

Ancient Merv, Turkmenistan: research, conservation and management at a World Heritage Site

n the first issue of AI, Georgina Herrmann described the Institute’s initial involvement, from 1992, in survey, recording and excavation at the ancient Silk Road site of Merv. Now, a decade later, the Institute has embarked on a further collaborative project at this vast multiperiod site

Tree-squares in Anatolia : what does an emergent public space mean?

Urban places, besides their physical characteristics, are regarded as grounds where personal or collective meanings are created and accumulated. An individual can capture the meaning of a place, or create new meanings by relying on his/her own feelings and experiences. This research, by discussing the idea of togetherness of meaning and design in urban spaces, presents trees both as place making and meaning generating features, which honors the local identity of a site. Tree-squares are, therefore, the unique urban public places where this relationship is observed clearly. The researcher’s encounter with a Çınaraltı Square - a Turkish term used to define public places under massive and historical plane trees and will be referred as Tree-Square within the scope of this paper - which is marked by a plane tree that is called Musa (Moses) Plane in Antakya/Turkey has triggered an idea of questioning the urban planning and design approaches beyond the broadly accepted role of trees as natural and aesthetic beings in cities. Later on, Yalvaç Plane in Yalvaç/Isparta site, and the outstanding public place under its tremendous branches carried this wonder one step further, since this Tree-Square was not only an attractive place with a magnificent plane tree, but also the heart of the city. It was unplanned and un-envisioned by any kind of legal planning or design authority; instead, it was emerged and developed out of the cultural beliefs and traditions. This emergent public space is a product of a long term social and historical interaction process that created the main public place of a medium-sized Turkish city, as in many Anatolian cities. It carries significant urban qualities, such as forming the heart of cities and having a visible impact on the urban macroform. Therefore, a case study research has been conducted in Yalvaç Tree-Square to gain a comprehensive grasp of the social and spatial organization of an urban place that is dominated by a historical plane tree. In this sense, the role of Yalvaç Plane in the historical and spatial development of an urban space will be evaluated by relying on socially produced meaning in the built environment

The Typology of Transition Zones with Shouldered Arches in Iranian Seljuk Structures: Architecture Evolving from Sasanian to Seljuk

Squinches have been historically employed to facilitate the smooth transition from a square base to a circular dome in the transition zone beneath a dome. Their origin dates back to ancient Iranian architecture, and they were invented to address the challenge of supporting a dome on a square base. The shouldered arch style of squinch was initially used in Sasanian architecture. Over time, in Iranian-Islamic architecture, the transition zone with shouldered arches evolved, with Seljuk buildings representing the epitome of this development. The architectural style that emerged during the Seljuk dynasty (1037-1194) in Iran is referred to as Seljuk architecture. This study focused on the transition zones of Seljuk structures with the shouldered arch style of the squinch, examining their typology. The features of the transition zones of eleven case studies were converted into matrices, and the MATLAB programming platform was used for analysis. The findings of this research identified six types of transition zones that are composed of shouldered arches in Iranian Seljuk structures

An exhibition organized in honour of the state visit of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Turkey

Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya Adı: İstanbul Haritaları Broşürleriİstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033

3. The Church\u27s Bid for Worldwide Leadership

The Church in the West had made the claim that it could and would bring all men into subjection to godliness, and that in so doing it would create a universal Christian society. Because of the great influence wielded in medieval society by the feudal nobles, the Church was particularly interested in directing their activities to what it considered to be useful ends. Accordingly, as we have already seen, it gave a religious coloration to knighthood and preached that knights should fight only in such just causes as defending the helpless and protecting the innocent. About the year 1000, synods in different parts of France began to proclaim what they called the Peace of God, which was an attempt to put such things as churches, peasants, and cattle beyond the range of feudal warfare. They also tried to establish the Truce of God, by which certain days of the week and seasons of the year (such as Advent and Lent) were to be free of fighting. These efforts met with indifferent success. [excerpt