The Sheikh of archaeology wins Best Book Award for 1999
Egypt, People, 11/5/2001

Hassan Al-Basha is a leading generation archaeologist who enriched his field with his constant pursuit of novelty. He has been working in the area of history and archaeology since half a century.

In 1943, he got his BA. in history, followed by MA in 1946.

He was delegated in 1947 by the university as a member of a mission to London, where he got an academic diploma from the university of London. He also got a BA with honors in Islamic history from the university of London's school of eastern languages.

He was appointed a professor at the Faculty of Arts in 1954 and headed the Islamic archaeology department at the Faculty of Archaeology in 1977.

The state has paid tribute to Dr. Hassan AL-Basha more than once. He won several awards and medals throughout his long scientific journey. The first award was the state incentive award in history and archaeology in 1966.

That was followed by the order of the republic, third degree in 1981 in recognition of his efforts in the area of archaeology and art.

He won the state's award of appreciation in the arts in 1992 and the order of science and arts of the first degree in 1994.

In 1999, he won the best book award in the area of dictionaries and encyclopedias for his encyclopedia of architecture, archaeology and Islamic arts.

This encyclopedia included comprehensive information about all aspects of Islamic antiquities, a colossal work that merited the appreciation of the state.

No sooner a century passed by since the appearance of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula than the Muslim Arabs came to govern countries that extended from China in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and from central Asia in the north to Nubian lands in Africa.

During that time, a new art rooted in Arabism and Islam has been planted and was reared by the traditional arts of those nations.

This plant soon became a wonderful Islamic art that was destined to live long and spread widely. It prospered in all areas whether in architecture, applied or plastic arts. Vitality and interaction with other arts characterized it.

Islamic art is the topic of this encyclopedia, which represents the first feat of its kind in this area. It is also the biggest work due to its comprehensiveness and numerous illustrations.

It contains 200 treatises in Arabic and 50 others in English arranged topically and chronologically, in addition to Arabic and English indices that include 5000 entries about architecture, archaeology, Islamic arts, arranged alphabetically.

The encyclopedia contains more than 1850 illustrations, which makes it equivalent to a picture study of Islamic antiquities.

It does not disregard the close connection between art and the aspects of civilization in general, and the interaction with other arts.

Those treatises start with an in-depth study of the three holiest mosques of Islam; Mecca, medina and the Al-Aqsa mosque in the city of Palestine.

They include a description of the mosques, and their development through the ages.

Additional topics were attached to the treatises, like the development of the Mecca Mosque under the rule of Osman Ibn Affan, and its impact on Islamic architecture.

Another study expounds the opinions of certain ulemas about the architecture of the prophet's mosque during the reign of AL Walid.

A third study deals with the role of the moguls in the burning of the prophet's mosque in 654 ah (1256 AD).

The encyclopedia singles out a section for treatises on Islamic art, and the influence of the Koran on Islamic decorations, as seen in the dome of the rock in Jerusalem and the Umayyad mosque in Damascus.

The encyclopedia then moves on from generic topics about Islamic art to more specific ones, like architecture, applied, decorative, and plastic arts.

The section on architecture includes a treatise on Islamic methodology in architecture and its compatibility, with the precepts of Islam, and the opinions of ulemas about it in what can be called the jurisprudence of building.

The encyclopedia moves on to study architecture all over the Islamic world starting with Egypt, the rest of the Arab world and then Iran, India, Turkey, Andalusia and the rest of Europe.

It includes decorative arts as well and stresses the remarkable excellence and creativity of Muslims in this area.

They developed decorative shapes with distinctive Islamic spirit such as geomeffic forms like the star-shaped dish. They also derived stylized forms from plants (arabesque) and others from the animal world.

The encyclopedia then moves on to cover decorative and applied arts like the making of carpets, pottery, glass and wood, with a study of the material, industrial models, and how to apply them.

This colossal work covers also the arts of making leather and bookbinding and their development through the ages.

The encyclopedia also includes studies of tools of writing and paper making, including papyri, parchment, wooden boards, and silk and the establishment of paper factories in the Islamic world since the 8th century AH, and the transfer of this industry to Europe and its effect on the invention of printing.

A number of treatises deal with different styles used in decorating, like portrayal and lines.

Next to architecture and applied arts, the encyclopedia singled out a section for Islamic plastic arts like carving and portrayal, which is considered the most important art covered by the encyclopedia.

It includes around 40 treatises about Islamic portrayal covering its development schools, and Islamic artists and their styles and interaction with other arts, especially from Europe and China.

The encyclopedia also includes studies on the relationship between portrayal and architecture.

It includes a treatise on the prophet's mosque in the light of using pictures in studying the development of buildings and another on the same mosque in the light of ottoman portrayals.

In addition to other studies that show interaction between Islamic portrayal and portraits in other arts, namely, the European effect on Iranian portrayal, and influence of Islamic arts in Asia minor and the Balkans on European portrayal, and the relationship of mogul portraits with European portrayal.

Among those treatises is a study of Islamic art in the portraits of Holbain, a notable European artist who was in love with Islamic arts, as seen in his decorative clothes and arabesque. His carpets follow a certain type that was produced in Asia Minor towards the end of the 15th and the 17th centuries.

The studies also include the influence of Islam on European portrayal as seen in the works of Gentile Belini.

This major work also touches upon the mutual influence between Islamic portrayal and literature.

An example is the compatibility a style between the Maqamat of Al Hariri and the portrayal of Cairo as seen in the use of exaggerated decoration whether in the use o the word or shape even at the expense of the spirit.

The Arabic section concludes with a chapter on Arabic writing, with treatises on Arabic calligraphy, and its effect on European arts.

This section includes a treatise on koranic calligraphy, and the creation of Arabic parsing to facilitate reading.

This section also concludes with a treatise on the development of Koran and the use of division marks in the holy book.

This 5-volume encyclopedia includes studies in English, considered complementary to Arabic research.

It also contains the complete anthology of studies made by Dr. Hassan Al-Basha throughout 50 years of work in the areas of architecture, archaeology and Islamic arts.

There is no doubt this work comes to fill a gap in all of those areas of study.

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