Stealing from the Saracens
How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe
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Stealing from the Saracens
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Narrated by:
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Christine Rendel
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By:
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Diana Darke
About this listen
Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, Europeans are increasingly airbrushing from history their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But this legacy lives on in some of Europe's most recognizable buildings, from Notre-Dame Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament.
This book reveals the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. Diana Darke traces ideas and styles from vibrant Middle Eastern centers like Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo, via Muslim Spain, Venice, and Sicily into Europe. She describes how medieval crusaders, pilgrims, and merchants encountered Arab Muslim culture on their way to the Holy Land; and explores more recent artistic interaction between Ottoman and Western cultures, including Sir Christopher Wren's inspirations in the "Saracen" style of Gothic architecture.
Recovering this long yet overlooked history of architectural "borrowing", Stealing from the Saracens is a rich tale of cultural exchange, shedding new light on Europe's greatest landmarks.
©2020 Diana Darke (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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A Riverboat Cruise from the luxury of your phone
- By Amazon Customer on 02-20-20
By: Toby Wilkinson
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How Do We Look
- The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity. Conceived as an accompaniment to How Do We Look and The Eye of Faith, the famed Civilizations shows on PBS, renowned classicist Mary Beard has created this elegant volume on how we have looked at art.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Really needs a PDF
- By Britt Elin Gihleengen on 12-06-18
By: Mary Beard
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Venice
- Pure City
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4 out of 5 stars 75
The Venetians' language and way of thinking set them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides rather than the land. This latest work from the incomparable Peter Ackroyd, like a magic gondola, transports its listeners to that sensual and surprising city. His account embraces facts and romance, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges, and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the festivals and the flowers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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An endless droning list.....
- By jack on 03-15-11
By: Peter Ackroyd
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The 12th Planet
- Earth Chronicles Series, Book 1
- By: Zecharia Sitchin
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,510
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,325
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,328
The product of 30 years of intensive research, The 12th Planet is the first book in Zecharia Sitchin's prophetic Earth Chronicles series - a revolutionary body of work that offers indisputable documentary proof of humanity's extraterrestrial forefathers. Travelers from the stars, they arrived eons ago, and planted the genetic seed that would ultimately blossom into a remarkable species...called Man.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tough listen to start with
- By D. Dooley on 01-22-18
By: Zecharia Sitchin
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Lost Enlightenment
- Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
- By: S. Frederick Starr
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 502
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 434
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 432
Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Subject worthwhile but repetative narrative
- By F-M on 04-10-14
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The Rise and Fall of Alexandria
- Birthplace of the Modern Mind
- By: Justin Pollard, Howard Reid
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,026
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 694
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 692
Founded by Alexander the Great and built by self-styled Greek pharaohs, the city of Alexandria at its height dwarfed both Athens and Rome. It was the marvel of its age, legendary for its vast palaces, safe harbors, and magnificent lighthouse. But it was most famous for the astonishing intellectual efflorescence it fostered and the library it produced. If the European Renaissance was the "rebirth" of Western culture, then Alexandria, Egypt, was its birthplace.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good listen
- By Jeffrey on 10-02-08
By: Justin Pollard, and others
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Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
- By: Bettany Hughes
- Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 158
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City", but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city but a global story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A daunting undertaking pulled off superlatively
- By SGS on 12-24-17
By: Bettany Hughes
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Sumerians
- A Captivating Guide to Ancient Sumerian History, Sumerian Mythology and the Mesopotamian Empire of the Sumer Civilization
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4 out of 5 stars 112
The sheer importance of Sumerian culture in regards to world culture as a whole is impossible to overstate. This civilization is single-handedly responsible for some of the most major innovations in nearly every field relevant to maintaining a civilized society - this includes religion, lawmaking, architecture, schooling, art, literature, and even entertainment. Naturally, most of what we see as negative aspects of society were established in ancient Sumer as well. There wasn’t an aspect of Sumerian life that wasn’t plagued with corruption or devastation of one form or another.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Lots of information in short book
- By Pamela on 01-04-19
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The Louvre
- The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum
- By: James Gardner
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial residence of the kings of France and then into the world's greatest art museum.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening
- By Jean on 10-29-20
By: James Gardner
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The Sistine Secrets
- Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican
- By: Benjamin Blech, Roy Doliner
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story5 out of 5 stars 34
Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world - the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well-researched!
- By Natalie K. on 08-28-17
By: Benjamin Blech, and others
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Scotland's Hidden Sacred Past
- By: Freddy Silva
- Narrated by: Freddy Silva
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Around 6000 BC, a revolution took place on Orkney and the Western Isles of Scotland. An outstanding collection of stone circles, standing stones, round towers, and passage mounds appeared seemingly out of nowhere. And yet many such monuments were not indigenous to Britain, but to regions of the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. Their creators were equally mysterious. Traditions tell of the Papae and Peti, "strangers from afar" who were physically different, dressed in white tunics, and lived aside from the regular population.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Magical
- By Mori on 12-17-21
By: Freddy Silva
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Basilica
- The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's
- By: R.A. Scotti
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
It was the splendor and the scandal of the age. In 1506, the ferociously ambitious Renaissance Pope Julius II tore down the most sacred shrine in Europe, the millennium-old St. Peter's Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine over the apostle's grave, to build a better basilica.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Spell binding
- By Margaret on 10-17-07
By: R.A. Scotti
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The Sumerians: A History from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Stephen Paul Aulridge Jr.
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
The Sumerians settled in the area known as Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, around 5,000 years ago. They produced many fundamental changes to the way in which human societies developed - these were the first city-builders, the first people to use wheeled vehicles, the first methodical astronomers, and the first people to develop a sophisticated written language. The Sumerians also produced art, music, and literature as well as created some of the first professional soldiers the world had ever seen.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Simple and as best “to the point” as it can be
- By Lona on 08-24-24
By: Hourly History
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Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD
- By: Peter Brown
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 263
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 226
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 221
Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A learned, well-balanced postmodern history
- By Jacobus on 11-21-12
By: Peter Brown
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The Parthenon Enigma
- By: Joan Breton Connelly
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 36
In this revolutionary book, Joan Breton Connelly challenges our most basic assumptions about the Parthenon and the ancient Athenians. Beginning with the natural environment and its rich mythic associations, she re-creates the development of the Acropolis - the Sacred Rock at the heart of the city-state - from its prehistoric origins to its Periklean glory days as a constellation of temples among which the Parthenon stood supreme.
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4 out of 5 stars
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dope book, lacked depth but overall worthwhile
- By Nicholas on 06-29-15
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The History of Western Art
- By: Peter Whitfield
- Narrated by: Sebastian Comberti
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 258
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 220
What is art? Why do we value images of saints, kings, goddesses, battles, landscapes or cities from eras of history utterly remote from ourselves? This history of art shows how painters, sculptors and architects have expressed the belief systems of their age: religious, political and aesthetic. From the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, to the revolutionary years of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the artist has acted as a mirror to the ideals and conflicts of the human mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A whirlwind tour of Western art
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-18-12
By: Peter Whitfield
What listeners say about Stealing from the Saracens
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cameron Preston Kruger
- 08-05-22
A Good History of a Relatively Obscure Period
Diana Darke does a good job of tracing the various Islamic architectural influences on European architecture. These connections are underappreciated, and Darke deserves considerable credit for her researches and her clear writing. Unfortunately, this otherwise praiseworthy book is marred by the author's weak understanding of Classical spatial development in post-Renaissance European architecture.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sgooch
- 11-11-22
Fascinating book and stellar narration!
I was intrigued from the first seconds of this insightful explanation of little known influences. Or at least this was news to me! I loved Christine Rendel’s thoughtful narration. She made the subject intriguing and extremely clear. Brava to the author and the narrator!
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1 person found this helpful