6. Palaces and Villas

Abstract

A mixture of old and new techniques was used for construction, just as for mosques – as for example the palace at Constantinople, which so impressed Maurand in 1554. For Islamic palaces were frequently embellished with marble taken from antiquities, sometimes in a haphazard manner as in Morocco, or at Beteddin near Beirut. In Morocco, for example, an 18th-century traveller expressed surprise that a ruler should simply let his splendid constructions fall down. One of the greatest of Islamic palaces – probably run close by some in the city below – was that in the Citadel at Cairo, in a setting of great luxury. Of the subsidiary buildings, one of the most intriguing was a kiosk on the Asian shore at Ingirkoey, supposedly built by Soleiman the Magnificent. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the construction of many palaces and villas in the Moslem world. Keywords:ancient villas; Cairo; Citadel; Constantinople; Islamic palaces; kiosk; Moslem world