Layers of meaning: An interpretive analysis of three early Mamluk buildings.

Buildings acquire layers of meaning over time. These meanings depend as much on their audience and interpreters, as on their creators. The layers of meaning range from those that explain the buildings to those that explain their interpretations. In this dissertation I start from this premise to read, underst and and interpret three Mamluk building from the 7-8th/13-14th centuries in Cairo: the Mosque of Baybars, the Madrasa of al-Nasir Mohammad and the Madrasa of Sultan Hasan. Ultimately my goal was to unfold these multiple layers of meanings. In this study I used the theories of Hermeneutics. I have also integrated modes of interpretations from art history, linguistics, critical literary studies, and cultural anthropology. The study was based primarily on the significance of human agency, the acknowledgement of preunderst and ings, on the grounding of explanation and interpretation, and finally on underst and ing the past neither through today's st and ards nor exclusively through the st and ards of the past. These three monuments are comments on more than themselves. They are historical documents through which we can underst and their creators and their culture. Their interpretations mirror the time, values, and ideology of their interpreters. They exemplify the complexities of designing and constructing a building, the multitude of actors involved, and the multiple motives of each. They clarify the diversity of meanings by perceivers and interpreters, and the impossibility of finding a gr and meaning as an ultimate explanation of a building. and finally, they speak about the power involved in creating a record of the past that influences both present and future, and in establishing a story told by one culture about another. The power of history is revealed in the ways our predecessors have understood and explained past architecture and how they have influenced our own underst and ing. Once we become aware that the role of architecture history is not innocent we no longer need to hide behind the pretense of neutrality. Instead, we should free ourselves from our indifference and become passionate about our interpretations and positions, and bring to life the meanings we underst and in historical and cross-cultural studies.Ph.D.ArchitectureMiddle Eastern historyArchaeologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161892/1/8821537.pd