Architecture, craft and religious symbolism in rural areas of Baluchistan in Pakistan

Keiany, Mohsen (2010) Architecture, craft and religious symbolism in rural areas of Baluchistan in Pakistan. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Abstract

The study forms a direct analysis and personal response towards the symbolism and architecture of Baluchistan through three methodological stages of research: literature review, case study, and examination, classification and analysis of results. The research first focuses on the social environment of Baluchistan such as social patterns, languages, local economy and the lifestyle of the nomadic, semi-nomadic and the rural settled people in order to understand the input of local culture and tribo-religious influences of local architecture, in particular the form of mosque, its feature elements such as dome, mihrab, minbar and most importantly the minaret. The fieldwork and collecting data is theoretically contextualised and draws upon a combination of reference points from Islamic architecture as well as anthropology. The Baluchi lifestyle is analysed, taking into account native architecture including mosques and symbolic minarets as key factors, together with their design, characteristics, social contextualisation and methods of production.

Selected architectural forms of normal houses and mosques and the design of their featuring constituent elements are analysed to explain their symbolic meaning and their visual content.

Historical contexts and the relationship between the Baluchi lifestyle, textiles (prayer rugs), local architecture and the design of their mosques is an important part of understanding the social and religious significance of minarets in Baluchistan. Therefore, the principle and functions of minarets in rural areas of Baluchistan, along with their local traditional architecture are compared to the principles of religo-cultural architecture in highly developed Islamic urban areas in order to examine the potential changing patterns of minarets in rural areas of Baluchistan, including the configuration and function towards the understanding of the symbolic meaning of minarets.

As an artist, a personal response involves developing a pictorial assessment to approach and collect the data by studying the native lifestyle, architecture, mosques and identifying the symbolic minarets in a typological arrangement.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:
DateEvent
February 2010Completed
Subjects: CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-01 - architecture
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-02 - building
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-04 - planning (urban, rural and regional)
CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-01 - creative arts and design > CAH25-01-05 - others in creative arts and design
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > Birmingham School of Architecture and Design
Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection
Depositing User: Richard Birley
Date Deposited: 20 Jul 2017 09:03
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2022 17:20
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4912

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