Rounded Dome (The Gol Gumbaz) Mausoleum of Muhammad 'Adil Shah

The Gol (Round) Gumbaz (Dome) is the mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah (r. 1627-1656) of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur. It appears to have been the desire of the ruler to build a mausoleum that was comparable to that of his father, Ibrahim Adil Shah II. Since his father's mausoleum, known as the Ibrahim Rauza, was exceptional in composition and decoration, the only means of avoiding direct competition was through size. It is one of the biggest single chamber structures in the world and covers an area of 18,225 square feet (1,693 square meters), which is bigger than the better known Pantheon in Rome which is 14,996 square feet (1,393 square meters). The mausoleum is part of a complex that includes a mosque, a dharmshala (inn for travelers) and other buildings related to the sovereign's mausoleum. The building was never properly completed as intended since construction began towards the end of Muhammad Adil Shah's reign. As a result, the tomb is a plain cube with towers on each corner.
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Built of dark grey basalt and decorated plaster, the walls are nine feet (2.7 meters) thick and 100 feet (30.5 meters) in height. The interior measures 135 feet (41 meters) on each side. Each exterior face of the cube displays three great blind arches. The central arch is wider than the others and is dressed with wooden panels with small rectangular entrance and three rows of arched windows punched through. Above the south door or main entrance, hanging from a chain from the cornice, is a 'bijli patthar' (meteorite) that is said to have fallen during Muhammad Adil's reign. It's believed the stone guards the tomb from lighting. The cornice and parapet of the cube is the most articulated feature of the façade. The cornice rests on highly carved stone corbels that project about ten feet (three meters) from the wall. The cornice supports the parapet which has a row of arched openings and leaf-shaped merlons.
In the center of the tomb chamber is a platform with the cenotaphs of Muhammad Adil, his youngest wife Arus Bibi, his favorite daughter and a grandson. The main cenotaph is marked by an elaborate wooden baldachin. The real tombs are located below in the basement and are accessed by a staircase under the western entrance. An octagonal chamber was attached to the central arch of the north façade at a much later date. According to some the octagonal chamber was meant to shelter the remains of Jahan Begum, wife of Muhammad Adil, but this would have been contrary to the convention of the wife's grave situated next to the husband's. Most likely, it could have been for the spiritual mentor of Muhammad Adil.
The corner towers are incongruous with the rest of the mausoleum composition. They are divided into seven floors with a projecting cornice and a row of arched openings marking each level. Combined, the towers resemble Chinese pagodas more than minarets. Each tower is then capped by a majestic hemispheric dome with a ring of carved leaves around the base.
The mausoleum is crowned by a massive dome. At the base of the dome elegant carved petals cover the drum. The exterior diameter is almost 133 feet (44 meters) and reaches a height of 90 feet (27.4 meters) from a circular platform. Total exterior height from ground level is 198 feet (60 meters). The dome rests on a unique pendentive system. It is a system of intersecting arches that was not used anywhere else in India. The only other commonly known instance was in the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The eight high pointed arches intersect in the interior of the cube at regular intervals and on their points rests the high circular platform with an opening of 96 feet (29.5 meters) in diameter. The inner surface of the dome overlaps the edge of the circle by about 13 feet (four meters) so that part of the weight falls on the intersecting arches that bear and neutralize any other exterior forces. The dome is built of horizontal courses of brick with a flat section at its crown. It is cemented with lime and reaches a thickness of 12 feet (3.5 meters). There are six openings at its base.
An interesting discovery was made in the basement of a very strong circular foundation that matched the circular opening of the dome above. It, however, supports only a platform and a light wooden pavilion. One explanation could be that the original plan may have been based on the conventional mausoleum plan of a small domed chamber surrounded by an open arcade and that it was not until the foundation had been completed that the king or architect thought of resting the dome upon the outer walls, thereby enlarging the volume of dome several times.
Another interesting feature of the mausoleum is the gallery around the base of the dome that hangs out about 11 feet (3.54 meters). It is accessed through the winding staircase in the four towers. It is known as the whispering gallery because the sound reflections from the dome allow the slightest of whisper can be heard even when standing cross the dome from each other.
This mausoleum is one of the Bijapur's main architectural treasures. Despite its incomplete condition, the sheer majesty of the structure renders visitors awestruck. The towers with their hemispherical domes, the carved petal borders and parapet give the building an exoticism that blends with monumentality and prevents this building from becoming just another building emulating classic Mughal architecture. A building that inspires admiration for its boldness would most definitely have been a spectacular experiment in completion.

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Construction of Taj Mahal, Agra, India Completed (09 May)

Taj Mahal is regarded as one of the eight wonders of the world, and some Western historians have noted that its architectural beauty has never been surpassed. The Taj is the most beautiful monument built by the Mughals, the Muslim rulers of India. Taj Mahal is built entirely of white marble. Its stunning architectural beauty is beyond adequate description, particularly at dawn and sunset. The Taj seems to glow in the light of the full moon. On a foggy morning, the visitors experience the Taj as if suspended when viewed from across the Jamuna river.
Taj Mahal was built by a Muslim, Emperor Shah Jahan (died 1666 C.E.) in the memory of his dear wife and queen Mumtaz Mahal at Agra, India. It is an "elegy in marble" or some say an expression of a "dream." Taj Mahal (meaning Crown Palace) is a Mausoleum that houses the grave of queen Mumtaz Mahal at the lower chamber. The grave of Shah Jahan was added to it later. The queen’s real name was Arjumand Banu. In the tradition of the Mughals, important ladies of the royal family were given another name at their marriage or at some other significant event in their lives, and that new name was commonly used by the public. Shah Jahan's real name was Shahab-ud-din, and he was known as Prince Khurram before ascending to the throne in 1628.
Taj Mahal was constructed over a period of twenty-two years, employing twenty thousand workers. It was completed in 1648 C.E. at a cost of 32 Million Rupees. The construction documents show that its master architect was Ustad ‘Isa, the renowned Islamic architect of his time. The documents contain names of those employed and the inventory of construction materials and their origin. Expert craftsmen from Delhi, Qannauj, Lahore, and Multan were employed. In addition, many renowned Muslim craftsmen from Baghdad, Shiraz and Bukhara worked on many specialized tasks.
The Taj stands on a raised, square platform (186 x 186 feet) with its four corners truncated, forming an unequal octagon. The architectural design uses the interlocking arabesque concept, in which each element stands on its own and perfectly integrates with the main structure. It uses the principles of self-replicating geometry and a symmetry of architectural elements.
Its central dome is fifty-eight feet in diameter and rises to a height of 213 feet. It is flanked by four subsidiary domed chambers. The four graceful, slender minarets are 162.5 feet each. The entire mausoleum (inside as well as outside) is decorated with inlaid design of flowers and calligraphy using precious gems such as agate and jasper. The main archways, chiseled with passages from the Holy Qur’an and the bold scroll work of flowery pattern, give a captivating charm to its beauty. The central domed chamber and four adjoining chambers include many walls and panels of Islamic decoration.
The mausoleum is a part of a vast complex comprising of a main gateway, an elaborate garden, a mosque (to the left), a guest house (to the right), and several other palatial buildings. The Taj is at the farthest end of this complex, with the river Jamuna behind it. The large garden contains four reflecting pools dividing it at the center. Each of these four sections is further subdivided into four sections and then each into yet another four sections. Like the Taj, the garden elements serve like Arabesque, standing on their own and also constituting the whole.

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Leonardo da Vinci (History of Art) 02 May

Da Vinci was one of the great creative minds of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor but also immensely talented as an engineer, scientist and inventor.
Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 near the Tuscan town of Vinci, the illegitimate son of a local lawyer. He was apprenticed to the sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence and in 1478 became an independent master. In about 1483, he moved to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza family as an engineer, sculptor, painter and architect. From 1495 to 1497 he produced a mural of 'The Last Supper' in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
Da Vinci was in Milan until the city was invaded by the French in 1499 and the Sforza family forced to flee. He may have visited Venice before returning to Florence. During his time in Florence, he painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous 'Mona Lisa' (1503-1506).
In 1506, da Vinci returned to Milan, remaining there until 1513. This was followed by three years based in Rome. In 1517, at the invitation of the French king Francis I, Leonardo moved to the Château of Cloux, near Amboise in France, where he died on 2 May 1519.
The fame of Da Vinci's surviving paintings has meant that he has been regarded primarily as an artist, but the thousands of surviving pages of his notebooks reveal the most eclectic and brilliant of minds. He wrote and drew on subjects including geology, anatomy (which he studied in order to paint the human form more accurately), flight, gravity and optics, often flitting from subject to subject on a single page, and writing in left-handed mirror script. He 'invented' the bicycle, airplane, helicopter, and parachute some 500 years ahead of their time.
If all this work had been published in an intelligible form, da Vinci's place as a pioneering scientist would have been beyond dispute. Yet his true genius was not as a scientist or an artist, but as a combination of the two: an 'artist-engineer'. His painting was scientific, based on a deep understanding of the workings of the human body and the physics of light and shade. His science was expressed through art, and his drawings and diagrams show what he meant, and how he understood the world to work.

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Sir Joshua Reynolds (British Painter Died on 20 April)

Sir Joshua Reynolds, (born July 16, 1723, Plympton, Devon, Eng.—died Feb. 23, 1792, London), portrait painter and aesthetician who dominated English artistic life in the middle and late 18th century. Through his art and teaching, he attempted to lead British painting away from the indigenous anecdotal pictures of the early 18th century toward the formal rhetoric of the continental Grand Style. With the founding of the Royal Academy in 1768, Reynolds was elected its first president and knighted by King George III.

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Georges-Louis de Buffon 19 April (1707-1788)

Sometimes it is hard to imagine how revolutionary an idea was, especially when that idea is currently accepted as common knowledge. Many such ideas appear simple and are often taught at the elementary school level, yet the simplicity of these ideas belies the complexity involved in their origins.
During the eighteenth century, two church doctrines provided sweeping biblical explanations for most questions about biological diversity: Separate Creation, the idea that all creatures have been created independently of one another by God and organized into a hierarchy ("chain of being") with Man occupying the most elevated rank beneath God; and the 6,000 year limit on the age of the planet.
It is not the average person who questions two thousand years of dogma, but that is what Buffon did: 100 years before Darwin, Buffon, in his Historie Naturelle, a 44 volume encyclopedia describing everything known about the natural world, wrestled with the similarities of humans and apes and even talked about common ancestry of Man and apes. Although Buffon believed in organic change, he did not provide a coherent mechanism for such changes. He thought that the environment acted directly on organisms through what he called "organic particles". Buffon also published Les Epoques de la Nature (1788) where he openly suggested that the planet was much older than the 6,000 years proclaimed by the church, and discussed concepts very similar to Charles Lyell's "uniformitarianism" which were formulated 40 years later.
Buffon was born into the wealth and prestige of the French aristocracy and was educated in law and medicine, but his real interest was nature. He was struck by the diversity of life and was not content with existing explanations of the natural world. What separated him from others was his empirical and philosophical pursuits of causes and explanations beyond the accepted explanations of his time. Buffon's courageous way of looking at the world paved the way for subsequent revolutionary thinkers who are responsible for much of what we know about the natural world.

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Literary Ambassadors of Iran at the United Nations Office at Vienna

Statues of four Iranian luminaries were unveiled during a ceremony at the United Nations Office at Vienna

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, and several other Iranian and foreign diplomats attended the unveiling ceremony for the statues of Avicenna, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Zakariya Razi (Rhazes), and Omar Khayyam.
“The idea was proposed by Iran’s representative at the UN Office at Vienna and was realized with the cooperation of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO). The process of making the statues began two years ago,” Soltanieh told the Persian service of IRNA.
“The statues were completed last week and were transferred to the open space of the UN office. The date for the unveiling was also discussed with (members of) several organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and finally the day June 9 was selected.”
The four statues are the symbols of Iranians’ adventurous spirit over the centuries and they are gifts from the Iranian nation to the world, Soltanieh added.
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina, known as Abu Ali Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna was born c. 980 near Bukhara, in contemporary Uzbekistan, and died in 1037 in Hamedan, Iran. He was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist, soldier, statesman, and teacher.
The Muslim physician and writer Abu Bakr Muhammed ibn Zakariya Razi (854?-925?), also known as Rhazes, whose medical writings greatly influenced the Islamic world and Western Europe in the Middle Ages, was born and died in Rey. He wrote on almost every aspect of medicine.
Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) is chiefly known to English-speaking readers through the translation of a collection of his quatrains in “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” (1859), by the English writer Edward Fitzgerald.
Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-ca. 1048) was a Muslim astronomer, mathematician, geographer, and historian.

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The Comoros Islands 1 (Islands of Moon)

The Comoros Islands (Shikomori Komori; Arabic جزر القمر Juzur al-Qamar; French Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar. They are divided between the sovereign state of Comoros and the French overseas department of Mayotte. The islet of Banc du Geyser and the Glorioso Islands are sometimes included as part of the archipelago.
The Comoros are located in the Mozambique Channel to the north-west of Madagascar and facing Mozambique. These volcanic islands, covering a total area of 2034 km², are:
* Ngazidja (or Grande Comore): the largest island, with the capital of the Union of the Comoros, Moroni
* Ndzwani (or Anjouan)
* Mwali (or Mohéli)
* Maore (or Mayotte): under French administration, and including
* Pamanzi (or Petite Terre) Mayotte's second-largest island. Supports Mayotte's only airport in Dzaoudzi
* Banc Vailheu, or Raya, lies 20 km west of Grande Comore, is within 7 m of the surface at low tide.
Two islets, have been considered part of this archipelago, by various sources, and at different times:
* The Banc du Geyser, a reef measuring 8 by 5 km in area, some parts of which are emergent, situated 130 km Northe North-East of Mayotte. It is claimed by Comoros, France and Madagascar.
* The Glorioso Islands (French Îles Glorieuses) were administratively attached to the archipelago before 1975, and, geologically speaking, form a part of the archipelago.
In addition, between Madagascar and Mayotte, there is the Banc du Leven, a former island which is submerged these days.
"The affinity between the Comorian flora and the Madagascan flora is certain. The presence of the Banc du Leven, along about one hundred kilometres to the extreme north-west of Madagascar between the Montagne d'Ambre and the archipelago could partly explain this affinity. In fact, this bank with a tabular appearance presents coralligenous sediments which can be attributed to the presence of a coral reef during the Würm glaciation.[1]" — Callmander, M.W. 2002. Biogéographie et systématique des Pandanaceae de l’Océan Indien occidental. Doctoral Thesis, University of Neuchâtel, 253 p.
Politically, the islands are currently divided into two entities:
* The Comoros, a sovereign state
* Mayotte, an overseas department of France
The Union of the Comoros is recognized as including the three northernmost islands. Anjouan and Mohéli declared their independence in 1997, however these unilateral declarations of independence received no international recognition and were later rescinded.
Grande Comore is the youngest of the islands, and has a massive active volcano on it, which scientists predict is likely to erupt in the near future.

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