Georges Marçais (

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

, 11 March 1876 –

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 20 May 1962) was a French orientalist, historian, and scholar of

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

who specialized in the architecture of

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

Biography

He initially trained as a painter and writer but after visiting his brother, William Marçais (1872–1956), an orientalist who directed a school in Algeria, he turned instead to scholarly studies. After writing his thesis on

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

in North Africa, he was a professor at the University of Algiers (1919–44; during the French occupation of Algeria) and wrote numerous books and articles.

Academic contributions

One of his main overall contributions to the scholarly study of Islamic art/architecture was to highlight the architecture of the western

Islamic world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

– the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

and

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

– as its own regional style (popularly called "Moorish" architecture) which could be distinguished from the artistic traditions in the more eastern parts of the Islamic world. One of his books, ''L’Architecture musulmane d’occident: Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne et Sicile'', published in 1954, is still considered one of the standard works on this subject.

Selected publications

* ''Les Monuments arabes de Tlemcen'' (Paris, 1903) – with William Marçais * ''Coupoles et plafonds de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan'' (Paris, 1925) * ''Manuel d’art musulman: L’Architecture: Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne, Sicile'', 2 vols. (Paris, 1926–7) * ''Les Faïences à reflets métalliques de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan'' (Paris, 1928) * ''Le Costume musulman d’Alger'' (Paris, 1930) * ''Tunis et Kairouan'' (Paris, 1937) * "Les Broderies turques d’Alger," ''Ars Islamica'', vol. 4 (1937), pp. 145–53 * "Remarques sur l’esthétique musulmane," ''Annales de l'Institut d'Études Orientales'', vol. 4 (1938), pp. 55–71 * "La Conception des villes dans l’Islâm," ''Revue d'Alger'', vol. 2 (1945), pp. 517–33 * ''La Berbérie musulmane et l’orient au moyen âge'' (Paris, 1946) * ''L’Art de l’Islam'' (Paris, 1947) * "Nouvelles remarques sur l’esthétique musulmane," ''Annales de l'Institut d'Études Orientales'', vol. 6 (1947), pp. 31–52 * ''Objets kairouanais, IXe au XIIIe siècle: Reliures, verreries, cuivres et bronzes, bijoux'', 2 vols. (Tunis, 1948–52) – with L. Poinssot * "Salle, antisalle: Recherches sur l’évolution d’un thème de l’architecture domestique en pays d’Islâm," ''Annales de l'Institut d'Études Orientales'', vol. 10 (1952), pp. 274–301 * ''L’Architecture musulmane d’occident: Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne et Sicile'' (Paris, 1954) * ''La Grande Mosquée de Sfax'' (Tunis, 1960) – with Lucien Golvin * ''L’Art musulman'' (Paris, 1962)

References

1876 births 1962 deaths French orientalists French academics Academic staff of the University of Algiers {{France-academic-bio-stub