Georges Marçais ( Rennes, 11 March 1876 –

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, 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 Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide ra ...

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 constructing building ...

who specialized in the architecture of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Biography

He initially trained as a painter and writer but after visiting his brother,

William Marçais William Ambroise Marçais (6 November 1872, Rennes – 1 October 1956, Paris), was a French Orientalist, particularly noted as an expert on the Maghrebi Arabic dialects. Biography William Marçais was born in Rennes in 1872. After finishing the ...

(1872–1956), an orientalist who directed a school in Algeria, he turned instead to scholarly studies. After writing his thesis on Berbers in North Africa, he was a professor at the

University of Algiers The University of Algiers (Arabic:جامعة الجزائر – بن يوسف بن خـدة ), commonly called the Algiers 1 University, is a public research university located in Algiers, Algeria. It is the oldest and most prestigious universi ...

(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

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

and

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

– 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 University of Algiers faculty {{France-academic-bio-stub