Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Architecture
During the Abbasid period, the Muslim culture and civilization was touching the height of its glory. It was a period of economic prosperity and of great intellectual awakening. Hitti says, ”undoubtedly the Abbasid period is the most striking and unequalled in depth and variety of talent.” During this period the Muslims came under the influence of the Greek literature and philosophy. It was also in this period, when the Arabs became acquainted with the Indian science, particularly medicine, mathematics and astronomy. This outlook towards different spheres of their life It seemed as if all the world from the caliph down to the humblest citizens became students, or at least patrons, of literature. In quest of knowledge men travelled over three continents and returned home, like a bee laden with honey, to impart the precious stores which they had accumulated crowds of eager disciples, and to compile with incredible industry those works of encyclopedic range and eradication from which modern science in the wider sense of the
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world, has derived for more than is generally supposed. This was the cultural heritage under the Abbasids.
Islamic architecture started from Arabia, developed in Mesopotamia, Syria, Iran, North Africa. Spain and Central Asia and reached its zenith of the artistic beauty during the reign of Abbasid Caliphate. Abbasid architecture was the product of many other major civilization’s architectural patterns.
Under the Abbasids, the Hellenistic influence of Syria was replaced by the surviving influence of Sassanian Persia, which profoundly modified the art and architecture, and this gave birth to the art of Samarra, the influence of which extended to Egypt under Ibn Tulun, and even Nishapur and Bahrain. In palace architecture there was a vast difference between one of the Umayyads and that of the Abbasids, partly due to the adoption of Persian ideas of royalty which almost deified the king, hence elaborate throne-rooms, generally domed, for private audience, preceded by a vaulted lawn (or four radiating lawns) for public audience. The baits also were different following the type of Mshatta and Qasre-al- Tuba. The scale was immense and axial planning was a marked feature. But all are built of brick and a great part of that basest of materials-mudbrick-hidden by thick coats-of stucco A new type of pointed arch appears~the four-centered arch. The earliest existing squinches in Islam date from this period. An important innovation was the introduction of luster tiles, the earliest examples being those brought to Qairawan from Iraq in 248/862. Bands of inscription were usually made to stand out on a blue background. But the widespread influence of the Abbasids are not extend to Spain, where the Umayyad art, brought thither by Syrian refugees, was still full of life.n