A Paradisiacal Tent of Red Hyacinth

MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND THE SACRED – RELIGIOUS LEGACIES AND SPIRITUAL RENEWAL, edited by Ross Anderson and Maximil- ian Sternberg. London & New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2020, pp. 285. ISBN: 9781350098664.

INTERSECTIONS: ART AND ISLAMIC COSMOPOLITANISM, edited by Melia Belli Bose. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2021, pp. 238. ISBN: 9781683401971.

THE KA’BA ORIENTATIONS – READINGS IN ISLAM’S ANCIENT HOUSE, by Simon O’Meara. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 251. ISBN: 0978748699308.

Like the author, I have never been to Makkah: it is the journey of a lifetime that awaits to be accomplished and despite the relative ease of reaching this spiritual destination, the kind of journey I envisage is not by plane nor would its duration comprise the standard ten days. The Ka’ba Orientations would be a perfect companion on such an excursion, preferably in paperback – doubtless this will not be long in coming. O’Meara’s erudite and highly readable book is dedicated to the very heart of Islam yet, puzzlingly, this is the first academic monograph on the subject.