Marianne Boqvist   Degree/position: PhD in Islamic Art History and Archaeology from Paris IV Sorbonne. Affiliated scholar to the SRII. Research areas: Ottoman architectural and urban history with focus on the Ottoman Arab provinces (Bilad al-Sham) in the 16th century. Current projects: The impact of Ottoman rule on Urbanism and Architecture in the Provinces of the Empire and how to preserve it: the case of Damascus This project aims at increasing the knowledge and understanding of the formation of Ottoman provincial architecture, especially on the strategies of high-ranking Ottoman officials (Pashas) when founding pious foundations ( waqf ), in provincial urban and rural locations and how these have affected the formation of local Ottoman architectural styles. The project studies two of the biggest waqf -s of the 16th century in the province of Damascus that include both urban and rural monuments, the waqf of Lala Mustafa Pasha and his wife Fatima Khatun and and the waqf of Sinan Pasha. Different types of written sources refer to the historical circumstances as well as the contemporary topographic urban/ rural context, the structure, layout and building material of these foundations (waqfiyas, court records, chronicles and biographic dictionaries). This material together with the preserved building structures give us the tools to study the strategic thinking behind the urban and rural development in the early Ottoman period: why were monuments built in specific locations; who was involved; what lay behind the choice of the materials and techniques used in their design and construction? Through this approach the project can also contribute to the development of appropriate methods of reconstruction, conservation, restoration and rehabilitation for sometimes poorly preserved monuments and urban/rural units. Stadsplanering och arkitektur i 1500-talets Damaskus: en fallstudie av kontinuitet och förändring This project wishes to go out of the framework set by the big ottoman foundations in Damascus and focus on smaller, local foundations that are documented in historical documents such as waqfiyas, court records, chronicles, diaries and biographic dictionaries. In this written material we can find important testimonies of the urban fabric of Damascus just at the moment when the medieval city was being transformed into an early “modern” city. Many of these foundations were founded at the end of the Mamluk period at the moment when the cities were rebuilt after Timur Lenks invasion (1401) and continued to develop in the early ottoman period. These buildings form a link between these two building stydles; the Mamluk and the ottoman The first project is supported by SIDA and the second by the Åke Wiberg foundation E-mail: Marianne.Boqvist@srii.org Selected publications: 1. Architecture et développement urbain a Damas de la conquête Ottomane (922 H./1516-17) a la fondation du waqf de Murad Pasha (1017 H./1607-08) , non published PhD dissertation, in Histoire de l'Art et d Archéologie Islamiques, Université de Sorbonne, Paris IV, January 2006. 2. “Building materials and construction techniques”, in, Bayt al-Aqqad, The History and Restoration of a House in Old Damascus the Danish Institute of Damascus, ed. P., Mortensen, Proceedings of the Danish instiute of Damascus, 4, Aarhus University Press 2005, p.129-140. 3. “La recherche de nouveaux éléments concernant l'histoire des chantiers successifs et des techniques de construction de la citadelle de Damas. Une étude sur, les matériaux de construction, l'outillage, les techniques de taille et les formules géométriques des ouvertures”, Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales, IFEAD, Damaskus, 2002 (december 2002). 4. “The Rawzat al-Ahbâb fî Siyâr an-Nabî wa al-Âhl wa al-Ashâb in the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities”, Bulletin of the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities 31, Stockholm 1998, p. 111-128.