Akel Isma'il Kahera is professor of architecture and sustainable urbanism at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

The Place of the Mosque wrestles with Michel Foucault’s ideas on space, while weaving together local and global notions of place, as it interrogates today’s public spectacles, from the Great Mosque of Córdoba near Madrid to the Ground Zero Mosque in Manhattan. Animating the book is the question: who defines place? What makes this query so intriguing is how its answers revolve around the interlocking dimensions of space, knowledge, and power. Like a forensic scientist, Akel Kahera expands our discussion about mosque space by unpacking various sites, assigning them a genealogy, and determining their birth history, traumatic relations, and lifestyle markings. It is a fresh and contemplative approach. Kahera is even cheeky enough to allow musings on the mosque from the great poet, Muhammad Iqbal, which foreground his point that the mosque is a ubiquitous presence in the world. And it is this fact that makes works like this one so essential to read.

• Chapter One: On the Genealogy of Place Chapter Two: Resemblances and Similitudes Chapter Three: Architecture and Ontology Chapter Four: Place, Biopolitics, and Legal Discourses

Akel Isma'il Kahera is professor of architecture and sustainable urbanism at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

The Place of the Mosque wrestles with Michel Foucault’s ideas on space, while weaving together local and global notions of place, as it interrogates today’s public spectacles, from the Great Mosque of Córdoba near Madrid to the Ground Zero Mosque in Manhattan. Animating the book is the question: who defines place? What makes this query so intriguing is how its answers revolve around the interlocking dimensions of space, knowledge, and power. Like a forensic scientist, Akel Kahera expands our discussion about mosque space by unpacking various sites, assigning them a genealogy, and determining their birth history, traumatic relations, and lifestyle markings. It is a fresh and contemplative approach. Kahera is even cheeky enough to allow musings on the mosque from the great poet, Muhammad Iqbal, which foreground his point that the mosque is a ubiquitous presence in the world. And it is this fact that makes works like this one so essential to read.

• Chapter One: On the Genealogy of Place Chapter Two: Resemblances and Similitudes Chapter Three: Architecture and Ontology Chapter Four: Place, Biopolitics, and Legal Discourses

Akel Isma'il Kahera is professor of architecture and sustainable urbanism at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

The Place of the Mosque wrestles with Michel Foucault’s ideas on space, while weaving together local and global notions of place, as it interrogates today’s public spectacles, from the Great Mosque of Córdoba near Madrid to the Ground Zero Mosque in Manhattan. Animating the book is the question: who defines place? What makes this query so intriguing is how its answers revolve around the interlocking dimensions of space, knowledge, and power. Like a forensic scientist, Akel Kahera expands our discussion about mosque space by unpacking various sites, assigning them a genealogy, and determining their birth history, traumatic relations, and lifestyle markings. It is a fresh and contemplative approach. Kahera is even cheeky enough to allow musings on the mosque from the great poet, Muhammad Iqbal, which foreground his point that the mosque is a ubiquitous presence in the world. And it is this fact that makes works like this one so essential to read.

• Chapter One: On the Genealogy of Place Chapter Two: Resemblances and Similitudes Chapter Three: Architecture and Ontology Chapter Four: Place, Biopolitics, and Legal Discourses