Architecture and Environment in the Medieval Maghreb | Abbey Stockstill

E584 | What is Islamic architecture? In this follow-up to our ten-part seires on The Making of the Islamic World, we explore that question with Prof. Abbey Stockstill, author of Marrakesh and the Mountains: Landscape, Urban Planning, and Identity in the Medieval Maghrib. Our conversation centers on the imperial city of Marrakesh, which was shaped by two successive dynasties — the Almoravids and the Almohads — with two competing visions of Muslim religious and political life that left an indelible imprint on the Maghreb region from the Sahara to al-Andalus. As Prof. Stockstill explains, understanding the architectural legacy of these dynasties extends far beyond the confines of monumental features of mosques and minarets. Natural landscapes and agricultural spaces played an equally vital role in the built environment of medieval Morocco, which in turn influenced the development of architecture in what is now southern Spain during the last centuries of Islamic rule. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/04/architecture-and-environment-in.html Abbey Stockstill is Associate Professor and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair of Architectural History at UVA. Her book, Marrakesh & the Mountains: Landscape, Urban Planning, and Identity in the Medieval Maghreb, traces the development of Marrakesh in the twelfth century as a new kind of metropolis in the Islamic west, bridging multivalent identities through a sensitive manipulation of the surrounding environment. Chris Gratien is Associate Professor of History at University of Virginia, where he teaches classes on global environmental history and the Middle East. His first book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, explores the social and environmental transformation of the Adana region of Southern Turkey during the 19th and 20th century. CREDITS Episode No. 584 Release Date: 25 April 2026 Recording Location: University of Virginia Sound production by Chris Gratien Music: Komiku - Un désert; Badlands by Silicon Transmitter; TRG Banks - Across the mountainous region Bibliography and images courtesy of Abbey Stockstill at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/04/architecture-and-environment-in.html