Independent Researcher

Researcher in the History of Art

Fine Arts History

Thesis Title: The Meaning of the Dome of the Rock

About

My thesis was about the Dome of the Rock and what it really meant. I found this a compelling structure.

I have a deep interest in the earliest Near Eastern civilizations and the structures that were formed for the service of the religions and cultures of the Near East.

I loved literature, poetry, and history.
The emphasis on the Near Eastern civilizations, which I read about from the Bible (I read the entire Bible at the age of 5), made me feel an affinity with Greek, Roman, Early Christian, and Early Islamic teachings.

The Greek and Roman cultures were masters of Empire building. Due to the use of syncretism, diverse peoples at colonies such as Ba'albek, could be unified and masterfully blended in a theocratic system of temples and decorations that used artistic senses of symbology and iconology for religious and political ends. As George Orwell indicated with his book of literary essays: "All art is Propaganda".

The Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans ruled their colonies by means of symbolism in their art. In their structures, and in the astral orientations of many complexes, these great civilizations created cohesive systems of iconography, whose symbols were the means of bonding the many various peoples, locations and religions into a new union of belief. 

My problem has been to keep these keen interests in perspective by reading as widely as possible and studying them at university.

I choose to do my Masters thesis on "The Meaning of the Dome of the Rock", 1997, Boulder, CO. Upon entering my Art and Architectural masters program, Dr. John Douglas Hoag, my hero as well as my mentor, allowed me to use his beautiful, huge 2 volume folio by Sir K.A.C. Creswell, "Early Muslim Architecture as a primary source for my interest in Islamic structures.

While studying Roman architecture as well as Islamic architecture, I was arrested by the site of Ba'albek with it's imposing plan and magnificent execution.

I then and there studied everything I could on Ba'albek in Cole-Syria.
This passion has lasted until this day and my document, which will be a book soon, is here.

Hoag saw my passion for the subject and would drop hints and enigmas for me to chase. He became both a hero to me and a father figure and friend. I owe him everything.

I finished my thesis in 1996, having driven the CU library mad with my hunger to read everything I could read and order hundreds of books using interlibrary loan.

The final 500-page draft had to go through a final trim (which my advisers insisted upon) before I could present and defend it before a group of professors. There were no any easy questions - after all they resented this wife and mother of 4 teenagers. The term housewife-with-a-hobby was heard at times.

It has been said that the hardest part of scholarship is the art of narrowing down your finds. I found this to be true.

My thesis was titled, "The Mystery of the Meaning of the Dome of the Rock". Its subsequent publication as an article (further trimmed) expanded my conclusion: that the Dome of the Rock was very carefully arranged, oriented and inscribed with Koranic verses which  clearly proclaimed it's intent - to house the future judgment of the nations by the returning Jesus.

Sir Guy Eaton first published me, then I was published in a Palestinian journal, and, since then, I've written only small topics on Roman architecture or on obscure artists of the modern period.

My minor was the Far East which resulted in "The Arts of the Silk Road".

That leaves me with two degrees, a good marriage, and 4 well educated and successful children. Now, it's time to begin my work again.

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