Marguerite van Berchem expressed the wish that the Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock "be the subject of a complete and careful study" This wish was fulfilled in 1927-28, when K.A.C. Creswell invited Marguerite van Berchem to undertake this study. Father H. Vincent of the Ecole Biblique supported her mis-sion. Although it was not easy at that time for a woman to work in the Muslim sanctuary, she was granted permission to take pictures and examine the mosaics.and publish a detailed and relevant analysis of the mosaics in 1932. She was the first scholar to demons-trate, convincingly, the local origin of the mosaic decoration: it "shows that at the time of the Arab conquest a very refined and dynamic school of art existed in Syria.
Extent: 103.
Size and dimensions of original material: Height 45cm, width 33cm, depth 2cm.
Condition of original material: good.
Custodial history: British school of Archeology in Jerusalem,Palestine.
Arrangement: Dewey Classification system.
Author(s)/Creator(s): Van Berchem, Marguerite. translated by Creswell, Keppel Archibald Cameron, Sir.
Publisher(s): Clarendon Pr, Oxford, uuuu.
Original institution reference: RBC 738.509569 BER.
