Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art is a venture that offers readers easy access to the most up-to-date research across the whole range of Islamic art. Building on the long and distinguished tradition of Edinburgh University Press in publishing books on the Islamic world, it is a forum for studies that, while closely focused, also open wide horizons. Books in the series, for example, concentrate in an accessible way, and in accessible, clear, plain English, on the art of a single century, dynasty or geographical area; on the meaning of works of art; on a given medium in a restricted time frame; or on analyses of key works in their wider contexts. A balance is maintained as far as possible between successive titles, so that various parts of the Islamic world and various media and approaches are represented.

Books in the series are academic monographs of intellectual distinction that mark a significant advance in the field. While they are naturally aimed at an advanced and graduate academic audience, a complementary target readership is the worldwide community of specialists in Islamic art – professionals who work in universities, research institutes, auction houses and museums – as well as that elusive character, the interested general reader.

This chapter presents an overview of dialectology that sheds light on the diachronic development of American English varieties. Key projects in US dialect study are considered in light of their historic roots, perspectives and goals; data collection methods; target populations; sampling methods; and linguistic features of focus. Also examined are various types of dialect maps, as well as the use of historic sources that have proven to be useful in tracing the history of dialect forms. The contribution of social dialectological studies is discussed as well, since in-depth surveys across social space have been shown to add to the understanding of how dialect forms develop and diffuse across time and geographic space. The chapter concludes with a discussion of developments in twenty-first-century American dialectology. Throughout, the chapter illustrates how different methods and data sources can be fruitfully brought together to solve the difficult problem of retracing historic pathways for inherently ephemeral spoken language forms.

Looking at the deserted remnants of the palace gardens at Samarra today, it is perhaps too easy to forget that these grounds once featured vast and elaborate waterworks. Indeed, there are numerous references to large pools, basins, fountains and water channels in contemporary descriptions of gardens and courtyard gardens of the Abbasid palaces in Lower Mesopotamia. However, like the gardens themselves, the water features have rarely been subject to archaeological investigations. The fragmentary evidence is primarily drawn from aerial photographs and archaeological surveys conducted in the early twentieth century, particularly those pertaining to the Caliphal Palace of Samarra. These sources, while sparse, still offer vital clues regarding the abundance of water and its indispensable role in shaping the design of these gardens. By combining this limited material evidence with abundant textual sources, this chapter presents a picture of the diverse water features that once adorned these gardens. It seeks to illuminate their critical role in both garden design and the everyday life at court, offering a comprehensive understanding of how water was intricately interwoven into the fabric of these built environments.

Birkas

Textual sources indicate that a prominent feature of Abbasid palace gardens was a large pool, referred to as a birka. The definitions of birka offered by contemporary philologists help us to understand some of its formal features. The Buyid vizier and lexicographer Ibn ʿAbbād (d. 385/995)1 defined birka as a structure ‘similar to a basin (ḥawḍ) dug into the ground’.2 Kitāb al-ʿAyn (compiled about 184/800 in Lower Mesopotamia) offered a more detailed definition, describing birka as a structure ‘similar to a basin (ḥawḍ), which is dug into the ground and does not have raised sides (aʿḍād: pl. of ʿiḍd) above the ground's surface’.