Picture190pp • 280x220mm • Hardback
ISBN: 9781914325618
Price: £49.95
Available: October 2025

HARAT AL-BILAD
AN ANCIENT OMANI Settlement

Clive Gracey
Foreword and Critical Essay by Professor Soumyen Bandyopadhyay
A beautiful photographic celebration of the traditional village of Harat Al-Bilad in Oman featuring breathtaking photographs that capture some of last surviving examples of Islamic Art in Oman from in the medieval period.
Harat al-Bilad is one of the largest traditional adobe towns in the Sultanate of Oman. It dates from the pre-Islamic period and was as one of three major settlements in the interior region of the country until the late 20th century. 

With Oman’s rapid modernization from 1970 onwards, the traditional adobe towns and villages and their quasi-medieval way of life became obsolete. In the years that followed many of these settlements became a mix of traditional and modern structures but in the case of Harat al-Bilad, the inhabitants vacated to modern habitation nearby, leaving their erstwhile homes completely untouched by modernity.

What makes Harat al-Bilad unique and important is its craft heritage, in particular three early 16th century carved stucco prayer niches in three of its ancient mosques. These works, featured prominently in the book, are among the greatest surviving examples of Islamic Art in Oman in the medieval period.
Contents:
Harat al-Bilad: An Ancient Omani Village
Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
​• Preface
• Introduction
• Aerial Photograph and Plan of Harat al-Bilad
• Section 1. A Journey through Harat al-Bilad
• Section 2. Commentary
• Section 3. Playing with the Shadows, a Critical Essay by Professor Soumyen Bandyopadhyay
• Glossary
• References
 Picture
Clive Gracey graduated in Fine Art from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom in 1984. He has lived in the Sultanate of Oman for more than thirty-five years, during which time he has devoted much effort to recording various elements of the country’s rich architectural, cultural and environmental heritage.

Clive is particularly interested in documenting the traditional vernacular adobe and stone architecture of Oman’s villages, as well as the now-extinct folk art forms of the painted ceilings, painted interiors and carved and painted wooden doors. Clive is also interested in more conceptual approaches to photography, in particular infrared and full-spectrum photography. 
More here
Picture
Professor Soumyen Bandyopadhyay is the Sir James Stirling Chair in Architecture at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and previously the Head of Liverpool School of Architecture (2016-21). He specialises in Omani traditional architecture, oasis and coastal settlements, and is the author of Manah: An Omani Oasis, an Arabian Legacy (2011).