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Welcome to ARCHNET, an Open Access, intellectual resource focused on the built environment of Muslim societies.Our mission:&nbsp;<ul><li>Facilitate excellence in scholarship, and professional work by providing ready access to quality, unique texts, and media focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, conservation issues, visual and material cultures, and related topics, both historically and in terms of contemporary best practices.</li><li>Enable teaching and learning in these domains by providing educators with reliable, effective pedagogical material and teaching aids.&nbsp;</li><li>Serve serves as a platform through which scholars, practitioners, and institutions can bring their work to new global audiences.&nbsp;</li><li>Promote intercultural understanding and dialogue through reliable, high-quality, peer-reviewed material on the diversity of, and pluralism within Muslim societies and the interaction between Islamic and other religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions.</li><li>Enable easy access to a wide variety of resources via a custom-built, web-based, mobile-friendly platform optimized to minimize financial, infrastructural, linguistic, and other barriers to access.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>Launched in 2002 after several years of development, ARCHNET is a pioneering digital resource that has proven a reliable authority on the built environment of Muslim societies, past, and present.&nbsp;ARCHNET is a partnership between the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/1342" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries </a>(AKDC@MIT) and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/authorities/1903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Trust for Culture</a> (AKTC), with support from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT. ARCHNET NEXT was developed by <a href="https://www.performantsoftware.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Performant Software Solutions</a>.

The "Fishdragon": the Makara Motif in Chinese Art and Architectural Decoration

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