Tablinum

Roman architecture, a tablinum (or tabulinum, from tabula, board, picture) was a room generally situated on one side of the atrium and opposite to the entrance; it opened in the rear onto the peristyle, with either a large window or only an anteroom or curtain. The walls were richly decorated with fresco pictures, and busts of the family were arranged on pedestals on the two sides of the room.^[1]

Arabic term for a tablinum. Like the ancient Roman tablinum, it opens onto a heavily shaded courtyard and, on the other side, a rear garden. Unlike the Roman tablinum, the garden side is closed with a mashrabiya lattice^{[2]: Ch. 6} (Roman tablinums may have had open-weave curtains^{[citation needed}

evaporatively cooled by a fountain. The garden is generally darker in colour, but evaporatively-cooled by evapotranspiration^{[citation needed]}. The larger court will generally be less shaded by its own walls, and more exposed to hot winds; it may also be less sheltered by surrounding rooms.^{[2]: Ch. 6 [4]} From both wind pressure and convection forces, the hottest air in the hotter court rises and escapes over the wall, pulling fresh air from the cooler courtyard through the takhtabush into the hotter court.^{[2]: Ch. 6 [4]} The cooler court is replenished with air from the side (drawn through doors, evaporatively-cooled projecting mashrabiya bow windows, and small vents in the wall), or from above^{[citation needed]}, which cools by contact with masonry and evaporative cooling. The takhtabush thus has a strong cross-breeze from the cooler court. The breeze is at least partly driven by convection, and may also be driven by wind pressure and evaporative cooling,^{[2]: Ch. 6 [4][3]} so the gardens and courtyards are used as windcatchers