4/10/07 - Architectural History - Islamic Architecture

Arab Architecture
In the Islamic religion, followers are allowed to pray anywhere, as long as they have ritually cleansed themselves with water or sand. This fundamental rule takes away the necessity for purpose-built architecture for prayers. Still, mosques have been built for many other purposes. The east wall of any mosque has a large word written on it: God. The whole of the Quran is written on the other three walls.

In Islam, prayer is a system of seven stages. In the earliest Muslim times there were no buildings for prayer, as such. Instead, an archer was chosen to shoot an arrow in one direction, turn ninety degrees and shoot another, and so forth until four arrows had been shot north, east, south and west. The landing spot of each arrow indicated a corner of a praying place, which most often was made into a ditch. Kufa in Iraq was made this way. It was not until later that walls were built to encompass these dimensions. Generally they remained open spaces, simply enclosed by four walls or a ditch. As a result of rules gradually being accrued over time, the religion slowly developed and eventually there was a need for mosques. The mosques finally became the largest religious buildings of all time, because they had to accommodate all the men and woman of the religion in the local area at the same time, five times a day; not only that, but every man over the age of sixteen had to be in the mosque at precisely 5 o'clock every Friday for congregational prayer. The large quantities of people, reaching up to 100,000, necessarily needed a large building to house them all. The Great Mosque at Samarra, in Iraq, is one such building of huge dimensions. Housing was constructed around the mosque years after it was built. The tower, or minaret, was built originally as a sign of power. The proportionate ratio of 3:2 was used for this, measured using a nail and a piece of string.

The largest mosque in Europe is the Great Mosque of Cordoba, in Spain. It is a good example of the expanded mosque that never lost its character. Cordoba was the largest city in Europe, ten times the size of Paris. The Great Mosque has a large number of fortifications and gates, which are directly transcended from the Roman triumphal arch. It is in some ways descendent from Classical architecture, for it is a dome and vault, column and capital architecture, which was also used in China and other countries. But it introduced new characteristics such as the arch and intersecting design. It had multiple gates to allow air to circulate in the crowded interior. The lateral thrust of the building is managed by vaults and arches. Building upwards was necessary so that there was enough space for the crowds below, while maintaining the effect of busy-ness above head height. Each column was of different provenance; they were not the same. Lobed arches shows a more refined, complex and sophisticated design than anywhere else at that time. Such detailed vaulting and ribbing was well ahead of its time, long preceding the era of Gothic architecture. Mihrab design was influenced by the Byzantine style, and other Islamic architecture characteristics were influenced by Roman sculpture, albeit squashed into two-dimensional form.

Iranian Architecture
Ctesiphon in Iran, is a huge palace now outside of Baghdad. Its courtyard, vault and minaret were later additions. The dome temple was also constructed later. We can see by this building how flexible mosque architecture was.

The Friday Mosque in Isfahan had a dome added to it later, to bring beauty and symbolise greatness. Gothic architecture is expressed in the interior: focus is on aspiration (height), pointed arches, the repetition of the light motif and the effects of level built upon level until its culmination in the dome, which is made of brick rather than stone. This kind of layout became standard: the courtyard, prayer room and dome chamber followed the same succession. Each mould, though, is decorated differently in the interior. Vaults were placed on vaults to strengthen the facade.

Masjid-i-Jami in Isfahan is one example of the multi-functionality of mosques. It houses a hospital, university, law court, town hall, library and more. All these areas were added to the main building when the necessity arose. It represents the architecture of interiors, not of exteriors. It was built from the inside out, not the converse, outside in.

Turkish Architecture
The Turkish mosque began as a single square unit, which eventually multiplied. It bears resemblance to Byzantine architecture and was in fact built at the same time as Byzantine buildings. The aim with the Ulu Cama in Bursa and other Turkish architecture was to outdo Constantinople, but they never succeeded. Here the minaret was used for the call to prayer; choirs stood upon it and sang, alerting Muslims of the time to come and pray.

The Sultan Selim Mosque in Edirne began simply as a central space, and ended up 'billowing out' into secondary space.

The Minaret
The minaret is the token symbol of Islam. It is a part of the mosque, so it would be artificial to treat it as a separate structure. It is metaphorically a "staircase to the stars" like the Tower of Babel. The notion of the church tower was taken on enlarged upon by Muslims, and the minaret is in essence what they came up with. The Ghurid Minaret, in Jam, Afghanistan, has a missionary purpose. It is meant to shock and awe alike. It is like a golden tower, two hundred feet high, in the middle of the desert. The Quwwat al-Islam Mosque in Delhi has a minaret called Qutb minar. It is five storeys high with alternating columns and flanges. It is of political significance, and it so much more important than simply the vehicle for the call to prayer; what is more, it would be useless for the call to prayer as it is too high.