arabian architecture dict

International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol:10 No:04 15

104104-3838-IJCEE-IJENS © August 2010 IJENS I J E N S

Abstract— Houses represent the background or framework

for human existence. The Islamic-Arab house with its structural

clarity and beauty can be conceived as being generated from the

plan, which gave form and order to the space within as well as

measured and scaled by the human body and its experience. The

Islamic-Arab house was also established and based on a series of

sustainable-oriented principles. The design concept of the

Islamic-Arab house, problems, and solutions can be traced in

many of the existing traditional Arab architecture, in which

forms and spaces were dictated by habits and traditions. The aim

of this paper is to examine the architectural vocabulary which

governed the design concept of the Arab house and highlights

their distinctive characteristics. It also explores the essential

design problems, which affected the shape and the plan form of

all traditional Muslim houses, in relation to the physical

environment. A discussion of the way that tradition, culture, and

religion formed the basis of the Arab house design approach and

the continual reinvention of the plan will also be included.

However, the main objective of this research is to identify the

idealized spatial system of the Islamic-Arab house, which

became a methodological and conceptual tool to constitute the

basic vocabulary and syntax of its design.

Index Term— Islamic-Arab House, Tradition, Sustainability,

Eco-Architecture, Syntax

I. INTRODUCTION

In many parts of the Islamic-Arab world, one can realise many

distinctive examples of traditional architecture, mainly houses.

Although there were socio-cultural differences in each region,

the design of houses retained a common architectural language

that responded to both the common hot arid zones climate and

the common religious needs. For example, the use of courtyard

and the employment of the windcatcher or mashrabiyyah. The

Islamic-Arab house is also one of the best examples that

express the sakina. The word sakina comes from the word

sakan, which is the Arabic name for a house and relates to

dwelling in peace and purity. The heritage of traditional

Islamic-Arab houses includes various forms, which were

developed in response to religious, cultural, and traditional

factors along with the specificity of the local built environment.

The remarkable traditional houses of medieval Cairo, the

stylish facades of Jeddah‟s townhouses, the windcatcher

(badgir) of the houses of Dubai‟s Bastakia district, and the

courtyard houses of Yemen, are all evidence to the rich wealth

of Islamic-Arab residential architecture. Every architectural

element in the Islamic-Arab house represented a solution or an

answer to a different problem that appeared according to a

specific condition. They were a sequence of related problems,

which were met successfully to achieve a unified and a

harmonious house. In fact, the beauty of these traditional

houses represents an art form that has resulted from an

understanding of a unique mode of religious and cultural

human life.

II. VOCABULARY AND SYNTAX

“My father's palace where every footstep had a meaning”

[1]. This quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery expresses the

design concept of the traditional Islamic-Arab house, where

every step, forms and spaces were shaped by people‟s habits

and tradition. The Islamic way of life strictly defined the

particular roles of man and woman in relation to the physical

environment. While the public areas in a house are the domain

of men, the private and family areas are the domain of women.

The privacy of the family was also an essential element which

affected the shape and the plan form of all traditional Muslim

houses, to be clearly defined as public, semi-public and private

spaces. The cultural and religious emphasis on visual privacy

in Islamic communities has also tended to produce an inward-

looking plan with plain external walls to discourage strangers

from looking inside. Climate also played an important role as a

moderating factor and complemented the cultural and religious

need for privacy. The houses of the hot arid zones such as

Egypt, Iraq and India, are introverted, where family-life looked

into a courtyard rather than looking out upon the street.

However, the architectural vocabulary which governed the

design concept of the Islamic-Arab house and highlighted its

distinctive characteristics were, the majaz (entrance), the

courtyard, the combination of the qa‘ah and the malqaf, the

takhtabush, and the mashrabiyyah.

A. The Majaz (Entrance)

In Arab houses there were two entrances; the majaz (the

main entrance of a house), which usually opens onto a

courtyard and the doorway, which is the main external feature

Traditional Islamic-Arab House: Vocabulary

And Syntax Dr. Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

Architecture Department, College of Engineering

Effat University, Saudi Arabia

[email protected]



at ground floor level. The majaz was designed to open into a

blank wall to obstruct views into the inside from outside in

order to preserve the privacy of the family. On the other hand,

the doorway is functional and modest because ostentation is

discouraged according to the egalitarian basis of Islam. Al-

Suhaymi house, Cairo, 1648, is a good example, which

expresses the relationship between the main entrance and the

courtyard (fig.1). Some historians attributed the unpretentious

doorway to the owner‟s reluctance to show off his wealth,

which would attract burglars, but this is a superficial reason. In

fact, in traditional Arab houses, the real entrance to the house

is the one which opens onto the main courtyard. In the Arab

cosmology the four walls of the courtyard indicate the four

columns carrying the dome of the sky and the courtyard

symbolizes their private piece of sky. However, they preferred

to have the main entrance open into this clean and holy space,

which is on the scale of the house, rather than into the public

street, which is on the scale of the city.

Fig.1. The entrance opens into the courtyard, Al-Suhaymi house,

Cairo, 1648. [3]

B. The Courtyard

The courtyard is the most essential element, which

represented the core of all Islamic-Arab houses. The concept

of the courtyard is commonly used in traditional architecture,

both rural and urban, of the hot arid regions from Iran in the

East to the shores of the Atlantic in the West. The courtyard

dates back to the Graeco-Roman tradition (c. 1900 BC.) in

Arabia. With the advent of Islam (632), Muslims adopted the

concept of the courtyard because it suited their religious and

social needs, especially the degree of privacy needed. The

arrangements of the courtyard also provided a satisfactory

solution to their specific environmental problems. The size of

the courtyard varies, as does the number, according to the

available space and resources [2].

Historical examples of Arab desert architecture, include, the

Ukhaider palace in Iraq, Quasir Amara in Jordan and Dar Lajimi

in Tunis (fig.2) as well as the twelfth century courtyard-houses

of Al-Fustate city, Egypt (fig. 3). The houses of mediaeval

Cairo such as Al-Souheimi, Zeinab Khaton and Moheb Ad-din

Al-Shafie are also expressive examples.

Fig. 2. Dar Lajimi, a courtyard house, Tunis. [3]

Fig. 3. Al-Fustãt house, a courtyard house, Cairo. [3]

The courtyard was employed in most Arab houses, not only

to achieve privacy, which is a necessity in Arab society, but

also to enhance the thermal comfort inside a house. The

courtyard is an effective device to generate air movement by

convection. In hot dry zones the air of the courtyard, which

was heated by the sun during the day, rises and is replaced by

the cooled night air coming from above. The accumulated cool

air in the courtyard seeps into and cools the surrounding

rooms. During the day, the courtyard is shaded by its four

walls and this helps its air to heat slowly and remain cool until

late in the day [3].



C. The Qa‘ah And The Malqaf

In the early Arab houses the courtyard also represented an

intermediary space between the entrance and the guest area.

Meeting casual male visitors, who are not relatives, always

took place in the takhtabash, a room with a side open to the

courtyard. On the other hand, important male visitors would

enter indirectly from the courtyard to another large reception

hall with a lofty central space, which was flanked by two

spaces at a slightly higher level [2]. In the Mamluk period in

the twelfth century, a change in the style of the house took

place that involved the covering of the courtyard, and the

introduction of the qa‘ah as the main reception hall in the

house.

The qa‘ah consisted of the durqa‘ah (a central part of the

qa‘ah with a high ceiling covered by the shukhshakhah

(wooden lantern on the top)) and two ’iwans (sitting areas) at a

higher level on both the north and south sides. The lantern is

provided with openings to allow the hot air to escape. Its

shape could be square, octagonal, or hexagonal. It was also flat

on the top, in order to help the upper layer of air to be heated

up through exposure to the sun. With the covered courtyard, a

new system of ventilation was invented to achieve thermal

comfort inside the qa‘ah. This was the malqaf (a wind catch).

The malqaf is a shaft rising high above the building with an

opening facing the prevailing wind and constructed on the

north ’iwan (fig.4). It traps the cool air “like sails capturing the

wind” and channels it down into the interior of the building.

Fig. 4. Bastikia district, Dubai. [8]

The idea of the malqaf dates back to the early Pharaonic

periods. Examples can be found in the Eighteenth Dynasty

houses of Tal Al-Amarna. Fathy was influenced by the

Pharaonic house of Neb-Amun, which was depicted on his

tomb of the Nineteenth Dynasty (1300 BC.). It shows a malqaf

with two openings, one facing windward to capture the cool air

and the other facing leeward in order to evacuate the hot air by

suction. To increase the humidity of the air coming from the

malqaf, the salsabil was also introduced (fig. 5). It is a marble

plate, decorated with wavy patterns and provided with a

source of water. The salsabil was put against the wall of the

opposite side of the ’iwan and placed at an angle to allow the

water to trickle over the surface [3].

Fig. 5. Remains of an iwan with a shadirwan (Salsabil) in its center, the

Western Fatimid Palace of al-Mansur Qalawun. [9]

However, this new system of ventilation combined the

malqaf, the salsabil and the lantern in one design to assure a

good circulation of cool air in the qa‘ah. The fourteenth

century Muhib Ad-Din Ash-Shaf‟i Al-Muwaqqi house in Cairo

best illustrated this combination (fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Section of the Qã'a of Muhib Ad-Din Ash-Shãf'i, 1350, Cairo. [3]

D. The Takhtabush

In the vernacular architecture of the Arab house the concept

of the courtyard has also been developed to ensure a steady

flow of air by convection by including the takhtabush, a type

of loggia. It is a covered outdoor sitting area, located between

two courtyards; one is an unshaded, large paved-courtyard

and the other is planted. The takhtabush has one side opening

completely onto the paved-courtyard and through

mashrabiyyah onto the back garden. Air heats up more readily

in the unshaded courtyard than in the back garden creating an

area of low air pressure. However, the heated air rising in the

courtyard draws cool air from the back garden of the

takhtabush, creating a cool draft. The takhtabush can be

found in the medieval Cairo houses, such as Al-Suhaymi



house (fig.7) and the Qa‘ah of Muhib Ad-Din Ash-Shaf‟i Al-

Muwaqqi, [3]. Both houses featured two courtyards with a

takhtabush between them.

Fig. 7. Al-Suhaymi house, Cairo, 1648. [3]

E. The Mashrabiyyah

The mashrabiyyah is another important device which was

used to cover openings as well as to achieve thermal comfort

and privacy in a house. Its name is originally derived from the

Arabic word „drink‟ and referred to „a drinking place‟. This was

a cantilevered space covered with a lattice opening, where

water jars were placed to be cooled by the evaporation effect

as air moved through the opening. The form and function of

the mashrabiyyah has changed to become a wooden lattice

screen. It is composed of small wooden circular balusters,

arranged at specific regular intervals, in a decorative and

intricate geometric pattern. The mashrabiyyah has five

functions and its design may fulfil some or all of these

functions. These are; controlling the passage of light,

controlling the air flow, reducing the temperature of the air

current, increasing the humidity of the air current and ensuring

privacy. To control the amount of light and air and to graduate

the contrast between shade and light, the size of the interstices

and the diameter of the balusters are adjusted [3].

Mashrabiyyah can be found in medieval houses in Cairo, such

as Gamal Al-Din Al-Dahabi House 1637, and Zeinab Khatoun

House, 14th (fig.8).

Fig. 8. Zeinab Khatoun House 14

th century

III. THE PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION

The Islamic-Arab house revealed an understanding of the

laws of composition, which created a conscious arrangement

of elements of a building in a functionally and visually

satisfying whole. Hierarchies were an essential factor in the

design process of the Islamic-Arab house, which highlighted

the importance of the interior and exterior of a building. Scale,

proportion, contrast and balance were also tools, which

enhanced the character of buildings. All the spaces in

traditional houses were covered with variations of domes,

vaults, shukhshakhah and flat roofs, which achieved pleasant

spatial and visual characteristics. The design of the Islamic-

Arab house also respected human reference and human scale

and this had enabled people to articulate and comprehend the

elements of their buildings. Harmony with the surrounding

landscape was another important factor in the design process,

where these houses were carefully integrated to the

environment which has existed in equilibrium for a very long

time.

Applied colour seldom appears in Islamic-Arab houses, but

the natural colours of materials, which identified both the

origins of this architecture and its close link to the landscape.

The visual impact of the homogeneous single colour

emphasised the basic form of the building without the

distraction of various colours, textures or materials. Traditional

houses were also largely, determined by a unique vision of

light and its influence on materials. The dynamic contrast of

light and shade, and the dramatic use of space were also

features, which can be sensed in the architecture of Islamic-

Arab houses. The real power of light is not derived completely

from its inherent character, but requires some sort of darkness

to assert itself. For example, light entering through a window or

mashrabiyyah evokes an expressive shadow, which

accentuates the shape of the interior.

IV. CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC-ARAB HOUSE

The Egyptian architect and master builder, Hassan Fathy

(1900-1989) was one of the first architects to break with modern



architecture and to found a new approach based on a

conception of interpreting forms and masses from the past. He

was unique in believing that this language could exist

alongside that of an aggressively modern one that cut all ties

with the past. He fully understood the function of the elements

of the Islamic-Arab house and their balanced relation to the

environment. All his buildings and projects, which were mainly

domestic, comprised the same architectural elements which

were drawn from the Islamic-Arab house. One of his important

houses was the Nassif house in Jeddah (fig.9), which

represented an opportunity for Fathy to reinterpret the

traditional architecture of Saudi Arabia. The house featured all

the essentials vocabularies of the Islamic-Arab house such as,

courtyard, mashrabiyyah, shukhshakhah and windcatcher [4].

Fig. 9. Nassif house in Jeddah. [10]

Another Egyptian architect whose work from the 1960s

onwards has stood out in clear contrast with much modern

architecture has been Abdelbaki Ibrahim. He published several

books discussing the historical perspective of Islamic

architecture and the Arab houses. Ibrahim‟s Al-Nawras Tourist

Village, Isma'iliya, Egypt, 1989, (fig.10) is an expressive example

of the integration between modern architecture and abstracted

traditional vocabulary.

Fig. 10. Al-Nawras Tourist Village, Egypt, 1989. [10]

Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil is also a dedicated Egyptian

architect to the course of vernacular architecture and

traditional building techniques. El-Wakil believed that “it is the

role of art, and above all of architecture, to safeguard the

environment in which the tradition can survive” [5]. El-Wakil‟s

Halawa house (1972-1975) in Al-Agamy, near Alexandria

(fig.11), exhibited the architect‟s awareness of the traditional

building forms such as dome, vault, loggia, malqaf and

mashrabiyyahs as well as the traditional building techniques.

Fig. 11. Halawa House, Agamy, Egypt, 1975. [10]

The prominent architect Rifat Chadirji (1926) from Iraq was

aware of the traditional vocabulary of the traditional

architecture in Iraq and employed them to serve contemporary

needs. Chadirji‟s Tobacco Monopoly Building (1966) in

Baghdad is clear evidence of a contemporary Arab architecture

(fig.12). It exhibited a synthesis of international avant-garde

concepts and abstract forms derived from his own traditions.

For example, Chadirji employed simple projecting

mashrabiyyahs made of brick or concrete instead of the

expensive wooden ones. Chadirji‟s architecture excluded

simplistic imitations of traditional features and primitive

technologies “because neither is compatible with the

fundamental thrust of the mechanical-aesthetic mode” [6].

Fig. 12. Tobacco Monopoly Building, Baghdad, 1966. [11]

Like Chadirji, the distinguished Jordanian architect, Rasem

Badran did not perceive history as a source of physical forms

to be reinterpreted, but tried to adapt the process behind these

forms and explore the social forces behind traditional

typologies. Badran‟s Al-Talhouni residence, Amman, Jordan

(fig.13), shows the architect‟s confidence in handling the

traditional vocabulary in harmonious composition in his

elevations. He also was capable of adjusting the orientation of

http://www.worldarchitecture.org/internal/content/building-image-pages.asp?ID=1093&bimg=85808.JPG&bname=Tobacco%20Monopolies%20Administration%20Office%20Building,%20Baghdad,



each courtyard in order to permit maximum airflow and to

exhibit the beauty of nature and the art of reflection by

employing decorative fountains in the courtyard [7].

Fig.13. Al-Talhouni residence, Amman, Jordan, by Rasem Badran. [7]

V. CONCLUSION

The idea of perceiving a building as an entity as well as

articulating the function and identity of each member of the

building are the key to understand the architecture of the

Islamic-Arab house. The most subtle characteristics of the

Islamic-Arab house come mainly from its array of elements that

were tested by people‟s traditions and culture. Undoubtedly,

the outstanding architectural quality of the Islamic-Arab

houses and the positive effect of their images do not only

come from its reliance upon recognised prototypes and

deliberate plans, but also from their interesting exteriors. These

houses maintained a coherence and unity between inhabited

space, construction and landscape. Therefore, the aesthetic of

the Islamic-Arab house comes from the harmony of putting the

architectural elements together as well as juxtaposing them in

order to provide variety and visual interest through change in

their size and scale. Although, domes, vaults, bearing walls,

mashrabiyyahs, malqaf, courtyard and qa‘ah together created

a recognised language in Islamic-Arab houses, their designs

were based on finding solutions to peoples‟ religious and

cultural needs and requirements. For example, the arrangement

of all spaces around an inner courtyard and the division of

domestic space into two zones relating to the separation of the

sexes. In addition, the qa‘ah, which was roofed by a dome or a

shukhshakhah, represented the central element of the formal

area in a house and provided the basis for designing all the

possible variations of Arab houses. There is no doubt that the

outstanding quality of the architecture of the Islamic-Arab

house was derived, not from stylistic elements, but from the

superiority of its essential features, their proportional

arrangement and their basic ideas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author wishes to thank Effat University for its effort to

support the research environment. Thanks are also due to the

Architecture Department for providing financial support to

publish this paper.

REFERENCES [1] De Saint-Exupéry, Antoine, The Wisdom of the Sands. Chicago,

1979, p. 19.

[2] Danby, Miles, Privacy as a Culturally Related Factor in Built Form,

in Ben Farmer and Hentie Louw, eds., Companion to

Contemporary Architectural Though . London, 1993, pp. 138-139.

[3] Fathy, Hassan, Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture:

Principles and Examples with Reference to Hot Arid Climates.

Chicago, 1986, pp. 46-47, 57-59, 62-67.

[4] Alkhateeb, Sharief, Arab Architecture for Those Who Can Really

Live in Style. Saudi Gazette, 19 September 1979, p. 5.

[5] Steil, Lucien, Tradition & Architecture. Architectural Design, v.

57, no. 5 / 6, 1987, p. 53.

[6] Chadirji, Rifat, Concepts and Influences: Towards a Regionalized

International Architecture. London, 1986, pp. 49, 118-119.

[7] Steele, James, The Architecture of Rasem Badran: Narratives on

People and Place. London, 2005, pp.70-72.

[8] Author, 2010

[9] www.myoops.org/.../LectureNotes/detail/lec4.htm

[10] www.archnet.org

[11] http://www.worldarchitecture.org/world-buildings/

Author Dr. Abdel-Moniem El-Shorbagy is the Scientific Chair of

Architecture and Urban Design at Effat

University. In 2001, he received his Ph.D. in Art

History from the University of Canterbury in

New Zealand. He also received a M.A. in

Architecture from the same university in 1997

and a postgraduate qualification from Lincoln

University, in New Zealand, in 1996. Prior to

attaining his postgraduate studies, he launched

and managed his own professional practice from

1980–1995 and designed numerous residential buildings, villas, and

hotels. He taught Architecture and Design in various academic institutes

in Egypt between 2002 and 2006. Currently, he teaches courses in

Architecture, Design, Structure, and Islamic architecture at Effat

University. He also manages the preparation of the urban design manual

for upgrading slums in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

http://www.myoops.org/twocw/mit/Architecture/4-615Spring2002/LectureNotes/detail/lec4.htm

http://www.archnet.org/

http://www.worldarchitecture.org/world-buildings/

arabian architecture dict

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