ISLAMIC

ARCHITECTURE Joy Alope and Nina Cabral

DFR1A

Islamic Architecture

-Includes a wider range of secular and religious

styles from the foundation of Islam to the present

day

-Owes its origin to similar structures in Roman,

Byzantine and Persian lands (which the Muslims

conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries)

-East - It was influenced by Chinese and Indian

architectures as Islam spread to Southeast Asia

Islamic Architecture

-Principal Islamic Architectural types:

-The Mosque

-The Tomb

-The Palace

-The Fort

-Some scholars believe there is no connection

between Islam and architecture

Influences

-Familiar Islamic

architectural style emerged

after Muhammad’s time

-Inspired by former

Sassanid and Byzantine

models

Influences

Dome of the Rock

-one of the most important buildings in Islamic

architecture

-patterned after the nearby Church of the Holy

Sepulchre

-Byzantine Christian artists were employed to make

its elaborate mosaics against a golden background

-features interior vaulted spaces, circular dome, use

of stylised repeating decorative arabesque patterns

Influences

Dome of the Rock

Influences -horseshoe arch - popular feature

-Some say the Muslims got this from the

Visigoths in Spain but they might have gotten it

from Syria and Persia (where it was used by the

Byzantines as early as the 5th century)

-Umayyads accentuated the curvature of the

horseshoe after the Moorish invasion of Spain

Influences

The Great Mosque of Damascus

-built on the site of basilica of John the Baptist

after the the Islamic invasion of Damascus

-bears a great resemblance to 6th and 7th

century Christian basilicas

-to fit Islamic style of prayer, the structure was

expanded along the transversal axis

The Great Mosque of Damascus

Influences -Abbasid architecture in Iraq (shown in the Fortress of Al-

Ukhaidir) demonstrated the ―the despotic and the pleasure-

loving character of the dynasty‖ due to its grand size but

cramped living quarters

-Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia)

-considered the ancestor of all the mosques in the western

Islamic world

-original marble columns and sculptures were of Roman

workmanship brought in from Carthage

-is constituted of a massive square minaret, a large

courtyard surrounded by porticos and a huge hypostyle

prayer hall covered on its axis by two cupolas

The Great Mosque of Damascus Great Mosque of Kairouan

Influences

-The Hagia Sophia (Istanbul) also influenced

Islamic architecture

-Ottomans captured city from the Byzantines

-converted the basilica to a mosque (now a

museum)

-incorporated Byzantine architectural elements

into their own work (e.g. domes)

Hagia Sophia

Influences

-Domes are a major structural

feature of Islamic architecture

-distinctive pointed domes of

Islamic architecture, also

originating with the

Byzantines and Persians

have remained a

distinguishing feature of

mosques into the 21st century

Influences

-Distinguishing motifs

-ordered repetition

-radiating structures

-rhythmic and metric patterns

-Fractal geometry = key utility

-Other significant features include columns, piers

and arches, organized and interwoven with

alternating sequences of niches and colonnettes

Characteristics

1.Assimilation of earlier traditions

2.Paradise Garden

3.Courtyard (Sehan)

4.Hypostyle hall

5.Vaulting

6.Muqarnas

7.Ornaments

Assimilation of earlier traditions

-influenced by two different ancient traditions:

Western

-regions of the newly conquered Byzantine

Empire supplied architects, masons, mosaicists

and other craftsmen to the new Islamic rulers

-artisans - trained in Byzantine architecture and

decorative arts and continued building in

Byzantine style (developed out of Hellenistic

and ancient Roman architecture)

Assimilation of earlier traditions

Eastern

-Mesopotamia and Persia kept their independent

architectural traditions which came from Sasanian

architecture and its predecessors

Paradise Garden

-Gardens and water played an essential role in

Islamic culture

-often compared to the garden of Paradise

-comparison originates from the Achaemenid Empire

-classical form of the Persian Paradise garden, or the

Charbagh, comprises a rectangular irrigated space

with elevated pathways, which divide the garden into

four sections of equal size

Paradise Garden

Afif-Abad Garden, Shiraz

Courtyard (sehan) CHARACTERISTICS:

-is in within almost every mosque in Islamic architecture.

-are open to the sky and surrounded on all sides by structures with halls and rooms, and often a shaded semi-open arcade.

-usually feature a centrally positioned ritual cleansing pool under an open domed pavilion called a howz.

USE:

• for performing ablutions, and a 'patio' for rest or gathering.

Courtyard (sehan)

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

Hypostyle Hall

-Hypostyle - open hall supported by columns

combined with a reception hall set at a right angle to

the main hall

-originates from the Roman-style basilica with an

adjacent courtyard surrounded by colonnades, like

Trajan’s forum in Rome

-hypostyle hall is the main feature of the hypostyle

mosque

Hypostyle Hall

Tarikhaneh Mosque, One of the earliest Hypostyle

Mosques

Vaulting

-Follows two distinct architectural styles:

-Whilst Umayyad architecture continues Syrian traditions of the 6th and 7th century

-Eastern Islamic architecture was mainly influenced by Sasanian styles and forms.

Vaulting

-Diaphragm arches with lintelled ceilings made of wood or stone beams, or, alternatively, with barrel vaults -mainly used to cover houses and cisterns

Vaulting

ISLAMIC WEST -The double-arched system

of arcades of the Mosque–

Cathedral of Córdoba is

derived

from Roman aqueducts

Vaulting

ISLAMIC WEST

CHARACTERISTICS:

•Columns are connected by horseshoe arches

•Supported by pillars of brickwork

• interconnected by semicircular arches supporting the flat timberwork ceiling

Vaulting - Islamic West

Roman aqueduct of Los Milagros

Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

CHARACTERISTICS: basic architectural design was changed:

•Horseshoe arches were now upper row of arcades

•the vaults above the mihrab wall are constructed as ribbed vaults.

•the ribs intersect one another off-center, forming an eight-pointed star in the center which is superseded by a pendentive dome.

Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza

Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza

CHARACTERISTICS:

•eight-ribbed dome

•ribbed dome was further developed in the Maghreb

Vaulting

ISLAMIC EAST •The system of squinches in the upper angles of a square room to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome, was already known in Sasanian architecture.

•The spherical triangles of the squinches were split up into further subdivisions of niches, resulting in an interplay of supporting structures forming an ornamental spatial pattern which hides the weight of the structure.

Vaulting

ISLAMIC EAST CHARACTERISTIC: •The "non-radial rib vault“ or ribbed vaults with a superimposed spherical dome

Non-radial rib vault in the

Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

Vaulting

ISLAMIC EAST

Main Characteristics

1. Four intersecting ribs, at times redoubled and intersected to form an eight-pointed star;

2. the omission of a transition zone between the vault and the supporting structure;

3. a central dome or roof lantern on top of the ribbed vault.

Vaulting

•a significant feature of many mosques and of the Taj Mahal in the 17th century

• remained a distinguishing feature of mosques into the 21st century

Domes

Schematic drawing of a

pendentive dome

Vaulting

•Hagia Sophia

-the ribs and shell of the dome unite in a central medallion at the apex of the dome

-the upper ends of the ribs being integrated into the shell

-Shell and ribs form one single structural entity

Central domes of the Hagia Sophia

Muqarnas

-developed in northeastern

Iran and the Maghreb around

the middle of the 10th

century.

-created by the geometric

subdivision of a vaulting

structure into miniature,

superimposed pointed-arch

substructures, also known as

"honeycomb", or "stalactite"

vaults

Muqarnas in the

Alhambra

Muqarnas

-made from different

materials like stone, brick,

wood or stucco,

-Islamic West- used to

adorn outside of a dome,

cupola or similar structure

-Islamic East- more limited

to the interior face of a

vault

Muqarnas in the

necropolis of Shah-i-

Zinda, Samarqand

Ornaments

--Uses ornaments that are mathematically complicated,

elaborate geometric and interlace patterns, floral motifs

like the arabesque, and elaborate calligraphic inscriptions

Example: Calligraphic inscriptions on the Dome of the

Rock include quotes from the Quran — miracle of Jesus

and his human nature