Influence and Islamic Visual Identity - Essay Example

Question Influence and Islamic Visual Identity For the demonstration of this problem I have selected two Islamic Monuments i.e. Great Mosque of Samarra (9th Century CE) and Great Mosque of Cordoba (8th and 9th century CE). The Great Mosque of Samarra is located in the Iraqi city of Samarra. The Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil completed the mosque in 851. The tower is the main feature which is a vast spiraling cone (snail shaped) 52 meters high and 33 meters wide and provides access to the top with a spiral ramp. The mosque was at one time the largest mosque in the world. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was actually a church which was converted to a mosque by Umayyad Moors after purchasing it from the Visgothic Christian Church. Located in Cordoba (the Andalusian city of Spain) is the most renowned monument of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba. Today the building is a Cathedral. The Malwiya tower, which is the most distinguished feature in the mosque, was constructed entirely by brickwork. The use of brickwork is attributed to the Mesopotamian architects and artisans. It was constructed in the 9th century CE when the Islamic architecture was in its initial stages and was not established as it was in later centuries. The Mesopotamian architecture is evident in this monument because the early Muslims were from Arabia and the Arabs were not great architects or builders, you cannot find many notable pieces of architecture in Arabian peninsula before Islam or in the early days of Islam, this is the reason that the Arab Muslim conquerors relied solely on the Mesopotamian architecture while constructing the capital city of Samarra (which was later abandoned due to water shortage) and its monuments. Another feature of the tower Malwiya is the spiral ramp that recalls the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The ziggurats also had the exposed staircases leading to the top of the building and same is the case with the Malwiya tower of the Great Mosque of Samarra. The ziggurat were part of temple complexes i.e. places of worship of the Mesopotamians and same is the case with the mosque as it is the place of worship of the Muslims. So it is correct to say that the Mesopotamian architecture which was the native architecture of the building is evident in the architecture of the Great Mosque of Samarra however Islamic architecture is not missing altogether. The construction involved the styles of the local culture but the architecture as a whole is distinctively Islamic because primarily the structure and the plan of the building is strictly based on Islamic structure of a mosque. An Islamic mosque is essentially supposed to have a courtyard in the centre, it is not present in the centre of the building but it is there in the mosque. Also the minaret is considered to be the most important feature of a mosque which is used to sound Azan (the call to prayer) and in this building the minaret has been given utmost importance. So we can say that the architecture of the building is an amalgamation of the structural features of Islamic construction and aesthetics of Mesopotamian construction and this amalgamation is distinctively Islamic in nature.1 Originally a church the Great Mosque of Cordoba was converted to a mosque by subsequent efforts of Abd ar-Rehman and his decendants over a period of two centuries. As compared to the Great Mosque of Samarra it depicts greater traces of the local artisanship and architecture. The mihrab of a mosque is essentially supposed to face the holy city of Mecca and this is the case with all the mosques built all over the world but in this mosque the mihrab is in the south of the mosque (Mecca being in the south-east) which is certainly a contradiction to the basic principles of Islamic architecture. This is because the foundations of the building are taken from the old Roman and Visgothic construction. The architecture of the building is not strictly Islamic but one can find various Islamic traces too as shown by the giant arches and columns and the central courtyard. The introduction of double arches (lower horse shoe and upper circular) to support the greater weight of the additional ceiling features is also a practice common in Islamic construction. Also the verses from Quran inscribed on the mihrab wall in Arabic calligraphy and intertwined with colored tilework are some of the aspects of the visual culture which is totally Islamic in nature. To sum up we can say that both of these structures have distinguished features which are in conformity to the architecture of the region in which these are located however Islamic character is evident in both of them and in principle these depict the Islamic architecture. Question 6: Sacred Spaces For the demonstration of this problem I have selected two Islamic Monuments i.e. Dome of the Rock (late 7th century CE) and Mosque of Uqba (7th century CE). The Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah in Arabic) is a major landmark and more importantly is an Islamic shrine located on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Completed in 691-692 it is the oldest existing Islamic Building in the world. The importance of the site is attributed to the religious beliefs behind a rock deemed as sacred which is present at the buildings heart. The Mosque of Uqba, also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan is situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan. The mosque was built by Uqba ibn Nafi, an Arab General, from 670 CE and is spread over an area of 9000 square meters. It was very well known all over the Maghrib (the African province of the Islamic Empire) for its structure, which includes the marble paved courtyard and the massive minaret. Huge works were carried out later in the 9th century by the Aghlabids. The Dome of the rock is the second most sacred structures in the Islamic world (first being the holy Kaaba) and was constructed in 689 to 691 CE as part of the Islamization of the temple mount. It is believed that the holy prophet of Islam ascended to heavens from this particular place and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque was constructed to mark the site. The Dome of the Rock is deemed very sacred by the Muslims as it was the first qibla (Muslims pray facing the qibla) and therefore the Muslims conquerors constructed it with great grandeur. However the architecture of the building does not tell why it is sacred and does not trace the origins of the event that made the place important. The architecture of the building is actually designed to display a spirit of polemic against Christianity, the interior in particular with the inscribed verses from Quran regarding the prophet hood of Jesus. The exterior of the Dome of the Rock; octagon enclosing a domed cylindrical core and the geometry with its parts; octagonal format, vaulting, columns, piers, arches, ambulatories, rich mosaic decoration, and fenestrated dome of glided wood represents the Muslims’ acquisition of near-complete Romano-Byzantine architectural program. Further the Dome of the Rock is an atypical Islamic religious structure. The earthen structure incorporating the ruins of a Roman temple precinct in the capital city of Damascus was developed to function as a large assembly place. These features do not depict really the sacredness of the place but are a good example of the amalgamated nature of the Islamic architecture.2 Great Mosque of Uqba was built by Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi from 670 CE and is considered sacred because it marked the crushing of all the early false prophets which came forward after the death of the Holy Prophet of Muslims. However the architecture of the building does not show anything about this legend and is considered to be the oldest place of worship in the western Islamic world, as well as a model for all later mosques in Maghreb. The most notable feature is the vast space (9000 square meters) containing hypostyle prayer hall, a huge marble-paved courtyard along with a massive minaret. The mosque has an important relationship to the mosques of the Umayyad and Abbasid capitals. Its square minaret stands on the centre line of the building. The mihrab of the mosque is probably the earliest examples of its kind in Islamic architecture. The building has slightly pointed horseshoe arches carried on Corinthianesque columns. Tapering minaret with its recessed stages as well as the incorrect southward orientation of the building itself reflect its eighth-century Syrian origins.3 To sum up it can be said that the sacred structures of the Islamic architecture are not essentially in conformity to the event behind the sacredness of the site but are actually serving as the basis for the widespread visual culture of Islam which dictated the architecture of the buildings to follow in the later centuries. Works Cited Armstrong, Karen. "Development." Islam A Short History. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2009. 35-56. Print. Fletcher, Bannister, Sir. A History of Architecture. Boston: Butterworths, 1987. Print. Hoag, John. "Principle." Islamic Architecture. Newyork: Rizzoli/Electra, 1975. 48-62. Print. Sharp, Dennis. "Mosque of Al Mutawakkil." The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. 1991. Print. Trachtenberg, Marvin, and Isabelle Hyman. "Bondage in Islam." Great Architecture of the World. London: Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1975. 210-18. Print. Read More