What is Islamic Art? What
is Islamic Architecture? Did the early-Islamic structures have a novel form or
were they derived from previous cultures? Were early-Islamic mosques built in
order to gather the Muslim society or were they built with an aesthetic sense?
These are the questions Oleg Grabar answers in the “Islamic Religious Art: The
Mosque” section of his famous book called “The Formation of Islamic Art”. In
order to understand the common features used in the latter mosques, he mainly
focuses on the structures of Umayyad mosques such as the Great Mosque of
Cordoba in Spain (fig. 1.a and 1.b) and the Great Mosque of Damascus in Syria
(fig. 2), also Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (fig. 3) and the Prophet’s house in
Madinah.
He
first analyzes the word ‘masjid’ using its appearances in the Quran to
understand the origin of the mosques and reaches the conclusion that it only
means “sanctuary, a place to worship” which is far too general to refer only to
the Islamic mosques. The need of an architectural structure, mosque, emerged
from a statement in Quran, which requires a gathering in Fridays to perform
prayers. Allowing the Muslims to pray anywhere and on their own for the rest of
the time, Quran emphasizes the Friday noons with these words in 62nd
surat and 9th verse, “O you have believed, when (the adhan) is
called for prayer on the day of Jumu’ah (Friday), then proceed to the
remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only
knew.” The only place for this gathering was the Prophet’s house, which really was
his home at first and then transformed into a holy mosque. Besides the house,
other small formations were created around Medina and they were called
“musallah”. Unfortunately, none of these early structures had survived.
Since there were no
existing mosques earlier than the 8th century, he examines the early
Umayyad mosques: The Great Mosque of Damascus and Cordoba assuming that
especially the features they both share may be considered as the
characteristics of the spaces that were used in mosques in earlier centuries.
The common characteristics of the nonexistent early are:
·
Large rectangular shaped plan
·
Large courtyards
·
Surrounded by porticoes on three sides
·
Large halls with naves on the fourth side
He tries to explain the reason why the plan of a
mosque had changed between the Early Islamic period and the future centuries
from a simple rectangular form to a much more complex structure. It is for sure
that the masjids were embracing the whole Muslim society in the city since the
beginning of the Early Islamic period. The growing population led to a
development in the plan of the mosques. It was once a single rectangular unit
consisted of an open and a closed area (fig. 4), then developed into two parts:
a courtyard and a closed area with a façade. This implies that mosques were
built to meet social needs rather than architectural or aesthetic conceptions.
While examining the early
structures, Grabar highlights the differences of the hypostyle hall for a
mosque that is distinguished from the hall in a church. In a church, the hall
is wider than the side aisles and the naves are parallel to each other. On the
other hand, the size of the hall does not vary in a mosque and the direction of
the naves is perpendicular (fig. 5). He suggests that the early hypostyle hall
was inspired by the house of the Prophet instead of the halls in a church. He
also points out that the columns are reused in the construction of the mosques
such as the mosque of Damascus from Christian churches. So, we understand that
it is also very natural to use the existing art forms when trying to formulate
an artistic voice for a new formation. According to Grabar there are five
distinguished features of Islamic architecture:
1. Minaret
2. Mihrab
3. Maqsurah
4. Domed unit in the court
5. Axial nave ends up in
kiblah
These features are explained in the article in thoroughly.
The one that I found most interesting was the “minaret”. It is the part where
the Muslims are called for prayer. He mentions the two different types of
minaret: In the first one, it is attached to the mosque and has a rectangular
shape (fig. 6). The other one is located apart from the mosque and has a
cylindrical shape. This kind of a minaret exists in the Great Mosque of Samarra
(fig. 7). The most interesting part is where he states that the calling for
prayer has always been a need since the rise of Islam whereas the usage of the
first minaret is seen in the Great Mosque of Damascus (fig. 8). The towers of
Damascus from early Christians were convenient for this task. In conclusion
Grabar states that, “It is thus fairly simple to conclude that a certain
function appeared fairly early in Islamic mosques and that the forms used for
it were taken from older architectural vocabularies and therefore varied from
area to area.” And he believes that a structure keeps it originality when it is
reused for another function. So, the society puts a totally new meaning to an
old tower.
After explaining the
minaret feature of the mosque, I would like continue with the developments in
the mosque structure. The single form of the mosque varied only with the growth
of different branches and sects of Islam, which had varied needs that could
have been satisfied with differing architectural forms. These may have involved
various religious symbolisms and at times mystical interpretations:
1- Typical mosque buildings
2- Islamic function acquired
monumental form such as madrasa, mausoleum, tomb or ribat
Grabar
tries to determine which structural elements of the early mosques are
specifically Islamic and are not remainings of a pre-existing tradition. While
doing that, he describes the various decorative ornamentation techniques found
in a wide variety of examples of mosques from a huge geographical area. In
conclusion, he touches upon a significant question in Islamic art. Was the
decoration just for ornamentation or did it have an essential meaning? For the
decoration of the mosques, he suggests two variations:
1-
Concentrating the decorative elements around the sections of
the mosque to focus attention to these parts. (nave or mihrab (fig. 9))
2-
Distributing the decorative elements to emphasize the overall
unity of the mosque.
He also speaks of paradisiacal symbolism. Whatever
these symbolic meanings may have been in early mosques, they were later lost
since they started to become insignificant to the beholders. The reason for the
interpretation is obvious when we observe the Mosque of Cordoba (fig. 10). Moreover,
the only exception is the Arabic writings on buildings, which are more than
just decorations for Islam. Since it does not exist in the early mosques, this
is considered as a development of later periods.
The
text had enlightened me about the formation of a mosque and the early Islamic
structures. Grabar uses several examples and also points out the exceptions in
each case to support his arguments. What I have learned from him is that,
although the most of the early Islamic architecture did not have any elements
that were new inventions but were adapted from pre-existing forms, it is
important to understand that it is impossible to confuse a Muslim mosque with a
pre-Islamic structure.
Figure 1.a
The Great Mosque
of Cordoba
Figure 1.b
Interior of the
Great Mosque of Cordoba
Figure 2
The Great Mosque
of Damascus
Figure 3
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Figure 4
The diagram of the
Prophet’s house in Medina
Figure 5
The plan of the
Great Mosque of Damascus to point out the perpendicular naves used in the
mosques
Figure 6
The Great Mosque of Kariouan to show an example for
the rectangular minaret type attached to the mosque
Figure 7
Minaret of the
Great Mosque of Samarra to show an example for the cylindrical separate minaret
type
Figure 8
The minaret of the
Great Mosque of Damascus
Figure 9
The mihrab of the
Great Mosque of Cordoba
Figure 10
WORKS CITED
Grabar,
Oleg. "Islamic Religious Art: The Mosque." The Formation of
Islamic Art. New Haven: Yale UP,
1973. N. pag. Print.
Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. New Haven: Yale
UP, 1973. 113. Print.
"Surat
Al-Jumu`ah (The Congregation, Friday) - سورة الجمعة." Quran.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
surat no: 62 verse: 9
Bird's eye view of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Digital image. N.p.,
n.d. Web. (fig. 1.a)
The Great Mosque of Cordoba. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. (fig. 1.b)
The Great Mosque of Damascus. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. (fig, 2)
Al-Aqsa Mosque. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. (fig. 3)
The Diagram of the Prophet’s House in Medina.
Digital image.Http://knoji.com/images/user/Slide3(20).jpg. N.p., n.d.
Web. (fig. 4)
The plan of the Great Mosque of Damascus. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web.
(fig. 5)
Minaret of the Great Mosque of Kariouan. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web.
(fig. 6)
Minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web.
(fig. 7)
The minaret of the Great Mosque of Damascus. Digital image. N.p., n.d.
Web. (fig. 8)
The mihrab of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Digital image. N.p., n.d.
Web. (fig. 9)
The courtyard of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Digital image. N.p., n.d.
Web. (fig. 10)
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