Islamic Architecture

Video Transcription

Hi. This is Erin Aldana. In this lesson, we'll explore Islamic architecture. So I'm beginning by showing you one of the earliest surviving examples of Islamic architecture, which is the Dome of the Rock. And this is located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is a very holy location for Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. So for Christians, this is the spot where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son Isaac. And for Jews, this is the spot where Solomon built a temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. And for Muslims, this is the spot where Muhammad ascended to heaven.

So in 707, the Caliph Al-Walid wanted to build a shrine to house the holy rock that was the last thing Muhammad stepped on before ascending to heaven, and that is what the Dome of the Rock basically is. So you can see here by looking at the exterior that it's shaped like a giant octagon. And the source of inspiration here is early Christian central planned churches like Santa Costanza. And it has this enormous dome on top of it that's gilded.

So the dome is made out of wood, which is more lightweight than stone or concrete, and that allows it to poof out more than any dome had in the past, more than the pantheon or Hagia Sophia. So this is where we start to see the kind of onion domes that we associate with Muslim architecture, and it's gilded. So this really stands out as a beacon. It's a major landmark in the city of Jerusalem that marks this holy spot.

Now, another aspect that makes this structure different from Christian churches is its use of tile work. So keep in mind that Muslim architecture forbids the use of images of people or animals, especially in religious sanctuaries. So they're covered instead with this very elaborate tile work that has abstract designs on them that reference floral patterns. And along the upper edge of the octagon is an inscription. And so you can see the inscription if you look at the top of the image on the right.

And it's this inscription that emphasizes the connection between Christianity and Islam, and it's the first example of the importance of calligraphy in Islamic architectural decoration. So calligraphy gradually becomes more and more decorative, and it remains a really important aspect of Islamic tile work. And there's a real emphasis on the word, and especially the Koran as the holy book of Islam.

So now I'm showing you the inside of Santa Costanza on the left and the interior of the Dome of the Rock on the right to illustrate the similarities between the Dome of the Rock and a central planned church like Santa Costanza. And this is really interesting because when caliphs were commissioning these buildings, they often approached Byzantine artisans and architects and asked them for help. And so that's another reason why you see this influence here. So in many cases, Byzantine artisans actually did the mosaics and the tile work on structures such as the Dome of the Rock.

So now I'm showing you a three-dimensional computer model of one of the oldest mosques that's still in existence, the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia. And the earliest mosques were very simple structures. They were just simply meant to bring together large numbers of people, and often their animals as well, for prayer on Friday. So they're just big spaces that house a large number of people, and that's what you see here. This is just a simple rectangular building. And originally, there was just a wall that indicated the direction of Mecca, and this is known as the qibla wall. And then other structures developed accordingly. So we have just a large rectangular minaret. And a minaret is a tower attached to the mosque that calls people to prayer.

So now I'm showing you a view of the interior space of the Great Mosque of Kairouan and the hypostyle prayer hall, which in a mosque is a personal space separated by columns for privacy. So notice here the use of columns is really interesting because these columns were taken from Carthaginian ruins. So notice the Corinthian capitals at the top and the fact that many of these columns are different lengths and made out of different types of stones. So the solution there was to make these bases that you see at the bottom that are of different lengths that compensate for the differences in the columns.

So now I'm showing you an alternate view of the same space, and this view includes some of the features that would come to be associated with Islamic architecture. So first of all, we have the minbar, which in Islam is the pulpit from which the sermon is delivered. And notice in this image that the minbar is at the end of the columns on the right-hand side, and it's made of carved wood. And it's one of the oldest such structures in existence. And then we have the mihrab, which in a mosque is a niche or a decorative panel showing the direction of Mecca.

So you see that at the end of the room where one man is standing and the other man is kneeling. And these niches evolved from places where a colt statue would be housed in other types of temple. And, of course, since there is this ban on imagery in Islamic art and architecture, you just have an empty niche here that makes references to Muhammad and the afterlife, but it's more abstract. And then this is located along the qibla wall, and there are a couple of different spelling variations on that. And that is, in Islam, the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca and the Kaaba for prayer.

So mosques tend to be very simple structures. They just have a few features. And for this reason, they can have many different purposes to them. They're not like a Christian church that only has one function because of the limitations of the architecture. And there's also this idea that the forms within a mosque can be repeated and extended in any direction.

So if you wanted to extend the hypostyle hall, for instance, you could just build on more arches and columns. If you want to extend some of the designs, you just add on more tiles, and so on and so forth. And I also want to mention that the Mosque of Kairouan, as one of the oldest mosques in existence, became a prototype, and many other mosques afterwards were built based on its design.

So in 750, almost the entire family of the Umayyad Caliphate was massacred, and the sole survivor fled Damascus, Syria for Spain, where he hoped to re-establish his power. And he built himself a small kingdom which he ruled from the city of Cordoba. And that is why the Great Mosque of Cordoba was built. And so that is pictured on the left.

And this was made using 110 columns that had been salvaged from Roman ruins. And again, you notice the use of Corinthian capitals at the bottom. You can't see much of the columns, but they're at the bottom of the image. And these didn't reach all the way up to the roof, so they were topped with two rows of red and white striped arches. And these are very visually striking. And they take the form of a horseshoe arch. So this is also called a keyhole arch. It's semi-circular and a characteristic of Islamic architecture. And one of the sources of inspiration here is Roman aqueducts such as the Pont du Gard that make use of the semicircular barrel arch.

So last of all, I would like to show you the Shah Mosque located at Isfahan in Iran. And this is one of the best examples of Persian-style architecture. And it uses iwans, which are these large gateways with pointed arches. And they're also a common feature of Mughal architecture. And we see them, for instance, in the Taj Mahal. Now, here, the iwan is emphasized to the point that it overwhelms all the rest of the mosque architecture. And it suggests that the iwan is a gateway to the spiritual world.

Now, also notice that there is extensive use of tile work here. So during this time, artisans were able to develop a new, less expensive approach to tile-making in which a wide range of colors could be used. These use seven colors. So they use two shades of blue, green, yellow, white, black, and off-white. And there is a calligraphic text that runs along the center band if you see that in the image on the right.

Now, also notice that there is a stalactite shape that's in the vault of the arch, and that has the effect of dematerializing the space. So this is a really different approach to architecture than what we see in the Western tradition. Many times in Islamic architecture, you'll see the structure start to dissolve and the actual structure be undermined in some of the architectural forms. And in Western architecture, there tends to be a great deal of emphasis on the structure itself.

So let's take a look at what we learned. We looked at different examples of Islamic architecture. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is one of the earliest examples, and it shares stylistic traits with early Christian churches such as Santa Costanza. And over time, Islam developed its own unique form of architecture in the mosque, which is basically a large area devoted to prayer. And some of the unique aspects of mosques include the minaret, qibla wall, and mihrab. And mosques do not include any statues or figurative works of art, but they are often decorated with tiles that are elaborately painted in abstract floral designs that are a reference to the paradise of the afterlife.

So that concludes our lesson for today. Thank you very much.