Chapter 10
Islamic Art and Architecture
Map of The Islamic World
blog.empas.com/jdyi8589/read.html?a=31029778
Chronology of Early Islam
• Muhammad Born in Mecca
• Muhammad’s First Revelation
ca. 570
610
• Muhammad’s Flight to Medina (Hijra) 622
• Muhammad Dies in Medina
632
Five Pillars of Islam
• Faith
There is no God but God;
Muhammad is his messenger
• Prayer
Salat–obligatory prayers
said five times daily
• Charity
Zakat–“purification” or “growth”
• Fasting
during month of Ramadan
• Pilgrimage
Hajj–trip to Mecca once in a lifetime
some go yearly during Ramadan
Islam
• Islam: Submission to God – Allah is the
one and only God
• Believers in Islam are called Muslims
• Chief building for Muslim worship is a
Mosque
• 2nd most popular religion in the world today
Stylistic Characteristics
– Calligraphy – ornamental writing and
sacred words
– Arabesques
– Abstract geometric shapes
– Animal figures
– No representation of humans in sacred art
– Monumental architecture - horseshoe
arches
Key Ideas
• The chief building for Muslim worship is
the mosque, which directs the
worshipper’s attention to Mecca through a
niche called a mihrab.
• Calligraphy is the most prized art form,
and appears on most Islamic works of art.
• Both figural and non figural works
incorporate calligraphy with arabesques
and tessellations (decoration using
polygonal shapes with no gaps).
• Islamic textiles are particularly treasured
as great works of woven art.
Vocabulary
• Arabesque: a flowing, intricate, and symmetrical
pattern deriving from floral motifs
• Calligraphy: decorative or beautiful handwriting
• Koran: the Islamic sacred text, dictated to the Prophet
Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel
• Mecca: the birthplace of Muhammad and the city all
Muslims turn to in prayer
• Mihrab: a central niche in a mosque, which indicates
the direction to Mecca
• Minaret: a tall, slender column used to call people to
prayer
• Minbar: a pulpit from which sermons are given
• Mosque: a Muslim house of worship
•First great Islamic building
•Domed wooden octagon - It
is a domed central-plan
structure descended from the
Pantheon in Rome and Hagia
Sophia in Constantinople, but
it more closely resembles the
octagonal San Vital in
Ravenna.
•Columns from Roman
monuments
•Not a temple or Mosque but
a shrine to the triumph of
Islam
•Celebrates a new religion
coming to the city – tribute to
the triumph of Islam
10-2: Dome of the
Rock , Jerusalem,
Israel, 687-692
•Holy site: sacred to Christians and Jew
•Adam’s burial,
•Sacrifice of Isaac,
•Muhammad ascend to heaven
• Jewish Temple of Solomon destroyed in 70 C.E.
Cue Card
Dome of the Rock Mosque Exterior
Dome of the Rock
calligraphy
Dome of the Rock Mosque Interior
Calligraphy
How does the Dome of the Rock
Mosque compare to San Vitale and
Santa Costanza?
Domed Octagons like
San Vitale
Santa Costanza
Minarets (a tall, slender column used to
call people to prayer): earliest in the
Islamic world.
•Caliph al-Walid purchased a Byzantine
church dedicated to John the Baptist
(formerly a Roman temple of Jupiter) to build
the imposing new mosque
•Owes much to Roman and Early Christian
architecture to the builders incorporated
stone blocks, columns, and capitals salvaged
from earlier structures on the land acquired
by al-Walid
Cue Card
Great Mosque, Damascus, Syria , 706-715, Al-Walid purchased a
Byzantine church to build this mosque
Glass mosaics
•Pier arcades reminiscent of
Roman aqueducts frame the
courtyard.
•The minarets the earliest in the
Islamic world-are modification of
the preexisting Roman square
towers.
•The Damascus mosque
synthesizes elements received
from other cultures into a novel
architectural unity, which includes
the distinctive Islamic elements
of mihrab, mihrab dome, minbar,
and minaret.
•Like the architectural design, the
mosaics owe much to Roman,
Early Christian, and Byzantine
art. Some evidence indicates
they were work of Byzantine
mosaicists.
Architecture
• Know & recognize
these 3 characteristic
arches/niches from
Islamic architecture
Muqarnas are unique
to Islam Often stacked
and used in multiples,
very intricate and
dazzling to the eye
Sometimes vault
domes, or used as part
of a mihrab
Koran
• Calligraphers
are the most
respected artist
and are the
highest form of
art in the Islamic
world
• Words on the
walls of
buildings
Close up of a Mosque Wall
• calligraphy, repeating
"God the great the
merciful.“
• tesselation of
interlocking lines.
• geometric pattern of
8-pointed and 16pointed stars.
Mihrab,
Madrasa Imami
•Union of calligraphy
and arabesque
•Geometric and
abstract floral motifs
•3D turned into 2D
Frieze of the
Umayyad
Palace, Mshatta,
Jordan, ca. 740 –
750, limestone, 16
ft. 7 in. high
•From a place in Jordan
•Richly carved stone walls, 16-feet high
•Triangle pattern, rosettes placed in each triangle
•Birds, vines, and animals on secular side of palace; mosque side has no animal
patterns
•Walls - 16 ½ feet tall, meant to keep out bandits and give privacy to the occupants
Cue Card
Aerial view of the Great Mosque
Qayrawan, Tunisia
ca. 836-875
Great Mosque
Quyrawan, Tunisia
• Horizontal Axis Plan
• Hypostyle prayer hall
• Mihrab dome determines
direction
• Larger central aisle
• Central courtyard with
arcades
• Diffusion of Greco Roman
and Early Christian
• Political and Religious
Function
What is this similar to?
• Malwiya minaret of the
Great Mosque, Samarra,
Iraq, 848-852 165’
• Snail shell spiral ramp
increases in slope from
bottom to top
• Similar to Ziggurat?
• 2005 top portion blown
up by Arab extremists
Americans used it as an
observatory
Cue Card
•Double-arched columns, brilliantly
articulated in alternating bands of color
•A light and airy interior
•Horseshoe-shaped arches
•Hypostyle mosque: no central focus, no
congregational worship
•Original wooden ceiling replaced by
vaulting
•Complex dome over mihrab with elaborate
squinches
•Columns are spolia from Ancient Roman
structures
Entrance to the Great Mosque, Córdoba,
Spain, 8th to 10th centuries
Prayer
Hall
Great Mosque, Cordoba
•Double tiered
arches carried
a wooden roof
•Light and airy
Maqsura- a screened area in front of the mihrab reserved for the ruler
Cue Card
Court of Lions, Alahambra Palace,
Granada, Spain, 1354-1391
Cue Card
•Palace of the Nasrid sultans of Southern Spain
•Abstract patterns, abstraction of forms
•Highly sophisticated and refined interior
•Interwoven abstract ornamentation and Arabic
calligraphy cover the stucco walls
•5,000 muqarnas refract the light
•The structure of this dome on an
octagonal drum is difficult to discern
because of the intricately carved stucco
maqarnas. The prismatic forms reflct
sunlight, creating the effect of a starry
sky
•Light, airy interiors
•16 windows at top of hall, light
dissolves into a honeycomb of
stalactites that dangle from the ceiling
Muqarnas dome, hall of the Two Sisters
Alahambra Palace, Granada, Spain,1354-1391
Madrasa-mosque-mausoleum, Cairo, Egypt
•Largest Muslim city at the time:
Cairo
•Madrasa-place
Madrasa
of study to
learn Islamic law
•4 colleges, mosque,
mausoleum, orphanage,
hospital, and shops
•Incorporates religious,
educational, and charitable
functions
•Large central courtyard
Mosque of Selim II, Edirne, Turkey
1568-1575
•Architect: Sinan
•Climax of Ottoman
Architecture
•Monument central space with
Harmonious proportions
Cue Card
Mosque of Selim II
•Extremely thin soaring minarets
•Abundant window space makes fro
a brilliantly lit interior
•Decorative display of mosaic and
tile work
•Inspired by Hagia Sophia, but a
centrally planned building
•Octagonal interior, with 8 pillars
resting on a square set of walls
•Open airy interior contrast with
conventional mosques that have
partitioned interiors
•Part of a complex including
hospital, school, library
Maqsud of Kashan
carpet for a funerary mosque of
Shaykh Safi al-Din,
Ardabi, Iran, 1540
Wool and silk
Cue Card
Sultan Muhammad,
Court of Gayumars
folio 20 verso of the
Shahnama of Shah
Tahmasp
from Tabriz , Iran,
ca. 1525-1535,
Ink, watercolor, and gold
on paper
1’1” X 9”
Cue Card
Compare & Contrast
Compare and contrast the Compare and contrast
Christian church of Old
the Dome of the Rock
St. Peters, with Hagia
Mosque with San
Sophia, and the Great
Vitale and Santa
Mosque of Damascus, in Costanza, in terms of
terms of structure,
structure, function
function (plan), beauty
(plan), beauty
(decoration), and
(decoration), and
importance of site.
importance of site.
Question: How do the structures relate to power
and dominance? How do the individual parts of the
buildings relate to the worship of faith and how are
various elements diffused from other cultures?
What was this building before alWalid bought it and built this Great
Mosque?
Discuss at least three elements that
are influenced by Roman and Early
Christian architecture?
Discussion Questions
• What is the role of art and architecture in
the Islamic world?
• What do you think are the most impressive
visual qualities of Islamic art?
• What are some of the unique feature of
Islamic mosques and mausoleums?