Islamic architecture

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Islamic architecture

Great Mosque of Cordoba, interior, 8th - 10th centuries (38) (29721130342).jpg

20180301124354 IMG 4179And6more Interior 3.jpg

Selimiye Mosque, Dome.jpg

Top: Arches of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba (Spain); Centre: The Jameh Mosque in Isfahan (Iran);
Bottom: Interior side view of the main dome of the Selimiye Mosque (Edirne, Turkey)

Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses
both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. Islamic architecture
developed to fulfill Islamic religious ideals, for example, the minaret was designed to assist the muezzin
in making his voice heard to throughout a specific area.

Early Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian architecture and
all other lands which the Early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries.[1][2]
Further east, it was also influenced by Chinese and Indian architecture as Islam spread to Southeast Asia.
Later it developed distinct characteristics in the form of buildings and in the decoration of surfaces with
Islamic calligraphy, arabesques, and geometric motifs.[3][4] New architectural elements like minarets,
muqarnas, and multifoil arches were invented. Common or important types of buildings in Islamic
architecture include mosques, madrasas, tombs, palaces, hammams (public baths), Sufi hospices (e.g.
khanqahs or zawiyas), fountains and sabils, commercial buildings (e.g. caravanserais and bazaars), and
military fortifications.[3]

Contents

1 Early history (up to 10th century)

2 Characteristics

2.1 Gardens

2.2 Courtyard (Sahn)

2.3 Hypostyle hall

2.4 Vaulting

2.4.1 Umayyad diaphragm arches and barrel vaults

2.4.2 Iwans

2.5 Domes

2.5.1 Domes in Iran and Central Asia

2.5.2 Domes in South Asia

2.5.3 Ribbed domes in Al-Andalus and the Maghreb

2.5.4 Ottoman domes

2.6 Balconies and screens

2.7 Muqarnas

2.8 Ornamentation

2.9 Other elements of religious architecture

2.9.1 Qibla orientation

2.9.2 Mihrab

2.9.3 Minaret

3 Towns and cities

3.1 Urban and nomadic life according to Ibn Khaldun

3.2 Experiments with various ideal city models

3.3 Transformation of conquered towns

3.4 Urban morphology of the Medina

3.5 Frontier fortresses and towns

3.5.1 Misr, Ribat

3.5.2 Qaṣr

4 Influences
5 Regional styles (after 10th century)

5.1 Persian

5.2 Turkish

5.2.1 Seljuk

5.2.2 Ottoman

5.3 Iberian Peninsula and western North Africa

5.4 Mamluk

5.5 Yemeni

5.6 Indian subcontinent

5.7 Indonesian

5.8 Chinese

5.9 Russian

5.10 Sahelian

5.11 Somali

6 In modern times

6.1 Urban design and Islam

6.2 Debates on status as a style of architecture

7 Connections and deeper meanings

7.1 Difficulty forming connections

7.2 Religious and societal connections

7.2.1 Status and hierarchy

7.3 Structural intentions

7.4 Interpretation

8 Threats and conservation

9 Contemporary Muslim architects

10 See also

11 Notes

12 References

12.1 Citations

12.2 Sources

13 Further reading

14 External links

Early history (up to 10th century)

See also: Mosque § History

The Mosque of the Prophet, standing on the site of Muhammad's first mosque in Medina. The present-
day building is the result of many reconstructions and expansions up to modern times.[5]

The Islamic era began with the formation of Islam under the leadership of Muhammad in early 7th-
century Arabia. The first mosque was a structure built by Muhammad in Medina in 622, right after his
hegira (migration) from Mecca, which corresponds to the site of the present-day Mosque of the Prophet
(al-Masjid an-Nabawi).[6][5] It is usually described as his house, but may have been designed to serve as
a community center from the beginning.[6] It consisted of a simple courtyard structure built in unbaked
brick, with a rectangular, almost square, floor plan measuring about 53 by 56 meters.[6][7] A shaded
portico supported by palm trunks stood on the north side of the courtyard, in the direction of prayer
(the qibla), which was initially towards Jerusalem. When the qibla was changed to face towards Mecca
in 624, a similar portico was added on the south side, facing towards that city.[6] Muhammad and his
family lived in separate rooms attached to the mosque, and Muhammad himself was buried in one of
these rooms upon his death in 632.[6] Over the rest of the 7th century and in the 8th century the
mosque was repeatedly expanded to include a large flat-roofed prayer hall supported by columns (a
hypostyle hall) with a central courtyard.[6] It became one of the main models for the early mosques
built elsewhere.[6][7]

There are few other buildings dating from the era of Muhammad, but one example is the Jawatha
Mosque in Saudi Arabia.[citation needed] During the early Arab-Muslim conquests of the Middle East
and North Africa in the 7th century, new garrison cities were established in territories such as Fustat in
Egypt and Kufa in present-day Iraq. The central congregational mosques of these cities were built in the
hypostyle format.[6] In other cities, especially in Syria, new mosques were established by converting or
occupying parts of existing churches in existing cities, as for example in Damascus and Hama.[6] These
early mosques had no minaret, although small shelters may have been constructed on the roofs to
protect the muezzin while issuing the call to prayer.[8]

Section of the Umayyad-era Mshatta Facade, now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, from a palace
near Amman

The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) combined elements of pre-islamic Himyarite, Byzantine architecture
and Sassanid architecture, but Umayyad architecture introduced new combinations of these styles with
considerable Ghassanid influence.[9] South Arabian architecture and styles of ornamentation represent
an immediate predecessor of the early Umayyads.[10] The reuse of elements from classical Roman and
Byzantine art was still widely evident because political power and patronage was centered in Syria, a
former Roman/Byzantine province.[11] However, a significant amount of experimentation occurred as
Umayyad patrons recruited craftsmen from across the empire and architects were allowed, or even
encouraged, to mix elements from different artistic traditions and to disregard traditional conventions
and restraints.[11] Partly as a result of this, Umayyad architecture is distinguished by the extent and
variety of decoration, including mosaics, wall painting, sculpture and carved reliefs.[12][11] While figural
scenes were notably present in monuments like Qusayr 'Amra, non-figural decoration and more abstract
scenes became highly favoured, especially in religious architecture.[13][11]

The horseshoe arch appears for the first time in Umayyad architecture, later to evolve to its most
advanced form in al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula).[14] In hypostyle mosques, the Umayyads introduced
the tradition of making the "nave" or aisle in front of the mihrab wider than the others, dividing the
prayer room along its central axis.[15] They also added the mihrab to mosque design, a concave niche in
the qibla wall of the mosque.[15] The first mihrab, a concave niche in the qibla wall, reportedly
appeared at Muhammad's mosque in Medina when it was rebuilt by al-Walid I in 707. It seems to have
represented the place where the Prophet stood when leading prayer.[15] This almost immediately
became a standard feature of all mosques.[15] Several major early monuments of Islamic architecture
built under the Umayyads include the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (built by Caliph Abd al-Malik) and
the Great Mosque of Damascus (built by al-Walid I). The Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif, also in
Jerusalem, was also rebuilt by al-Walid I, replacing an earlier simple structure built around 670.[6] Both
the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Great Mosque of Damascus featured a hypostyle hall and a dome above the
space in front of the mihrab, and both were influential in the design of later mosques elsewhere.[6] A
number of palaces from this period have also partially survived or have been excavated in modern
times.[11][12]
The walls and minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra built by the Abbasids in the 9th century

The Abbasid architecture of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1513) was particularly influenced by Sassanid
architecture, which in turn featured elements present since ancient Mesopotamia.[16][17] Other
influences such as ancient Soghdian architecture in Central Asia have also been noted.[16] This was
partly a result of the caliphate's political center shifting further east to the new capital of Baghdad, in
present-day Iraq.[17] Abbasid mosques all followed the courtyard plan with hypostyle halls. The earliest
was the mosque that Caliph al-Mansur built in Baghdad (since destroyed). The Great Mosque of Samarra
built by al-Mutawakkil was 256 by 139 metres (840 by 456 ft). A flat wooden roof was supported by
columns. The mosque was decorated with marble panels and glass mosaics.[18] The prayer hall of the
Abu Dulaf Mosque at Samarra had arcades on rectangular brick piers running at right angles to the qibla
wall. Both of the Samarra mosques have spiral minarets, the only examples in Iraq.[18] A mosque at
Balkh in what is now Afghanistan was about 20 by 20 metres (66 by 66 ft) square, with three rows of
three square bays, supporting nine vaulted domes.[19] While the origins of the minaret are uncertain, it
is believed that the first true minarets appeared in this period.[20][8] Several of the Abbasid mosques
built in the early ninth century had minaret towers which stood at the northern ends of the building,
opposite the central mihrab. Among the most famous of these is the Malwiyya minaret, a stand-alone
tower with a "spiral" form built for the Great Mosque of Samarra.[20]

The mihrab and maqsura area of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, added to the mosque by al-Hakam II in
the late 10th century

After the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 by the Abbasids, a new branch of the Umayyad
dynasty succeeded in taking control of Al-Andalus in 756, creating the Emirate of Cordoba and reaching
the apogee of its power during the Caliphate of Cordoba in the 10th century. The Great Mosque at
Córdoba, built in 785–786, marks the earliest major monument of Moorish architecture in the Iberian
Peninsula (Al-Andalus). This style of architecture established in Al-Andalus was also largely shared with
the architecture of western North Africa (the Maghreb), from which later empires in the region would
also emerge and contribute to its artistic evolution.[21][22] The original Great Mosque of Cordoba was
noted for its unique hypostyle hall with rows of double-tiered, two-coloured, arches, which were
repeated and maintained in later extensions of the building. The mosque was expanded multiple times,
with the expansion by al-Hakam II (r. 961–976) introducing important aesthetic innovations such as
interlacing arches and ribbed domes, which were imitated and elaborated in later monuments in the
region.[21][22] The construction of Madinat al-Zahra, a new capital and monumental palace-city in the
10th century, also created an important complex of royal architecture and patronage. Smaller
monuments such as the early form of the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez (present-day Morocco) and the Bab
al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo demonstrate the prevalence of the same stylistic elements across the
region.[23]
After its initial apogee of power, the Abbasid Caliphate became partly fragmented into regional states in
the 9th century which were formally obedient to the caliphs in Baghdad but were de facto independent.
[24] The Aghlabids in Ifriqiya (roughly modern-day Tunisia) were notable patrons of architecture
themselves, responsible for rebuilding both the Great Mosque of Kairouan (originally founded by Uqba
ibn Nafi in 670) and the Zaytuna Mosque of Tunis in much of their current forms, as well as for building
numerous other structures in the region.[25][26] In Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun established a short-lived
dynasty, the Tulunids, and built himself a new capital (Al-Qata'i) and a new congregational mosque,
known as the Ibn Tulun Mosque, which was completed in 879. It was strongly influenced by Abbasid
architecture in Samarra and remains one of the most notable and best-preserved examples of 9th-
century architecture from the Abbasid Caliphate.[27]

Bab al-Futuh gate built by the Fatimid vazir Badr al-Jamali

In the 10th century the Fatimid Caliphate rose to power in Ifriqiya, where it built a new fortified capital
at Mahdia. In 970 the Fatimids moving their center of power to Egypt and they founded another new
capital, Cairo.[28] Fatimid architecture in Egypt followed Tulunid techniques and used similar materials,
but also developed those of their own. Their first congregational mosque in Cairo was al-Azhar Mosque,
founded at the same time as the city (970), which became the spiritual center for the Ismaili Shi'a branch
of Islam. Other notable monuments include the large Mosque of al-Hakim (founded in 990 under al-'Aziz
but completed around 1013 under al-Hakim), the small Aqmar Mosque (1125) with its richly-decorated
street façade, and the domed Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya (1133), notable for its mihrab of elaborately-
carved stucco.[28] Under the powerful vizier Badr al-Jamali (r. 1073–1094), the city walls were rebuilt in
stone along with several monumental gates, three of which have survived to the present-day: Bab al-
Futuh, Bab al-Nasr, and Bab Zuweila).[29][28]

Characteristics

Some characteristics of Islamic architecture were inherited from pre-Islamic architecture of that region
while some characteristics like minarets, muqarnas, arabesque, Islamic geometric motifs, pointed arch,
multifoil arch, onion dome and pointed dome developed later.

Gardens

Main article: Islamic garden

Shalamar Gardens, a Mughal paradise garden in Lahore, Pakistan

Gardens and water have for many centuries played an essential role in Islamic culture, and are often
compared to the garden of Paradise. The comparison originates from the Achaemenid Empire. In his
dialogue "Oeconomicus", Xenophon has Socrates relate the story of the Spartan general Lysander's visit
to the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger, who shows the Greek his "Paradise at Sardis".[30] The 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:

One of the hallmarks of Persian gardens is the four-part garden laid out with axial paths that intersect at
the garden's centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme, called the chahar bagh, became a
powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape, itself a symbol of political
territory.[31]

A Charbagh from Achaemenid time has been identified in the archaeological excavations at Pasargadae.
The gardens of Chehel Sotoun (Isfahan), Fin Garden (Kashan), Eram Garden (Shiraz), Shazdeh Garden
(Mahan), Dowlatabad Garden (Yazd), Abbasabad Garden (Abbasabad), Akbarieh Garden (South
Khorasan Province), Pahlevanpour Garden, all in Iran, form part of the UNESCO World Heritage.[32]
Large Paradise gardens are also found at the Taj Mahal (Agra), and at Humayun's Tomb (New Delhi), in
India; the Shalimar Gardens (Lahore, Pakistan) or at the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada, Spain.[33]

Courtyard (Sahn)

The sahn (courtyard) and minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia

In the architecture of the Muslim world courtyards are found in secular and religious structures.

Residences and other secular buildings typically contain a central private courtyard or walled garden.
This was also called the wast ad-dar ("middle of the house") in Arabic. The tradition of courtyard houses
was already widespread in the ancient Mediterranean world and Middle East, as seen in Greco-Roman
houses (e.g. the Roman domus). The use of this space included the aesthetic effects of plants and water,
the penetration of natural light, allowing breezes and air circulation into the structure during summer
heat, as a cooler space with water and shade, and as a protected and proscribed place where the
women of the house need not be covered in the hijab clothing traditionally necessary in public.[34][35]

A ṣaḥn (Arabic: ‫ – )صحن‬is the formal courtyard found in almost every mosque in Islamic architecture.
The courtyards are open to the sky and surrounded on all sides by structures with halls and rooms, and
often a shaded semi-open arcade. A mosque courtyard is used for performing ablutions and as a patio
for rest or gathering. Sahns usually feature a central pool or fountain to aid with ablutions, sometimes
sheltered under an open domed pavilion.[6][36][37] Historically, because of the warm Mediterranean
and Middle Eastern climates, the courtyard also served to accommodate larger numbers of worshippers
during Friday prayers.[38]

Hypostyle hall

A hypostyle, i.e., an open hall supported by columns, is considered to be derived from architectural
traditions of Achaemenid period Persian assembly halls (apadana). This type of building originated from
the Roman-style basilica with an adjacent courtyard surrounded by colonnades, like Trajan's Forum in
Rome. The Roman type of building has developed out of the Greek agora. In Islamic architecture, the
hypostyle hall is the main feature of the hypostyle mosque. One of the earliest hypostyle mosques is the
Tarikhaneh Mosque in Iran, dating back to the eighth century.[33]

Some scholars refer to the early hypostyle mosque with courtyard as the "Arab plan" or "Arab-type"
mosque.[38][6] Such mosques were constructed mostly under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties;
subsequently, however, the simplicity of this type of plan limited the opportunities for further
development, and as a result, these mosques gradually fell out of popularity in some regions.[38]

Vaulting

In Islamic buildings, vaulting follows two distinct architectural styles: While Umayyad architecture in the
west continues Syrian traditions of the sixth and seventh century, eastern Islamic architecture was
mainly influenced by Sasanian styles and forms.

Umayyad diaphragm arches and barrel vaults

Qusair 'Amra

In their vaulting structures, Umayyad period buildings show a mixture of ancient Roman and Persian
architectural traditions. Diaphragm arches with lintelled ceilings made of wood or stone beams, or,
alternatively, with barrel vaults, were known in the Levant since the classical and Nabatean period. They
were mainly used to cover houses and cisterns. The architectural form of covering diaphragm arches
with barrel vaults, however, was likely newly introduced from Iranian architecture, as similar vaulting
was not known in Bilad al-Sham before the arrival of the Umayyads. However, this form was well known
in Iran from early Parthian times, as exemplified in the Parthian buildings of Aššur. The earliest known
example for barrel vaults resting on diaphragm arches from Umayyad architecture is known from Qasr
Harane in Syria. During the early period, the diaphragm arches are built from coarsely cut limestone
slabs, without using supporting falsework, which were connected by gypsum mortar. Later-period vaults
were erected using pre-formed lateral ribs modelled from gypsum, which served as a temporal
formwork to guide and center the vault. These ribs, which were left in the structure afterwards, do not
carry any load. The ribs were cast in advance on strips of cloth, the impression of which can still be seen
in the ribs today. Similar structures are known from Sasanian architecture, for example from the palace
of Firuzabad. Umayyad-period vaults of this type were found in Amman Citadel and in Qasr Amra.[39]

Iwans

An iwan in the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

The term iwan denotes a hall that is walled on three sides and open on one side.[40][41] It is typically
covered by a vault although this can vary.[41] This feature was present in Sassanian architecture, though
its exact origins are older and still debated.[41] It was later incorporated into Islamic architecture. Its
usage became more common and widespread under the Seljuks in the 10th century.[40] Iwans were
used in a variety of ways and arranged in varying positions in relation to the rest of the building. They
are found in many types of buildings including mosques, madrasas, palaces, and caravanserais. One
characteristic layout consists of four iwans arranged around a central square or rectangular courtyard,
with the iwans aligned with the central axes of the courtyard.[40][41] For mosques and madrasas, one
of the iwans could be oriented towards the qibla (direction of prayer) and include a mihrab in order to
serve as a prayer space.[41] The related Persian term, pishtaq, is used to denote an entrance portal
(sometimes an iwan) projecting from the façade of a building, often decorated with calligraphy bands,
glazed tilework, and geometric designs.[42][43]

Domes

Domes in Iran and Central Asia

Because of its long history of building and re-building, spanning the time from the Abbasids to the Qajar
dynasty, and its excellent state of conservation, the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan provides an overview over
the experiments Islamic architects conducted with complicated vaulting structures.[44]

The system of squinches, which is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to
form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome, was already known in Sasanian architecture.[45]
The spherical triangles of the squinches were split up into further subdivisions or systems of niches,
resulting in a complex interplay of supporting structures forming an ornamental spatial pattern which
hides the weight of the structure.

The tradition of double-shelled brick domes in Iran has been traced back to the 11th century.[46][47] At
the beginning of the 15th century, major Timurid monuments like the Gur-i Amir Mausoleum and the
Bibi Khanum Mosque (both completed around 1404) were notable in their use of large double-shelled
domes. These domes were composed of an inner shell which was visible from the interior and a larger
outer shell, visible from the exterior and often of a slightly different shape. The Gur-i Amir Mausoleum's
dome, the oldest one to have survived to the present day, features an exterior ribbed profile with a
band of muqarnas around its drum.[48] However, domes of this shape and style were likely constructed
earlier, as evidenced by the Sultaniyya Mausoleum in Cairo, which was built earlier in the 1350s and
appears to have copied this same design from the Iranian tradition.[46]

The "non-radial rib vault", an architectural form of ribbed vaults with a superimposed spherical dome, is
the characteristic architectural vault form of the Islamic East. From its beginnings in the Jameh Mosque
of Isfahan, this form of vault was used in a sequence of important buildings up to the period of Safavid
architecture. Its main characteristics are:[44]

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

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

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

While intersecting pairs of ribs from the main decorative feature of Seljuk architecture, the ribs were
hidden behind additional architectural elements in later periods, as exemplified in the dome of the
Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar in Merv, until they finally disappeared completely behind the double shell of a
stucco dome, as seen in the dome of Ālī Qāpū in Isfahan.[44]

Dome with squinches in the Palace of Ardashir of pre-Islamic Persia. squinches are one of the most
significant Sasanian contribution to Islamic architecture[49]
The dome of the Gur-i Amir Mausoleum in Samarqand

Non-radial rib vault in the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

Dome of the tomb of Ahmed Sanjar in Merv

Upper dome of Ālī Qāpū, Isfahan

Domes in South Asia

See also: History of domes in South Asia

The use of domes in South Asia started with the establishment of Delhi sultanate in 1204 CE. Unlike
Ottoman domes, and even more so than Persian domes, domes in South Asia tend to be more bulbous.
[50] Many monumental Mughal domes were also double-shelled and derived from the Iranian tradition.
The design of the Tomb of Humayun (completed around 1571–72), including its double-shelled dome,
suggests that its architects were familiar with Timurid monuments in Samarqand.[51] The central dome
of the Taj Mahal likewise features a bulbous profile and a double-shelled construction.[52]