Islamic Architecture: Part 1

• CHARACTERISTICS of Islamic Buildings:

  -        Mosaic

  -        Symmetry

  -        No people

  -        Calligraphy

  -        Arabesque
• THE HOUSE OF THE PROPHET AT MEDINA

  -        All the spaces in a mosque are descended from the spaces in this house.
• The house of Prophet Muhammad

  
• 1.     ABLUTION WELL – important area for cleansing ritual (wudhu) to take place.
• 1.     PORTICOS – entrances bounded by columns.
• 1.     MINARET – a makeshift tower where muezzins call out for prayer.
• 1.     COURTYARD

  -        a key space for gathering and preaching.

  -        It is a 50mx50m walled courtyard surrounded with dwellings with 10-foot-high walls made of mudbrick and palm roofs.
• 1.     RIWAQ

  -        A covered area (in front of the entrances) to aid the heat for guests or followers.
• 1.     PALM TREE PORTICOES

  -        Early colonnade made of palm trees. 

  -        Where prophet preached

  -        Where followers sometimes slept.
• MASJID AL-NABAWI

  • Second holiest mosque in the world.
  • The mosque is situated over the site of the house of prophet Muhammad and tomb.

  
• DOME

  -        An element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of the sphere.

  -        An arch rotated around its central axis.
• 1.      Cupola – small dome like structure on top of the building’s dome or the “crown of the dome”.
• 1.      Coffers – series of sunken panels in various shape on ceiling, soffit, or vault.
• 1.      Oculus – circular opening in the center of the dome
• 1.      Pendentive – constructive device allowing the placing of the dome over a room (attached directly to the main structure of the drum)
• 1.      Squinch – construction filling in upper angles of a square room to form base to receive the dome (the dome has squinches to support it)
• 1.      Drum – known as tholobate, the upright [art of the building on which the dome is raised, either cylinder or polygonal prism.
• 1.      Corbel – also known as Beehive Dome, made up of horizontal layers.
• 1.      Geodesic Domes – triangular elements are structurally rigid and distribute stress throughout the structure.
• 1.      Crossed-arch Domes – ribs intersect one another off-center, forming empty polygonal space at center.

   
• Onion Domes – bulge out beyond their base diameters and taper smoothly in an s-curve profile.
• 1.      Oval Dome – oval in plan, profile, or both.
• 1.      Saucer Domes – form of a segment of a sphere, shallow dome.
• 1.      Umbrella Dome – ribs are radial lines and divided at the base into curved segments, follow curve of the elevation.
• KA’ABA (Crucial element in the orientation of Islamic Mosques)

  -        Each corner represents the leader of the tribes that held the tip of the cloth

  -        Hajare Aswad (upper left)

  -        Rukne Yamani (Upper right)

  -        Rukne Shami (Lower right)

  -        Rukne Iraqi (Lower left)

   
• MASJID AL-HARAM

  -        1st holiest mosque

  -        Where the ka’aba is located.

  
• FIRST FOUR CALIPHS

  1.      Caliph Abu Bakr – focused on converting the bedouins (arab nomads) into Moslems.

  2.      Caliph Umar – conquered Damascus Syria, failed to invade Persia.

  3.      Caliph Uthman – controversially unified the Quran into its present-day compilation.

  4.      Ali – A controversial Caliph. He is the same Ali of the Shiites.
• MUAWIYA - after Ali was killed, he take over the Rashidun Caliphate and rose the Umayyad Caliphate.
• DAMASCUS – the capital of Islamic Caliphates from the desserts when the Umayyad successfully invaded Syria.
• UMAYYAD ARCHITECTURE

  -        Beginning of Islamic Architecture, which evolved from “Hellenistic” style or a fusion of the east and the west.
• GREAT MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS

  -        First ever Islamic Mosque

  -        The mosque stands over on one of the sacred places on earth.

  
• MIHRAB – important space in the mosque. It is a carved sacred wall which indicates the location of the Ka’aba (in Mecca)

   

  
• QUIBLA – the wall of the mosque that contains the mihrab.
• DOME OF THE ROCK (Jerusalem)

  -        A Muslim shrine which was first built during the Umayyad period.

  -        Built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik.

  -        Built over a sacred stone. The stone is believed to be the place from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven on winged horses during his night journey to heaven.

  
• MASJID AL AQSA

  -        is the mosque right in front of the Dome of the Rock.

  
• AMBULATORY SPACE

  -        Aisled spaces bounded by columns often made for walking (inside the mosque or shrine)

   
• THE GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOBA (Spain)

  -        “La Mezquita” in Spanish

  -        3rd largest Islamic building in the world

  -        Stands on the site of the Temple of Janus during the Roman Times

  -        Famous for its Horseshoe arches (red and white stripes)

  -        The forest has 856 (originally 1,293) columns, made form jasper, onyx, marble, and granite.

  -        Has one of the most remarkable Mihrabs in Islamic Architecture.

  -        It has 3 mihrabs but only the biggest remains today.

  
• MASQURA – an ante room or divider used to separate the nobles and royals from the layman mosque worshipper. It is also a screen-type pattern applied throughout variety of spaces.
• TORRE DEL ALMINAR

  – the belfry now in the

  cathedral and was

  once the Minaret that the

  muezzins used.
• KAHN (Caravanserai)

  -        an Islamic version of an inn with connected lodges.

  -        Known as caravanserai, means Watering Hole or Resting Place