ISLAMIC

ARCHITECTURE
Joy Alope and Nina Cabral
DFR1A
 Islamic Architecture
-Includes a wider range of secular and religious
styles from the foundation of Islam to the present
day
-Owes its origin to similar structures in Roman,
Byzantine and Persian lands (which the Muslims
conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries)
-East - It was influenced by Chinese and Indian
architectures as Islam spread to Southeast Asia
 Islamic Architecture
-Principal Islamic Architectural types:
-The Mosque
-The Tomb
-The Palace
-The Fort

-Some scholars believe there is no connection

between Islam and architecture
 Influences

-Familiar Islamic
architectural style emerged
after Muhammad’s time
-Inspired by former
Sassanid and Byzantine
models
 Influences
Dome of the Rock
-one of the most important buildings in Islamic
architecture
-patterned after the nearby Church of the Holy
Sepulchre
-Byzantine Christian artists were employed to make
its elaborate mosaics against a golden background
-features interior vaulted spaces, circular dome, use
of stylised repeating decorative arabesque patterns
 Influences

Dome of the Rock

 Influences
-horseshoe arch - popular feature
-Some say the Muslims got this from the
Visigoths in Spain but they might have gotten it
from Syria and Persia (where it was used by the
Byzantines as early as the 5th century)
-Umayyads accentuated the curvature of the
horseshoe after the Moorish invasion of Spain
 Influences

The Great Mosque of Damascus

-built on the site of basilica of John the Baptist
after the the Islamic invasion of Damascus
-bears a great resemblance to 6th and 7th
century Christian basilicas
-to fit Islamic style of prayer, the structure was
expanded along the transversal axis
The Great Mosque of Damascus
 Influences
-Abbasid architecture in Iraq (shown in the Fortress of Al-
Ukhaidir) demonstrated the ―the despotic and the pleasure-
loving character of the dynasty‖ due to its grand size but
cramped living quarters
-Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia)
-considered the ancestor of all the mosques in the western
Islamic world
-original marble columns and sculptures were of Roman
workmanship brought in from Carthage
-is constituted of a massive square minaret, a large
courtyard surrounded by porticos and a huge hypostyle
prayer hall covered on its axis by two cupolas
The Great
GreatMosque
Mosqueof Kairouan
of Damascus
 Influences

-The Hagia Sophia (Istanbul) also influenced

Islamic architecture
-Ottomans captured city from the Byzantines
-converted the basilica to a mosque (now a
museum)
-incorporated Byzantine architectural elements
into their own work (e.g. domes)
Hagia Sophia
 Influences
-Domes are a major structural
feature of Islamic architecture
-distinctive pointed domes of
Islamic architecture, also
originating with the
Byzantines and Persians
have remained a
distinguishing feature of
mosques into the 21st century
 Influences

-Distinguishing motifs
-ordered repetition
-radiating structures
-rhythmic and metric patterns

-Fractal geometry = key utility

-Other significant features include columns, piers
and arches, organized and interwoven with
alternating sequences of niches and colonnettes
 Characteristics

1.Assimilation of earlier traditions

2.Paradise Garden
3.Courtyard (Sehan)
4.Hypostyle hall
5.Vaulting
6.Muqarnas
7.Ornaments
 Assimilation of earlier traditions

-influenced by two different ancient traditions:

Western
-regions of the newly conquered Byzantine
Empire supplied architects, masons, mosaicists
and other craftsmen to the new Islamic rulers
-artisans - trained in Byzantine architecture and
decorative arts and continued building in
Byzantine style (developed out of Hellenistic
and ancient Roman architecture)
Assimilation of earlier traditions
Eastern
-Mesopotamia and Persia kept their independent
architectural traditions which came from Sasanian
architecture and its predecessors
 Paradise Garden

-Gardens and water played an essential role in

Islamic culture
-often compared to the garden of Paradise
-comparison originates from the Achaemenid Empire
-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
Paradise Garden

Afif-Abad Garden, Shiraz

 Courtyard (sehan)
CHARACTERISTICS:
-is in within almost every mosque in Islamic
architecture.
-are open to the sky and surrounded on all sides by
structures with halls and rooms, and often a shaded
semi-open arcade.
-usually feature a centrally positioned ritual cleansing
pool under an open domed pavilion called a howz.

USE:
• for performing ablutions, and a 'patio' for rest or
gathering.
Courtyard (sehan)

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

 Hypostyle Hall
-Hypostyle - open hall supported by columns
combined with a reception hall set at a right angle to
the main hall
-originates from the Roman-style basilica with an
adjacent courtyard surrounded by colonnades, like
Trajan’s forum in Rome
-hypostyle hall is the main feature of the hypostyle
mosque
 Hypostyle Hall

Tarikhaneh Mosque, One of the earliest Hypostyle

Mosques
 Vaulting

-Follows two distinct architectural styles:

-Whilst Umayyad architecture continues Syrian
traditions of the 6th and 7th century
-Eastern Islamic architecture was mainly
influenced by Sasanian styles and forms.
 Vaulting

-Diaphragm arches with

lintelled ceilings made of
wood or stone beams, or,
alternatively, with barrel
vaults
-mainly used to cover houses
and cisterns
Vaulting

ISLAMIC WEST
-The double-arched system
of arcades of the Mosque–
Cathedral of Córdoba is
derived
from Roman aqueducts
 Vaulting
ISLAMIC WEST

CHARACTERISTICS:
• Columns are connected by horseshoe arches
• Supported by pillars of brickwork
• interconnected by semicircular arches supporting the
flat timberwork ceiling
Vaulting - Islamic West

Roman aqueduct of Los Milagros

 Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

 Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba
CHARACTERISTICS:
basic architectural design was changed:
•Horseshoe arches were now upper row of arcades
•the vaults above the mihrab wall are constructed as
ribbed vaults.
•the ribs intersect one another off-center, forming an
eight-pointed star in the center which is superseded by
a pendentive dome.
Vaulting - Islamic West

Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza

 Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza
CHARACTERISTICS:
• eight-ribbed dome
• ribbed dome was further developed in the Maghreb
 Vaulting
ISLAMIC EAST
• The system of squinches in the upper angles of a square
room to form a base to receive
an octagonal or spherical dome, was already known
in Sasanian architecture.
• The spherical triangles of the squinches were split up
into further subdivisions of niches, resulting in an
interplay of supporting structures forming an
ornamental spatial pattern which hides the weight of the
structure.
 Vaulting

ISLAMIC EAST
CHARACTERISTIC:
• The "non-radial rib vault“
or ribbed vaults with a
superimposed spherical
dome

Non-radial rib vault in the

Jameh Mosque of Isfahan
 Vaulting
ISLAMIC EAST
Main Characteristics
1. Four intersecting ribs, at times redoubled and
intersected to form an eight-pointed star;

2. the omission of a transition zone between the vault

and the supporting structure;

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

vault.
 Vaulting
Domes
• a significant feature of many mosques and of
the Taj Mahal in the 17th century
• remained a distinguishing feature of mosques into
the 21st century

Schematic drawing of a
pendentive dome
 Vaulting
• Hagia Sophia
-the ribs and shell of the dome unite in a central
medallion at the apex of the dome
-the upper ends of the ribs being integrated into
the shell
-Shell and ribs form one single structural entity
Central domes of the Hagia Sophia
 Muqarnas
-developed in northeastern
Iran and the Maghreb around
the middle of the 10th
century.
-created by the geometric
subdivision of a vaulting
structure into miniature,
superimposed pointed-arch
substructures, also known as Muqarnas in the
"honeycomb", or "stalactite" Alhambra
vaults
Muqarnas
-made from different
materials like stone, brick,
wood or stucco,
-Islamic West- used to
adorn outside of a dome,
cupola or similar structure
-Islamic East- more limited
to the interior face of a
vault
Muqarnas in the
necropolis of Shah-i-
Zinda, Samarqand
 Ornaments
--Uses ornaments that are mathematically complicated,
elaborate geometric and interlace patterns, floral motifs
like the arabesque, and elaborate calligraphic inscriptions
Example: Calligraphic inscriptions on the Dome of the
Rock include quotes from the Quran — miracle of Jesus
and his human nature