Brill

Creswell's Use of the Theory of Dating by the Acuteness of the Pointed Arches in Early Muslim
Architecture
Author(s): John Warren
Source: Muqarnas, Vol. 8, K. A. C. Creswell and His Legacy (1991), pp. 59-65
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523154
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 JOHN WARREN

CRESWELL'S USE OF THE THEORY OF DATING

BY THE ACUTENESS OF THE POINTED ARCHES
IN EARLY MUSLIM ARCHITECTURE

Historiansevolvetheoriesto explainpatternsofbehav- systemof round arcading which in the rarestof in-

ior. Eventuallythesetheoriesbecome toolswhichare stancesshoweda tendencytowardsbecomingslightly
used to probeand to expandinquiryand elucidatephe- pointed.Under Umayyadrule theroundarchpersist-
nomena.Such a tool- well developedby nineteenth- ed, but developedintothe two-centered formshowing
century historiansof the medieval period - was the an increasingtendency towards pointedness.In the
theory that buildings could be dated by the shape of succeeding two centuriesthe trend was stillapparent,
theirarching.Creswell'scontribution tothistheorywas but was complicatedby the four-centered arch. The
to applyit to earlyIslamic architecture its
and, by use, patternpersisted,however,explaining the form of ar-
to deriveor substantiatedates forbuildings.The dates cadingused in thetenthand eleventhcenturies.
he putuponthem,restingin partuponthistheory, have In consideringthistheorywe can look at it in two
become authoritative, and so thispaper is concerned ways. First,was it a correcttool to use and did there-
withtheeffectiveness ofthetheoryand thevalidityofits sultsjustifythe method?Second, was the materialhe
results.Its generalconclusionsvindicatethisaspectof usedaccurateand did hiserrors,ifany,lead tofalsecon-
ProfessorCreswell'swork. clusionsor significant
omissions?But beforewe do this,
In usingthetheoryCreswellwas notinventing a new we mustclarifythetheoryitself.
concept,but he was breakingnew ground.The notion A roundarchis struckfroma singlecenter;a pointed
ofa persistent and gradualevolutionoftheacutenessof archhas morethanone centerand can be thoughtofin
pointedarcheswas alreadycurrentamongstudentsof its simplestformas beingstruckfromtwocenterswith
Gothicarchitecture and figuredamong theirmethods overlappingarcs whichproducean increasingly point-
fordating and stylisticdescription.Of this,Creswell ed arch thefurther theyare movedapart horizontally.
was aware. Whetherhe tooktheidea fromthemis un- Separationis measuredas a fraction ofthespan. Each of
certainand hardlymatters.He applied it to Umayyad these two centerscan again be divided and, moving
Syria withsuccess,basing his datingfora numberof apartin thenextdimension,i.e.,vertically, can produce
buildingslargelyor partlyon theidea. four-centered curves.The situationcan be furthercom-
In Creswell'shands the theorywas essentiallythis: plicated by the continuinguse of a centermovingup
fromtheByzantineEmpiretheUmayyadsinheriteda and down the verticalaxis of the arch to producea

Fig. 1. Diagram showingpointedarchesformedwithconstantradiion centerswithsuccessiveseparationofone-tenth, one-fifth,

one-seventh,
and one-thirdofa span.

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60 JOHN WARREN

three-or five-centered curve.Thus a verywide variety

ofcombinationsis possible.By implicationthe theory
also postulatesprogressive acutenessand complexityin
thecurves.Theirvisualqualitiesbecomea stylistic fea-
turewhichevolvesand henceis a factoroftime.It is also
circumstantialand therefore indicatesboth date and
origin.
Creswellconcernedhimselfessentiallywiththegeo-
metricallysimple phenomenonof an increasingsep-
arationoftwocentersproducingan increasingly point-
ed arch.Startingwithseparationsoflessthanone-tenth
ofthespan, in whichpointednessis barelyperceptible,
he foundthat in the firsttwo centuriesof Islam sep-
arationsincreasedtoaboutone-third ofthedistancebe-
tweenthe springingsof the arch. In thesethepointed
profileis clearlyvisible. "Even if we omit Qasr Ibn
Wardan, the pointed arches of Qusayr (Amir and
Hammam as-Sarakhjustifyus in sayingthatthisfea-
tureis of Syrianorigin.And thisview is confirmed by
the factthattheveryevolutionofthe pointedarch-
i.e., thegradualseparationofthetwocentresincreases
to one-seventh or one-sixthofthespan,and at Mshatta
to one fifth"(see fig.1).' On thebasis ofthissequence,
he concludedthat"the firstsevenexamplesofthisfea-
tureall occurin Syria."
A simplelist(see Table ofArchFormsbelow) made
Fig. 2. Archesin thewesternrangeoftheGreatMosque inDamascus,
thepointadequatelyand,omissionsapart,couldbe im- ca. 715.

Table ofArchForms

Date ofcentres
Separation

Qasr Ibn Wardan Church,archesunderdome 561-4 -Lthofspan

Damascus Great Mosque, archedframeat N. end oftransept 705-15 -Lthofspan
Qusayr CAmra Audiencehall, transversearches 712-15 'Lthofspan
Bosra So-called '(Umar Mosque' 720-1 kth ofspan
Hammim as-Sarakh Caldarium ofbath 725-30(?) fth-?th
Qasr al-Hair ash-Sharqi Mosque 728-9 Veryslightlypointed
Mafjar Sirddband porticoofforecourt (729-43) ofspan
Mshatti Sectionofvaults 744 {th--th
ofspan
Qasr at-Tuba Sectionofvaults 744 6-thofspan
?th
Raqqa Baghdad Gate 772 Four-centred arch
Ukhaidir Vault ofgreathall last quarter8thcent. Slightlypointed
Ramla Archesofcistern 789 ?th ofspan
Fustat Mosque ofCAmr,windows 827 Slightlypointed
Sdmarra Bdb al-(Amma 836 Four-centred arch
Fustat Nilometer,recesses 861-2 {rd ofspan
Qairawan Great Mosque, archesliningtranseptand underdome 862 Pointed,withslightreturn
(also Qairawan) Mosque ofMuhammadibn Khairun 252 H. (866) Pointedhorse-shoearch
Great Mosque, portionofsanctuary 261 H. (875) Pointedhorse-shoearch
Cairo Mosque of Ibn Tiulin 687-9 Irregular,about
of span and stitled
4-th

From:K. A. C. Creswell,A Short

Account
ofEarlyMuslimArchitecture,
ed. J. W. Allan (1989), p. 116.

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 CRESWELL'S USE OF DATING BY POINTED ARCHES 61

Fig. 3. An arch in thearcade of theDome oftheRock,Jerusalem,ca. 690. (K. A. C. Creswell,EarlyMuslimArchitecture

1,1,fig.192.)

provedupononlybyaddingthatthepeaksofthearches Mosque inJerusalem,Khirbatal-Mafjar,and thecis-

are roundedoff(theyare neversharplypointed) and
thatthemostmeasurableofthearchesin themosqueat
Qasr-al-Hayral-Sharqi also has separationsof one-
The omissionofthe
hisdatingperfectly.
seventh,fitting
importantarches in the side chambersof the Great
Mosque at Damascus, however,suggeststhatthelistis
selectiveforthese have separationsof about a sixth,
somewhatdisruptingthe smoothsequence of the list
(fig.2).
It is surprisingthatCreswelldid not includeone of
theearliestexamples,and virtuallythemostimportant
- theDome oftheRock- sincethebuildingis dated
unarguablyand his illustrations
showexactlythephe-
nomenonthathe was discussing(fig.3). He mightthen
have written"the firsteight examples" and indeed
otherbuildingswithinhisknowledgewouldhaveraised
the number to ten or a dozen, includingthe Aqsa
ternat Ramla. Even themoreextensivelistpublishedin
Creswell'searliervolumescontainssimilaromissions.
However,thelistpublishedin thefulleditionofEarly
MuslimArchitecture2raisesotherquestionsofomission,of
sequence,and ofsource.Byzantineand Sasanian exam-
ples are noticeablylacking.
The enigmaticexamplewhichpuzzledhimwas Qasr
Ibn Wardan,a buildingfirmly datedto thereignofJus-
tinian I, and he rightlyconcluded that the northern
greatarch stillstandingin the churchthereis slightly
pointed(fig.4). This he attributedto a local, i.e., Syr-
ian, influenceand thereforeconcludedfirmly thatSyria
was thehomeoftheinvention whichwas latertosuffuse
so muchofthearchitecture ofwesternEurope. Had he
lookedmorewidelyin theByzantineEmpirehe could
have adduced substantialotherevidenceofthepriority
of the Greeks: for instance the Karamagara Bridge

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62 JOHN WARREN

Fig.4. Drawingofthechurchat Qasr Ibn Wardan,Syria,ca. 564. (H. C. Butler,amendedby theauthor.)

whichspannedtheRiverMuratnearElazig inAsia Mi- time,and he himselfwas nota greattravelerinthesense

nor,3theslightbut certainexampleoftheapse archof
St. ApollinareinClasse in Ravenna,4and theinsecurely
dated but powerfulapse archofSt. Irenein Constanti-
nople,5as well as examplesin Syriaitself.
In suspectingthat pointedarchitecturewas not a
Musliminventionhe was correct,but in his claimthat
Syriawas theplace ofitsinvention, he was wrongforex-
actlythesame reasonas was theeighteenth-century po-
et,to whomall swanswerewhite.Our poetdid notbe-
lievein theblackswanrumoredinAustralia!Creswell's
black swan was the Sasanian Empirewhererangesof
powerfully pointedarchingcan be foundpredatingthe
Muslim era. These he discounted.In Mesopotamian
mattersCreswelldeferred,not surprisingly, to Herz-
feld,and Herzfeld had avowed that all Sasanian arches
wererounded(Archdologische Reise).6In thishe led astray
hiscompatriot Reuther,and surprisingly theperceptive
GertrudeBell, whose researchesin theregionwereso
extensive.CreswellsimplyrepeatedHerzfeld'sasser-
tionsand lookedno further. Travel was noteasy in his
ofadventurers suchas Miss Bell. Had he been,he might
have discoveredsomeofthemanyotherSasanian and
Byzantineexampleswhichmake the pre-Muslimori-
ginsofpointedarchitecture an unassailablecontention.
There survivedamong the pre-Muslimchurchesof
Mesopotamiaa seriesofimportantexamples,some of
whichCreswellknewby publication.He discussedfor
instancethe martyrion of Mar Tamazgerd at Kirkuk,
recordedby Bell beforeits destructionin the First
WorldWar. The acutelypointedarchestherefindcor-
roborationin otherchurchesofpre-Muslim date,some,
suchas thechurchofMaryin Kirkuk,convertedto use
as a mosqueon theMuslimconquest.He discussedalso
theveryearlymosque,theTarikKhana at Damghanin
Iran. This building,probablyoftheUmayyadperiod,
displayssteeplypitchedarcheswithintersecting para-
boliccurvesin thearcadesoftheprayerhall. These ar-
cades runparallelto theqibla axis witha widercentral
aisle whichsuggestsa date veryearlyin theeighthcen-
tury,whenFridaymosquesweremodeledon theAqsa

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 CRESWELL S USE OF DATING BY POINTED ARCHES
arcadesoftheFridaymosqueat Damghan,
Fig.5. The longitudinal
A Short
Account
Iran,probably early8thcentury.
(Creswell, ofEarly
MuslimArchitecture,
p. 265, fig.165.)
Mosque atJerusalemand beforethepervasiveinfluence
ofal-Walid'sgreatworkon themosqueat Damascus,in
whichthe centralaisle is flankedby arcades running
transverselyto themain axis.
BothKirkukand DamghanwouldhavealertedCres-
well to Herzfeld'serrorand allowed in his sequence a
range of distinctlypointedexamples in the Sasanian
Empirewhichare theprecursorsto thetentativesteps
he describedon theSyrianside ofthedesert(fig.5). In
particularhe mighthave been drawnto includein his
listtwosalientexampleswhichhe believedtohave been
immediatelypre-Muslim,and forwhich,despite the
subsequentevidenceforUmayyadoccupation,therere-
main good groundsforpre-Muslimdates earlyin the
seventhcentury.'They are Qasr Kharana and theqasr
on the citadel at Amman (figs. 6-7). Both contain
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63
iwanoftheqasrat Amman,
Fig.6. The northern Jordan.
slightlypointedarching- in thevaultedgroundfloor
ofKaranan and in theiwansat Amman.In neithercase
has therebeen foundany evidenceofa mosque,an in-
variable part of a major Muslim establishment(with
thespecial exceptionofQasr 'Atshan), and bothlie on
thecrucialroutefromcentralMesopotamiatoJerusa-
lem which,withtheirstylisticattributes,makes them
primecandidatesfora date earlyin thesixthcentury
when Palestinehad been conquered by Chosroes II
(605-14).
Creswell'somissionfromhis listsofthe Iranian and
Mesopotamianexampleshe certainly knewmayindeed
relateto his perceptionofthepointedarch as ofsolely
Syrianevolution,in whichcase it mustbe concluded
that he saw Sasanian architectureas the inventorof
nothingbeyondthe"parabolic" arch (whichgenerally
is derivedfroma verticalsemi-ellipse).In effect he ar-
gued thus:thepointedarchis foundevolvingin Syria;
itsevolutionmusttherefore be foundin Syriaalone,and
Mesopotamianpointedarchesmustbe laterthanSyr-
ian examples.This conclusion,however,is nottheonly
possibility;noras it turnsout is it thecorrectone. But
thelacuna liesin thepre-Muslimperiodand bearslittle
64 JOHN WARREN

0 1 2 3 4 5m.

Fig. 8. The reconstructedporch of the bathhouseat Khirbat al-

Mafjar,Jordan.(Reconstructedby Hamilton,fromCreswell,A Short
Account
ofEarlyMuslimArchitecture,
ed. Allan,fig.103.)

Fig. 7. The entrancevault,Qasr Kharana,Jordan.

Fig. 9. The northernnarthexofSan Marco in Venice,originallythe

atriumofthechurchbuiltin 829-36.

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 CRESWELL'S USE OF DATING BY POINTED ARCHES
upon thematterswithwhichCreswellwas concerned,
even in Iran.
As Creswellknew well, the tool is not preciseand
marginsoferrorofas muchas twenty-five yearsmustbe
allowedin each direction.Nevertheless subsequentdis-
coveries, such as thoseat Khirbat-al-Mafjar, have vin-
dicateditsuse encouragingly. In thelate 1940'sRobert
Hamiltonpublishedhismeticulousexcavations,8 show-
ing that the arches of this wrecked Umayyad palace
werebuiltwithseparationsofone-seventh toone-fifth, a
figure which correspondednicely with theory for a
structure datedforotherreasonspriortoca. 743 (fig.8).
This evidencetoofittedthetheoryin itsSyriancontext,
as have othersimilarrevelations.Not onlyhave sub-
sequentdiscoveriesgenerallyvindicatedthetheory, but
thedates whichhe derivedby itsuse have withfewex-
ceptionsstoodup welltosubsequenthistoricalanalysis.
It mightbe argued,however,thatthetheorycouldhave
assistedhimmorein someinstancesifhe had pursuedit
further and applied it withhis customarycare and dis-
cretion.Thus, had he lookedmorecarefullyat thede-
velopmentofarchingin Samarra,he would have con-
cluded inevitablythat the four-centered arch was
the
developedslowlyduring period of the Abbasid Ca-
liphate there. He would consequently have assignedthe
Baghdad Gate of Raqqa to the post-Samarraperiod,
thetenthor eleventhcentury,whenRaqqa prospered,
ratherthangivingittothelateeighthcentury, whichhe
did on circumstantial withthe effectof
grounds, provid-
ing a falsedatingmuchused by historiansforthepast
forty years.This apart,Creswell'suse ofthetheoryin a
Muslimcontexthas provedimportantand valuable.
It is a theorywhich has also served otherswell,
amongthemthepresentwriterin following Muslimin-
fluenceintomedievalEurope.9The distinctive profileof
theninth-century archin theNear East provedtheini-
tial clue to a significantculturalevent:theremovalof
AlexandrianGreeksto Italyearlyin theninthcentury.
The churchofSan Marco in Venicecontainspointed
arcadingwhichhas alwaysbeen putdownas Gothicof
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65
thelate twelfth or earlythirteenth
century,and as such
has givenrise to themostcontortedexplanations(fig.
9). In thelightofCreswell'stheorythesearcades take
theirplace as partofthefirstchurchbuiltbetween829
and 836, and theyhave led to theconclusionthatthis
firstchurchstillexists,encapsulatedin the eleventh-
centuryrebuilding.This in turnprovidesevidencefor
the transmissionfromEgypt to ByzantineItaly of a
bodyofmenwithskillsand knowledge, whichmaywell
throwfurther lighton theroutesby whichEuropewas
influencedby earlyIslam.
There is no reason whythe theoryshould not have
further usefulapplicationifit is bornefirmly in mind
that sequentialevolutionarydevelopmentcan be ex-
pectedonlyin a relativelyundisturbedhistoricalcon-
textsuchas UmayyadSyria.Wherean invasiveinfluence
was felt,as it was in Tulunid Egypt,theeven tenorof
change can be disrupted,and its slow evolutionis re-
sumedonlywhenthealieninfluence has beenabsorbed.
Horsham,WestSussex
England
NOTES
1. K. A. C. Creswell,A Short Account
ofEarlyMuslimArchitecture (Bei-
rut,1958),p. 103.
2. EarlyMuslimArchitecture, 1958ed., largelyrepeatedin A Short Ac-
countofEarlyMuslimArchitecture,ed.J.W. Allan (Aldershot,1989),
p. 116.
3. CyrilMango, Byzantine Architecture(New York,1976),p. 127.
4. AndreGrabar,Byzantiumfrom theDeathofTheodosiustotheRiseofIs-
lam(London, 1966),fig.136.
5. Mango, ByzantineArchitecture,fig.167.
6. ShortAccount(1989), p. 116.
7. JohnWarren,"A Sasanian Attribution forTwo BuildingsinJor-
dan," ArtandArchaeology Research
Papers11 (1977): 49-55.
8. R. W. Hamilton,Khirbat al-Mafjar:AnArabianMansion inthe
Jordan
Valley(Oxford,1949).
9. JohnWarren,"The FirstChurchofSan Marco in Venice,"Jour-
naloftheSociety
ofAntiquaries ofLondon(forthcoming).