Paradigm shift in architecture: the Islamic world is the eighth article of a series of articles investigating the paradigm shift in architecture. In the previous seven articles, I have discussed several different papers for academics, researchers, and professionals who have different perspectives on the paradigm shift in architecture.
This article is the continuity of my investigation of the reality of the paradigm shift, its effect on the work environment, and its real characteristics. Here I will start as indicated in my previous articles from ancient history to modern-day’s architecture. The Islamic architecture period is the subject of my discussion here.
The birth of Prophet Mohammed in Mecca marked the beginning of the Islamic period. Islam spread from the Arabian Desert to the entire world through peace messages and sometimes war.
Islam faced a great problem in changing people’s thinking, culture, attitude, and even relations to the world. Islam in its simple principles targeted building a new Man and woman according to the new god’s instructions in his holy book the Quran.
Islam looked to architecture and art in its abstract view. Islam prohibited in its early beginning the simulation of any kind of living creature by sculpture or painting within architecture.
Muslims approached simple concepts and ideas and invented various architectural elements used in Islamic architecture.
Islam started in Mecca a desert geographic location where Muslims had limited elements to adopt in their architecture but only the mud and sun-dried brick for domestic architecture.
Islamic architecture in its early beginning was limited to religious buildings (and these days also I suggest). These buildings are the mosque and the schools of the Quran (Madrasa). The first mosque built was the prophet Mohammed Mosque in Madina and it was extremely simple because Islam did not have much finance for construction but only from their supporters and adopters.
Quran was taught inside the mosque in the prayer hall in the form of groups. So the first building that appeared in Islam is the mosque (see figure 1). It includes a rectangular prayer hall with a Nitch where the (Imam) stand. The prayer hall is separated by an arcade from the outer courtyard and fence. A place for washing the body (Ablushing) in a nearby location. In a later period a vertical element for calling for prayers was added (the Minerate). Islamic architecture at the time of the prophet Mohammed was extremely simple due to the economical factor of Muslim society.
The Islamic expansion and the prophet messengers to the entire world made the Muslim observe other countries’ styles of life, cities, and architecture. Islam expanded first to the Arabian desert countries (Arab Gulf), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Persia. There were attempts to expand to turkey but failed.
After the prophet Mohammed’s death the four Khalifa’s expanded Islam to the west of Madina to Africa and to the north to Byzanta (Turkey).
The Kalifa passed to various generations after the death of Ali bin Abi Talib ( 4th Kalifa), the Umayeed, the abasyeed, and the decline of Islamic ruling after the Mongolian invasion of Baghdad. The Islamic world witnessed the takeover of rulers and occupation from adjacent countries like the Persians, Seljuq, Atabika, boaiheen, and Ottomans. Part of these invaders is of Persian origin and others are a mix of Turkish and Mongolian origin.
The Islamic architecture in these periods is linked to three distinctive architecture types the Mosque, The Madrasa, and the Tombs or shrines.
The mosque architecture though became a landmark architecture in many Islamic countries but still, it had and continued to include the same architectural elements. These elements are the Prayer Hall, the mihrab, the external courtyard, and the Minerate. These elements are still to date the major components of mosque design and architecture.
In every country, these elements vary in external form depending on the local character, material, and way of construction. In the following images, the differences are observed in the dome construction form in terms of shape and external material. The minerate type and its form and material. The general building arcades and their arches and decoration and material. See Figure 2,3,4
Robert 2 Indicates that the Omayyad Mosque is a Christian architecture Islamized. Yes as historical Arabic references indicate that the Omayyad Kalifa has taken this church building ( and maybe originally a basilica) from Christians and replaced them with another building and converted it into a mosque. I will discuss this matter in other types of Islamic buildings in later paragraphs.
Islamic mosques took the shape and form of the local architecture of the country. Most mosque’s architecture had hygiene elements from the previous architecture in their country like the Christian, roman, byzantine, and so on.
The origin of the Islamic madrasa continued in debate in architectural research and history and archeology. One of the circled books that discuss and present the Muslim madrasa and its origin is the Creswell 1 book on the origin of Islamic madrasa.
Creswell Indicates that the Islamic madrasa appeared because of the Muslim conflict between the two doctrines of Sunnite and Shite. The madrasa as he claims appeared in the Seljuq period and the first Wazire (Minister) who ordered to establish the building of the madrasa was the Seljuq Nizam Ul Mulk. Nizam was from Sunnite doctrine, and he established these madrasas and ordered to build them in various countries like Nishapur, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and turkey to fight the spread of the shite doctrine in Iraq and Iran.
Before discussing the origin of the architecture of Islamic madrasa I will highlight the false information that Creswell provided.
The shite doctrine did not exist on a large scale in Baghdad or any other country because the Abaseed Kalifa’s managed to terminate most of the shite figures, and there was no Islamic shite madrasa’s in reality. There were some shite madrasas in Iran and a shite population. Nizam Ul-Mulk showed his interest in spreading the Islamic religion and its principles because of his political power as minister. Nizam Ul-Mulk was not a great supporter of the Sunnite doctrine because he was the main cause of bringing the Mongolians to invade Baghdad and making the Turk, and Seljuq take over the political power of the Muslim countries in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and turkey.
According to Creswell the Islamic madrasa was cruciform shaped and had four Iwans and the purpose of this plan shape is to teach the Muslim religion the four Sunnite doctrines. The Nizam Ul-Mulk madrasas taught Islam on the Shafia doctrine only because he was from the Shafia doctrine. In general, al Madrasa taught the Sunnite doctrines regardless if the madrasa building had one Iwan or four Iwans. See figure 5 Iwans are in green circle.
The architecture of Islamic madrasa had its roots in byzantine architecture. First, in terms of plan and form, it took its original shape from the Christian types of churches in byzantine architecture and even from roman basilicas in turkey. The reason for this influence is that the people who build these madrasas (Nizam Ul-Mulk) are of Turkish –Mongolian origin and is born in these areas and observed the architecture of the churches and basilicas (You can refer to my previous article paradigm shift in architecture: byzantine,). Second, the Muslims used previous buildings of the country of origin to convert them to mosques or madrasas such as the Omayyad Mosque because of limited funds for the construction, reduce the time of building the madrasa, and the availability of craftsmen and builders in the area who are experienced in the specific type of architecture.
The madrasa architecture is not different from mosque architecture in terms of the external form elements, ornament, and decorations. Every country has its specific type of minerate, dome type, and decoration, external façade decoration, internal spaces ornament, and decoration. As for mosques, Islamic madrasa details are abstract detailing of geometrical shapes carving or normally shaped ceramics with various arrangements.
Figure 6 shows two different madrasas in two different locations in the world. Observers can catch the differences in detail of minerate, dome, and external façade detail.
In the next figure 7, the observer can distinguish the differences in detail of ornament and decoration of the two madrasas from two different countries.
Tombs and shrines are not popular in Sunnite doctrine. The only exception is the prophet Mohammed’s tomb in Madena. The prophet Mohammed himself indicate in one of his speeches that the best graves are the graves that surfaced to the ground.
Tomb and shrine architecture is a tradition that came into Islam from the Mongolians, Turk, and Persian as they usually bury their Khans, rulers, and special army commanders in these types of buildings. The architecture of tombs and shrines is similar to mosque architecture, but the internal space has a grave instead of a longitudinal prayer hall. The external architecture is also having the same elements and characteristics. See figure 8 for two types of tombs from two different countries.
In this article, I have discussed and gone through different types of architecture of the Muslim people. Islamic architecture did not exist previously meaning before the birth of the prophet Mohammed. There were no specific characteristics that Islamic architecture included but only after the birth of its prophet.
Muslims have used the local area’s architectural elements and character to build a new type of architecture Muslim architecture. To this day mosques have continued to appear in the local character of the country it is built in, and it is identical always.
Madrasas have disappeared in terms of architecture type because it has become more modern educational buildings and systems.
People even big figures are following the Muslim religion in terms of building tombs and shrines, but the Shiite doctrine still buries their religious figures in tombs and shrines as usual. Islamic architecture has not witnessed a paradigm shift by any means, the people did not change the way they think about doing architecture. In later periods Islamic architecture neglected Muslim principles and simulated roman and Christian architecture specifically for Homes, public baths, and palaces. Islam came with abstract thinking and a view of nature and creation and produced very simple shapes, ornament, and decoration.
In the next article, my investigation will continue to renaissance architecture.
References
- C., C.K.A. (1922) The origin of the cruciform plan of Cairene madrasas. Le Caire: Impr. de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.
- Hillenbrand, R. (2021) Islamic art and architecture. London: Thames & Hudson.
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