http://www.emel.com/article?id=93&a_id=2560
I started this section a year ago in Emel in Jan 2012 with a brief discussion on the main features of a mosque.
The Shape of the Holy
The mosque is a building of pinnacle importance in Islam. Throughout its history, the role of the mosque, or masjid (a place of prostration) has varied greatly; from a place of worship, to a community centre, a university, and even a monumental political statement. It’s diversity as a building model takes it to the very core of the community it is used by; proving it has been a key public space for every settled congregation and their collective activities. Like all public spaces, a mosque is the beating heart existing as an integral part of its surrounding community. A study of some key mosque models built since the early days of Islam reveal that these buildings were never meant to exist or be seen in isolation, but were very rooted in the context from which they had emerged and for which they were designed. Key figures in contemporary architectural discourse, such as London based architect David Adjaye, also recognise the remarkable malleability of the mosque model, appearing from the early days of Islam to be distinctly different in every country it was built in. In his essay on Making Public Buildings, he compares the context rooted appearance of the ancient mosques found all over Africa, so different to one another in appearance and construction material, to the standardised model of churches from the same period which were more or less the same no matter where they were built.
The first mosque was built in the home of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him). The building has been rebuilt, extended and altered several times since, keeping it fresh and contemporary for every new community that uses it. A consistent theme in all the accounts of the original building is that it was very typical to its surroundings. There was nothing unusual or different about the physical appearance of the Prophet’s mosque in comparison to its surrounding neighbourhood. It relied on the local craftsmanship, skill and technique of the labourers that had banded together to build it.
The building, like all of the localhouses at the time, was constructed around a central internal courtyard. This architectural feature was adopted primarily to keep the building cool; and continues to be incorporated into thousands of mosques across the hot climates of Arab, Turkish and South Asian regions. The other two features of the house that became important as models to emulate were a sheltered area for worshippers whilst they prayed, worked or rested, as well as somehow indicating the qibla (direction facing makkah).
These three features are however the only similarity between the Prophet’s mosque and subsequent mosques that were built after him. His mosque lacks the ornate architectural features of dome and minaret that we are so used to seeing in grander buildings. In fact, it wasn’t until the time of the Ummayyad dynasty that mosques began to be built with domes; a trend that kicked off with the commissioning of the Dome of the Rock, built in Jerusalem in 692. Not only was this dome central to the design of the mosque, but it was also plated in gold, making it incredibly difficult to miss. To understand why the Dome of the Rock was built in this manner one must recognise that this building is the first example of a mosque that was built as a monument, conceived as a work of art and deliberately transcending its function by the quality of its forms and expression. Whatever its purpose, the Dome of the Rock was most certainly not a place for congregational prayer, and its dome was not built to serve any architectural acoustic purpose, as it covers a relatively small area and resides above a rock that the building wraps itself around; the very rock symbolising the Prophet’s journey of Al-Mi’raj into the heavens.
The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
The shape of this dome, and subsequent domes that were to become standard features of mosques in the Middle Eastern world, are Late Antique and Byzentine in origin. The building itself borrows from seventh century Byzentine, Italian and Western European architectural features; a great give away are the remarkable Greek Corinthian columns at the entrance of the building, evoking strong imagery of beautiful Venetian churches and palaces. Hence it is obvious that the Dome of the Rock was deeply rooted in its context; with its main architectural feature mirroring the dome of the neighbouring Holy Sepulchre, a church built by Constantine to the west of its site. Its splendour, beauty and accuracy in execution is thanks to the craftsmanship and skill of the Syrian and Roman artisans commissioned by the Ummayyads to erect this great monument.
The Dome of the Rock still lacks the final feature that we are all too used to seeing in the standard model of a mosque. This is the minaret, which was an addition that came far later in the mosque’s history. These vertical towers were added to symbolise the institutional status the mosque acquired under the Abbasid dynasty from Iraq in the late 9th century. The minaret was a tower erected, depending on its size, for several different purposes. One function was as a ma’zana (literally ‘call to prayer’); a place where the call would be given from five times a day. However, many communities at the time continued to follow the Prophet’s method of calling to the prayer; which was either by climbing onto the roof of the building or standing in its main doorway. Another implied function can be deduced from the minaret’s other name, the manara, or ‘place of light’. Acting as lighthouses, they were often used to guide night-travelling caravans or as signal towers to flash warnings of enemy approach. The infamous grand mosque of Kairouan built in 836 for example, borrows the shape of its minaret from a nearby Roman lighthouse built in a similar three storey style.
Kairouan Grande Mosque
It is interesting to note that although all three of these architectural features of a mosque came from context based solutions that addressed local scenarios, they did overtime become symbols to mark a specific sort of building. In the later days of Arab, Turk and South Asian Imperial rulers, these dwindling dynasties used the symbolic power of their buildings to enhance the imperial image of their capitals. Immense domed mosques and tombs proclaimed from afar the powers of these great dynasties, marking out the boundaries of their realms. As such, these features became means of expressing statements, rather than addressing the specific needs of their congregations at a human scale. This is perhaps what has led to their gradual decline in use as contemporary models for mosques, which are striving to find solutions closer to home, just as the Prophet did in the first neighbourhood where he erected his home and his masjid.
References:
J Bloom, S Blair, Islamic Arts, London: Phaidon, 1997
E B Smith, The dome: a study in the history of ideas, Michigan: Princeton University Press 1950
O Grabar, the Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1996
Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, Focus on Arab Architecture, London: Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, 1984
D Adjaye, Making Public Buildings, London: Thames & Hudson 2006
Arub Saqib 