Islamic Architecture Aesthetics

Islamic Architecture Aesthetics
Nina Ashley Bach
Nashwa Mahmoud
Ahmed Alshair

What are you going to learn today:
● What is Islamic Art?
● Introduction to Mosque Architecture
● Common Types of Mosque Architecture
● The chronological periods in the Islamic
world:
Early Period
Medieval Period
Late Period

What is Islamic Art?
● The term Islamic art describes all of the arts
that were produced in the lands where Islam
was the dominant religion or the religion of
those who ruled.
● Islamic art is not a monolithic style or
movement; it spans 1,300 years of history and
has geographic diversity.
● Islamic empires and dynasties controlled
territory from Spain to western China at
various points in history.

Islamic Art Theme and Components
Calligraphy
Geometric
Motifs
Vegetal
Motifs

Islamic Art Theme and Components:
Calligraphy
● The artistic practice of handwriting was the
main form of expression besides architecture.
● Calligraphy was more highly cultivated in
Islamic countries than anywhere outside of
China and Japan.
Kuﬁ DiwaniFarsi Naskh Thuluth

Calligraphy as a decorative element
in Mosques and Buildings
Square kuﬁc tilework in Yazd, Iran
Calligraphy

From the Courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

Wazir Khan Mosque, Pakistan Alhambra Palace, Spain

● The geometric designs in Islamic art are often built on combinations of
repeated squares and circles.
● They may be overlapped and interlaced to form complex patterns,
including a wide variety of tessellations.
Geometric motifs

Vegetal motifs
Vegetal patterns are patterns related to plants.
Plants appear in many forms in Islamic art,
ranging from single motifs to extended patterns,
and natural depictions of ﬂowers to plant forms
which are complicated and heavily stylized.
Wazir Khan Mosque, Pakistan
The dome of the Sheikh
Lotfollah mosque, Iran

Introduction to Mosque Architecture

Common Features in mosques’
architecture
● The architecture of a mosque is shaped by the
regional traditions of the time and place where
it was built. As a result, style, layout, and
decoration can vary greatly.
● Because of the common function of the mosque
as a place of congregational prayer, certain
architectural features appear in mosques all
over the world, which are:
○ Sahn (Courtyard)
○ Mihrab (Niche)
○ Minaret (Tower)
○ Qubba (Dome)
○ Furnishings

Sahn (Courtyard)
Kairouan great
mosque courtyard,
Tunisia

Mihrab (Niche)
Al Azhar Mosque, EgyptLotfollah Mosque, Iran Cordoba Great Mosque, Spain

Minaret (Tower)
Hassan II Mosque,
Morocco
Medina Mosque,
Saudi Arabia
Shah Mosque, Iran
Cathedral Mosque of Hazrat
Imam, Uzbekistan

Qubba (Dome)
Kalyan Mosque, UzbekistanThe Blue Mosque, Turkey

Furnishings (Decorative Elements): Hanging Lamps
Sultan Hassan Mosque, Egypt

Furnishings (Decorative Elements): Calligraphy
Wazir Khan Mosque, PakistanBada Gumbad Mosque, India Blue Mosque, Turkey

Common Types of Mosque Architecture

The Hypostyle mosque
The interior of the mosque features the forest of columns.
The great mosque of Cordoba, Spain

The Four-Iwan mosque
An iwan is a vaulted space that opens on one side to a courtyard. Four-iwan
mosques incorporate four iwans in their architectural plan.
The great mosque of Isfahan, Iran

The Centrally-Planned mosque
The layout of the mosque is more focused on the interior spaces
rather than the courtyard.
Mosque of Selim II, Turkey

Art History of The chronological
periods in the Islamic world
EARLY
PERIOD
c. 640-900 C.E.
MEDIEVAL
PERIOD
c. 900-1517 C.E.
LATE
PERIOD
c. 1517 –1924 C.E.

Art History of The chronological periods in the Islamic world
Early Period (c. 640-900 C.E.)
Birmingham Quran manuscript. Dated to between 568 and 645 CE

Early Period (c. 640-900 C.E.)
One of the earliest photos of Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem, Palestine. (Source: DailyMail)
The Umayyads
c. 661 - 749 C.E.
The Abbasid
c. 750 - 1258 C.E.

The Umayyads (661–749 C.E.)
● The Umayyads are the ﬁrst Islamic
dynasty, when Damascus became the
capital and the empire expanded West
and East.
● During the Umayyad reign, the main art
hub was in Syria due to:
○ Being the favoured land in the
Islamic empire.
○ Being the bridge between the East,
West, North and South, it could draw
a lot of inspiration from major
cultures that formed the Islamic
empire. Great Mosque of Damascus fountain

● Umayyad art was the public expression of the glory of islamic emergence
that took over as a super power through its public and imperial role.
● This period also ensured the entry of classical art entering the stream of
Islamic art.
● There are constant copies of Umayyad prototypes by later generations due
to it being the ﬁrst and most powerful of Islamic dynasties.
● They also recognized the propaganda dimension of buildings and symbolic
images which can still be seen in Islamic art today.
● Umayyad period also established the importance of applied ornament in
Islamic art (Geometric, ﬂoral and epigraphic).
● The Umayyad period really moulded the future development of Islamic art.

● Responsible for the ﬁrst great
monuments of Islamic art and
architecture, Umayyad rulers built:
○ The Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem
○ The Great Mosque of Damascus
in Syria
○ The Great Mosque of Córdoba
in Spain
○ The Great Mosque of Kairouan
in Tunisia
The Umayyad Mosque - Syria

The Dome of the Rock
● It was built between 685 and 692 by Abd al-Malik, the most important
Umayyad caliph, as a religious focal point for his supporters.

The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary
beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape. Both
outside and inside, the decoration is so magniﬁcent and
the workmanship so surpassing as to defy description.
The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of
one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its
brilliance, now glowing like a mass of light,
now ﬂashing like lightning.
Ibn Battuta
(14th century travel writer)
“ “

● The Dome is located on the Haram
al-Sharif, an enormous open-air
platform that now houses Al-Aqsa
mosque, madrasas and several other
religious buildings.

The Great Mosque of Damascus
● It was built by the Umayyad caliph, al-Walid II between 708 and 715 C.E.

● It is considered to be one of the earliest surviving congregational mosques
in the world.
● Its location and organization were directly inﬂuenced by the temples and
the church that preceded it. It was built into the Roman temple wall and it
reuses older building materials in its walls, including a beam with a Greek
inscription that was originally part of the church.
● There is a massive dome and a transept to accommodate a large number
of worshippers. The façade of the transept facing the courtyard is
decorated on the exterior with rich mosaics.
● Here we see evidence of Christian architecture islamicized - typical
Christian basilica recasted to secure new lateral emphasis in keeping with
the needs of Islamic worship.

Mosaic, Great Mosque of Damascus, 8th century
Arches with acanthus
motif in mosaic

Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus)
● Al-Andalus also known as Muslim Iberia
was a medieval Muslim territory and
cultural domain.
● In its early period, it included most of
Iberia (A peninsula located in the
southwest corner of Europe)
● Achievements in arts and science that
advanced Islamic and Western worlds
came from al-Andalus.
● It became a channel for cultural and
scientiﬁc exchange between the Islamic
and Christian worlds.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba
● It is one of the oldest structures still standing from the time Muslims ruled
Al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia) in the late 8th century.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba
● The building itself was expanded over two
hundred years.
● It is comprised of a large hypostyle prayer hall, a
courtyard with a fountain in the middle, an orange
grove, a covered walkway circling the courtyard,
and a minaret.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba:
Minaret and Exterior View

The Great Mosque of
Cordoba: Mihrab
● The mihrab is framed by an
exquisitely decorated arch behind
which is an unusually large space,
the size of a small room.
● Gold tesserae (small pieces of glass
with gold and color backing) create
a dazzling combination of dark
blues, reddish browns, yellows and
golds that form intricate
calligraphic bands and vegetal
motifs that adorn the arch.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba: Dome
● Above the mihrab, is an equally dazzling dome.
It is built of crisscrossing ribs that create
pointed arches all lavishly covered with gold
mosaic in a radial pattern.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan
It is an early example of a hypostyle mosque, the prayer hall is supported by rows
of columns and there is an open courtyard.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan: Dome
The dome is an architectural element borrowed from Roman and Byzantine
architecture. The small windows in the drum of the dome above the mihrab
space let natural light into what was an otherwise dim interior. The stone dome
is constructed of twenty four ribs that each have a small corbel at their base, so
the dome looks like a cut cantaloupe.

The Abbasid c. 750 - 1258 CE
● The Abbasid dynasty of caliphs succeeded the Umayyads.
● Abbasid period is generally regarded as the classical age of Islamic culture -
Visual arts, music and literature all flourished.
● In 762, the second Abbasid caliph, Al-Mansur transferred his capital from
Damascus to what we know as Baghdad today. Engineers, craftsmen and
artists from all parts of the Islamic world were assembled to build and
decorate the new capital.
● Difficult to discuss as there is no trace of the city of the Abbasid that
survives after the 1258 destruction by the Mongols.
● Fragments of abstract stucco decoration and figurative wall paintings reveal
the influence of Chinese and European as well as Persian art.

Medieval Period (c. 900-1517 C.E.)
AlHambra Palace, Granada, Spain

The Alhambra
The Alhambra, an abbreviation of the Arabic: Qal’at Al-Hamra, or red fort, was
built by the Nasrid Dynasty (1232-1492), the last Muslims to rule in Spain.
Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr (known as Muhammad I) founded the Nasrid
Dynasty and secured this region in 1237. He began construction of his court
complex, the Alhambra, on Sabika hill the following year.

AlHambra Palace, Granada, Spain

Plan of the Alhambra
1,730 m2
(1 mile2
) of walls and thirty towers of
varying size enclose this city within a city.
Access was restricted to four main gates. The
Alhambra includes structures with three
distinct purposes:
● A residence for the ruler and close family.
● The citadel, Alcazaba barracks for the elite
guard who were responsible for the safety
of the complex.
● An area called medina (or city), near the
Puerta del Vino (Wine Gate), where court
ofﬁcials lived and worked.

Alhambra: Three Palaces
The Alhambra's most celebrated structures
are the three original royal palaces:
● The Comares Palace
● The Palace of the Lions
● The Partal Palace
Each of which was built during 14th
century.
A large fourth palace was later begun by
the Christian ruler, Carlos V.

Alhambra: El Mexuar
● El Mexuar is an audience chamber near
the Comares tower at the northern
edge of the complex.
● It was built by Ismail I as a throne room,
but became a reception and meeting
hall when the palaces were expanded in
the 1330s.
● The room has complex geometric tile
dadoes and carved stucco panels that
give it a formality suitable for receiving
dignitaries.

Alhambra: The Comares Palace
Behind El Mexuar stands the formal and
elaborate Comares façade set back from a
courtyard and fountain. The façade is built on a
raised three-stepped platform that might have
served as a kind of outdoor stage for the ruler.

● A dark winding passage beyond the
Comares façade leads to a covered patio
surrounding a large courtyard with a
pool, now known as the Court of the
Myrtles. This was the focal point of the
Comares Palace.
● The Alhambra’s largest tower, the
Comares Tower, contains the hall of the
ambassadors a throne room built by
Yusuf I (1333-1354).

The hall of the ambassadors
● The double arched windows illuminate
the room and provide breathtaking
views. Additional light is provided by
arched grille (lattice) windows set high
in the walls.
● At eye level, the walls are lavishly
decorated with tiles laid in intricate
geometric patterns. The remaining
surfaces are covered with intricately
carved stucco motifs organized in
bands and panels of curvilinear
patterns and calligraphy.

The hall of the ambassadors

Alhambra: Palace of the Lions
● It stands next to the Comares Palace.
The two structures were connected
after Granada fell to the Christians.
● Muhammad V built the Palace of the
Lions’ most celebrated feature in the
14th century, a fountain with a complex
hydraulic system consisting of a marble
basin on the backs of twelve carved
stone lions situated at the intersection
of two water channels that form a cross
in the rectilinear courtyard.

● An arched covered patio encircles the
courtyard and displays ﬁne stucco
carvings held up by a series of
slender columns.
● Two decorative pavilions protrude
into the courtyard on an East–West
axis (at the narrow sides of the
courtyard), accentuating the royal
spaces behind them.

Muqarnas Chamber
● To the West, the Muqarnas
Chamber, may have functioned as
an antechamber and was near the
original entrance to the palace.
● It takes its name from the
intricately carved system of
brackets called "muqarnas" that
hold up the vaulted ceiling.

Muqarnas Chamber
Muqarnas

Alhambra: Generalife
● The Nasrid rulers did not limit themselves to
building within the wall of the Alhambra.
One of the best preserved Nasrid estates,
just beyond the walls, is called Generalife
(from the Arabic, Jannat al-arif).
● The word jannat means paradise and by
association, garden, or a place of cultivation
which Generalife has in abundance.
● In one of the most spectacular Generalife
gardens, a long narrow patio is ornamented
with a water channel and two rows of water
fountains.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan
● It is an example of a Four-Iwan mosque, Linking the four iwans at the
center is a large courtyard open to the air.
● Each iwan sports colorful tile decoration and muqarnas or traditional
Islamic cusped niches.

Muqarnas

Dome CalligraphyInterior

Late Period (c. 1517-1924 C.E.)
Taj Mahal, India

Hagia Sophia as a mosque
● In 1453, Constantinople was conquered
by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed
the Conqueror, who ordered Hagia
Sophia, church of Orthodox Christianity
converted into a mosque.
● Islamic features then added such as the
mihrab, minbar, and four minarets.
● It remained a mosque until 1931 when it
was closed to the public for four years. It
was re-opened in 1935 as a museum.

Süleymaniye Mosque
● The Süleymaniye Mosque, was built on the order of
Sultan Süleyman (Süleyman the Magniﬁcent), and
designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan.

Mimar Sinan
● He was the chief Ottoman architect and
civil engineer for sultans Suleiman the
Magniﬁcent, Selim II, and Murad III.
● He was responsible for the construction of
more than 300 major structures.
● His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in
Edirne, although his most famous work is
the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul.
● Mimar Sinan's works are among the most
inﬂuential buildings in history.

Süleymaniye Mosque
● It has a courtyard with a central
fountain.
● At the four corners of the
courtyard are the four minarets.
● The four minarets with their
10 beautiful şerefes (balconies),
said to represent the fact that
Süleyman was the fourth of the
Ottoman sultans to rule the city.

The Blue Mosque
(Sultan Ahmed Mosque)
● The Sultan Ahmet Mosque
was completed in 1617 by
Sultan Ahmet I.
● The mosque was built on the
site of the palace of the
Byzantine emperors.
● It features two main sections:
a large uniﬁed prayer hall
crowned by the main dome
and a spacious courtyard.

The Blue Mosque
● It has an elegant composition
of ascending domes and six
slender "pencil" minarets.
● Four minarets are positioned
on the corners of the mosque
prayer hall while the other
two ﬂank the external
corners of the courtyard.
● Each minaret has a series of
balconies adorning.

The Blue Mosque
In order to extend the prayer
space beyond the span of the
central dome, a series of
half-domes (semi-domes)
cascade outwards from the
center to ultimately join the
exterior walls of the mosque.

The Blue Mosque
● Inside the mosque,
the central dome rests on
delicate pendentives
(triangular segments of a
spherical surface).
● Central dome’s weight is
supported on four massive
ﬂuted columns.
● The mihrab is made of ﬁnely
carved and sculptured marble.

The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

The Blue Mosque
● Upper sections of the mosque are
painted in geometric bands and
organic medallions of bright red and
blue colors.
● More than 20,000 Iznik tiles rise from
the mid-sections of the mosque.
● Iznik tiles has traditional motifs on
them, such as cypress trees, tulips,
roses, and fruits.

Iznik Tiles in The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)
More than 200 windows
with Venetian stained
glass that pierce the
central dome, each of
the half-domes, and the
side walls.

The Taj Mahal
● It was built by Shah Jahan, who was the ﬁfth ruler of the Mughal dynasty, for
his favorite wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal, as a permanent resting place for
her after she died.
● The white-marble mausoleum is ﬂanked on either side by identical buildings
in red sandstone. One of these serves as a mosque, and the other, whose
exact function is unknown, provides architectural balance.

The Taj Mahal
● Entry to the Taj Mahal complex via the
forecourt, and through a monumental
gate of inlaid and highly decorated red
sandstone made for a ﬁrst impression of
grand splendor and symmetry.
● Aligned along a long water channel
through this gate is the Taj set
majestically on a raised platform on the
north end. The rectangular complex
runs roughly 1860 feet on the
north-south axis, and 1000 feet on the
east-west axis.

The Taj Mahal
● The marble structure is topped by a
bulbous dome and surrounded by four
minarets of equal height.
● While minarets in Islamic architecture
are usually associated with mosques for
use by the muezzin who leads the call to
prayer here, they are not functional, but
ornamental, once again underscoring
the Mughal focus on structural balance
and harmony.

The Taj Mahal: Interior
● The interior ﬂoor plan of the Taj
exhibits the eight levels principle,
alluding to the eight levels of paradise.
● The center of the main chamber holds
Mumtaz Mahal’s intricately decorated
marble cenotaph on a raised platform.
● The emperor’s cenotaph was laid
down beside hers after he died three
decades later, both are encased in an
octagon of exquisitely carved
white-marble screens.

The Taj Mahal
Quranic verses calligraphy inscribed
into the walls of the building. The
dominant theme of the carved imagery
is ﬂoral.

Learn More!
Where can you ﬁnd more information about Islamic Art near you?

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur

Sabah Islamic Civilization Museum
Kota Kinabalu

Art of the Islamic world Online
Course
Khan Academy Website

Tha
Islamic art TODAY is more about revival of past islamic art
and architecture rather than forming a new style.

References
https://archnet.org/timelines/48/period/Umayya
d/year/661
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-
history/art-islam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan

Islamic Architecture Aesthetics

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