The Islamic World

Alina Galyon

The Rise and Spread of

Islam

Within a decade of Muhammads death in 632, Muslims ruled

Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and northern Egypt
In the Middle east and North Africa, Islam art largely replaced Late
Antique Art
Islamic art was brought into India and South Asia in the 13 th century
with the establishment of Muslim rule in Delhi
Abd al-Rahman I founded a Spanish Muslim dynasty at Cordoba
which became a brilliant court culture that profoundly influenced
medieval Europe
Great Mosque at Cordoba begun in 784 and eventually became one
of the largest mosques in the Islamic West
The mosque is made up of overlapping horseshoe arches in the
eastern and western gates, double rows of arches in the prayer hall,
and elaborate multilobed arches on slender columns in other areas
of the mosque

Early Islamic Art

Islam spread throughout the Middle East, Europe, North

Africa, and South Asia after the death of Muhammad in 632
Arab scholars laid foundations of arithmetic and algebra
and made significant contributions to astronomy, medicine,
and the natural sciences.
In the 12th and 13th centuries Christian scholars studied
Arabic translations of Aristotle and other Greek writers
Arabic love lyrics and poetic descriptions of nature inspired
the early French troubadours

Architecture

During the early centuries of Islamic history, the Muslim

worlds political and cultural center was the Fertile Crescent
of ancient Mesopotamia

The caliphs of Damascus appointed provincial governors to

rule the vast territories they controlled and these governors
usually gained relative independence by setting up
dynasties in various territories and provinces, including the
Umayyads in Syria and Spain, and the Abbasids in Iraq

Dome of the Rock

 The Dome of the Rock was the first great Islamic building
In Jerusalem
The Muslims took Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 638, and the
Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik built the shrine between 687 and 692 as a
tribute to the triumph of Islam
Marked the coming of the new religion to the city that was sacred to
Jews and Christians
Rises from the Noble Enclosure (huge platform), where in ancient times
the Hebrews built the Temple of Solomon that was destroyed in the year
70 by Roman emperor Titus
The rock that gives the building its name later came to be identified with
the place where Muhammad began his miraculous journey to Heaven
(the miraj) and then, in the same night, returned to his home in Mecca
The domed central plan descended from the Pantheon and Hagia
Sophia, but it more closely resembles the San Vitale in Ravenna
Colorful patterning wraps the walls like a textile, which is typical in
Islamic art
Mosaics depict crowns, jewels, chalices, and other royal motifs
Inscriptions from the Koran underscore Islam as the superior new
monotheism

Great Mosque, Damascus

 Umayyads transferred the capital from Mecca to Damascus in 661

Abd al-Maliks son, the caliph al-Walid purchased a Byzantine church
dedicated to John the Baptist and built an imposing new mosque
Islamic builders incorporated stone blocks, columns, and capitals
salvaged from the earlier structures on the land acquired by al-Walid
Pier arcades reminiscent of Roman aqueducts frame the courtyard
and minarets are modifications of the preexisting Roman square
towers
The grand prayer hall faces Mecca
The halls facade with its pediment and arches, recalls Roman and
Byzantine models
Extensive cycle of glass mosaics once covered the walls of the Great
Mosque
Mosaics owe much to Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine arttemples, clusters of houses, trees, and rivers compose the pictorial
fields bounded by stylized vegetal designs also found in Roman, Early
Christian, and Byzantine ornamentation
No human or animal forms appear on the pictorial fields
The imagery is consistent with many passages from the Koran
describing the places of Paradise awaiting the faithful

Baghdad

After years of civil war, the Abbasids, who claimed descent

from Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad, overthrew the
Umayyad caliphates
The Abbasids moved the capital from Damascus to a place
in Iraq near the old Sasanian capital and named it Baghdad,
the City of Peace
Had a circular plan, about a mile and a half in diameter
The city had a moat and four gates oriented to the four
compass points, at the center was the caliphs palace
The Abbasid caliphs established diplomatic relations
throughout the world, they spent lavishly on art, literature,
and science, and were responsible for the translation of
numerous Greek texts that otherwise would have been lost

The Mosque
For worshiping in Islam, only the qibla is important (the direction Muslims face when they
pray)
Worship eventually became a communal act
The main feature of Muhammads house was a square court, and on the south side is where
prayer would take place because that is the area that faces Mecca
After prayer, the imam(leader of collective worship) stood on a minbar (stepped pulpit) and
set up in front of the southern wall and preached the sermon
The mosque is where the faithful gather for five daily prayers
The congregational mosque was large enough for a communitys entire population to
gather for the Friday noon prayer
A mihrab is a semicircular niche usually set into the qibla wall; this was a familiar GrecoRoman architectural feature
In some mosques, a maqsura precedes the mihrab; a maqsura is the area generally
reserved for the ruler or his representative
Minarets are towers used to call the faithful to worship
Hypostyle halls are communal worship halls with roofs held up by a multitude of columns
and are characteristic of early mosques
Later variations include mosques with four iwans (vaulted rectangular recesses), one of
each side of the courtyard, and central plan mosques with a single large dome-covered
interior space

Great Mosque, Kairoun

One of the best preserved early mosques; has a hypostyle

design, it most closely reflects the mosques supposed
precursor, the house of Muhammad in Medina
Retains its carved wooden minbar of 862, the oldest known
Takes the form of a slightly askew parallelograms of huge
scale
Its walls have sturdy buttresses, square in profile
Lateral entrances on the east and west lead to an arcaded
forecourt resembling a Roman forum, oriented north-south
on axis with the mosques impressive minaret and the two
domes of the hypostyle prayer hall
A raised nave connects the domed spaces and prolongs the
north-south axis of the minaret and courtyard
Eight columned aisles flank the nave on either side,
providing space for a large congregation

Malwiya Minaret, Samarra

Samarra was the capital of the Abassid caliph alMutawakkil, who built the mosque between 848 and 852
At the time of construction, was the largest in the world
A stepped spiral ramp increases in slope from bottom to top
and is the most distinguishing feature of the brick tower
Inspired some European depictions of the Tower of Babel
Use was probably to announce the presence of Islam in the
Tigris Valley

Samanid Mausoleum,
Bukhara

In the early 10th century, the Samanids erected an

impressive domed brick mausoleum at Bukhara in modern
Uzbekistan
One of the earliest preserved tombs in the Islamic world
Constructed of baked bricks, takes the form of a domecapped cube with slightly sloping sides
Bricks are shaped to create a vivid and varied surface
pattern
Some of the bricks form engaged columns (half-round,
attached columns) at the corners, and a brick blind arcade
(a series of arches in relief, with blocked openings) runs
around all four sides
The dome rests on arcuated brink squinches framed by
engaged colonnettes

Great Mosque, Cordoba

Abd al-Rahman fled to Spain in 750 and founded the

Spanish Umayyad dynasty, lasting nearly three centuries
The capital of the Spanish Umayyads was Cordoba
The jewel of Cordoba was the Great Mosque, begun in 784
by Abd al-Rahman
Cordobas Mezquita eventually became one of the largest
mosques in the Islamic West
The hypostyle prayer hall has 36 piers and 514 columns
topped by a unique system of double-tiered arches that
carried a wooden roof
The lower arches are horse-shoe shaped, and this quickly
became closely associated with Muslim architecture