The Ancient World Architectural Heritage of Islam
The rise of Islam must also be understood in relation to the Pre-Islamic background of Arabia, that is, to the inherited, existing social-cultural and economic conditions at the time of Muhammad, the results of the previous history of the region. The formation of Islam marked a turning point in that history, that is, it expressed the crisis of the existing conditions: it both demanded and allowed for structural transformations that were the sources of a new social-historical configuration.
Internal as well as external conditions and pressures, the simultaneous play of local, regional and global factors at work, contributed to deepen and enlarge the process of change. This process implied both continuities and discontinuities in material life, social organization, culture and ideology.
The exam of the Pre-Islamic architectural heritage is a way to disclose what N. Rabbat calls the "Architectural Repertoire available to the Early Muslims" , to understand the existing forms and uses of building, technological means and available materials, in order to characterize eventual continuities or radical differences. The following are examples of the Pre-Islamic architecture of the region.
MGL
Petra
Al Khazneh ("The Treasury"; Arabic: الخزنة) is one of the most elaborate buildings in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, including the Monastery (Arabic: Ad Deir), this structure was also carved out of a sandstone rock face. It has classical Greek-influenced architecture. It is unknown as to why Al Khazneh was originally built, probably between 100 BC and AD 200. Many of the building's architectural details have eroded away during the two thousand years since it was carved and sculpted from the cliff. The sculptures are thought to be those of various mythological figures associated with the afterlife.
Petra (Greek "πέτρα" (petra), meaning rock; Arabic: البتراء, Al-Batrāʾ) is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans. It lies on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
Excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The area is visited by flash floods and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and water conduits. These innovations stored water for prolonged periods of drought, and enabled the city to prosper from its sale.
Petra (Greek "πέτρα" (petra), meaning rock; Arabic: البتراء, Al-Batrāʾ) is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans. It lies on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
Excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The area is visited by flash floods and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and water conduits. These innovations stored water for prolonged periods of drought, and enabled the city to prosper from its sale.
source: Wikipedia
Mada'in Saleh
A row of tombs from the al-Khuraymat group, Mada'in Saleh.
Mada'in Saleh (Arabic: مدائن صالح, madāʼin Ṣāliḥ), also called Al-Hijr or Hegra (so in Greek and Latin, e.g. by Pliny ), is a pre-Islamic archaeological site located in the Al-Ula sector, within the Al Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia. A majority of the vestiges date from the Nabatean kingdom (1st century CE). The site constitutes the kingdom's southernmost and largest settlement after Petra, its capital. Traces of Lihyanite and Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found in situ, while accounts from the Qur’an tell of an earlier settlement of the area by the tribe of Thamud in the 3rd millennium BC.
source: Wikipedia
link: Hegra
Nabataean trade routes in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Palmyra
The Temple of Ba'al-Shamin, Palmyra
Palmyra (Greek: Παλμύρα, Arabic: تدمر; Tadmur) was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert. The earliest documented reference to the city by its Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur (which means "the town that repels" in Amorite and "the indomitable town" in Aramaic) is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.
Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor in Arabic (aka Tedmor), and there is a newer town next to the ruins of the same name. The Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale monuments containing funerary art such as limestone slabs with human busts representing the deceased.
Funerary bust of a woman. Palmyra. Mid-late 2nd century. British Museum.
The most striking building in Palmyra is the huge temple of Ba'al, considered "the most important religious building of the first century AD in the Middle East". It originated as a Hellenistic temple, of which only fragments of stones survive. The central shrine (cella) was added in the early 1st century AD, followed by a large double colonnaded portico in Corinthian style. The west portico and the entrance (propylaeum) date from the 2nd century. The temple measures 205 x 210 m.
source: Wikipedia
Shibam, Yemen
Shibam was the world for “height” in the pre-Islamic Humyar language. Terms like “Manhattan of the Middle East”, “Chicago of the Desert”, and “town with the world’s first skyscrapers” are heard nowadays in describing this city. Contemplating the mud-brick tower houses is quite awe-inspiring. They date back some tow or three hundred years and can reach up to nine stories in height. These high-rises, whose tops are regularly white-washed with a sealant to protect against rain an erosion, require constant maintenance by their inhabitants.
Shibam is thought to have been in existence since the second century AD, and layers of history lie below the current buildings. Shibam became the capital of the Hadramawt Kingdom in the third century AD. Benefiting from the lucrative frankincense and myrrh trade, it had gained independence form the Kingdom of Saba.
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