The Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus (Arabic: جامع بني أمية الكبير, transliteration Ğām' Banī 'Umayya al-Kabīr) or formerly the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist (Greek: Βασιλική του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Βαπτιστή, transliteration Vasilikí tou Agíou Ioánni tou Vaptistí), is located in the old city of Damascus, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. (source: Wikipedia)
Great Mosque of Damascus (2004)
interior of the great mosque, containing the shrine of St. John the Baptist view image source: here
"The Great Mosque of Damascus built between 706 and 715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid, is the first to transpose the model of the old Medina mosque into monumental forms"
Burckhardt, Titus, Art of Islam - Language and Meaning, 2009 ( first published 1976)
"The mosque of Damascus is an entirely Muslim structure. An earlier Roman temenos on the site determined its size (157 by 100 meters), its location, and the lower course of some of the walls, as well as the position of the east and west entrances. A possible Roman triple gate on the south wall is now hidden by shops. All other features date from Al-Walid's time, although a fire in 1893 destroyed much of the superstructure; the subsequent rebuild was done with little taste."
Etthinghausen, R. and Grabar, O. The Art and Architecture of Islam: 650-1250, 1987
plan of the Umayyiad Mosque in Damascus
The Umayyad Mosque - The Dome of the Eagle (Qubbat Al-Nisr), Damascus
image source: Wikipedia
In the general style of its the structural elements the Great Mosque of Damascus is reminiscent of grand Byzantine architecture. However its plan and proportions, according to Creswell, contradict the strong impression of a Byzantine structure remodeled and adapted to be used as mosque. To Stierlin, the response to the apparent contradiction between "structural" or "infra-structural" and "super-structural" elements, decorative details, spatial design and, to those familiar with Christian Byzantine buildings, apparent orientations, is resolved in the consideration of an extensive re-use of the elements and parts of the Byzantine Church of Saint John the Baptist in the building of the mosque.
Not simply a rearrangement or dislocation of parts, but the careful and complete dismantling of the church and the use of its parts, elements and materials, some dating from Roman times that were already reused in the building of the Christian structure. It would not be possible to present the necessary archaeological evidence in defense of this hypothesis without extensive excavations, observes Stierlin, which are not likely to be performed in the present structure. The idea however can indeed to the author explain both the building's strong Byzantine "memories" and its specific Islamic character.
The building of the mosque in a sacred terrain of ancient use and in the place of the Christian church, utilizing the materials and some of the forms of the Byzantine building, modifying radically the use and orientation of the space, and therefore the very spatial concept changed into a new form and a new experience of space, signified an affirmation of power on the city conquered by the new faith. It was an affirmation of its domination over the previous spiritual and material power. It was an expression of both its magnificence and magnanimity, in a complex process including acquiescence and denial, the supersession and continuation of the heritage of Christianity and of Judaism.
To Burckhardt, what is manifest in the Great Mosque is the fact that in spite of all the "adaptations" of space, the recycling of materials, the use of forms and techniques from Christian Byzantine art, a different type of space and of spatial experience was in fact created: one that has little to do with the heritage of Greco-Roman architectural ideas and forms. The "entire reality" of the Greco-Roman building, according to Burckhardt, is that of its elements: walls, columns, architraves, etc. By contrast, " the aim of Islamic architecture is space as such, in its undifferentiated plenitude."
Marcelo Guimaraes Lima
Not simply a rearrangement or dislocation of parts, but the careful and complete dismantling of the church and the use of its parts, elements and materials, some dating from Roman times that were already reused in the building of the Christian structure. It would not be possible to present the necessary archaeological evidence in defense of this hypothesis without extensive excavations, observes Stierlin, which are not likely to be performed in the present structure. The idea however can indeed to the author explain both the building's strong Byzantine "memories" and its specific Islamic character.
The building of the mosque in a sacred terrain of ancient use and in the place of the Christian church, utilizing the materials and some of the forms of the Byzantine building, modifying radically the use and orientation of the space, and therefore the very spatial concept changed into a new form and a new experience of space, signified an affirmation of power on the city conquered by the new faith. It was an affirmation of its domination over the previous spiritual and material power. It was an expression of both its magnificence and magnanimity, in a complex process including acquiescence and denial, the supersession and continuation of the heritage of Christianity and of Judaism.
To Burckhardt, what is manifest in the Great Mosque is the fact that in spite of all the "adaptations" of space, the recycling of materials, the use of forms and techniques from Christian Byzantine art, a different type of space and of spatial experience was in fact created: one that has little to do with the heritage of Greco-Roman architectural ideas and forms. The "entire reality" of the Greco-Roman building, according to Burckhardt, is that of its elements: walls, columns, architraves, etc. By contrast, " the aim of Islamic architecture is space as such, in its undifferentiated plenitude."
Marcelo Guimaraes Lima
Mosaics : A vision of Paradise
The restored mosaic works in the Great Mosque of Damascus represent a fragment of the original decorations, according to Stierlin. They were the works of Byzantine craftsman sent by the Byzantine Emperor at the request of the Califa Al-Walid. Floral motifs, vegetation, houses, fountains, bridges, palaces and gardens compose a "vision of Paradise", no animals or humans are represented.
Burckhardt observes that the use of mosaics in the Great Mosque of Damascus shows a certain continuity of Byzantine art in Umayyad Syria. In the future developments of Islamic architecture, however, ceramic tiles would substitute mosaics. Contrary to the fragmentary, iridescent effects, the transparency and “incorporeal” qualities of mosaic decorations, the use of ceramic tiles is more suitable for geometric designs: they define surfaces in more stable ways, while allowing for effects of color and light.
image source: http://www.kacmac.com/cities/damascus/photos2/
Historical and Architectural Significance
" The Umayyad Mosque is one of the few early mosques in the world to have maintained the same general structure and architectural features since its initial construction in the early 8th-century and its Umayyad character has not been significantly altered. Since its establishment, the mosque has served as a model for congregational mosque architecture in Syria as well as globally. According to art historian, Finnbar Barry Flood, "the construction of the Damascus mosque not only irrevocably altered the urban landscape of the city, inscribing upon it a permanent affirmation of Muslim hegemony, but by giving the Syrian congregational mosque its definitive form it also transformed the subsequent history of the mosque in general."[1] Examples of the Umayyad Mosque's ground plan being used as a prototype for other mosques in the region include the al-Azhar Mosque and Baybars Mosque in Cairo, the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain, and the Bursa Grand Mosque and Selimiye Mosque in Turkey." source: Wikipedia
[1] Flood, Finbarr Barry . The Great Mosque of Damascus: studies on the makings of an Umayyad visual culture (2001)
[1] Flood, Finbarr Barry . The Great Mosque of Damascus: studies on the makings of an Umayyad visual culture (2001)
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