Great Mosques of the Islamic Abbasid Period - Essay Example

Great Mosques of the Islamic Abbasid period Great Mosques of the Islamic Abbasid period Introduction The great Mosques of Islamic culture built during the medieval period serve as monuments to their time, their religion, and to the cultures of that time. As in any civilization, through understanding how and why their buildings came into being, the function and the form through which culture was lived and expressed, can reveal much about a people The building of the Great Mosque of Samara, which still provides awe in its lasting beauty and its influences on the Mosque of Amir, which in turn influenced the Mosque Ibn Tulun all provide frameworks which can be examined for their importance through architectural standards and through cultural implications and meanings. Through a discussion that begins with first developing a basic understanding of the function and form of Mosques from the medieval period, then moving through a discussion of specific structures, an exploration of the Mosques from the Abbasid period can be made in order to better understand the importance of these great structures. Function In attempting to study the architecture of the Islamic world, Hillenbrand suggests that one of the primary difficulties lies in the terminology that is used. This is due to the multiplicity of purposes that each building would serve as a function within the culture. He states “Small wonder that one and the same building could be designated by a string of descriptive terms if each did in truth refer to some aspect of its regular function”.1 In examining the ways in which the buildings of the Islamic middle ages were used it is clear that that mosques were not only used for worship, madrasas were not only used for education, and neither were mausolea used just for burial. The many needs of the culture were fit into the buildings through multiple functionalities, thus the first understanding of such buildings must be made through the idea of function. In discussing function, the first problem that can be seen in studying Islamic buildings is that there is little in the way of written information on the building of these structures. Technical renderings and information about the circumstances of how these buildings came into being are few and far between, allowing for only the buildings themselves to serve as objects of study on their construction.2 Although there is suspicion that the Islamic religious aesthetics influenced the building of Mosques during the medieval period, there is no explicit reference known or accessible to Western cultures that suggest that this is the case. Therefore, in studying the function of such buildings, one must look at the building itself to try and access this aspect and the culture in order to understand the development of needs for which the building served as a solution for cultural needs. According to Meri and Bacharach, however, most Mosques of the medieval period were designed after the creation of house that was build for Mohamed in Medina, which is located in Saudi Arabia. Literary evidence of the form of this house is more relevant than the archaeological as it is described as having a “large walled courtyard with entrances on three sides and two covered porticos, the larger of which functions as a sanctuary for the faithful where they may find shelter from the sun during prayer”.3 The original orientation of the qibla wall, the wall of the larger portico, was originally facing towards Jerusalem, and then later towards Mecca, thus providing for the importance of orientation when building a Mosque. The small portico was used as a place of shelter for those who were poor, thus setting up the division of classes within the Mosque cultural usage. The three basic elements developed from this original structure were the courtyard for the gathering of the followers of Islam, the sanctuary for prayer, and the qibla wall.4 Form Hillenbrand lists three distinct areas in which form can be discussed. The first is in hierarchy, the second is in symbolism, and the third is in decoration. All three of these concepts are highly important in discussing the nature of Islamic Mosques. Hierarchy can be readily understood in looking at these buildings through, as an example, the construction of the dome. A tripartite succession of first a square chamber at the bottom, then a medial area that serves as a transition, which is crowned by a magnificent zone can be viewed as each area in turn is of more importance, creating that sense of hierarchy. More important, even, than this element of succession is that of the axial emphasis which provides a format in which the functions of the building take place.5 Ornamentation consists of a tradition of redundancies of patterns, often geometric or floral in motif. There is an absence of human or animal representations, where instead the imagery while still organic, is also somewhat abstracted by the running repetitions. The symbolism of much of the work has been lost to antiquity, the meanings either never been anything more than decoration, or having not caught on as fashionable interpretations of the symbols that are used. Individual motifs can have regional, social or time specific significance, but do not seem to be carried to any great degree throughout the Islamic culture.6 There are a great number of other important features within the construction of a Mosque that are incorporated variously across architectural elements. The first is the mihrab, which is either a niche or a separate room at the centre of the quibla wall. This acts as a point of orientation for identifying the direction of Mecca, and while a redundancy to the quibla wall, it is often a point of focus for elaborate decoration within the Mosque. The minbar is the piece of liturgical furniture from which the Friday noon prayer is delivered. Often a Mosque will have a maqsura, which is a royal enclosure placed near the mihrab to separate a ruler from the general population. From the exterior of the building, one of the more prominent features is the minaret which is the tower from which the call to prayer occurs. One of the most outstanding examples of a surviving minaret can be seen on the Great Mosque of Samarra, a spiralling feature that punctuates the skyline.7 Great Mosque of Samarra The Abbasid period is named so for having been ruled by a dynasty of rulers under the Abbasid name. These rulers are said to have descended from the youngest uncle of Mohammed, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, defining themselves as the true descendents of Mohammed and thus establishing their authority in displacing the Umayyads. The Abbasid rulers were in power for two hundred years, starting in 750 CE, with a slow decline and loss of power occurring after that time. 8 The Great Mosque of Samarra was built in the middle of this period, construction beginning in 848 CE, with the building being finished in 852. 9 To better understand how this Mosque came into being, one must look at the Mosque of Damascus which influenced all great Mosques that came after it. This provided the form of the axial nave with three parallel aisles and a gabled facade. This Mosque, according to Flood, is the most logical point from which to compare the work that was accomplished under the Abbasids as it was the seminal work for the Umayyads, their great architectural achievement. As the Mosque of Samarra became the influential work for the following Mosques, the Mosque of Samarra was influenced by the grand nature and structure of the Mosque of Damascus which is often considered one of the wonders of the world, along with a secondary honour given to the mosaic within the building which consists of 10,000 pieces of marble.10 The city of Samarra was built because of the uprising of Turkish troops within the capital of Baghdad, thus moving the seat of political power up the Tigress. The Abbasid caliph at the time, al Mutawakkil, commissioned the Mosque to be built in the great new city of Samarra. The remaining portions of the Mosque consist of the helicoid minaret and the enclosure walls. Excavations of the Mosque have revealed that the walls were decorated with stucco and glass mosaics that are no longer intact. However, it is known that the Mosque was designed with seventeen aisles, and that the glass fragments found during excavation indicated blue glass walls. Representations of geometric and floral designs in the stucco were highly influential in the designs that are associated with Mosques that were influenced by this Mosque.11 Mosque of Amr and the Mosque Ibn Tulun The Mosque of Amir was originally built in 647, preceding the Mosque of Samarra and the first Mosque in both Egypt and in Africa. Although the build of the Mosque first was resurrected in 647, the building has been transformed to have nothing left of what was originally conceived and built on that location. In 827, the Mosque of Amr was ordered to be doubled in size by Abd Allah b. Tahir.12 At this time, the extensions of the building were represented by the addition of seven aisles which were parallel to the qibla. The aisles were decorated with columns, each one attached through a architrave with a carved, Hellenistic frieze that extended across that architrave. The current southern wall that still exists to this day is part of the extension of that area, the dimensions of the building having been established through the reconstruction done by Governor Abd Allah b. Tahir and highly influenced by the Mosque of Samarra for motif and layout. The one feature that has remained constant is the tomb of Abd Allah who was the son of Amr ibn al-‘As. Amr ibn al-‘As was the conquering general whose tent was erected on that site during conquest. His son built a house in what is now the left-hand west side of the building where women pray. Abd Allah died at home and was buried there, a common Islamic tradition from his time period, and the house and tomb are still a part of the structure of the Mosque.13 The Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun was commissioned by the governor of Egypt by the same name who began construction in 876 CE and finished in 879. Constructed on the site known as Gebel Yashkur, the Mosque is highly influenced by the Samarran Mosque. The general layout of the Mosque consists of a courtyard, around which the covered porticos act as an enclosure, with the largest being that which contains the qibla. The current minaret, however, is constructed in the Mamluk style and was mostly likely built in the 13th century.14 Conclusion One of the many great tragedies of the war in Iraq is that the great spiralling minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra was damaged with by a bomb from insurgents as the US army was using it as a viewing position.15 The great spiralling minaret has a wide base from which a spiral ramp on which the height can be travelled upward, a construction aesthetic that was repeated for the minarets that followed during that period. The Great Mosque, while influenced by the builds of the Umayyads, served as an influence on the Mosques built in Egypt, the types of structures created representing both important factors of secular and religious function through beautifully detailed forms and decorations. These monuments to Islamic history provide great context for the cultural and social elements of Islamic history and the position it holds in the history of the world. 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