Faisal Mosque in Pakistan - Essay Example

LECTURER Faisal Mosque in Pakistan The Faisal Mosque also known as the Shah Faisal Masjid is located in Islamabad, Pakistan and it is among the largest mosques in Pakistan. It was completed in 1986 by architecture Vedat Dalokay whose origins were based in Turkey. The mosque was built as an attribution to the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Its symbolism was based on the face that it was to portray the hopes and aspiration of Pakistani people (Archnet Digital Library, “Faisal Mosque”). According to Serageldin (1990), Muslim or Islamic culture value the symbolic portray of the architectural building. Some of the most important symbolic structures in Muslim architecture include the Minaret, dome, gateway and mihrab. These parts communicate a message to everybody, Muslims or non-Muslims. Vedat Dalokay implemented this symbolic meaning into the Faisal mosque and that is why it has become a landmark. According to Mandour (2012) Islamic culture includes art, design, education, science, religion and sport which has a specific meaning. The design architecture by Vedat Dalokay symbolized and implemented art, beliefs, values and customs in the Pakistani people. The architecture of the mosque was based on a new design that was not related to the usual and traditional mosques that had been previously built. As a tribute to King Faisal, it was to have a unique architecture and that was why Vedat Dalokay was chosen to make it a state of the art construction. Some of its characteristics were that it was looking like a desert tent where its height was approximately 40m and it had girders that supported its concrete walls. The surface was pure white and its interior design was decorated with mosaic designs and a Turkish chandelier that was strategically placed by its architect, Vedat Dalokay. Its space was big to accommodate a total of 10,000 worshippers in the main prayer hall and it had four minarets each measuring approximately 90m and they were slender and sharply pointed. Lastly it was a people’s mosque, by that, it was a contribution to the people of Pakistan by King Faisal and thus it also accommodated the mausoleum of General Zia-ul-Haq, who was the President of Pakistan from 1978 to 1988 (Archnet Digital Library, “Faisal Mosque”). Thesis Architecture is one of the most prestigious arts that can be portrayed in form of a structure. King Faisal mosque is one of the best designed mosques in Pakistan and in the world. This research paper will seek to analyse the architecture o the Faisal mosque, its symbolism, the color of the mosque and its design and some of the quotes from the founding architect Vedat Dalokay. The paper will also seek to discuss the possible symbolism of the mosque and its historical and cultural concept. Analysis of the design Dalokay was a great architect whose designs were based on the 20th century designs. The mosques architecture is modern and unique. The mosque was also constructed with the twist of Turkish design as well as Islamic designs. The modern mosque lacked the traditional dome shapes design as compared to other mosques that are located in the world. The traditional shapes for the olden mosques were related to the historical religious designs that were dated back then into the olden days of the Islamic culture. The mosque’s design also includes a triangular prayer hall that can hold up to 10,000 people and in addition to that it has four minarets that depict the classical shapes of modern architecture. The minarets are also said to have been designed with regard to the Turkish tradition because they are sharp pointed. It has an eight sided shape where it was inspired by the famous desert Beduoins tent and the cubic Kaaba in Mecca and whose architect was Vedat Dalokay; this was according to Rengel (2004). Speaking to students, the architect, Vedat Dalokay later explained his acute and unique architectural design to design school students commenting that: "I tried to capture the spirit, proportion and geometry of Kaaba in a purely abstract manner. Imagine the apex of each of the four minarets as a scaled explosion of four highest corners of Kaaba thus an unseen Kaaba form is bounded by the minarets at the four corners in a proportion of height to base akin to Kaaba. Now, if you join the apex of each minaret to the base of the minaret diagonally opposite to it correspondingly, a four-sided pyramid shall be bound by these lines at the base side within that invisible cube. That lower level pyramid is treated as a solid body while four minarets with their apex complete the imaginary cube of Kaaba” (Masjid Shah Faisal, “History”). Vedat Dalokay designed the mosque in a manner that was technically stylish. The architecture design was designed to look like that of a King as it was a contribution to King Faisal to the Pakistani people. The major design concepts were drawn from Islamic culture and designs as well as modern culture. The internal structure of the sanctuary contains thirteen doors that you can use so as to gain access to the internal arena in the mosque. The wall on the eastern side is the main entrance that contains nine doors that have tinted design where every section of the door in the mosque is eleven feet and six inches high and sixteen feet six inches in width. The reason behind this is that the mosque was designed to accommodate more people in the event that more Muslims would be going to that temple for religious functions. Again it was built in that manner so as to accommodate for future expansion. The sanctuary has enough space on the inside and that is the reason why it was ranked as the biggest and most modern mosque in Pakistan. Another intriguing design matter is the one where the ceiling was built without a supporting pillar. The design of the floor consists of two levels where the first is equal to the one at the verandah while the second level floor has three broad steps downwards and both levels are paved with grey granite. The floor of the mosque is covered by a wall to wall carpet that looks stylish as cannot be compared to the olden rugs that were placed in the traditional mosques. The wall named qiblah was strategically designed so that it would face the eastern direction. This direction is towards the holy Ka‘bah at Mecca. As a result, the Muslims who pray from there do pray while they face that direction as this was one of the intriguing aspects of the design by Vedat Dalokay. This point can also be referred to as the focal point of the mosque being that is the most important place and is considered a sanctuary by the Muslims who pray from there. Vedat Dalokay style of the wall was based on the Islamic culture and design decorations so that it could at least have some sense of history to the past culture of Pakistan. This was done by the fact that Vedat Dalokay designed the wall to have a polychrome tile work where the tiles were shaped into small flat triangles with a slightly smaller relief. In addition to that, Islamic designs are based mostly on mosaic and decorations. With that Vedat Dalokay also incorporated the usage of calligraphy. In Islamic culture, calligraphy is essential in that it encompasses a lot of decorations and art. In addition to that, calligraphy was viewed as a very noble way to represent information in a manner that was beautiful. Apparently, calligraphy in Islam is associated to the Qur’an. Since then calligraphy has extended to different cultures including Turkish, Persian and Urdu and that is the reason why their secular manuscripts were written in Arabic (Calligraphyislamic, “Introduction to Islamic Art”). Vedat Dalokay style of the tile design was made unique in the fact that, at a close range, the tiles look as if they were first yellow in color. The tile maker who was in charge of the placement of the design that had been conceptualized by Vedat Dalokay first set the chrome yellow triangular tiles that formed the outline of the letters and later filled the interior of the script. The chevron-shaped ceramic tiles were placed with different colors of shades such as blue, green and yellow tiles. The tiles were then embedded then decorated with the custom Islamic decorations. Vedat Dalokay style also incorporated a Turkish design chandelier. The chandelier was placed so as to add a twist of Turkish culture into the mosque. Vedat Dalokay picked the most unique chandelier that was made of gold plated aluminum chandelier. The placement was done at the top most apex of the mosque. It was described that it weighed 7.5 tons and used 1000 electric bulbs for its beautiful lighting. The design was placed in a manner that it almost portrayed the feeling of the world or the universe hanging above. This was symbolic because, the smaller chandeliers were strategically placed so as to mean that those were the smaller roads in Pakistan. The bigger part of the chandelier was said to mean that was the earth and the ring around the big chandelier that was holding the smaller chandeliers was described as the light system in the sky (“Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary”). Vedat Dalokay door style was magnificent. This is because the design was of large modern doors. It was described that Vedat Dalokay designed the doors in that manner because he wanted the mosque to feel like paradise. This was also characterized by the chandelier design that almost looked like the earth and the light or solar system where the smaller chandeliers were placed round the ring of the bigger chandelier. The doors were designed to have a push mechanism and this was far away from the traditional door mechanisms that were common with other mosques in Pakistan and the world in general. Keith Critchlow mentions that hexagons represent a pre-Islamic mosaic pattern found for a pavement in the Domus Augustana built and designed by Domitian, on the Palatine in Rome. The doors were designed with push bars where they were arranged in equilateral triangles. Triangles and arrangement of diagonal lines are an integral part of overall design and decoration of the Faisal Mosque. Here on the push bars the two triangles arranged point to point can symbolize a rahl, as mentioned before. If the chevron is rotated 90º, it would resemble an open book. The chevron is repeated on the mihrāb, the back of the minbar and at the corners of marble fountain built on east side of the sanctuary. It appears on the ceiling in abstract form (“Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary”). In addition to that, the mosaic work of the mosques is described into two categories. These include the mural mosaics and pavement mosaics. Mural mosaics are for the decoration of walls, arches, roofs and columns while pavement mosaics are used for floors, tables and for pools. The mosaic technique was also traced back to the Sumerian civilization in the form of stud-mosaic, where cone-shaped studs were of baked clay and they were decorated with black, red and white glazes (“Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary”). The architectural structure analysis was also extended to the gate, that is, the Ishtar Gate. It can be noted that the early Islamic walls were based of cultural designs from different peoples. For example, the city of Babylon was constructed back in the age of 580 B.C. where two parallel walls that had the design of lions were placed in a mosaic technique. Even a look into Greek mosaics the floors were made of pebbles as a mode on in house design. Not only were these walls made like this, most of Greek architecture was regarded to art and design. An example noted up to today are the walls of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia in Greece. Later on there was an adoption of tesserae mosaics. Preparation of the tesserae mosaic was started off with marble, glass or stone which were cut and resized and shaped into designs that were needed in a particular place (“Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary”). The history behind the Faisal mosque designs was based on ancient architecture from Greece and the Romans. This design was called the tesserae mosaics. As a result, this technique is preferred by the Romans, where on the other hand, Christian mosaics were depicted with shiny and reflective glass tesserae. The Byzantinians closely followed the Roman tradition of mosaic work although they were more interested in glass mosaic as compared to pebble or marble. Their art was mostly comprised of semi-precious stones, marble and foils of metals that were close to the shades of gold and silver color. They were decorated by being placed between layers of clear glass. The golden color gave the design a royal look and that is why they were used during that time mostly. Golden backgrounds were dominant characteristic of Byzantine mosaics. The incorporation of Byzantine mosaics can be dated back to the Roman Empire. The Islamic community was intrigued with this art and that is why the art (The Meteropolitan Museum of Art, “Byzantine Art under Islam”). Vedat Dalokay followed the earliest architecture of Islamic buildings. This was because of the nature of art that they used. The Byzantine art was particularly crafted by the Byzantine artisans. The decorations were made mostly of stone and marble and these designs were applied on the pavements of buildings. The history behind this methodology was that the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem in 691 was decorated with the same mosaic work and the craftsmen responsible for the tiles were from Kashan in Persia. Fusafisa was a Muslim architectural decoration that was included the polychrome mosaic work which was largely used for decorating architectural surfaces. Some of the comments of the mosque are that the mosque was built based on a modern architecture and it was not looking like the traditional dome based mosques that exist in Pakistan. Even the critic’s hail the design as it is unique and it has a blend of Turkish and Islamic feel and look. With its acute and beautiful design the mosque was quite expensive to construct and thus some critics thought that it was exaggerated but as a contribute to the late King Faisal, not amount of money could be compared to his legacy and that is why the mosque was put in place so as to give him his final respects for the work that he had done for Pakistan. In addition to that, symbolism in the mosque is very important and this can be portrayed with the colors that have been used signify a particular interest. Each color expresses dominance in harmony and contrast at the same time as asserting a unique independent identity. Together they provide a superimposed language of the holy blessings. It is an example of impression and abstraction of man and his relation with nature and the divine blessings. Thoughts and emotions can be reflected through colors with their own perceived attributes. The theme and concept of this meaningful abstract symbolic landscape is based on the blessings of God. It is explained with the help of rich colors and linear composition of tile. Green is associated with nature, harvesting, planting, vegetation and peace. Yellow represents sunshine, grain, joy and happiness. Chrome orange signifies warm and exciting feelings where this color has a shade of gold that represents royalty and spirituality and blue represents stability, wisdom, intelligence, faith and truth (“Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary”). The conclusion that can be made from this design is that it is a state of the art design that encompasses modern architectural designs that are elegant and better than the usual. As a result, the architecture behind the works did an outstanding job in combining different cultural designs into one design and also he used the concept of modernism to come up with a structure that will forever remain an attribute and a symbol of charity to the people of Pakistan. References Archnet Digital Library. Faisal Mosque. Web. Retrieved from: http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=864 Calligraphyislamic. Introduction to Islamic Art. Web. Retrieved from: http://calligraphyislamic.com/IntroIslamicArt.html Chapter 3: Internal structure of the sanctuary. PDF file. Masjid Shah Faisal. History. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.hadielislam.com/en/indexplain.php?pg=print&id=375 Mandour, M. Alaa. ISLAMIC IDENTITY VERSUS CITY/PLACE BRANDING. Journal of Islamic Architecture (2012). Rengel, Marian. Pakistan: A Primary Source Cultural Guide. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Pp 71. Print. Serageldin, Ismail. Contemporary expressions of Islam in buildings: the religious and the secular. Expressions of Islam in Buildings, 1990. Pp11-47. The Meteropolitan Museum of Art. Byzantine Art under Islam. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bzis/hd_bzis.htm Read More