ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

Expansion of Islam
Islamic, or Muslim, architecture describes the architectural
heritage that is produced by followers of the faiththe
Muslimsfrom the year 622 CE onwards. This vast and rich
heritage literally spanned the known world and left a distinct
architectural tradition that has contributed to our collective
civilization as human beings in countless ways.

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RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
Before starting to discuss the topic of Islamic architecture
in detail, two essential facts must be understood. The first
fact is that not all Muslims are Arabs, and not all Arabs are
Muslims. Arabs feel privileged that the prophet was chosen
from their own people and that the Muslim holy book,
the Quran (or Koran), is written in Arabic. However, any
person may join the religion regardless of their ethnicity or
previous religious affiliation. The second fact is that Islamic
architecture, while distinct in character, is still a brilliant
architectural synthesis of, and a major contributor to, the
Western or Judeo-Christian architectural tradition.
The word Islam means the total surrender of ones personal
will to the creator, Allah (meaning God in Arabic). Islam
is a monotheistic religion that was started by the prophet
Mohammed Bin Abdullah in Mecca, Arabia in the year 610
CE. Mohammed (or Muhammad) was a pious individual from
a noble Arab tribe. He was visited by the archangel Gabriel
who transmitted to him the words of God (the Quran) and
ordered him to initiate the new order, a new religion that
was to supersede all previous religions. Islam called for the
creation of one nation that worships one god and believes
in its prophets, scripture, and in the eminent coming of the
messiah and judgment day. Such doctrine, while simple,
was revolutionary and caused uproar among the Arab
tribes of central Arabia who were traditionally polytheistic
and nomadic, loyal only to the chief and to the tribe, with no
ambitions other than invading other tribes and ransacking
their property.
Even Mohammeds own tribe, Quraish, felt threatened by
this new religion and social direction and started to torture
the Muslim converts, who began to migrate from the city
of Mecca to the city of Yathrib (Madinat al-Nabi, Madinah,
or modern Medina) in the year 622. This momentous event
marked the start of the Muslim lunar calendar and the birth of
the Muslim nation (Al Ummah) that would eventually control
the area from eastern China to southern Spain.
Islam is a simple religion; understanding this religion will
help in understanding the theory and history of Islamic
architecture. To be a Muslim, one needs to strictly adhere
to the five tenants commonly referred to as the five pillars
or corner blocks (Arkan) of Islam: the Shadatan, or two
declarations that there is no god but one God and that
Mohammed is his messenger; prayer five times a day at

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specific times; fasting during the lunar month of Ramadan;

giving of alms, a portion of ones income, to the poor; and
pilgrimage to the Qaba for those who are physically and
financially able.
Islam, while conceptually simple, is rather complex when
managing the Muslims relationship with God. For example,
it forbids the representation of the human figure in art and
architecture, instead favoring the written word. This orthodox
doctrine was limiting, but it gave birth to one of the worlds
best examples of calligraphy and decorative geometry.
Holistically speaking, the Muslim doctrine generated new
architectural types that did not exist prior to its inception
and managed to successfully synthesize and adapt the
local architectural traditions to its religious and functional
requirements. In other words, Islamic architecture is among
the early critical-regionalist architecture in the world.
The masjid, or mosque in English, is the main architectural
type associated with Islamic architecture. A masjid is a space
for all Muslims to pray, meet, and learn. The name masjid
comes from the Arabic root word, sajada, which means the
act of prostration, or putting ones forehead on the ground
as a sign of loyalty and obedience. A large masjid is called
masjid al-jami, or jami, which means the congregational
masjid, and is usually bigger in size, more elaborate, and
sometimes referred to as the Friday masjid because it hosts
the large crowds for the noon prayer on the Muslims holy
day of the week.

minaret
minbar
Mecca

mihrab

Masjid diagram

ablution fountain

Generally speaking, the masjid is usually and traditionally

rectilinear, or box-shaped, with a relatively high wall
surrounding the complex to separate it from the noise of the
immediate surroundings. A masjids prayer hall must face the
direction of Mecca, Mohammeds birthplace in Saudi Arabia,
and be marked by a single or several high towers, minarets,
or mithana, used to call the people to prayer. A worshipper
enters the complex from the back facing a courtyard, sahn,
and does a ritual cleansing at the ablution fountain in the
middle or to the side. The worshipper will enter the haram,
or worship space, with the qibla wall and the mihrab, or
niche that faces Mecca. A pulpit for speakers, or minbar, is
always situated to the right of the mihrab. Jami might have a
dikka, a raised platform for the Imam, or high priest, to recite
the Quran, and a maqsura, a private prayer section for the
ruler. Some masjid might include other buildings outside the
haram, such as a school or a hospital.

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There are many opinions about the architectural origin

of the masjid, and there is no denying the fact that it was
influenced by Byzantine churches that were in abundance
throughout the area of greater Syria. Some scholars
claim that the Prophet Mohammeds house in Medina (or
Madinah) is the model that set the design diagram for all
masjid. Written accounts describe the prophets house as
a series of rooms attached to an enclosed courtyard with a
zulla, or a shaded space, that provides some relief from the
intense sun. The Great Masjid of Qairawan in Tunisia in 862
was one of the first masjid outside the Arabian Peninsula to
reflect its association with the planning of the house of the
prophet.
Qubat al Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock, is a spectacular
masterpiece of Islamic architecture. It was built in 692
during the Umayyad Caliphate leadership of Abd al-Malik.
Often mistakenly referred to as a masjid or mosque, it is
actually a monument to venerate a specific location on
Mount Moriah in Jerusalem where the prophet Mohammed
ascended to heaven in the Israa wa Miraag event. The
Byzantine influence of marking an important place with a
domed centralized church and the extensive use of colored
mosaics is very apparent. Almost all of the surfaces on the
interior and the exterior are covered with arabesque mosaics
of Arabic calligraphy and floral/geometric motifs. Remember,
idolatrous images of Mohammed or other figures are not
allowed.
The Dome of the Rock in plan is designed as the
superimposition of two squares forming an eight-pointed
star, with a circular gallery to allow for circumambulation.
The exposed rock in the center is highlighted with an
impressive double dome. It was influential in terms of setting
the standard of what is acceptable in the realm of Islamic
architectural decoration. Much of Islamic architecture to this
day uses decoration as a valid surface treatment and uses
geometries of repeated squares and circles to generate
plans and sections.
Islam calls for the act of Ightisal, or bathing. This religious
ritual produced the famous urban baths, hammam, that are
in use to this day. While the ritual started as a religious duty,
it eventually became a social event as it did for the Romans.
Going to the hammam means meeting friends or business
partners and spending a good portion of the day relaxing,
bathing, stretching, and receiving a massage. What is
fascinating is that the hammam catered to both genders and

House of Mohammed

Great Mosque of Qairawan

Courtesy Henri STIERLIN, Geneve with permission

Dome of the Rock

Courtesy Henri STIERLIN, Geneve with permission

Dome of the Rock plan and section

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Haseki Hurem Hammam

Sultan Hane Caravanserai

Courtesy Henri STIERLIN, Geneve with permission

Al-Azhar plan

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are very similar to the Roman baths in terms of planning and

function. They typically included the classical three bathing
rooms of different water and/or ambient temperatures with
spaces between for resting, conversing, and receiving
therapeutic massage. Some hammam are very modest with
a simple single portal leading to a central space, and others,
such as the Haseki Hurem Hammam in Istanbul that was
commissioned by Roxelana, the wife of Sultan Suleiman I
and designed by the great Ottoman architect, Mimar Sinan,
are very elaborate, catering to the elite of the society of the
mid-16th century. The use of the hammam today is not as
popular due to the proliferation of indoor plumbing; however,
hammam are still necessary and used within the Islamic
society.
With the Islamic empire spanning the known world, controlling
the East/West trade routes, and traveling on pilgrimages,
Muslim rulers became concerned with protecting these
routes in the empire and providing convenient and safe rest
areas for the caravans transporting people, animals, and
goods. Desert fortifications were built as military outposts
along these routes, and caravanserai, or travel lodges,
were perfected by the Ottoman Turks and located on
popular trade routes at regular intervals leading to major
cities. These buildings were usually rectangular, multistoried, and surrounded by high and thick masonry walls
for protection. There was almost always a single protected
gate with a central courtyard and a raised mussalla, or small
masjid. Traders stayed on the upper floors, and the animals
were kept in the courtyard. The Sultan Hane Caravanserai
in Kayseri, Turkey, from 1232, is a great example of this
architectural type. Today, many of these caravanserais are
being converted successfully into restaurants and convenient
rest stops, continuing the tradition of Arab hospitality.
Reading and education are emphasized by the Muslim
doctrine. In the beginning, teaching was conducted by
the Imam of the masjid or other learned individuals within
the masjid after the prayer. The teacher would sit at one
of the corners of the haram and the students would face
him, forming a zawiya, or an angle. This practice led to the
establishment of the zawiya, referring to specific schools of
thought within the religion of Islam. As the society evolved,
the need for a dedicated space for the purpose of teaching
the Islamic sciences was developed. The great al-Azhar in
Cairo, the worlds oldest university, built in 970 by Jawhar
al Sikali, the Fatimid general, and named after the prophets
daughter, Fatima al Zahra, started as a madrasa, an Islamic

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learning center to teach Muslim jurisprudence and language.

With constant enlargements and additions, it became the
Muslim worlds premier Islamic university. The building itself
is in a constant state of renovation and expansion and is
located among the narrow and irregular streets of old Cairo
with the main haram marked by six minarets, or mithana.
Architecturally speaking, a madrasa usually has a mussalla
and many rooms with no specific function organized in a
radial pattern around a courtyard. Private quarters for the
teachers were on the upper floors. Many madrasa were
attached to the tomb of an affluent individual whose relatives
financed the building while demanding that the Quran be
recited continuously at the burial room to honor their dead.
The Ottoman Turks are credited with catapulting Islamic
architecture to its high point. When the Sultan Mohammed al
Fateh captured Constantinople in 1453, he transformed the
biggest church in Christendom at the time, Hagia Sophia, or
Ayasofya, into a masjid with the addition of multiple minarets,
a mihrab, and a minbar among other changes. His great
grandson, Suleiman the Magnificent, commissioned Mimar
Sinan, the exceptional 16th century Royal Court Architect,
to design and build the only masjid that would rival Hagia
Sophia, and named it the Suleimaniye.
The Suleimaniye Jami was built atop a hill overlooking the
Bosphorus Channel as a building complex with a madrasa
(seminary), a maristan (hospital), kitchen, caravanserai, and
a royal cemetery within the walls of the majestic structure.
This architectural development was extensive, measuring
approximately 1,000 feet by 1,200 feet. The jami itself has
a single majestic dome supported by multiple semi-domes
and four elegant minarets. Sinan managed to reduce the
size of the dome-supporting piers with the use of flying
buttresses. This freed the drum from being a total solid and
produced a spectacular interior space that is flooded with
natural light. The interior is tastefully covered with Iznik tiles
and exquisite Arabic calligraphy illuminating verses from the
Quran.
What is also notable about the Suleimaniye is the
sophistication associated with the use of MUQARNAS, a
type of niched corbelling, to achieve a smoother transition
between the flat and curved surfaces. The Suleimaniye
rivaled Hagia Sophia and, although its dome was marginally
smaller, it established Sinan as a master architect and
put Ottoman architecture on the map of great world

Courtesy Henri STIERLIN, Geneve with permission

Suleimaniye plan

Courtesy Henri STIERLIN, Geneve with permission

Suleimaniye section

Suleimaniye perspective

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architecture.
CITY PLANNING AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE

Historic City of Baghdad

City planning was undertaken as a new venture by the

Muslims due to the influence of the Muslim doctrine and
the challenges associated with the forming of new ruling
dynasties as well as the conquering and acquisition of
new territories. The city of Baghdad was a new urban
development in 762 during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph,
al-Mansour. With the help of an architect and an astronomer,
the location of this new capital was set on a spot between
the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in present day Iraq with
a masjid and a royal palace at its center. The entire city
was surrounded with a double wall system, a moat, and only
four gates corresponding to the four cardinal points. The city
quickly outgrew its intended perimeter and was ultimately
destroyed by the Mongols in 1258. It was later rebuilt and is
currently the capital city of Iraq.
Many cities were not geometrically planned like Baghdad,
and they have tight, maze-like streets. This arrangement
provides both protection from invasion and the harsh sun.
Except for important structures, most buildings do not call
attention to themselves from the street. This especially
includes domestic architecture, even for a courtyard house
of the wealthy.
As its name suggests, and similar to the Roman domus,
the Arab courtyard house plan has flexible rooms ordered
around a courtyard that provides secure climate control
with gardens. Unlike the axial domus, the circulation of
the courtyard house is not direct, in order to protect the
upper private rooms. The Alhambra in Granada, Spain, is
a masterpiece of Arab domestic architecture. It is ordered
around courtyards, and water is led through every room
and court to create tranquil, cooler microclimates. Stone
construction helps to control the heat, a primary concern for
an architect in this environment.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE

From A Global History of Architecture by Francis D. K. Ching, Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash, by permission from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alhambra Complex Plan

The development of Islamic architecture after the fall of the

Ottomans at the end of World War I and the colonization of
the Muslim world was plagued by a severe identity crisis
and a senseless adherence to Modern Western architecture
models. The discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula and
the abundance of architects have had a devastating effect

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on the architecture of the Muslim world. Architecture and

city planning fell victims to imitation, and the Muslim world
became the proving ground for non-guided architectural
experimentation. During the 1960s and 1970s, oil
money provided the necessary financing for building and
development; however, there was no architectural maturity
and accountability to match. The modern architectural
movement undermined the effect of local climate and
culture, and that era produced some of the worst examples
of Islamic architecture.
Later, the early 1980s saw the introduction of regionalism
and romanticism in the Muslim world. These movements
produced great architecture at odds with each other:
one called for a rational regional approach to designing
architecture, and the other hoped to develop and evolve
historical architectural types. The Grand National Assembly
Masjid in Ankara by the Turkish architect Behruz is a great
example of the rational/regional approach to Postmodern
Islamic architecture. Behruz removed the classical qibla wall
and replaced it with a transparent glass wall overlooking
a private terraced garden. Religious critics attacked this
brilliant architectural concept as being disrespectful since
it shifts from the traditional internal focus on the person
praying to an external focus on water and nature.
The Jordanian architect, Rasem Badran, views architecture
as a romantic typological endeavor. He seeks inspiration
for his architecture by conducting a thorough analysis of
previous architecture. The results of this analysis are then
applied to a proposed architectural program. In other words,
the architectural solution is the result of a hybridization
process. Badrans work in Saudi Arabia produced the great
Jami of Riyadh; a building complex that includes a jami
with a hypostyle hall, in addition to developing the adjacent
public squares, old city gates, old city walls, streets, public
buildings, and retail shops. Rasem Badran has reinforced
the spatial character of the local architecture while adapting
it to the new programmatic and cultural requirements.
These two approaches have similarities to those in Western
Postmodern architecture, but studying Islamic architecture
brings us beyond establishing similarities; the effect that
Islamic architecture has had on world architecture in general
and Western architecture in specific is immeasurable. While
the Western world experienced its Dark Age, parts of the
Eastern and Middle Eastern world flourished and continued
to develop scientifically, culturally, and architecturally. It

www.archnet.org

Grand National Assembly Masjid plan

www.archnet.org

Grand National Assembly Masjid interior

jami with hypostyle hall

www.archnet.org

Jami of Riyadh plan

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is impossible to adequately cover the breadth of Islamic

architecture in this short chapter, but the importance
of religion, culture, and climate in its development is
introduced.

RUSSIA
europe

KAZAKHSTAN

MONGOLIA

Ankara
TURKEY

Beijing

SYRIA
ISRAEL

IRAQ
JORDAN Baghdad Tehran
IRAN

CHINA
AFGHANISTAN

Pacific Ocean

New Delhi
Ganges
INDIA

South China Sea

SOUTHEAST ASIA

africa

Indian Ocean

SRI LANKA

JAPAN

Seoul

PAKISTAN
Indus

Tokyo

Hwang Ho
Yangtze

Khyber Pass

Riyadh
SAUDIA
ARABIA

Pyongyang