Islam is one of several of the great religions we know today. Following both Judaism and Christianity, the Islamic empire grew rapidly in a short period of time because of both the corruptness in the Christian empire and the ease in which one can practice it; pray and believe in Allah, and complete your hajj sometime in your life if possible. As with many empires, Islam has its own specific building type that reflects how it runs its empire through a mixture of secularism and religion and its belief about the idea of that all is united and at one with Allah. One good representation of Islamic building types is the mosque. Through both its function and use of geometry, mosques express the idea of totality and unity behind the Islamic belief and can be thought of as a representation of the Islamic faith.
Before the spread of the empire, believers of Islam were against the idea of building great buildings like churches that led people to worship idols or gods. Instead, they preferred to pray in non-symbolic places like a cave where people were not distracted and could focus solely on the praying. As time went on however, these people soon realized that without a building where people could go and pray, the potential of having new converts would soon disappear and their group would soon die out. Because of this realization, mosques were eventually built but architects took care to make sure that the mosques didn’t have any religious meaning and that they did not have any idols or symbols which would cause distraction among those who came to pray. Instead of representing God through images, the architects designed the buildings using geometry and art in the architecture and design to create the god-like feel of unity and oneness with Allah.
When looking at the basic layout of the mosques, and the activities that it runs, one can see its lack of religious meaning and mixture of secularism and religion. First the gibla wall which is a wall that faces Mecca. This wall is necessary because in Islam, when one prays, they need to face Mecca. In the middle of this wall is a mihrab, which is a ditch in the wall that usually is “the most decorated feature in the mosque.” Although some may take the mihrab to be an idol of some sort, because people face it while praying, it has no real religious meaning because when the praying is over, it becomes a simple ditch in the wall, i.e. all its meant to do is point people to the right direction when it’s time for them to perform one of their daily prayers.
Along with the mihrab, there is a prayer hall, a minbar, which typically consists of three steps, a pool so that one can cleanse themselves, an important part of the Islamic faith, and a minaret, which was used for the call to prayer. There are no idols in the mosques, just words of the Qu’ran that are imprinted on the walls along with geometric abstract art and repeated patterns, which cover the walls and ceiling.
Another fact that proves that mosques have no religious meaning is that not all of them were built from scratch in fact, several occupied old Christian churches, for example the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, Turkey. If mosques had a religious meaning behind them, replacing a church would be out of the question because the church was already used as a symbol for Christianity so how could Islam occupy the same space and claim that it too represents a symbol of the Islamic empire?
Looking at the activities that go on within the mosque, one can also see how it has no religious meaning and how the mosque displays the way in which Islam runs its empire: through the mixture of secularism and religion. One example is the Great Mosque at Damascus, which, along with the typical prayer hall, gibla, and mihrab, has a courtyard surrounded by a three foot rock and brick wall. The presence of this courtyard enabled the whole community to have a meeting spot, to have a spot to care for the sick and the wounded, to have a place where “the format and orientation of the communal prayers was established,” and to even have a place to hold prisoners. The fact that a combination of various public activities go on in the same building where people perform their prayers at different times of the day shows that the mosques had no religious meaning because when looking at for example a church, a building that does hold religious meaning, there is no way that the church would be a place where the sick and wounded or prisoners go because it is solely a place of God, nothing more.
Another example where we can see mosques being used as non-religious structures as well as represent the idea of secularism and religion is in the mosques of Cairo. These mosques unlike the Great Mosque at Damascus have additional rooms attached to them called mudrasas. Mudrasas are places where people are educated and since these rooms are attached, the educational space and the prayer space to overlap one another creating a mixture of religion and education, something a typical religious space wouldn’t have. Also, when one looks at how these mosques overlap different activities in daily life along with religion and prayer, once again, one can see the connection to the Islamic belief of secularism mixed with religion and how all is unified.
Moving away from the activities that take place in mosques, when one looks at the structure, organization of artwork, and decorations inside of mosques, one can see how mosques represent the Islamic religion by creating the feeling of unity with God instead of presenting it with an idol or symbol. This creating is achieved through geometry. This geometry “establishes the generality and totality of its form” and within the mosques, it “unites all the arts and renders the interior space for concentrated prayer and meditation.”
Looking at the layout of the structure and interior of the mosques, one can see that mosques typically have a dome covered in words from the Qu’ran and repeating intricate abstract patterns. These “rectilinear or radial grids” patterns that “[include] inscriptions and vegetal designs organized according to rules of regular geometry” stay true not having any idol-like objects and remains to be a place where people can just sit and pray without being distracted. The decorations are made of “mosaics, stone, stucco, ceramics, and wood” and their brilliant bright colors radiate outwards creating this feeling of magnificence and awe.
In addition to these beautiful geometric designs, other mosques like those from the North African and Spanish regions evolved further to use a technique called ribbing, a device used for both decorative and structural purposes. Ribbing then led to the apperance of squinches, a combination of triangular like shapes that create a honeycomb-like appearance, a spectacular sight, which simply adds to the existing majestic effect of the designs and dome of the mosque.
When one analyzes how the dome and intricate designs present within the mosques complement one another, on can see how mosques are destined to create the feeling of the divineness of Allah and paradise. One way that this divineness of Allah and paradise is created is through the basic structure of the building. The first thing to take note of is the effect a dome has one a building.
When a dome is included in the structure of the building, it creates a center point for the structure. It engulfs those who stand under it and this overwhelming feeling can immediately be connected to the power of God. Another thing about domes is that when any sound is made in the building, whether loud or soft, they travel towards the center of the dome. Because of this, when people enter the mosques and whisper to one another, the sounds of their voices travel up towards the center of the dome, bringing both the building and all that the dome holds to life, words from the Qu’ran, and the geometric patterns placed all throughout the mosque. This effect of the building coming to life represents a single being in which anyone who enters becomes a part of and is a representation of the belief that everything is at one with Allah.
Along with the dome, the geometric designs alone also create the feeling of unity and oneness with God. When one thinks about the world itself and what it is made up of, they can see that there are many geometric shapes such as the “cells of our bodies [and] plant-forms.” Looking at the decorations inside of the mosques one can see that they consist of repeating shapes such as circles and triangles. Knowing that our world consists of different geometric shapes one can see that the designs within the mosque represent the world in its basic form of cells and plant shapes and how they are woven and held into one united pattern by the top of the dome where Allah rests.
This feeling of unity and intricacy is shared by many people, two in particular, one, a traveler by the name of Brian Wingate who visited Islamic buildings, and an unknown writer commenting on “Islamic art and spirituality” both make similar claims about the designs in the interiors of mosques. Wingate stated, “the designs are so intricate and geometric that they seem to turn endlessly upon themselves, inviting your own mind to do the same,” whereas the unknown writer said that “by their very nature, [repeating] patterns exhibit multiplicity as expressions of unity, which is an attribute to God.” In other words, these geometric designs recreate the world as we know it, connecting everything together, and inviting us to connect with them become part of the Islamic faith.
When one looks at how Islamic mosques are successfully capable of creating the power of God and unity throughout the world, one can see the control that buildings have over people’s emotions. Thinking back to the earlier part of the semester when we learned that building is a selfish act that is done to make a statement, when one looks at examples like the Great Mosque at Damascus or the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, it seems plausible to question validity of this statement because these buildings create and experience of pleasure and awe in its visitors and help its visitors understand the inexplicable nature of God and heaven. In other words, these buildings were not created for the mere selfish act of making a statement, but were created for others from all over to experience and enjoy.
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