A Study of the Design of Mosques of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic AAirs in Kuwait
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Kuwait J. Sci. Eng. 29(1) pp.135 - 159, 2002 A study of the design of mosques of the ministry of Awqaf and Islamic aairs in Kuwait OMAR KHATTAB Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering & Petroleum, Kuwait University, Kuwait. e-mail:[email protected] ABSTRACT The mosque is the prominent and perhaps only religious building in Islam. It is a building type which often re¯ects the impact of the manifestation of local architectural traditions, which later on formed the core of Islamic architecture. Indeed the mosque is sometimes considered the prime symbol of a country's religious stance, or national identity. In an attempt to assert its national identity, the State of Kuwait has constructed numerous mosques over the past few decades. Through various ministerial agencies, funds were raised for mosque-building schemes. This paper attempts to provide a visual and architectural survey of the mosques built by the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Aairs [MAIA] in Kuwait. It investigates the similarities and dierences in the design patterns, and searches for underlying endeavours to create distinctive styles that re¯ect traditional values of Kuwaiti mosque architecture. The primary objective of this paper is to document the design process of MAIA mosques as well as to provide a glimpse of their architectural features. With the intention of searching for underlying similarities and dierences in their design patterns. There are very few documented studies on mosque architecture in general in Kuwait (Al Roumy 1988). But certainly there is no study, whatsoever, on the MAIA mosques. which represent one third of government mosques and around 14% of all existing mosques in Kuwait. This makes this preliminary reconnaissance study, which documents qualitatively all MAIA mosques and which visually analyses their architecture, the ®rst in its ®eld and an initial contribution to the study of this important topic. Keywords: components; design; mosque architecture; visual analysis. INTRODUCTION The appearance of new Muslim nations/states, particularly after the progressive dissolution of the Western colonial empires, has introduced a somewhat dierent source of funding. Since c. 1960 these states, whatever their political ideology, have increasingly engaged in mosque-building projects at all levels and on several scales. These ever more capital-intensive building programmes can be seen as attempts to 136 Omar Khattab create new expressions not only of political power, social control and piety, but also of sovereignty, national identity and modernity (Khan 1994, p. 248). The State of Kuwait is no exception to this prevailing pattern. Even more so, after earning its independence in 1961, Kuwait needed to further assert of its national and Islamic identity in the Arab and Muslim world. Hence, the country embarked on a mosque building scheme starting from the early seventies. Although all the mosques in Kuwait are under the administration of the MAIA, they can be classi®ed, according to construction ®nancing, under two main categories; those mosques directly ®nanced by the MAIA, and other public or private mosques. The ®rst category is subdivided into large gathering principal mosques (Masjed for Friday prayer) and relatively smaller district mosques for everyday congregational prayers (Jama'). The primary objective of this preliminary study is the documentation of the architectural design of the mosques commissioned and built by the MAIA from 1973 to 1990. These mosques represent all the MAIA mosques (Fig. 1). Another objective is to examine, through visual analysis, whether the design process of these mosques has produced architecture that re¯ects some of the Kuwaiti mosque heritage and architectural traditions. During this period 107 mosques were completed featuring 15 design types in addition to 7 mosques which have not followed the set-forward design types, totalling 114 completed mosques (Fig. 2). This ®gure represents 14% of all existing mosques in Kuwait, which shows the signi®cance of MAIA mosques. The reason for the choice of this particular time period is the availability of data on the subject at the Ministry of Public Works' [MPW] archives. Also, Fig. 1. Total number of MAIA mosques completed from 1973 to 1990. (Ref. MAIA in 50 years 1997). A Study of the Design of Mosques Of The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Aairs in Kuwait 137 Fig. 2. Total number of MAIA mosques according to design types. (Ref. MAIA in 50 years 1997). after 1990, the MAIA and the MPW have slowed down, or virtually halted, the construction of new mosques, and concentrated eorts, instead, on ®nishing the commissioned and uncompleted mosque projects, as well as on restoring other mosques damaged or destroyed as a result of aggression during the Gulf War. Mosque types were put forward as a set of basic requirements for variable mosque sizes. They represent the design brief for individual MPW design sta. Each design type states the components that must be found in a particular size mosque, in addition to determining the areas of, and the relationships between these components. Each design type also speci®es the architectural treatments that should be followed and the ®nishing materials that should be used. In short, design types give almost a complete description of the mosque to be designed leaving little room for individual designers' innovations. An Historical Background Over the years, benevolent people of Kuwait have built mosques all around the country, as an act of charity and a means of approaching Allah by encouraging Muslims to pray with in congregation in each vicinity. There benevolent people in their wills. allocated a third of their inheritance as Waqf for mosque construction. They did not only ®nance the construction of mosques, but have also furnished and equipped them with all the essentials and have allotted money to pay for maintenance and running costs. The ®rst mosque to be built in Kuwait was Al-Baher (Al-Ibrahim) mosque, completed at 1696 (MAIA 1997, p.27). Mosque building and maintenance activities continued in the same individual benevolent manner over the years from 1696 up to 1949. MAIA renovated most of the old mosques built around Kuwait during the period from 1949 to 1960. After independence, most mosque construction activities were given to the Design Section [DS] at the MPW. In the newly founded residential 138 Omar Khattab areas, the National Agency for Housing Welfare [NAHW] was given the task of mosque construction since it is responsible for the establishment of these areas. After completion of construction. The MAIA takes over the responsibility of supervision, maintenance and operation of these mosques in terms of the appointment of Imam and Muezzin for each mosque. METHODOLOGY To determine the main design components of MAIA mosques it was necessary to carry out an architectural survey. A sample of the total population of these mosques was selected for the visual architectural survey. Sample selection was based on availability of architectural drawings of MAIA mosques and aimed to cover the most frequently used and more recent MAIA mosque types. After collecting a large number of mosque drawing for the sample, the author classi®ed them and sieved the relevant ones that could be used for the visual analysis. Time and resource limitations available to the author restricted the number of mosques selected. As mentioned earlier the total number of MAIA mosques is 114. This represents 14% of the existing 795 mosques in Kuwait according to 1998 statistics from the Mosques Department [MD] at the MAIA. This comprises all public and private, old and new mosques, including those of the MAIA (Fig. 3). Of that number there are 345 government-funded mosques in Kuwait, one third of which are the MAIA mosques. This puts the MAIA mosques in context in terms of size and magnitude. Governates Fig 3. Distribution of total existing number of mosques in Kuwait by governate. (Ref. MAIA in 50 years 1997). A Study of the Design of Mosques Of The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Aairs in Kuwait 139 Out of the population of MAIA mosques, a sample of 12 mosques was chosen for analysis in this paper. There are 15 dierent design-types, as well as 7 non-type mosques that are developed by the DS sta at the MPW for the MAIA. Due to limitations of available data at the MPW, a sample of 9 of these types are covered in the visual and architectural survey in addition to 3 other non-type mosques that do not follow the design-type system, which are Musallam, Mulla Saleh and Jahra mosques. Table (1) shows the relation between the surveyed sample and the total population of MAIA mosques. Table 1: Relation between sample size and total number of MAIA mosques according to design types. Type 12347899A101111A13152060Non-type Total Number 4 6 11 1 14 11 1 9 7 13 3 16 9 1 1 7 114 Sample 000000011111211 3 12 As stated ealier, each design type prescribes a set of areas and proximity relationships for all the functional components that need to be designed. In the few speci®c cases of MAIA mosques that did not follow the type system [non-type mosques], more freedom was given to DS sta to formulate the design brief according to site conditions, basic requirements, context, and personal innovations. The available architectural drawings of the 12-mosque samples were obtained from the MPW and redrawn by the author who also photographed their external facades. Attention is given in this paper to the documentation and analysis of the design component parts of the mosques surveyed. According to the criteria set by Frishman (1994), the main components of a mosque are the haram (prayer hall), sahn (courtyard), riwaq (colonnade), qibla wall, mihrab (niche), minbar (pulpit), dikka (tribune), kursi (Qur'an holder), maqsura (imam's lodge), maida' (ablution place), minaret, and portal.