The Visual Language of Symbolic Form: 18 A Preliminary Study of Mosque Architecture Nader Ardalan As a practicing architect in the Islamic methodology has been employed. First, by ing a bridge to the historical traditions of world, my views reflect the concerns of analyzing the origins of mosques and Islamic architecture that unfortunately one who has practically and philosophi­ studying the transformation of ancient have fallen into a state of obscurity. cally encountered the issues of traditional pre-Islamic building types into mosques, it Without concentrating on issues beyond architecture and its potential integration is possible to discern a distinct set of the present scope of this study, we will within the contemporary context. generic "Islamic" forms and typologies of address briefly the vast subject of the My fifteen years of experience in this field spatial organization. Second, a compara­ meanings and intentions of this language. have taught that Islamic art and archi­ tive survey of the major mosques of the Our work supports the position that art in tecture traditionally place the highest Muslim world makes it possible to cata­ Islam is rooted in the principle of Divine value on the achievement of beauty. This logue the relative occurrence of these Remembrance and that the value of true is a natural outgrowth of the Koran, the generic forms and typologies over the last creativity lies in the ability of that art to fountainhead of the Islamic perspective, fourteen hundred years. The results of this resonate a profound accord between man, which emphasizes goodness, truth and preliminary study, while still in the process nature and the Absolute. knowledge while placing the primary of completion, indicate the existence of a concern upon alJsan al-'amala (Beautiful definite visual language possessing both Deeds). As another example of this a vocabulary and a grammar. The vo­ emphasis, the ninety-nine Holy Attributes cabulary basically deals with the aesthetic Transformations as Beginnings of God are referred to as asma' al-lJusna concepts and models of the parts of the (Beautiful Names). Therefore, it is under­ mosque. It concerns such issues as con­ The study of the transformations of pre­ standable that in Islam the fundamental stituent forms, surface pattern, colour Islamic monuments is an important first mandate of architecture, apart from ful­ selection and modes of material usage. step in the definition of what constitutes a filling necessary functional requirements, The grammar, on the other hand, relates visual vocabulary relevant to Islam. For should be to manifest a purposeful sense to various systems of organizing these example, lessons can be gained by ob­ of beauty. Meaningful beauty in Islamic parts into a coherent whole within the serving those parts of pagan, Christian, architecture requires both a quantitative framework of Islamic concepts of place­ Zoroastrian and Hindu buildings which dimension of concern, achieved mainly making. were maintained intact and those which through a process of pragmatic environ­ Some qualifying remarks are, however, were modified or entirely removed to mental adaptation, and a qualitative necessary. First, while there seems to be a make them Islamic spaces. A similar dimension, expressed principally through distinct visual language that is uniquely lesson can be gained from the study of Islamic aesthetics. Islamic, there exists a multiplicity of what has been added. Thus, through a This paper concentrates upon a few major dialects related to various ecological and systematic study of inclusions and exclu­ themes of the aesthetics of Islamic cultural regions of the Muslim people. sions, we can trace the birth of Islamic architecture and is intended as a com­ Second, some parts of the vocabulary and architecture. plement to the more quantitative con­ grammar have achieved, through accretion In reviewing a number of notable trans­ siderations expressed by others in the and evolution, highly charged symbolic formations as representative samples of seminar. In particular, it offers a meanings upon which there may still be the different ecological/cultural regions of preliminary survey of the visual language general societal agreement, while other the Islamic world, primary emphasis will of symbolic forms found in the archi­ parts of the language are very regionally be placed upon the Masjid al-Haram at tecture of the mosque. The mosque has bound. An example of this is the dome, Mecca and the Hagia Sophia. A more been selected for study because it occurs which receives a high emphasis in the zone brief review of mosques at Damascus, in varying shapes and sizes as a funda­ of Persian culture but is rather unde­ Cordoba, Delhi and Fars, Iran, will show mental part of city planning in all Muslim veloped in the African, Saudi Arabian and both the multiplicity and the unity of the cultures from Spain to China, and because Indonesian cultural zones. Third, the earliest beginnings of mosque architecture. it possesses the most charged set of visual visual language to be presented is only a symbols. An important reminder of the "kit of tools" related to a mode of pivotal role of the mosque in Islamic architectural expression. Just as a diction­ thought is the saying of the Prophet ary and a handbook of style do not by inscribed upon the gateway of the Qu!b themselves guarantee a masterpiece of Mecca Minlir: "He who builds a mosque for God, literature, the different levels of aesthetic God will build for him a similar one in beauty depend upon the creative excel­ In terms of sacred geography, Mecca is Paradise. " lence of the user. Nevertheless, docu­ considered by the Koran to be the To achieve an understanding of the visual menting the parts and structural systems of "mother of all cities" and, in a meta­ language of mosque design, a two-part this visual language is necessary for build- phorical sense, the "naval of the earth." 19 The Visual Language of Symbolic Form: A Preliminary Study of Mosque Architecture The bait al-'atiq, the ancient house installed (al-lJajar al-aswad) to mark the The walls of the Ka'ba have been en­ located in Mecca, is our primary source of beginning of the circumambulation. From shrouded since pre-Islamic times, and this knowledge of this most sacred Islamic its primary shape, the form came to be tradition has continued to the present. The place. known as the Ka'ba: "the Cube." cloth has varied from a black and white striped pattern to all white, all red, red Mythology relates that Adam first built Some twenty-six hundred years later, by the great cube of the Ka'ba, while the covered in black, and to the black brocade the time of the Prophet Mui).ammad, the that now adorns the Ka'ba. Koran records that Abraham was divinely form had evolved into a flat roofed cube ordered to construct this archetypal house constructed of alternating courses of stone The metamorphosis of the Ka'ba attests to of worship. It is instructive to remember and teak wood. The interior walls con­ its essential constancy, for on the whole, here the Koranic admonition addressed to tained pictures of Abraham, Mary and the very little has been added or taken away Abraham: "Behold, we gave the site to Child amidst angels as well as trees and from this ancient house over the last four Abraham, of the [Sacred] House, [saying]: vegetal motifs. In the ensuing centuries thousand years. Perhaps the only singular 'Associate not anything with me.'" (Sura the cube-like edifice was reconstructed monumental act of exclusion was per­ XXII,26) several times, assuming different sizes, formed by the Prophet in eliminating from This affirmative act of providing "some­ proportions, number of doors and varying the outer perimeter the pagan idols which thing" (the Ka'ba), followed by a negating interior structures and decorations. The had surrounded the Ka'ba. directive indicating "nothingness," is an present Ka'ba dates nearly four hundred Circumambulation of the Ka'ba has been apparently paradoxical yet telling sign of years to the Ottoman period, but it rests an associated act of this sacred place since the basic character of Islamic aesthetics. upon the foundation stones of Abraham's its inception. However, the growing As a fundamental architectural criteria of first construction. number of annual pilgrims, together with mosque design, it is similar to the Islamic testament of the shahada: la ilaha ilia lIah (There is no god, but Allah). The shahtida states a profound basic concept of a dynamic God, a simultaneously denying yet affirming perception of "Ultimate Reality." Through the process of simili­ tude, much used in Islamic logic, an extension of the shahada concept regarding all manifestations of God may be possible. Taken in this light, the Koranic admonition to Abraham regarding the Ka'ba assumes additional meaning and helps to establish the basic principle of transcendence observable in great Islamic art and architecture. In addition to the philosophic implications of the Koranic references to the Ka'ba, the historical transformations leading to the present Masjid al-Haram are instructive in our search for the basic vocabulary of Islamic forms. In this study it is valuable to distinguish the morphology of the Ka'ba proper from peripheral place changes. Fortunately, both aspects have been meticulously recorded in history. Legend has it that the Ka'ba constructed Istanbul, Turkey Hagia Sophia, dome by Abraham and Isma'il was a roofless Photo: V. Prentice square about the height of a man with its comers set to the cardinal directions. In the eastern comer the Black Stone was The Visual Language of Symbolic Form: A Preliminary Study of Mosque Architecture 20 the growth in stature of the religion, has mosque. Of course, twentieth-century Damascus, Cordoba, Delhi created the need periodically to expand Turkish culture has relegated the Hagia and elaborate the surroundings of the Sophia to museum status, but our concern The mosque of Damascus offers an Ka'ba.