Architectural Features and Influences of Umayyad - Arts and Architecture

 Materials :

Umayyad architecture represents the birth of the first Islamic architecture tradition, one that adapted features from the Sassanian and Byzantine empires.

The Umayyad's used stone extensively in their architecture as this material is abundant in great Syri, where most of their surviving buildings are located.

They used stone in their architecture as this material

Brick is also used frequently, often in the combination with stone.

Mosaics are used widely as a surface cover for both floors and walls.

Mosaics are used widely in Umayad's Architecture

Stucco is used as a decorative material and becoming particularly widespread during the later Umayyad period.

Stucco is used as a decorative material 

Wood is used as a construction material for roofs and domes, and also as a decorative material for elements such as doors and panels.

Wood is used as a construction material

Reused Roman and Byzantine elements, such as column shafts and capitals, are commonly incorporated into Umayyad buildings.

Architectural Features :

In general terms, Islamic Architecture can be classified into two categories:

Religious Architecture

Secular Architecture.

Religious Architecture :

Mosques :

The Mosque for obvious reason lies at the very heart of Islamic Architecture. It is a symbol of faith.

The symbolic role was understood by Muslims at a very early stage and played an important part in the creation.

The First Mosque in Islam was the courtyard of the Prophet's house in Madina, with no architectural features.

Early Mosques built by Muslum as their empire was expanding were simple.

The general plan consists of a large courtyard by arched porticoes, with more aisles or arcades on the side facing Mecca / Qibla.

The great mosque of Damsusc followed the same plan of the Prophet PBUH mosque and became the prototype of many mosques built in various parts of the Islamic world.

The minaret, mihrab, and minbar make their first appearance in the religious architecture of the period.

The arch in Umayyad architecture is primarily round in shape, which becomes predominant in later periods.

 

Secular Architecture :

Whereas the functions of the religious buildings of early Islam could not have existed without the new faith, the functions of secular Muslim architecture have a priori no specifically Islamic character.

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Islamic Architecture Influences

 Influences of Islamic Architecture

• Islamic Architecture emerged soon After Muhammad's S.A.W.W. time, which was inspired by the Byzantine and Sassanid.
• One of the most important buildings of Islamic Architecture is The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem build in 691.

  

  The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem built in 691
  
  
  

• It is patterned after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Byzantine  Chritirstin artists were employed to create ita elaborate mosaic against the golden background.
• The extraordinary epigraphic vine frieze was adjusted from the Pre-Islamic Syrian Style.
• The Dome of the Rock featured interior vaulted spaces, a round dome, and the utilization of stylized repeating decorative arabesque patterns.
• Desert palaces in Jordan and Syria served the caliphs as living quarters, meeting rooms and showers, and were decorated to promote an image of royal luxury.
• The horseshoe arch became a well-known component in Islamic structures

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  Horseshoe Arch

  
  
• It said that the adopted it from Syria and Persia where the horseshoe arch has been used by the Byzantines as early as the 5th century.
• After the Moorish intrusion of Spain in 711 AD, the form was taken by the Umayyads who emphasized the curvature of the horseshoe.
• The Great Mosque of Damascus based on the site of the basilica of John the Baptist after the Islamic invasion of Damascus, a still incredible similarity to 6th and 7th-century Christian basilicas.
• Certain modifications were executed, including extending the structure along the transversal axis which is a better fit with the Islamic style of prayer.
• The Abbasid dynasty witnessed the movement of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, and from Bagdad to Samara.
• The shift to Baghdad influenced politics, culture, and art.
• The great mosque of Samarra, once the biggest in the world, was built for the new capital.
• Other major mosques built in the Abbasid architecture in Iraq as exemplified in the Fortress of AL-Ukhaidir.
• The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is viewed as the precursor of the considerable number of mosques in the western Islamic world.
• Its original marble columns and sculptures were of Roman workmanship brought in form Carthage and other elements resemble Roman form.
• It is one of the best-preserved and most significant examples of early great mosques, founded in 670 A.D.
• The Great Mosque of Kairouan is comprised of a massive square Minrate,  a huge courtyard surrounded by porticos, and a large hypostyle prayer hall covered on its axis by two cupolas.
• The great mosque of Samara in Iraq, completed in 474 AD, combined the hypostyle architecture.

  

  Great Mosque of Kairouan
  
  

• The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul also influenced by Islamic Architecture. When Ottomans conquered the city from Byzantine., they converted the Basilica to the Mosque.
• The Hagia Sophia also served the model of many mosques e.g. Shehzad Mosque, The Suleman Mosque, and  The Rustom Pasha mosque.

  

  
  Hagia Sophia
  

   
• Domes are the major structure of Islamic Arts and Architecture.
• The dome first appears in 691 in Islamic Architecture.
• Motifs of Islamic Architecture have always been the mathematical themes of repetition, rhythmic, and patterns. 
• other features are included Colounms, piers, arches, and niches.

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How Art forms of Islamic Architecture influences on Western Culture ?

 

It is sometimes assumed in Western culture that mistakes in  Islamic patterns, for example, those on rugs were purposefully presented as a demonstration of humility by a craftsman who accepted no one but Allah can deliver flawlessness., however, this hypothesis is denied.

Significant western collections hold numerous objects of generally varying materials with Islamic geometric patterns. There are 283 such objects, of materials including wallpaper, carved-wood, inlaid wood, ceramic, metal, stucco, glass, woven silk, ivory, and pen or pencil drawings in Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

There are other relevant holds 124 materials having Islamic geometric patterns Including Egyptian minbar, an entire Mihrab from Ishfan in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Newyork.

The German artist M.C. Escher was inspired by the Alhambra's decorative designs to study, and transforming style and influencing the rest of his career. He said: '' The richest source of inspiration I have ever tapped.''

Social institutes like the mathematical Science Research Institute and the Institute of Advance study organized events on Islamic geometric patterns and related aspects of Islamic arts and architecture. The institute named, The Istanbul center of design and the Ensar Foundation, was claimed the first-ever symposium of Islamic Arts and geometric pattern in 2013. Carol Bier, Jay Bonner, Eric Broug, Hacali Necefoglu, and Reza Sarhangi were including in the team, they were experts On Islamic Geometric pattern. The Prince's School of Traditional Arts runs a variety of courses in Islamic Art which includes: Plaster carving, tile making, Arbesquese, geometry, and Calligraphy.

Computer-Aided and computer graphics manufacturing making it possible to design and produce Islamic geometric patterns effectively and financially. How Islamic star patterns can be generated algorithmically explained and illustrated by Craig S. Kaplan in his Ph.D. thesis.

In 2007, Two physicists, Peter J. Lu and Paul Steinhardt claimed that

Girih design, the design used on the darb e Imam shrine in Ishfan, was able to create quasi-periodic tilings resembling those designs which were discovered by Roger Penrose in 1973.

Ahmad Rafsanjani described the use of Islamic geometric patterns from tomb towers in Iran to create auxetic materials from perforated rubber sheets in 2016.  

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