Tag Archives: Islamic architecture

Arabesque

The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of “surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils” or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Foliate ornament, typically using leaves, derived from stylised half-palmettes, which were combined with spiralling stems”. It usually consists of a single design which can be ’tiled’ or seamlessly repeated as many times as desired. Different peoples throughout the world and in varying degrees of complexity have made use of the arabesque: the Indians, the Chinese, the ancient Mexicans and others used them on their buildings, on the mosaics and even on their canvases. This decoration consists in decorating palaces, domes with geometric or phytomorphic shapes that transmit to the observer a pleasant sensation of serenity and beauty. This type of artistic expressiveness which means using as a base unit the leaf or the flower, deprived of its natural form…

Zenana

Zenana (Persian: زنانه‎, Urdu: زنانہ‬‎, Hindi: ज़नाना), literally meaning “of the women” or “pertaining to women,” contextually refers to the part of a house belonging to a Hindu or Muslim family in South Asia which is reserved for the women of the household. The Zenana are the inner apartments of a house in which the women of the family live. The outer apartments for guests and men are called the Mardana. Conceptually in those that practice purdah it is the South Asian equivalent of the harem. Christian missionaries were able to gain access to the zenanas through the zenana missions; female missionaries who had been trained as doctors and nurses were able to provide these women with health care and also evangelise them in their own homes. History The women’s icon appears from ancient times, and it was transplanted from season to era, with a characteristic example of its existence…

Qa’a room

The Qa’a is a roofed reception room found in the domestic architecture of affluent residences of the Islamic world. It is the most common hall type in the medieval Islamic domestic architecture. The plan of a qa’a may be inspired by the four-iwan, cruciform-shaped plan of religious buildings. They were used to welcome male guests, where they would sit on the raised platform. Composition Qa’as are found in domestic houses of wealthy people, e.g. merchants or local political figures. They can be situated on the ground floors or on the first floors. Entrance to the qa’a is usually situated facing the semi-private courtyard of the house. The qa’a can be described as a combination of a courtyard and iwan. The qa’a consists of a depressed central area (durqa’a) where guests would first enter the qa’a via an opening; and the raised sitting area (tazar) where the guests would take off…

Harem

Harem (Arabic: حريم‎ ḥarīm, “a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family”), also known as zenana in South Asia, properly refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family and are inaccessible to adult males except for close relations. Similar institutions have been common in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations, especially among royal and upper-class families and the term is sometimes used in non-Islamic contexts. The structure of the harem and the extent of monogamy or polygamy has varied depending on the family’s personalities, socio-economic status, and local customs. This private space has been traditionally understood as serving the purposes of maintaining the modesty, privilege, and protection of women. A harem may house a man’s wife—or wives and concubines, as in royal harems of the past—their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic workers, and other unmarried female relatives.…

Zellige

Zellige (Arabic: الزليج‎; also zelige or zellij) is mosaic tilework made from individually chiseled geometric tiles set into a plaster base. This form of Islamic art is one of the main characteristics of Moroccan architecture. It consists of geometrically patterned mosaics, used to ornament walls, ceilings, fountains, floors, pools and tables. History The Moorish art of zellige flourished during the Hispano-Moresque period (Azulejo) of the Maghreb and the area known as Al-Andalus (modern day Spain) between 711-1492. The technique was highly developed during the Nasrid dynasty and Merinid dynasty who gave it more importance around the 14th century and introduced blue, green and yellow colours. Red was added in the 17th century. The old enamels with the natural colours were used until the beginning of the 20th century and the colours had probably not evolved much since the period of Merinids. The cities of Fes and Meknes in Morocco, remain…

Yeseria

Yeseria is a technique of carving plaster used by the Spanish Moors like also by the post-Reconsquista’s Mudéjar architecture. Plaster was often carved into geometric and Islamic-influenced motifs. The Alhambra and the Córdoba Synagogue have many fine examples of yeseria. History It is assumed that plaster was introduced in the Iberian peninsula by Muslims, from the East, probably from Iran. Its use was abundant during Islamic domination, continuing during the period of the taifes kingdom. From here it spread to the Christian territories. These plasterwork works are found in Christian churches, in synagogues in palaces and houses of main people. An important example of civil works is given to the Alcázar de Segovia whose work is documented in terms of authors and dates of execution. His study has provided important data in this regard. The Hall of the Throne or the Soli is signed and dated by Xadel Alcalde. Some…

Socarrat

Socarrat refers to fired clay tiles covered with a white base and generally painted in red and black. These were placed between beams and joists in buildings’ ceilings and eaves. Their origin is typically medieval but subsequent production of these objects is known, mainly in Valencia. There are other words to name objects with similar function such as rajola, maó prim, atovó or cairó. The first register about its existence takes us back to 1604, when D. Feliciano de Figueroa, Bishop of Segorbe, refers to a group of roof and wall tiles written and coloured with koranic transcripts. Traditionally, they’re said to come from Paterna but the presence of these and other similar objects has been documented too in Manises and in some other places in Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia. Socarrat can also refer to the crust that forms on the bottom of the pan when cooking paella. Usage Socarrats…

Qashani

Qashani or Kashani is a Persian decorative arts which had been popular in Iran in the 16th to 18th century, and then moved to Turkey in the time of the Ottomans with the transfer of many Persians artists to Turkey, becoming the basis for decorating the walls of mosques, palaces, shrines and tombs. It is a square-shaped ceramic tile which uses Persian-like floral-depicting 4- or 6-sided glazed tiles, decorated with blue, cyan, green and sometimes red colors. The decoration is surrounded by fine black lines that make it stand out on its white floor. The tile work had often been decorated by the inscription, floral and geometrical patterns. The inscription often provides Qur’anic verses or sentences related to historical events written in Persian script. The plant often consists of natural flowers such as lily, cloves, roses and cypress trees. Geometrical patterns consists of different geometrical shapes and polygons. In Morocco,…

Muqarnas

Muqarnas (Arabic: مقرنص‎; Persian: مقرنس‎) is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture, the “geometric subdivision of a squinch, or cupola, or corbel, into a large number of miniature squinches, producing a sort of cellular structure”, sometimes also called a “honeycomb” vault. It is used for domes, and especially half-domes in entrances, iwans and apses, mostly in traditional Persian architecture. Where some elements project downwards, the style may be called mocárabe; these are reminiscent of stalactites, and are sometimes called “stalactite vaults”. Muqarnas developed around the middle of the 10th century in northeastern Iran and almost simultaneously — but apparently independently — in North Africa. Examples can be found across Morocco and by extension, the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the Abbasid Palace in Baghdad, Iraq, and the mausoleum of Sultan Qaitbay, Cairo, Egypt. Large rectangular roofs in wood with muqarnas-style decoration adorn the 12th century Cappella Palatina in Palermo,…

Mosque lamp

Mosque lamps of glass, enamelled and often with gilding, survive in considerable numbers from the Islamic art of the Middle Ages, especially the 13th and 14th centuries, with Cairo in Egypt and Aleppo and Damascus in Syria the most important centres of production. They are oil lamps, usually with a large round bulbous body rising to a narrower waist, above which the top section is flared. There is usually a foot so they can be placed on a surface, but they were normally used suspended by chains that went through a number of loops on the outside of the body. They were used to light mosques and other buildings in mosque complexes, in large spaces in groups hanging from a circular metal frame. The circular frames continue to be used in many mosques today, but with plain or frosted glass lamps for electric lighting. Manufacture The techniques used are typical…

Mocárabe

Mocárabe, Honeycomb work, or Stalactite work (Arabic al-halimat al-‘uliya, “the overhang”) is an ornamental design used in certain types of Islamic architecture that spread throughout the Islamic world in the 12th century. The design consists of a complex array of vertical prisms resembling stalactites. The terms mocárabe and muqarnas are similar and may be used interchangeably at times, but muqarnas do not necessarily have stalactite formations. The stalactite design may be a symbolic representation of the cave where Mohammed received the Koran.[citation needed] Mocárabe was used on friezes, vaults, windows, arches, and columns. The Nasrid dynasty of Granada used mocárabe extensively and used it around the capitals of its columns thereby making a new order of column. Mocárabe was constructed in a variety of materials including wood and plaster. Under the Nasrid, mocárabe was originally carved into its medium. Later on, moulds were made to cast the designs with clay…

Islamic interlace patterns

Interlacing patterns are patterns of lines and shapes that have traditionally dominated Islamic art. They can be broadly divided into the arabesque, using curving plant-based elements, and the girih, using mostly geometrical forms with straight lines or regular curves. Both of these forms of Islamic art developed from the rich interlacing patterns of the Byzantine Empire and from Coptic art. Overview Eva Baer, in her book Islamic Ornament (1998), describes the art: ….the intricate interlacings common in later medieval Islamic art, are already prefigured in Umayyad architecture revetments: in floor mosaics, window grilles, stone and stucco carvings and wall paintings(Khirbat al-Mafjar, Qusayr’Amra, Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi etc.), and in the decoration of a whole group of early east Iranian, eighth- to tenth-century metal objects. One of the first Western studies of the subject was E. H. Hankin’s “The Drawing of Geometric Patterns in Saracenic Art”, published in Memoirs of the Archaeological…

Arabic calligraphy

Arabic calligraphy is the art and design of writing in various languages that use Arabic letters. Arabic writing is characterized by being connected, which makes it possible to acquire different geometric shapes through the tide, return, rotation, elevation, interlock, interference and installation. The art of calligraphy is associated with Arabic decoration, which is used to decorate mosques and palaces. It is also used in the desalination of manuscripts and books, especially copies of the Holy Quran. There has been an increase in the number of Muslim artists because of the prohibition on the portrayal of humans and animals, especially in relation to the Holy Places and the Koran. There are many opinions on the origin of the origin of the Arabic calligraphy, which are centered around two main sources of derivation: First: Arab historians have adopted it as a derivative of the predicate line, of which four types are known:…

Islamic calligraphy

Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, based upon the alphabet in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. It includes Arabic Calligraphy, Ottoman, and Persian calligraphy. It is known in Arabic as khatt Islami (خط اسلامي), meaning Islamic line, design, or construction. The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur’an; chapters and excerpts from the Qur’an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Deep religious association with the Qur’an, as well as suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous, has led calligraphy to become one of the major forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures. It has also been argued that Islamic calligraphy was motivated less by iconophobia (since, in fact, images were by no means absent in Islamic art) than by the centrality of the notion of writing and written text in Islam. It is noteworthy,…

Girih tiles

Girih tiles are a set of five tiles that were used in the creation of Islamic geometric patterns using strapwork (girih) for decoration of buildings in Islamic architecture. They have been used since about the year 1200 and their arrangements found significant improvement starting with the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan in Iran built in 1453. Five tiles The five shapes of the tiles are: a regular decagon with ten interior angles of 144°; an elongated (irregular convex) hexagon with interior angles of 72°, 144°, 144°, 72°, 144°, 144°; a bow tie (non-convex hexagon) with interior angles of 72°, 72°, 216°, 72°, 72°, 216°; a rhombus with interior angles of 72°, 108°, 72°, 108°; and a regular pentagon with five interior angles of 108°. All sides of these figures have the same length; and all their angles are multiples of 36° (π/5 radians). All of them, except the pentagon, have…

Girih

Girih (Persian: گره‎, “knot”) is a decorative Islamic geometric artform used in architecture and handicraft objects, consisting of angled lines that form an interlaced strapwork pattern. Girih decoration is believed to have been inspired by Syrian Roman knotwork patterns from the 2nd century AD. The earliest girih dates from around 1000 AD, and the artform flourished until the 15th century. Girih patterns can be created in a variety of ways, including the traditional compass and straightedge; the construction of a grid of polygons; and the use of a set of girih tiles with lines drawn on them: the lines form the pattern. Patterns may be elaborated by the use of two levels of design, as at the 1453 Darb-e Imam shrine. Square repeating units of known patterns can be copied as templates, and historic pattern books may have been intended for use in this way. The 15th century Topkapı Scroll…

Banna’i

In Iranian architecture, banna’i (Persian: بنائی‎, “builder’s technique” in Persian) is an architectural decorative art in which glazed tiles are alternated with plain bricks to create geometric patterns over the surface of a wall or to spell out sacred names or pious phrases. This technique originated in Syria and Iraq in the 8th century, and matured in the Seljuq and Timurid era, as it spread to Iran, Anatolia and Central Asia. If the brickwork design is in relief then it is referred to as hazarbaf (Persian: هزارباف‎, compound of hazar “thousand” and baf “weavings”, referring to the woven appearance of the bricks). History The earliest surviving example of decorative brick work with colored bricks is found in the city gate of Raqqa (c. 772). The earliest known example of hazārbāf is found in the Ukhaydir Palace near Baghdad, built around 762. The technique appeared in Iran and central Asia more…

Alfiz

The alfiz (meaning ‘a container) is an architectonic adornment, consisting of a moulding, usually a rectangular panel, which encloses the outward side of an arch. It is an Islamic Arab architectonic ornament, but has appeared in non-Arab Spanish architecture since the 8th century. It is frequent in the Islamic Hispanic art and mozarabic art (usually in connection with the horseshoe arch). As the image illustrates, there are two alfiz variants: Description It is a rectangular box that can consist of a frame, a molding, a reinforcement of the wall or even large decorative panels, which enclose the outer edges of an arch. It is an architectural ornament of Islamic architecture. It has developed particularly in the Umayyad architecture of al-Andalus, where it is often associated with the horseshoe arch, but it is also widely diffused elsewhere in the Muslim world, to adorn various types of arch. It is also found…

Dikka

Dikka (from Arabic: دكة‎ dikka) is a term in Muslim architecture for a tribune raised upon columns from which the Quran is recited and prayers are intoned by the imam of a mosque. On the Dikka, the nobles and rulers took place or the muezzin repeated the prayer texts and prescribed the prescribed movements in common prayer. In Turkish mosques, this platform is called Mahfil . However, the Dikka was disturbed over time, as it limited the view of the mihrab (prayer niche). In most modern mosques, which are equipped with speakers, it therefore has only symbolic character. Source From Wikipedia…

Gonbad

In traditional Persian architecture, a dome is referred to as a gonbad (Persian: گنبد‎). The history of designing gonbads dates back to pre-Islamic Persia. The Parthians in particular were very keen in using such structures in their designs. The Sassanids inherited them and elevated their designs into full maturity. A gonbad is often double layered, and can have many shapes, such as semi-spherical, partial spherical, onion shaped, paraboloid, polygonal conical, and circular conical. In pre-Islamic times, the gonbad was a sign of imperial grandeur for the king. In Islamic times, the tradition continued, and the interiors were made to simulate the celestial dome, reminding the Muslim of Man’s place in the cosmos compared to God and creation. Kümbet Kümbet is the name given to Seljuq mausoleums. Kümbet are an important part of Seljuq architecture. In Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran where the Turks set up states and ruled for centuries, there…

Onion dome

An onion dome (Russian: луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glavá; compare Russian: лук, luk, “onion”) is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point. It is the predominant form for church domes in Russia and Ukraine (mostly on Eastern Orthodox churches) and in Bavaria, Germany (German: Zwiebelturm (literally “onion tower”), plural: Zwiebeltürme, mostly on Catholic churches), but can also be found regularly across Austria, the Czech Republic, northeastern Italy, Eastern Europe, Mughal India, the Middle East and Central Asia. Other types of Eastern Orthodox cupolas include helmet domes (for example, those of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes (Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev), and Baroque bud domes (St. Andrew’s Church in Kiev). History It…

History of dome

A dome is an architectural element that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. The precise definition has been a matter of controversy. There are also a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them. A dome can rest upon a rotunda or drum, and can be supported by columns or piers that transition to the dome through squinches or pendentives. A lantern may cover an oculus and may itself have another dome. History Domes have a long architectural lineage that extends back into prehistory and they have been constructed from mud, snow, stone, wood, brick, concrete, metal, glass, and plastic over the centuries. The symbolism associated with domes includes mortuary, celestial, and governmental traditions that have likewise developed over time. Domes have been found from early Mesopotamia, which may explain the form’s spread. They are found in Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Chinese architecture in the Ancient…

Multifoil arch

A Multifoil arch is a style of arch that was an architectural element in the Moorish architecture of al-Andalus. The multifoil arch design was influenced by Islamic art and architecture. Examples are found in the maqsuras and arcades of the Moorish Umayyad Caliphate’s mosques, which are located in present-day Spain. The term is French, “foil” means “leaf.” A specific number of foils may be indicated by a prefix: e.g. trefoil for three, quatrefoil for four, etc., or simply multifoil for many. Moorish architecture Moorish architecture is the articulated Islamic architecture of North Africa and parts of Spain and Portugal (Al Andalus), where the Andalusians (Moors) were dominant between 711 and 1492. The best surviving examples are La Mezquita in Córdoba and the Alhambra palace in Granada (mainly 1338–1390), as well as the Giralda in Seville (1184). Other notable examples include the ruined palace city of Medina Azahara (936–1010), the church…

Horseshoe arch

The horseshoe arch, also called the Moorish arch and the keyhole arch, is the emblematic arch of Moorish architecture. Horseshoe arches can take rounded, pointed or lobed form. In this type of arc, the diameter of the arc is wider than the space between the pillars that support it. The widest part of the arc is therefore higher than the uprights. In some cases, the joints and the claveaux do not converge towards the center of the circle but towards a point lower down. History The horseshoe arch originated in early Christian art during the Roman Empire. This variant of the semicircular arch appeared in the 5th century in the Lower Roman Empire and was used extensively in Visigothic, Hispano-Moorish and pre – Romanesque architecture. Horseshoe arches are known from pre-Islamic Syria, where the form was used in the fourth century CE in the Baptistery of Mar Ya’qub (St. Jacob)…