scholarly journals Revisiting K.A.C. Creswell’s Theory on the First Mosque in Islam

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Essam S. Ayyad
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Art ◽  
Islamic Architecture ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Modern Sense

Professor Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell (1879–1974), better known as K.A.C. Creswell or simply Creswell, was definitely one of the most prominent and prolific scholars in the field of Islamic art and architecture. His gigantic two-volume <em>Early Muslim Architecture</em>, of which Volume I was first published in Oxford in 1932, remains widely acknowledged as the most important reference for early Islamic architecture so far. Nevertheless, Creswell’s hypothesis on the genesis of the mosque type and his perception of the first mosque in Islam betray a considerable amount of dubiety and suffer a myriad of critical deficiencies. As he maintains, the making of the mosque, as defined in the modern sense, was launched not by the Prophet, as commonly believed, but by Ziyād b. Abīh when he reconstructed the mosque of Baṣra in 45/665. Astonishingly, these views of Creswell were adopted and further enhanced by quite a number of notable specialists over eighty-five years. This article will subject such views to scrutiny with the aim of identifying the first mosque in Islam and the religious as well as historical contexts in which it emerged. This discussion becomes more persistent, however, given the dominant misconceptions about the topic in Western as well as Muslim scholarships.

Archaeology and Acrimony: Gertrude Bell, Ernst Herzfeld and the Study of Pre-Modern Mesopotamia

Iraq ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 143-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Art ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
German Scholar ◽  
Gertrude Bell ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Early Islamic

Letters sent from the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld to Gertrude Bell between 1909 and 1912 provide valuable information about the scholarship of these remarkable characters as they explored issues pertaining to the development of early Islamic art and architecture in Mesopotamia. Through a spirited and often fractious exchange of ideas about a range of artistic and architectural topics that included vaulting techniques, the design of early mosques and palace forms, one can track the impact each had upon the other's scholarship, and the degree to which their respective views shaped one another's conclusions about important Islamic period sites such as Samarra and Ukhaidir.

Early Islamic Art and Architecture

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-192
Author(s):  
C. Ewert
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Art ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Early Islamic

scholarly journals MAKSUR DOME TRADITION IN THE DESIGN OF MALATYA GREAT MOSQUE IN TURKISH ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-172
Author(s):  
Alev Erarslan
Keyword(s):  
Essential Element ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Islamic Architecture ◽  
Central Dome ◽  
Private Space ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Early Islamic

The maksure section was added to Nebev-i Masjid during the era of the Caliph Osman in early Islamic architecture as a private space to ensure the safety and security of the caliphs. The maksure was positioned in the section in front of the mihrab and covered with a dome,  eventually becoming one of the essential elements of Islamic mosque architecture. The “mihrab anterior dome” was at the same time regarded as a symbol of the ruler’s sovereignty and became the fundamental starting point of spatial unity in mosque architecture. One of the most examples of this structure is the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The same plan layout was also applied to the mosques of Cordoba, Mesjid-i Aksa in Jerusalem, and Kayrevan in Tunisia. The anterior mihrab dome was an essential architectural and liturgical element used in the fabric of Anatolian mosque architecture by the Great Seljuqs outside Anatolia, the early-Anatolian Turkish Principalities, and Anatolian Seljuqs within the confines of Anatolia. After going through another stage of development during the late-Principality era of the 14th century, it was transformed into the central dome in Ottoman Turkish architecture, becoming an essential element in the organization of the entire grammar of Turkish shrine architecture. This paper aims to describe the use of this mihrab anterior dome in the design of the Malatya Great Mosque. Evaluated within the scope of this typology, the Malatya Grand Mosque holds a unique place in the history of Turkish art and architecture, whether for its layout, its dome design, or its embellishment technique and repertoire. In this article, the Malatya Great Mosque, one of the “mihrab anterior dome” mosques in Anatolia, will be evaluated from the aspect of its unique dome plan and rich decorative embellishment program.

scholarly journals The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-146
Author(s):  
Daniel Micallef
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
Islamic Art ◽  
Shared Meaning ◽  
Islamic Architecture ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Art And Architecture

The Islamic world underwent profound political and religious changes in theeleventh and twelfth centuries. These changes were paralleled by one of themost significant transformations of Islamic art and architecture. What shared meaning lies at the origins of these two historical developments? How, if atall, were these paralleled transformations part of the same struggle?The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival takes usinto this dialogue. This work consists of seven chapters, including aplethora of beautiful photographs, in which Yasser Tabbaa, a professor at theUniversity of Michigan and a highly regarded Islamic art scholar, argues thatthe transformations in medieval Islamic architecture and ornament duringthis period reflected and embodied the conflict between the ‘Abbasid andFatimid dynasties. It is in the struggle for political authority and religiouslegitimacy that new and competing forms of expression took hold.In discussing the book’s themes and the discourses of which it is a part,Tabbaa refutes the essentialist traditions of some Orientalists, art historians,and even aestheticians that, while having seemingly different intentions, allportray Islamic art as separate or divorced from its history. They ignore orgloss over significant historical developments in the Islamic world, and thereforerepresent Islamic art, in all of its variety, as a homogenous genre, as theterm arabesque implies. Tabbaa highlights the epoch of the Sunni revival byrejecting the essentialist models and focusing on the period’s unique conflictsand changes. He argues that calligraphic, ornamental, and architecturalforms, in addition to being instruments of perceptual mediation, were engenderedwithin specific discourses to give symbolic support to certain claims toauthority and to establish a difference against challenging claims ...

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