Umayyad Architecture
Dome of the Rock mosque, Jerusalem
People didn't build a lot of new buildings during the Umayyad period, mainly because they were busy getting organized after the Islamic conquests, and because the Umayyad dynasty didn't rule very long. One of the first buildings they did build, in the 600s AD, was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, on the site where the Jewish temple had been before the Romans destroyed it. Right away you can see that Islamic mosques are very different from Christian churches. Instead of being made like a Roman basilica, long and narrow, the Dome of the Rock is hexagonal (six-sided). The architect may have been thinking of Roman funeral chapels, which were sometimes polygonal (many-sided) like this, or he may have been thinking of early Christian baptistries, which also were polygonal.
Interior of the Dome of the Rock
Inside, the Dome of the Rock had a series of round arches all around it, surrounding the actual rock, which Muslims believed to be the rock Abraham stood on when God spoke to him. These arches had stripes of dark and light-colored stone, which soon became very popular in other West Asian and European buildings.
Great Mosque in Damascus
Another early Umayyad building was the Great Mosque in the Umayyad capital of Damascus (in modern Syria), which was built about 710 AD. (for the interior, click here).
This was built more like a Christian church, but you'll notice there are no pictures of people on it - only plants and buildings.
Great Mosque at Cordoba (Spain)
Another Umayyad building was the Great Mosque at Cordoba in Spain, begun in 754 AD. The architects took the many columns from older Roman buildings, which is why the columns don't match each other. This was partly because it was more efficient to reuse columns, but also to show how Islam had triumphed over Rome and destroyed their buildings to make new mosques. The striped stone arches, which are also found on the inside of the Dome of the Rock, became a very common choice in Islamic architecture, and within forty years they were copied in Christian France in Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, and then in Italy too, for instance in the cathedrals of Florence and Pisa.
Great Mosque at Kairouan
The Umayyad caliphs built their last major building in the 700s AD, in North Africa (modern Tunisia) - the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Kairouan's mosque has the oldest surviving minaret in the world.
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Abbasid Architecture
Main Islamic architecture page
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