architecture essay

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Islamic Architecture Day 2

Wednesday is Movie Day: please watch the “City of Mud”

Aerial view, Great Mosque of Cordoba, begun, 785 by Abd al-Rahman I

Ceiling of the Great Mosque: note the Ablaq

Dome over bay in front of the mihrab: added 965 during reign of al-Hakan II

Djenne mosque, Djenne, Mali, (current structure built in 1907)

Map of Mali

Ancient site of Jenne-Jeno

Map of Djenne (contemporary period)

Aerial view of Djenne during the dry season, surrounded by a flood plain

Djenne mosque, Djenne, Mali, (current structure built in 1907) Djinguerber mosque, Timbuktu, Mali, 1327

Tomb of Askia Muhammad, Gao, Mali, 15th century

Postcard of a Djenne house, Edmond Fortier, 1906

Standard potige (house façade)

Ostrich egg placed at the top of a roof pinnacle

Earthen pillars at the entrance to a Tallensi compound, northern

Ghana, 1965

Altars to male and female powers, Dissankoy, Ivory Coast,

mid 20th century

Mansa (king) Kanku Musa, a celebrated 14th-century Malian ruler who converted to Islam and undertook one of the first royal pilgrimmages to Mecca

Great Mosque at Djenne and model of earlier version

Great Mosque, Djenne, Mali, reconstructed in 1907, north face, qibla wall

Plan and Aerial View

Djenne Mosque, roof with ventilation

Northern face, Djenne mosque, Djenne, Mali, c. 1907 Antelope mask, Dogon people, Mali

N’tomo mask, Bamana peoples, MaliNorthern face, Djenne mosque, Djenne, Mali

Interior views

(top) Mason repairing a pinnacle (right) Community masons replastering the

Great Mosque (bottom) mud bricks drying in the sun

Annual re-plastering of the Great

Mosque

Earth As Building Material ‘Like Mother Earth in other cultures, it is the source of well-being, of prosperity, of fertility and the continuity of life. It is the abode of the ancestors and the past, which validate the existence of the present and the anticipation of the future. Thus, all things formed and shaped by the earth carry, inherent in them, an expressive quality and a symbolic message.’ (Labelle Prussin)

Site plan, Taj Mahal

Tomb of devotion or a symbol of absolute power, mirroring God’s beauty?

Entrance Gate, Taj Mahal Architects: Ahmad Lahawari, ‘Abd al- Karim Ma’mur Khan and Makramat Khan, Agra, India, 1631-47

Second Drawing: “If there is a Paradise on earth, It is Here, it is Here, it is Here!”

Taj Mahal

• Calligraphy on entrance gate, calligrapher, Amanat Khan Shirazi

Women’s spaces in Mosques

Traditional domestic

Islamic architecture

Semi-public spaces for

men

Traditional Domestic architecture in Saudi Arabia

“All the women and children’s quarters, including family room and kitchen, are private. The deeper into the house, or the higher up, the more private spaces become.” (Ragette, p. 77)

end

“As the veil itself hides the bearer but hardly restricts her vision, pains are taken to provide for the women’s participation by seeing and hearing through screens.”(Friedrich Ragette p. 76)