Islamic architecture originated from Roman, Byzantine, and Persian influences and spread throughout the Islamic world. It includes mosques, tombs, palaces, and forts and is characterized by courtyards, hypostyle halls, vaulting, muqarnas, and geometric and floral ornamentation. Major architectural features include domes, arches, arabesque patterns, and calligraphy. Early influences included the Dome of the Rock and Great Mosque of Damascus, which incorporated Byzantine elements. Regional variations emerged, with Eastern styles featuring non-radial vaulting and the West utilizing horseshoe arches.

1. ISLAMIC
ARCHITECTURE
Joy Alope and Nina Cabral
DFR1A

2. Islamic Architecture
-Includes a wider range of secular and religious
styles from the foundation of Islam to the present
day
-Owes its origin to similar structures in Roman,
Byzantine and Persian lands (which the Muslims
conquered in the 7th and 8th centuries)
-East - It was influenced by Chinese and Indian
architectures as Islam spread to Southeast Asia

3. Islamic Architecture
-Principal Islamic Architectural types:
-The Mosque
-The Tomb
-The Palace
-The Fort
-Some scholars believe there is no connection
between Islam and architecture

4. Influences
-Familiar Islamic
architectural style emerged
after Muhammad’s time
-Inspired by former
Sassanid and Byzantine
models

5. Influences
Dome of the Rock
-one of the most important buildings in Islamic
architecture
-patterned after the nearby Church of the Holy
Sepulchre
-Byzantine Christian artists were employed to make
its elaborate mosaics against a golden background
-features interior vaulted spaces, circular dome, use
of stylised repeating decorative arabesque patterns

6. Influences
Dome of the Rock

7. Influences-horseshoe arch - popular feature
-Some say the Muslims got this from the
Visigoths in Spain but they might have gotten it
from Syria and Persia (where it was used by the
Byzantines as early as the 5th century)
-Umayyads accentuated the curvature of the
horseshoe after the Moorish invasion of Spain

8. Influences
The Great Mosque of Damascus
-built on the site of basilica of John the Baptist
after the the Islamic invasion of Damascus
-bears a great resemblance to 6th and 7th
century Christian basilicas
-to fit Islamic style of prayer, the structure was
expanded along the transversal axis

9. The Great Mosque of Damascus

10. Influences
-Abbasid architecture in Iraq (shown in the Fortress of Al-
Ukhaidir) demonstrated the ―the despotic and the pleasure-
loving character of the dynasty‖ due to its grand size but
cramped living quarters
-Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia)
-considered the ancestor of all the mosques in the western
Islamic world
-original marble columns and sculptures were of Roman
workmanship brought in from Carthage
-is constituted of a massive square minaret, a large
courtyard surrounded by porticos and a huge hypostyle
prayer hall covered on its axis by two cupolas

11. The Great Mosque of DamascusGreat Mosque of Kairouan

12. Influences
-The Hagia Sophia (Istanbul) also influenced
Islamic architecture
-Ottomans captured city from the Byzantines
-converted the basilica to a mosque (now a
museum)
-incorporated Byzantine architectural elements
into their own work (e.g. domes)

13. Hagia Sophia

14. Influences
-Domes are a major structural
feature of Islamic architecture
-distinctive pointed domes of
Islamic architecture, also
originating with the
Byzantines and Persians
have remained a
distinguishing feature of
mosques into the 21st century

15. Influences
-Distinguishing motifs
-ordered repetition
-radiating structures
-rhythmic and metric patterns
-Fractal geometry = key utility
-Other significant features include columns, piers
and arches, organized and interwoven with
alternating sequences of niches and colonnettes

16. Characteristics
1.Assimilation of earlier traditions
2.Paradise Garden
3.Courtyard (Sehan)
4.Hypostyle hall
5.Vaulting
6.Muqarnas
7.Ornaments

17. Assimilation of earlier traditions
-influenced by two different ancient traditions:
Western
-regions of the newly conquered Byzantine
Empire supplied architects, masons, mosaicists
and other craftsmen to the new Islamic rulers
-artisans - trained in Byzantine architecture and
decorative arts and continued building in
Byzantine style (developed out of Hellenistic
and ancient Roman architecture)

18. Assimilation of earlier traditions
Eastern
-Mesopotamia and Persia kept their independent
architectural traditions which came from Sasanian
architecture and its predecessors

19. Paradise Garden
-Gardens and water played an essential role in
Islamic culture
-often compared to the garden of Paradise
-comparison originates from the Achaemenid Empire
-classical form of the Persian Paradise garden, or the
Charbagh, comprises a rectangular irrigated space
with elevated pathways, which divide the garden into
four sections of equal size

20. Paradise Garden
Afif-Abad Garden, Shiraz

21. Courtyard (sehan)
CHARACTERISTICS:
-is in within almost every mosque in Islamic
architecture.
-are open to the sky and surrounded on all sides by
structures with halls and rooms, and often a shaded
semi-open arcade.
-usually feature a centrally positioned ritual cleansing
pool under an open domed pavilion called a howz.
USE:
•for performing ablutions, and a 'patio' for rest or
gathering.

22. Courtyard (sehan)
The Great Mosque of Kairouan

23. Hypostyle Hall
-Hypostyle - open hall supported by columns
combined with a reception hall set at a right angle to
the main hall
-originates from the Roman-style basilica with an
adjacent courtyard surrounded by colonnades, like
Trajan’s forum in Rome
-hypostyle hall is the main feature of the hypostyle
mosque

24. Hypostyle Hall
Tarikhaneh Mosque, One of the earliest Hypostyle
Mosques

25. Vaulting
-Follows two distinct architectural styles:
-Whilst Umayyad architecture continues Syrian
traditions of the 6th and 7th century
-Eastern Islamic architecture was mainly
influenced by Sasanian styles and forms.

26. Vaulting
-Diaphragm arches with
lintelled ceilings made of
wood or stone beams, or,
alternatively, with barrel
vaults
-mainly used to cover houses
and cisterns

27. Vaulting
ISLAMIC WEST
-The double-arched system
of arcades of the Mosque–
Cathedral of Córdoba is
derived
from Roman aqueducts

28. Vaulting
ISLAMIC WEST
CHARACTERISTICS:
•Columns are connected by horseshoe arches
•Supported by pillars of brickwork
•interconnected by semicircular arches supporting the
flat timberwork ceiling

29. Vaulting - Islamic West
Roman aqueduct of Los Milagros

30. Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

31. Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba
CHARACTERISTICS:
basic architectural design was changed:
•Horseshoe arches were now upper row of arcades
•the vaults above the mihrab wall are constructed as
ribbed vaults.
•the ribs intersect one another off-center, forming an
eight-pointed star in the center which is superseded by
a pendentive dome.

32. Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza

33. Vaulting - Islamic West
Arcades of the Aljafería of Zaragoza
CHARACTERISTICS:
•eight-ribbed dome
•ribbed dome was further developed in the Maghreb

34. Vaulting
ISLAMIC EAST
•The system of squinches in the upper angles of a square
room to form a base to receive
an octagonal or spherical dome, was already known
in Sasanian architecture.
•The spherical triangles of the squinches were split up
into further subdivisions of niches, resulting in an
interplay of supporting structures forming an
ornamental spatial pattern which hides the weight of the
structure.

35. Vaulting
ISLAMIC EAST
CHARACTERISTIC:
•The "non-radial rib vault“
or ribbed vaults with a
superimposed spherical
dome
Non-radial rib vault in the
Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

36. Vaulting
ISLAMIC EAST
Main Characteristics
1. Four intersecting ribs, at times redoubled and
intersected to form an eight-pointed star;
2. the omission of a transition zone between the vault
and the supporting structure;
3. a central dome or roof lantern on top of the ribbed
vault.

37. Vaulting
•a significant feature of many mosques and of
the Taj Mahal in the 17th century
•remained a distinguishing feature of mosques into
the 21st century
Domes
Schematic drawing of a
pendentive dome

38. Vaulting
•Hagia Sophia
-the ribs and shell of the dome unite in a central
medallion at the apex of the dome
-the upper ends of the ribs being integrated into
the shell
-Shell and ribs form one single structural entity
Central domes of the Hagia Sophia

39. Muqarnas
-developed in northeastern
Iran and the Maghreb around
the middle of the 10th
century.
-created by the geometric
subdivision of a vaulting
structure into miniature,
superimposed pointed-arch
substructures, also known as
"honeycomb", or "stalactite"
vaults
Muqarnas in the
Alhambra

40. Muqarnas
-made from different
materials like stone, brick,
wood or stucco,
-Islamic West- used to
adorn outside of a dome,
cupola or similar structure
-Islamic East- more limited
to the interior face of a
vault
Muqarnas in the
necropolis of Shah-i-
Zinda, Samarqand

41. Ornaments
--Uses ornaments that are mathematically complicated,
elaborate geometric and interlace patterns, floral motifs
like the arabesque, and elaborate calligraphic inscriptions
Example: Calligraphic inscriptions on the Dome of the
Rock include quotes from the Quran — miracle of Jesus
and his human nature