الفنون المعمارية والزخرفية في العهد الأموي ٣_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

Uqba bin Nafi also built the Kairouan Mosque in Tunisia during the reign of Muawiyah.

During the reign of Al-Walid, in addition to the construction of the Damascus Mosque, the construction of the Fustat Mosque was renovated in the year 92/711. The Messenger Mosque in the city was renovated, and the sanctuary in it became composed of five corridors parallel to the Qiblah, intersected by a corridor perpendicular to the mihrab, called the Al-Jazza Al-Qati’. The courtyard was surrounded by corridors and decorated with marble and mosaics. During the reign of Al-Walid, the Kairouan Mosque was rebuilt in the year 76 / 695, and then its square minaret was added to it during the reign of Hisham. Historians believe that Al-Aqsa Mosque was built during the reign of Al-Walid as well. Despite the renewal that occurred in subsequent eras, its Umayyad elements are still a distinct phenomenon.

During the reign of Suleiman bin Abdul Malik Bennabi, the Aleppo Mosque was built similar to the Damascus Mosque, but it burned down and was renewed more than once, so that only its general plan remained of its Umayyad origin. To Suleiman is also attributed the Ramla Mosque in Palestine, whose features still remain to our era.

There is an Umayyad mosque in Busra, a second in Daraa, and a third in Hama, all of which underwent renovation, and only their plans remain of their Umayyad origin. The mosque built by al-Hajjaj in Wasit in Iraq, the mosque built in Qazvin by Muhammad ibn al-Hajjaj al-Thaqafi in the year 710 AD, and the Jaran Mosque are also attributed to the Umayyad era.

Finally, the Mosque of Cordoba (784/169) is considered one of the buildings of the Umayyads, even though its construction occurred after the fall of their state in the East. He is Umayyad to his daughters and to the architectural art to which he belongs.

Palaces:

In addition to the movement of building mosques, which represent the art of religious architecture, there are many that were built by the Umayyad palaces, which represent the civil aspect of the architecture of the Umayyad palaces.

Unlike mosques, we find that palaces have been demolished. This is because palaces belong to people who are gone, and what befalls their owners will befall them. While mosques remain because they belong to all people. Palaces in cities are more likely to disappear and disappear than palaces in the desert, given the desperate need of people in cities for land, which they reconstruct and renovate their buildings from time to time. Therefore, we do not find any traces of the Umayyad palaces in the cities and even in the capital, Damascus. Rather, we do not know about it, most of what we talked about in historical books and novels. Among their palaces in Damascus are Muawiyah’s palace, Al-Khadra (1), Hisham’s palace, Omar bin Abdul Aziz’s house, and Al-Hajjaj bin Abdul Malik’s palace.

What we know about Muawiyah’s palace is that it was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, then the Abbasids demolished it and turned it into a police house and a coin minting house, and its location is next to the Umayyad Mosque at its southern wall. The Umayyads used to enter the mosque through a special door that was later blocked. This palace was called the Green Palace after its dome was green in colour. We know from his descriptions what Ibn Asakir narrated that Muawiyah built his house with bricks. When he finished it, a messenger from the Roman king came to him and looked at it. Muawiyah said: How do you see this structure? He said: The top is for birds, and the bottom is for mice. “He said, ‘So Muawiyah destroyed it and built it with stones.’”

In recent years, excavations have been conducted in a section of the land that was occupied by the palace, but nothing has emerged from it. Something melting.

As for the other Umayyad palaces that were built outside the cities in the Syrian desert, in Jordan and Palestine, their ruins are still standing, providing us with complete information about engineering, planning, architectural art, and the decorative arts represented in relief sculpture, engravings, colored drawings (frescoes), and mosaics.

The princes of the Umayyad tribe were very attached to the desert, longed for it, and were keen to reside there from time to time. This is what prompted them to build their palaces, where they would go out in the spring and fall to breathe the pure air of the desert and get some of the pleasure of hunting and amusement, and through this journey they would reduce the burden of the city and its strict traditions.

The atmosphere of the palaces was expressed by decorative themes and drawings, such as hunting scenes and music. Naturally, the rest of the khans and Umayyad princes did not live this life, especially those who were known for their diligence and perseverance, such as Muawiyah, Marwan, Abd al-Malik, and Omar bin Abd al-Aziz, who spent all their time consolidating the pillars of the state and continued the work of conquests, or tended to austerity and asceticism. Therefore, we see that most of the palaces belong to Al-Walid, Hisham, and Yazid, the sons of Abd al-Malik, who ruled for a long time and were famous for their penchant for construction and reconstruction.

The architecture of the Umayyad palaces is fair in general characteristics, which we summarize as follows:

1 - Plan: The plan of the palace is similar to small forts, with a high wall equipped with towers. They are usually circular or semicircular in plan. In the middle of the palace is a heavenly courtyard surrounded by corridors, followed by independent residential wings. This architecture is inevitably inspired by the ancient Eastern Mesopotamian architecture developed in later Roman and Sassanid efforts.

2 - The material used in construction is often well-carved limestone, and sometimes claystone and brick, with... Plaster coating.

3 - Architectural elements: semicircular or arched arches, lintels above the doors topped by semicircular arches, semi-cylindrical vaults (Mahdi inverted vault), domes, Coranthian columns and capitals, porticoes. . These elements are inspired by classical architecture.

4 - Decorations: It relies on the use of mosaics and frescoes, which are two classic elements, but the decorative themes are interspersed with influences.
Sasanian, especially in the details seen on the inscriptions and statues.

Decorative themes include human and animal images, floral and geometric motifs, and scenes from nature and architecture.

The new thing that appears in Syrian buildings for the first time is the stucco inscriptions and the facades covered with decorations.

Many Umayyad palaces were found in Syria, and they were in different degrees of dilapidation: Al-Hayr Al-Gharbi Palace, Al-Hayr Al-Sharqi Palace, Asis Palace, and Hisham’s Palace in Al-Rusafa, and we will describe them in detail.

As for southern Syria, in Jordan and Palestine, the most important of them is Hisham’s Palace (Khirbet al-Mafjar) near Jericho. Al-Walid Palace in Khirbet Al-Minya near Tiberias, Qusayr Amra east of Amman (65 km away from it), Hammam Al-Sarh to the north of it, Al-Mashta Palace and Palace, located 25 km south of Amman, and Tuba Palace in the south-east of it, 75 km away.

Archaeologists attribute Qusayr Amra to Al-Walid I, while they consider the palaces of Mshatta, Harrana and Tuba to have been built in the late Umayyad era. In Lebanon, near the Syrian border, there are traces of an Umayyad city that was called Ain al-Jar (currently Anjar).

4 - Monuments of Umayyad architecture in Syria:

Only the following structures remain of the important Umayyad buildings in Syria:

Damascus Mosque - Al-Hayr Al-Gharbi Palace and its annexes. - Al-Hayr Al-Sharqi Palace and its annexes - Assis Palace - Rusafa Al-Sham.

In the following pages, we will talk about each of these buildings to the extent that the plan of the book allows, while presenting the most important information and a summary of what scientific investigations have led us to.