جامع دمشق ٢_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

The wall when the mosque was built consisted of one wide opening. The temple had a three-bay door in the middle of its southern wall, the remains of which are still visible from the outside. Its eastern opening was used as a door for the caliphs. The other two openings were blocked, the wide central one and the smaller side opening in which the large mihrab was built.

B) The courtyard and the arcades: The courtyard is rectangular, paved with stone. The tiles were renewed in several eras and their level was increased, then they were recently restored to their original Umayyad level, based on careful studies that we conducted on them. The courtyard is interspersed with three small buildings: In the middle is the bay, and above it was a dome with arches and columns, which was removed a few years ago. On the western side there is the Dome of the Treasury, which is a polygonal building based on eight Kurantic-style columns with beautiful capitals (Photo No. 10). On the eastern side there is another dome on eight columns, more recent: it was called the Dome of Zain al-Abidin, then it was surrounded by columns in the Ottoman era. With a wall, it turned into a room and was called the Dome of Hours. Then it was recently given mercy, and it was restored to its previous state, and its original features appeared

In the middle of the courtyard, there are two stone columns bearing two ancient decorated copper heads that were used to light lamps and light the courtyard.

The courtyard is surrounded by a covered portico supported by pillars and columns, each pillar alternating with two columns. This original situation has changed, and only the western portico remains. The pillars and columns carry arches with slightly pointed semicircular arches, and above each arch there are two small arches carried on two pillars with a column between them. Thus, the corridor consists of two floors, with double arches on the upper floor than those on the lower floor. The northern portico was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1759, so it was rebuilt without columns, and its pillars were covered with various plaster inscriptions.

The level of the floor of the arcades also changed and rose with time, causing their condition to become distorted. We were able to identify the original condition of these arcades as a result of numerous studies and investigations that we conducted, and it appeared that they were paved with stone mosaics. We recommended keeping a piece of it in the western arcade when the Ministry of Endowments re-paved the arcades in recent years (1) .

C) The Sanctuary: The Sanctuary consists of three corridors parallel to the Qiblah, supported by two rows of stone columns, consisting of two floors. The lower floor consists of large semicircular arches, and the second consists of a double number of arches, as is the case in the corridors surrounding the courtyard. The columns of the sanctuary were renewed after the fire that occurred in the sanctuary in 1893, without changing the position of the porticoes or the shape of the columns. The capitals were also carved according to the Corinthian style without change. The three aforementioned porticoes are intersected in the middle by a wider and higher portico, which we call the intersection. This portico is perpendicular to a wall. The qibla is led by the pulpit and the mihrab.

In the middle of this passage is a high dome, approximately 36 meters high, supported on four huge pillars. Above it is an octagonal dome, equipped with windows. This dome is known as the Dome of the Eagle. It was also painted after the last fire and its features were changed, as its windows were renewed according to an architecture that had nothing to do with the original. As for the facade of the sanctuary, it was according to the arrangement that we described in the corridors of the courtyard in terms of alternating pillars and columns carrying its arches, but it was renewed. After the first fire that occurred in the year 1067 AD, there were no columns, and our proof of this is the smallness of the columns that replaced the columns in relation to the original columns, as well as the description that the ancients gave of the mosque before the fire.

As for the facade of the passageway in the middle of the sanctuary, it is still in its original state, and consists of three doors with semicircular arches, the central one being large and the two side ones being smaller. These arches are carried on two supports with two columns between them. The three doors are surmounted by a large arch containing three windows. The facade ends at its top with a triangular front, and the facade of the bridge is flanked by two small prominent towers (Photo No. 12).

The sanctuary is covered with hump-shaped roofs (trusses) made of wood and laminated with lead. It has three roofs parallel to the Qiblah, extending from east to west, interrupted in the middle by the high roof of the passageway. The ceilings were originally lined inside with flat wooden ceilings decorated with decorations, paints, and gold. Al-Istakhri described it by saying: “Its ceiling is made of gilded wood, and the entire floor of the ceiling is made of gold.”

After the last fire, nothing remained of these decorative ceilings or linings.

But the ceilings of the hall were renewed in the style of Persian ceilings commonly used in Levantine houses.

Inside the sanctuary, a small, elegant building stands between the columns of the central portico, east of the mihrab. It is the shrine of the Prophet Yahya, or Saint John the Baptist, as Christians called him. Historical accounts proven by the historian Ibn Asakir supported the news that his grave was found in this place during the construction of the mosque. He says that Al-Walid was ordered to preserve it, and to place other pillars above it to indicate it. Then, in a later era, a wooden shrine decorated with carvings was erected for him. It disappeared with the last fire, and it was rebuilt in marble according to classical architecture, as we see it today.

Windows of the Sanctuary: The sanctuary derives its light from open windows in its two large northern and southern walls. It is similar to the upper arches found in other corridors in terms of shape and scale. There are forty-four windows in the northern wall (two above each large arch) and the same in the southern wall. This is with the exception of the windows of the altar and the eagle dome.

We believe that these windows were equipped with awnings made of plaster stained with colored glass, decorated with openwork floral and geometric shapes, from an early era.

This description is supported by what was mentioned in a verse of poetry by Ibn Munqidh, narrated by the historian Ibn Asakir, in which the windows are likened to a piece of carpet.

If the energies of the glass appear to you to your luck, you would think that it was a genius drawn

The traveler Ibn Jubayr (578/1182) talked about these windows and distinguished between two types of them: glass in the southern wall, and plaster in the northern wall.

He says about the first windows, the shining of their golden colored umbrellas and the contact of the sun’s rays with them, and their reflection in every color in them until the eyes see colored rays from them, and this connects to its entire frontal wall.

He says in describing the second windows overlooking the courtyard: He covered the forbidden plasterwork, all of them in the shape of sunshades, so that the eye would see from their connection the most beautiful and beautiful view (!)

However, these windows were destroyed and their traces were removed due to the fires. After the last fire, six large sunshades were renewed, three above the mihrab and three others facing them in the facade of the altar, in the style of the old windows that we see in the Ottoman buildings of the era (Sulaimaniyah Hospice and Darwish Pasha Mosque). It was manufactured by Najeeb Al-Dahan’s sons.

They are certainly an imitation of the first three windows that were made at the beginning of the tenth century AH, as Al-Muhayti narrates in Khalisat Al-Athar (70/1), by a famous maker called Ibn Al-Jawhari, a contemporary of Sultan Selim the Conqueror, because he was part of the delegation that received him when he entered Damascus.

On this occasion, we point out another type of window, six of which still remain in the northwestern landscape (currently the reception hall). We believe that it is the Umayyad model for all the windows of the mosque. It consists of a marble grille