Islamic Architecture

A detailed Summary of Islamic Architecture

Honour and Fleming have sought to distinguish Islamic architecture from Western classicism by suggesting that the Moslem architects' "interest in structural problems would seem to have been primarily intellectual; their appreciation of architecture to be focused on the decorative and the ornamental." Do you agree with the separation between structure and ornament in Islamic architecture that is suggested here? Examine two Islamic buildings V one early, one late V in the formulation of your response.

The surface decoration, the structural elements and the casting of the internals lend to the idea of the Islamic Mosque, (a common example of Islamic architecture) being a complex and sophisticated form of architecture. However, this is not really the case. The Islamic mosque is generally simple in design and architecture. This simplicity in structural design is evident in the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Decoration and structure play an important role that is interrelated throughout the above mentioned structures forming the perception of highly crafted and sophisticated construction. "The Taj Mahal perfectly exemplifies a combination of arches and squinches of different type and sc

The third type of architectural decoration consists of large panels, most often in stucco (for which no meaning or interpretation is yet known). These panels might be called ornamental in the sense that their only apparent purpose was to beautify the buildings in which they were installed. George Michell feels that "decorated surfaces have a physical reality as well as a visual impact, an independence of their own, which gives them an importance at least equal to their architectural forms." From this brief insight into the standard types of Islamic decoration it is not hard to see that decoration is interrelated with the structure of the building. Most of the embellishment is placed upon the structure, to enhance or further accentuate the beauty.

"The role of decoration is central to any analysis of Islamic art: it is one of the unifying factors that, for 13 centuries, have linked buildings and objects from all over the Islamic world." With the spread of Islam outward from the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century, the associated artistic traditions of the newly conquered lands deeply influenced the development of Islamic art and architecture. This can be observed by closely examining the ornamentation and architecture of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, where it is evident that a variety of techniques were borrowed from the arts of these conquered countries. The themes and motifs of the ornamentation can be divided into three major groups. The first type of ornamentation emphasises the present shapes and forms of the architectural unit. The themes used were vegetal bands for vertical or horizontal elements, marble imitations for the lower parts of long walls, chevrons or other types of borders on floors and domes, and even whole trees on the spandrels or undersides of arches. All these motifs tend to be quite traditional, being taken from the rich decorative vocabularies of pre-Islamic Iran.

ale for structural and decorative purposes."

The decoration on the Taj Mahal aims at achieving an overall effect for the viewer, a total impact where the applied decorative themes uniformly line the entire building, and obtrusive contrasts of texture are not present. "A type of decoration whose purpose was first and foremost that of providing buildings and objects with an intricate and complex overlay, covering their structural cores with an oute

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mosque Cordoba, Honour Flemming, Taj Mahal, George Michell, Taj Mahal's, Robert Hillenbrand, Near East, Honour Fleming, Arabian Peninsula, Islamic Mosque, mosque cordoba, islamic architecture, taj mahal, overall effect, structure building, mosque cordoba evident, surface decoration, structural elements, architectural decoration, cordoba evident, decoration structure,

Approximate Word count = 1590
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion