| The Dome of the Rock | Next | ||||||||||||||
| In Byzantine architecture,
shrines were often round or octagonal and surfaces were often covered with mosaics. These
traditions were carried over into early Islamic art when the caliph 'Abd al-Malik built
the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on the site of Solomon's temple*.
It has been referred to as the "First Masterpiece of Islamic Art." (Stierlin,
1996, p. 23)
The Dome of the Rock (c. 687-692 CE) was not built as a mosque, but
rather as a site for pilgrimage. The diagram on the left is from Creswell (1958, p. 19). Detail. *The original mosaics were replaced with tiles in the 16th century. |
|||||||||||||||
 Click here to go to the next page. |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Externally,
it is an octagon. Internally, it has two pathways for circumambulation (that is, for
walking around the center). At the center is a sacred rock. The overall structure is
similar to a number of Christian churches. In Grabar's words, it is "clearly in the
tradition of the great Christian martyria and is closely related to the architecture of
the Christian sanctuaries in or around Jerusalem, one of which commemorated the Ascension
of Christ." Grabar, 1987, p. 48) At the same time, historians have debated the exact
reasons for building an Islamic structure of this type in Jerusalem and on this site.