Evaluating the Dominant Theories on the Genesis of the Mosque Type

Abstract

The Western interest in studying the artistic patrimony of the Muslim world began as early asthe late-nineteenth century. Since then, huge efforts have been made to document, analyseand conserve the gems of Islamic architecture. Nonetheless, mainly drawing on Arabia’sslender architectural heritage in pre- and early Islamic times, a majority of Western scholarshave tended to credit the mosque type to non-Islamic origins. Although most of thesetheories were put forward about a century ago, they still largely shape the dominant wisdomin Western scholarship. This article tries to look closely into the earliest mosques, particularlythose built in the first/seventh century, with the aim of investigating whether and how thesemosques were influenced by the local pre-Islamic types. To do so, we will consider the earlyArabic sources as well as the findings of the relevant excavation works. It is of interest tonote that all hypotheses on the non-Islamic origins of the mosque were too weak to withstandthe scrutiny of subsequent research. A typical case in the literature is that a group of scholarsadopt a theory which is soon demolished by another group who themselves propose theirown that is disproved by a third group and so on. All these views failed to provide convincinganswers for such central questions as when, where and how a certain architectural type, ortypes, inspired the mosque. The stark simplicity of the earliest mosques, and which derivedfrom the simplicity of the Islamic rituals themselves, does not seem to have required,particularly in the earliest phase, the borrowing of any foreign architectural type. Later, themosque layout, while greatly retaining its distinctive Islamic character, was influenced bysome architectural types in the conquered territories. A noted example is the use of transeptin the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. The presence of such influences is natural and couldwell have been dictated by variant climatic conditions, but should not be taken to attribute themosque type to non-Islamic origins—especially that it was only at a later date when suchinfluences found their way to mosque architecture.

Keywords

• mosque; pre-islamic types; origins; apadāna; roman basilica; church; synagogue; theories