The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus: Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam 1909942456, 9781909942455
‘For the first time we have a book which does full justice to the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. Alain George has used text
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Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:46:16.
Gingko Library Art Series
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Editor: Melanie Gibson
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:46:16.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:46:16.
ALAIN GEORGE
The
UMAYYAD MOSQUE of DAMASCUS
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:46:16.
Contents
2. Tangled Memories: The Temple, Church, and First Mosque The Cella of the Roman Temple
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Day in the Life of Damascus The Story So Far The Present Book
1. Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts: The Multiple Histories of the Umayyad Mosque
6
11
12 15
19
The Mosque and its Historiography until the Ottoman Era
20
The Syrian Historiographical Tradition
22
Early Travel Relations and Geographical Works
23
The Mosque in the Abbasid and Fatimid Periods
24
The Fire of 1069 and the Later History of the Mosque
25
The Mosque since the Nineteenth Century
29 29
The Earliest Photographs of the Mosque
30
Restorations of the 1920s to 1960s
36
Photographs of the 1920s to 1940s
38
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The Fire of 1893
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:47:53.
43
44
Layout of the Site
44
The 1962–63 Soundings
46
Identification of the Remains
48
Footprint of the Cella
51
Cella Elevation and Proportions
52
The Church within the Temenos and the First Mosque
53
Textual Narratives of Conversion
54
An Elusive Church
56
Location of the Church
57
The First Mosque and the Gate of the Khaḍrāʾ
59
The Church and the Cella
63
3. The Politics of Buildings: The Destruction of the Church and Construction of the Mosque
71
The Three Poems, the Foundation Inscription, and the Destruction of the Church
72
The Destruction as Divine Wisdom
72
The Church, Justinian II, and Maslama’s Anatolian Campaigns
74
The (Lost) Foundation Inscription and the Date of the Mosque
76
The Aphrodito Papyri and the Logistics of Construction
77
Supply Networks for Labour and Materials
77
Construction Supervisors
79
Beyond Aphrodito
81
Justinian II and Umayyad Building Projects
82
Gethsemane and the Columns of Mecca
82
Justinian II and the Mosque of Damascus
85
The Byzantine Mosaicists at Medina
87
The Banū Manṣūr Between the Umayyads and Heraclians
88
4. Silenced and Imagined Pasts: The Church in the Fabric of the Umayyad Mosque
6. ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’: The Mosque and Umayyad Aesthetics
185
The Novelty of al-Wal d’s Building
186
95
Embodying Power
186
The Transept
95
Work Procedures
186
The Corner Towers
97
The Mosque Doors
100
Inventing the Relics of the Baptist
102
Absence of the Relics in Christian Sources
102
Muslim Traditions About the Relics
103
The Origins of the Bayt al-M l
Scattered Echoes of the Church in the Mosque
Reshaping Building Types
187
Recasting Mosaic Forms
190
Poetic Composition and the Mosque
199
Mosaics, Empire and Polysemy
204
Paradise and Earthly Dominion
204
The Horizon of Judgement
206
109
The Art of Polysemy
207
The Bayt al-Māl in Arabic Sources
109
The Bayt al-Māl and the Typology of the Baptistery
112
The Craft of Perception
209
Al-Nābigha and the Intensity of Sacred Space
209
The Mosque as a Foil for the Qurʾan
210
5. A Vast Expanse of Splendour: Towards a Reconstruction of the Umayyad Mosque
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93
117
Appendix 1
Structure
118
Three Umayyad Poems about the Mosque of Damascus and the Destruction of the Church
Courtyard Arcades
118
Arabic Text and Translation by Nadia Jamil
Prayer Hall Arcades
125
The Transept
130
The Dome
135
Prayer Hall Façade
137
Windows and Door Hangings
139
Pavement and Floor Levels
142
The Bayt al-Māl Chamber
142
Merlons
147
Jar r Al-Farazdaq Al-N bigha al-Shayb n
214 218 222
Appendix 2
Roofing
150
Columns and Colonnettes
152
The Description of the Great Mosque of Damascus by al-Muqaddas in the Tenth century Arabic Text and Translation by Alain George
Gates and Vestibules
153
The North Minaret
157
Water Reservoirs and Ablution Facilities
158
Ornament
159
Marble Dado
159
Mosaics
169
The Vine Frieze with Precious Stones
171
The Central Mihrab and Minbar
174
The Mosaic Inscription
175
Ceilings
178
Lamps, Lighting, and Incense
180
Paint on Capitals and Columns
181
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:47:53.
Notes Bibliography Index
226
228 246 257
Acknowledgements
A book like this is never the solitary work of its author: it also
translations of these texts, I asked Nadia Jamil whether she
emerges from multiple interactions with others, in the present
would consider letting me feature hers instead, as they
case over a period of a decade. The project began with funding
were sure to be more elegant and accurate than my own.
from the Leverhulme Trust, which allowed me to step back
She responded with characteristic generosity and enthusiasm:
from day-to-day work at the University of Edinburgh between
the result can be seen in Appendix 1.
2011 and 2013. My heartfelt thanks to the Trust for this essential backing. Over the years, I also received support towards my
major undertaking, just as one would expect. When it came to
research expenses from the I.M. Pei Fund at the University
scans from libraries, I was fortunate to be helped by a succession
of Oxford and from Edinburgh College of Art. The Bodleian
of competent and friendly students at Edinburgh, then Oxford:
Library, Edinburgh University Library, and the National Library
in chronological order, Francesco Stermotich-Cappellari,
of Scotland provided the backbone of my documentation. I also
Yagnaseni Datta, Becky Wrightson, Ana Silkatcheva, and Fuchsia
spent many a research period in Beirut, where I was welcomed
Hart. Countless colleagues responded most helpfully to my
at the libraries of the American University of Beirut, the Institut
requests for information or documents: James Allan, Bassam
Français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), and the Bibliothèque Orientale
Al Shiekh, Jean-Claude Bessac, Etienne Blondeau, Daniel Burt,
and Centre Louis Pouzet at the Université Saint Joseph. For two
Paul Dahan, Gabriel Daher, Badr El-Hage, Teresa Fitzherbert,
months in 2013, I worked on the excellent Roman architecture
Nikolaos Gonis, Rafael González Fernández, Li Guo, Oliver
resources at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence during a
Hoover, Mat Immerzeel, Alya Karame, Michel Maqdissi, Deborah
short fellowship on the Art, Space, and Mobility programme led
Mauskopf Deliyannis, Luitgard Mols, Elise Morero, Roberto
by Hannah Baader, Avinoam Shalem, and Gerhard Wolf.
Nardi and Araldo De Luca, Lawrence Nees, Said Nuseibeh,
This book would not be what it is without my friend and
Joseph O’Hara, Bilal Orfali, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Humam
colleague Andrew Marsham. Time and again, typically against
Saad, Elisabetta Scirocco, Loreline Simonis, Jack Tannous,
the background hum of Caffè Lucano in Edinburgh, we
Dimitris Theodossopoulos, Zeynep Yürekli-Görkay, and others
bounced ideas off each other and confronted the perspectives
whom I am bound to unintentionally omit as I write these lines.
of Umayyad art history and history in ways that proved
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Sourcing rare documents and images proved to be another
Librarians and curators at key collections facilitated my
edifying—and enjoyable to boot. I am grateful to him, as well as
access to reproductions of early photographs and Orientalist
to Marcus Milwright and to Mathieu Tillier for their immensely
paintings in their care: Betsy Baldwin and Matt Saba (Aga Khan
helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work. For their help
Documentation Center, MIT Libraries); Hélène Bendejacq and
with the translation and interpretation of languages beyond
Yannick Lintz (Département des Arts de l’Islam, Musée du
my competence (Armenian, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Turkish),
Louvre); Joanne Bloom (Harvard Fine Arts Library); Antoinette
I thank Jean-Sébastien Balzat, Maurizio Campanelli, Timothy
Harri (Fondation Max van Berchem, Geneva); Giles Hudson
Greenwood, Nilay Özlü, Arietta Papaconstantinou, and David
and Elina Johanna Nuutinen (Orientalist Museum, Doha);
Taylor. I also fondly remember conversations I had about the
Lobna Montasser (Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva); and
mosque with Nadia Ali, Sean Anthony, Doris Behrens Abouseif,
Sabine Wölfel (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München).
Finbarr Barry Flood, Mattia Guidetti, Robert Hillenbrand,
I am also grateful to their respective institutions, as well as
Liz James, Jeremy Johns, Hugh Kennedy, Suleiman Mourad,
the Ashmolean Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Christian Sahner, and Cristina Tonghini.
Bodleian Library, British Library, and the Royal Collection,
Three Umayyad panegyrics are among the core documents studied in this book. Long after producing my English
6
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:15.
for granting me preferential publication rights that made the illustration of this book possible.
Farah Dabbous produced a key piece of artwork for the final chapter with her trademark professionalism and attention to detail. Even though I have not had the chance to meet Ross Burns, I owe him a debt of gratitude for making his extensive photographic archive of the mosque available for research and publication through the Manar al-Athar project at the University of Oxford. This repository, which was founded by the late Judith McKenzie, also features images by Michael Greenhalgh, Sean Leatherbury, and many others. It proved to be a crucial resource as it became impossible for me to visit the mosque again in person at an early stage in this work. I thank Bea Leal and Miranda Williams for giving me the fullest access to its contents. Finding the right publisher for this book was not an easy task, but I could hardly have made a better choice than Gingko Library. Melanie Gibson has been an editor the like of which one seldom encounters: fully engaged with the text, able to grasp its complexities with an eye for detail and clarity, efficient in the face of formidable task lists, and unfailingly encouraging. The rest of the team—Barbara Schwepcke, Harry Hall, Edoardo Braschi, and their colleagues—impressed me with their professionalism and enthusiasm. My thanks, also, to Adrian Hunt for his thorough and elegant work on the design. Philippe and Luc Aractingi offered me a warm welcome— a true home from home—when I needed it in the closing stages of this work. I was also fortunate to share many leisurely yet inspiring discussions on its subject with Adham Saouli, in Edinburgh and Doha. The book comes a full two decades into my career. This is Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
a time to look back and express my gratitude for the decisive support I received in those early years from Martine Faideau and Jonathan Randal. It shall be remembered always. My wife Hiba and sons Salim Gabriel and Adam Raphaël were endlessly patient during the long spells of work that the project demanded, offering me sustaining warmth and good spirits each time I returned. In an unexpected turn of events, my mother Mouzayane Nassar and father-in-law Adnan Nasser passed away as the book was making its final push to the printing press. It is dedicated to their memory.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:15.
7
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:15.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:15.
p figure 1 The Great Mosque of Damascus, ground plan. From Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture I.1, fig. 90.
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10
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:15.
Introduction: A Day in the Life of Damascus
30 December 2010
I
t is rainy and cold today. As our car edges past the gentle slopes of the Anti-Lebanon mountains, I discover once again the distant vision of Damascus, this vast urban
sprawl experienced until a generation ago on a more intimate scale, enclosed by orchards. Moments later, walking through the old city, I catch a first glimpse of the Minaret of Jesus, which vanishes as I turn into a winding alley. Street life is quietly running its course: a shop owner tenders change, delivery bicycles ring their bells, and children chat away after school. Reaching the massive Roman walls of the Umayyad Mosque, I pause to gaze at its Greek
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inscription, reaching the courtyard after a few more paces. Suddenly, the confined spaces of surrounding streets give way to the majestic expanse, bounded by arcades and a monumental façade, of a courtyard that frames the limitless grey skies above. The marble floor has been given added lustre by rainwater, making it vividly reflect the architecture. Inside, some people seated on the carpeted floor rest or talk p Arcade leading from the west to the Great Mosque of Damascus. Alain George, 2010.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
while others bow down in prayer. Tourists from Arab countries, Europe, and beyond amble about. An Ethiopian man in traditional dress peers through the metal grille that screens the
11
p figure 2 Title page of J.L. Porter, Five Years in Damascus, vol. 1.
relics of John the Baptist. Repose and a certain awe inspired by
(d. 286/900) wrote a ‘Volume on the Story of the Congregational
harmonious monumentality; the sense of touching something
Mosque in Damascus and its Construction’, which is now lost
very old, and alive: I have felt this way even since my first visit
but was cited by later writers.1 This is exceptionally early for
here, a long time ago, and still do so today. Little do I know that
a culture that has left precious little written output about art
it will be years before I return—years during which the people
and architecture of any period, let alone its first century. Ibn
of Syria will endure the worst of torments in their millions. To
Muʿallā’s work was the inaugural salvo of a historiographic
this day, the monument remains nearly unscathed—a meagre
tradition that would span a millennium. I will soon return to it;
consolation in the face of such human suffering. But it stands
but, in order to situate what follows, let me begin with a brief
as a witness to the long course of history, a poised counterpoint
overview of modern scholarship.
to the tragedies of our times. Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
The book you are holding is an investigation into this history. My core subject is the foundation of the mosque by
The Story So Far
the Umayyad dynasty (661‒750), just as the first century of Islam was drawing to a close. I also venture into the long
The first substantial modern account of the mosque was
pagan and Christian past over which the monument was
published in 1855, a thousand years after Ibn al-Muʿallā,
inscribed; early eighth-century politics in the Muslim
by Josias Leslie Porter (1823–89) as a section of his book Five
empire and beyond; the Umayyad state of the mosque and
Years in Damascus (Figure 2).2 Other Europeans had furtively
later alterations; and early Islamic aesthetics. Some of these
seen it before, bringing back with them hasty descriptions.3
concerns have an old pedigree. When the mosque was still
But Porter, an Irish Presbyterian on a mission to convert local
in its second century, the Damascene historian Ibn al-Muʿallā
Jews, resided in Damascus long enough to get a solid footing in
12
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
local society and thus managed to study it at close quarters. He
scholarship on the Temple of Jupiter, which has given its walls
also offered brief glimpses of its pre-Islamic past, foundation,
and gates to the mosque.7 These publications set the monument
and original state as related by the foremost medieval historian
in its Roman context and furthered the documentation of
of the city, Ibn ʿAsākir (499–571/1105–76), whose work he
relevant inscriptions and textual sources. In 1932, less than eight decades after Porter’s book, the
consulted in manuscript form. In 1890, Guy Le Strange, an Orientalist scholar trained in Paris and later based in Cambridge, translated a much wider
milestone with the publication of K.A.C. Creswell’s two-volume
range of relevant Arabic sources, especially travel accounts,
Early Muslim Architecture (a second, revised edition appeared
thereby creating a small compendium that remains serviceable
in 1969). By then, the Ottoman Empire had been recently
today. In the following years, structural studies and drawings
abolished and the French Mandate over Syria and Lebanon
were published by two architects, Archibald Campbell Dickie
facilitated access to the site for Europeans. With this work,
(1897) and Richard Phené Spiers (1900, based on a visit made in
Creswell, an electrical engineer by training, demonstrated
1866). These efforts shared a link to the Palestine Exploration
his outstanding acumen as an architectural historian. Over
Fund, which published Le Strange’s book, invited Spiers to
some sixty pages of the first volume, he scrutinised, dated, and
lecture on the mosque, mandated Dickie to Damascus—and,
critically assessed every aspect of the mosque against textual
in 1900, published Charles Wilson’s diary of 1865 about the
sources. Creswell notably exposed as untenable the theories of
building. It must have been during these same years that the
Watzinger, Wulzinger, and Dussaud about the prayer hall as a
famous Swiss epigrapher and historian Max Van Berchem
conversion of the church. He also provided a series of detailed
(1863‒1921) compiled his own detailed ‘archaeological notes’
plans and elevations with accomplished draughtsmanship.
4
about the monument, which were only printed posthumously,
This volume of Early Muslim Architecture, on the Umayyads,
in 1937–38. Knowledge about the building thus slowly started
concluded with a study of the mosaics by the art historian
to build up from different perspectives.
Marguerite Van Berchem (1892‒1984), Max’s daughter, in which
The first surveys of Islamic architecture appeared in the
she sought to distinguish Umayyad parts from later restorations
next decade. The one written by Henri Saladin (1907) offered
and, again, collect sources about them. Most of these mosaics
a basic account of the mosque with photographs predating
had been uncovered only four years earlier, in 1928, through
the fire of 1893 by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont. That by G.T.
her efforts combined with those of Victor Eustache, known as
Rivoira devoted a longer passage to the site, with reflections on
de Lorey (1875‒1953), who also published a series of articles
its history before and after the Umayyad period. During the
setting them in the context of Christian wall mosaics.8 The
same years, an important new body of evidence surfaced with
spectacular discovery and its diffusion soon turned the mosaics
Harold Idris Bell’s edition and partial translations of the British
into the main centre of interest for studies on the mosque.
5
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modern historiography of the mosque reached its first major
Museum’s collection of papyri from Aphrodito in Egypt, some
Whereas Creswell had an innate fascination for buildings—
of which pertained directly to the construction of the mosque.
as Robert Hamilton put it, for him, ‘human beings and
They remained largely unexploited until the end of the century,
their affairs were part of the evidence, not vice versa’—his
when Federico Morelli gathered and described the fragments
contemporary Jean Sauvaget (1901–50) had a rare instinct
about Umayyad building projects.6 Between 1921 and 1924, Carl
for history.9 Although he only published brief remarks about
Watzinger and Karl Wulzinger published an extensive study of
the Damascus mosque, his seminal study on the Umayyad
the site through its pre-Islamic and Islamic history—the first of
Mosque of Medina (1947) established a template for the parsing
its kind—and inaugurated, along with René Dussaud in 1922,
of complex Arabic sources to reconstruct an early Islamic
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
introduction • a day in the life of damascus
13
monument. He also put forward the provocative and somewhat
important strand in scholarship. The Great Mosque of Damascus:
overstated argument that such key architectural features as
Some of its Developments until the Year 730 A.H. was written in
the mihrab and minbar were invented for courtly ceremonial
Arabic by the Syrian scholar Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Munajjid (1920–
and audiences, which he saw as prime functions of the early
2010).15 Al-Munajjid was born in the vicinity of the Umayyad
mosque.10 At around the same time, in contrast, Ugo Monneret
Mosque to a father, ʿAbd Allāh, who had trained as a sheikh
de Villard (1881‒1954) argued that the concave mihrab and
under several Damascene scholars. After legal studies at
architectural emphasis on the transept at Damascus both
Damascus and the Sorbonne, from 1955 to 1961 he was director
reflected ‘thinking of a theological order’. But this work was
of the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts, founded in 1948 by the
only published posthumously, in 1966.
Arab League in Cairo. In this role, he established meticulous
11
Judging from their verbal jousts in various publications,
travelled the world in search of original works to record on
to the achievements of both scholars that their works should
microfilm. He taught briefly at Princeton (1959–60), then settled
remain indispensable references to this day—and this posterity
for a decade and a half in Beirut, where he established the Dār
is likely to endure, given that they gathered much primary
al-Kitāb al-Jadīd publishing house. Following the start of the
evidence on their respective subjects, some of it now lost.
Lebanese civil war in 1975, he moved to Jeddah where he would
Another of their contemporaries is mostly remembered for
live for another thirty-five years.16
courting controversy. Henri Lammens (1862–1937) was a Jesuit
Throughout his prolific career, al-Munajjid retained a
priest from Ghent in Belgium who settled in Beirut at the age
particular interest in the history of his home city. In 1954, he
of fifteen. Equipped with a thorough command of Arabic, he
edited al-Rabaʿī’s Virtues of Syria of Damascus and initiated work
was the first scholar (and to a large extent the last) to highlight
on the edition of Ibn ʿAsākir’s History of Damascus. He published
the Umayyad caliph al-Walīd’s destruction of the church at
two volumes in the same year; the second of these was
Damascus in an article of 1925. In this work, he also adduced
translated into French in 1959 with a useful critical apparatus
to the study of the Umayyad Mosque some fundamental
by Nikita Elisséeff. This was only a small part of Ibn ʿAsākir’s
documents: a few verses from court poems by al-Farazdaq
work, which would be edited only decades later. Al-Munajjid
and al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī that commemorated this event;
also published in 1967 a valuable anthology of texts about the
and a testimony datable to around 670 ascribed to ‘Arculf’ by
history of Damascus: The City of Damascus in the Writings of
Adomnán, abbot of Iona in Scotland (d. 704).13 The profound
Muslim Geographers and Travellers, including several extracts
hostility of Lammens towards Islam tainted his work, making
from unpublished manuscripts.17
12
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standards for text editions, launched a specialised journal and
Creswell could be seen as Sauvaget’s nemesis. It is a testimony
it distinctly unpalatable to the modern reader. His outlook
From the 1960s onwards, other Syrian scholars gathered
reflects a discourse current in Lebanese Christian circles at
primary evidence relevant to the mosque. Muṭīʿ Ḥāfiẓ and ʿAlī
the time, its tone probably aggravated by famine and Ottoman
al-Ṭānṭāwī collected medieval and modern sources about its
exactions against the Jesuits during the First World War. Its
history, while ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rīḥāwī published brief reports
undeniable biases should, however, not obscure Lammens’
about mosaic restorations and archaeological soundings
knowledge of the sources—especially as these inclinations were
undertaken at the time.18 In 1987, the collected poems (dīwān)
partly mitigated in his treatment of the Umayyads, because of
of al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī, al-Walīd’s court poet, were edited
their Syro-centrism.
for the first time in Damascus by ʿAbd al-Karīm Ibrāhīm
14
In 1948, the year after Sauvaget published La mosquée omeyyade de Médine, a small Arabic pamphlet inaugurated an
14
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
Yaʿqūb.19 The complete publication of Ibn ʿAsākir’s work, a project re-attempted by several scholars after al-Munajjid,
was finally brought to completion through the efforts of ʿUmar
of the building.23 Gérard Degeorge has produced a lavish
al-ʿAmrawī and his collaborators.20 The wide availability of this
volume (2010) with a well-documented text articulated around
edition, published by Dār al-Fikr in Beirut from 1995 to 2001,
the photographs of the author. It is also during this last period
is of fundamental importance to the study of the mosque. Many
that the next milestone in the historiography of the mosque
of these modern writers were driven by a Syrian nationalist
was published: Finbarr Barry Flood’s The Great Mosque of
or patriotic outlook, combined for some, such as Ḥāfiẓ, with
Damascus: Studies in the Making of an Umayyad Visual Culture
an interest in the Islamic credentials of Damascus. They were
(2000). With this study, Flood delved into the complex history
also seeking to remedy, by integrating the methods of modern
and textual memories of the monument to an unprecedented
scholarship, the break from the Syrian historiographical
depth. He notably established the importance of the now
tradition that had occurred after the end of the Ottoman Empire.
lost vine frieze in the prayer hall (al-karma), highlighted the
Meanwhile, building partly on Creswell’s scholarship, the
connotations of its pearl motifs with light, exhumed textual
modern study of Islamic art and architecture was growing
materials about a forgotten gate, a water clock and a colonnade
in scope and sophistication in Europe and the United States.
on the qibla wall and introduced elements of comparison
In a short passage in his seminal Arab Painting, published in
between the topography of this site and Constantinople. Flood’s
1962, Richard Ettinghausen proposed the first overarching
work has given a new textural density to our understanding of
interpretation of the famed mosaics at the mosque, which
the mosque. It has also helped to move analysis away from the
he saw as a representation of the Islamic empire. A few
mosaics, the main focus of attention since the 1960s, towards a
years later, in 1967, Eva Surpan-Boersch argued that these
history that engages fully with other parts of the structure. The
were paradisiacal landscapes, a theory developed further
present study blazes a similar trail, but with different ends.
by Barbara Finster in 1970–71, and again by Klaus Brisch in 1988. In 1971, Lucien Golvin published a book-length study of Umayyad architecture, including a long section on the mosque
The Present Book
that discussed both of these interpretations without seeking to resolve their contradictions. More than his predecessors,
The core themes of this book started emerging around 2000,
he also sought to place the whole monument—not just the
when I was still a student of Islamic art. Having browsed
mosaics—in their broader artistic context.
through the bookshelves of the Oriental Institute and the
21
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Between the late 1980s and mid-2000s, Klaus Freyberger
(then labyrinthine) Ashmolean Museum libraries in Oxford, I
devoted a series of articles to the remains of the Roman
had gathered a pile of studies which left me perplexed as to a
temple at Damascus, which offered a more systematic study
fundamental question: why did the Umayyad caliph al-Walīd
of its ornamental styles and phases of construction. Further
decide to build this mosque towards the end of 705? Obvious
contributions were made from this period to the 2010s by
though it may seem, I could not find a clear answer to it—and
Ernest Will on the temple, Mab Van Lohuizen-Mulder on the
for good reasons, as I would later learn by the sweat of my
Umayyad mosaics, Luitgard Mols on the gates, and François
brow. It is never easy to understand events at a distance of over
Bogard on the later mosaics inside the transept. A book by
a millennium. The issue is compounded, in the present case,
Talal Akili (2009) contains architectural plans and elevations
by their memories being embedded in a monument that was
with extensive measurements and stone-by-stone drawings.
deeply reworked through time, in layered and complex textual
This visual survey, carried out in 1996–2000 by a team of
narratives, and in evidence from other disciplines, such as
forty-five architects, is a valuable resource for the study
archaeology and papyrology.
22
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
introduction • a day in the life of damascus
15
In fact, this study would barely have been possible twenty years ago, not least because its most important historical
major building on a site hitherto occupied by a church and an
source, Ibn ʿAsākir’s History of Damascus, had only just been
early mosque? How did he muster the political and logistical
published: the eightieth and final volume of the Dār al-Fikr
resources to carry out his decision? To what extent did the
edition appeared in 2001. Its availability has opened up a wealth
Damascene church and Roman temple leave their mark on
of information about the city and mosque, as if a specialised
the new building? What did the Umayyad Mosque look like in
medieval library had suddenly re-emerged, albeit as entangled
its pristine state? How, finally, did contemporaries react to its
and scattered fragments. Early photographs of Damascus
stupendous architecture and ornament? Turn the pages to find
were also much more difficult to source then than they are
out more about these and other questions.
24
now thanks to the exponential growth of online archives,
Chapter 1 sets the parameters for the rest of the book
such as those of the Library of Congress, Harvard University,
by establishing the complex nature of the site and its
and the Royal Collections. Meanwhile, the methodological
historiography. I outline the major changes undergone by the
toolbox of the historian dealing with early Islam has improved.
mosque since its foundation as a result of a long succession
In the course of the twentieth century, scholars had grown
of fires, earthquakes, and other disasters interspersed with
increasingly wary of relying on the textual sources available
restorations. In parallel with this, I review written testimonies
about this period because of their relatively late dates and own
from each period—primarily Arabic histories, biographical
narrative agendas. These issues have been unpacked since the
works, and travel accounts, notably from the Syrian
1990s to allow a reflection on layers of discourse, medieval
historiographical tradition. This leads me to adopt the literary
methods of textual criticism, and successive redactions,
concept of the ‘palimpsest’ as an analytical tool for its study.
thereby allowing a nimbler approach to the source material.
25
Even in 2000, some key evidence about the mosque had been
I also emphasize the ways in which photography, a technology first presented to the world in 1842, marks a sea change in the
known for decades, but was scarcely used. Three Umayyad
documentation of the mosque—all the more so because its
poems were composed to mark its foundation, but so far only
fabric was profoundly transformed by a major fire in 1893, then
a few verses from two of them have been studied by Lammens
again by several restoration campaigns in the twentieth century.
and cited by later scholars. They are a treasure trove of 26
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return to the initial question, did al-Walīd decide to found a
Chapter 2 explores the pre-Islamic past of the site, which is
evidence about the political climate of the period and the
essential to our understanding of its Umayyad history. I turn
aesthetic reception of the new building. They will be referenced
first to the little known archaeological soundings undertaken
extensively in the coming pages. Appendix 1 contains their
in 1962‒63, which revealed the spectacular foundations of the
Arabic texts with translations by Nadia Jamil that convey to
cella, the inner sanctum of the Roman temple, but were not
the English reader their meaning along with something of
published except in a few photographs. Using the available
their verve. Nearly as valuable are the administrative papyri
evidence, I seek to estimate the position and scale of the
from Aphrodito in Egypt, some of which relate directly to
cella, which must have been comparable to those of the
the construction of the mosque and can shed light on its
largest Roman temples, such as the Temple of Bel in Palmyra,
logistics. While their contents are largely accessible through
destroyed in 2015. The conversion of the site to Christian
the work of Bell and Morelli, they remain to be analysed more
worship around the late fourth century raises questions about
systematically in the context of the building.
the church within the Roman temenos walls. Where did it
27
My primary purpose, then, is simple: to give a historical account of the foundation of the Umayyad Mosque. Why, to
16
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
stand? In the seventh century, what was its spatial relationship with the first mosque and a lost gate associated with the early
caliph Muʿāwiya? Bringing together these different threads,
framed the prayer hall were probably Christian structures. The
I advance the hypothesis of the church as a conversion of the
Bayt al-Māl, the famous treasury on columns in the courtyard,
Roman cella, rather than a new basilica.
may likewise have been built around a Christian core. While
Chapter 3 opens with a climactic event: the destruction of
some remains of the church are thus hidden in plain sight, the
the church within the Damascene temenos by the young caliph
relics of John the Baptist—its most visible legacy in the modern
al-Walīd (r. 86–96/705–15). Its importance has been overlooked
mosque—appear to be an ‘invention’ of the late Umayyad to
by modern historians: this was the burning issue of the day, as
early Abbasid era. Thus, the church went through successive
shown by virulent poems composed by al-Walīd’s panegyrists
phases of erasure, memorialisation of absence, and oblivion.
Jarīr, al-Farazdaq, and al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī. Their powerful
Chapter 5 seeks to lay out the evidence for the Umayyad
pieces of rhetoric place the destruction of the mosque in a
state of the mosque, section by section, source by source,
context of political and armed conflict with Christians, not only
image by image. This process reveals an Umayyad monument
in Damascus but also on the Anatolian frontier with Byzantium.
that is familiar, yet profoundly different from the one of today:
Turning to the empty site left by this traumatic affair, I use
more open, with different vistas and materials, and vastly more
the administrative papyri from Aphrodito to investigate the
colourful. The study of early photographs reveals lost masonry
logistics required by the new Umayyad Mosque—and the
and ornament, including mosaic panels and Roman columns
political control of territory that they entail. Several Arabic
from the prayer hall. This chapter also offers glimpses of its
traditions ascribe a role in the construction of the mosque to
later life from the Abbasid to the Ottoman periods.
the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II, and I revisit their claims
who created al-Walīd’s new mosque. By comparing its form
embodied the shifting relationships between Muslim and
and ornament with those of earlier mosques and churches,
Christian élites in the Umayyad Empire. This evolution is
its novel features come into focus. The Damascus mosaics
illustrated by the fate of a prominent Damascene Christian
mark the breakdown of patterns seen in church floor and wall
family probably linked to these events: the Banū Manṣūr,
mosaics. Their composition seems to be based instead on
whose most famous son was John of Damascus, the last of
rhythms inspired by the art of Arabic poetry; like poetry and
the Greek Church Fathers.
the Qurʾan,28 they were consciously polysemic. Al-Nābigha’s
Chapter 4 investigates the legacy of the Damascene church
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Chapter 6 investigates the mindset of the Umayyad patrons
in light of this more complete evidence. The mosque, I argue,
panegyric about the mosque is then exploited as a unique
in the fabric of the Umayyad Mosque. While the remains of
document on aesthetics in this era. The mosque ultimately
the Roman temple are clearly apparent in the enclosure walls,
emerges as a space crafted to invite a powerful sensorial and
those of the church are more elusive, yet further study allows
emotional response from the beholder.
them to surface in multiple traces and echoes. The transept
The main focus of the book is on the decade between 705
at the centre of the prayer hall, the most monumental part of
and 715, during which the mosque was built. But such a thin
the Umayyad Mosque, was probably conceived in a dialectic
slice of history cannot be effortlessly disentangled from its
relationship with the freshly destroyed church. The metal
past and future, hence my many ventures into the Roman,
sheathing of the mosque gates, which is much later, seems to
Christian, medieval and modern periods. For, as will now
carry distant memories of a Christian template, as shown by
become apparent, the stones and ornament of the mosque
previous scholarship. The two corner towers that originally
are deeply layered, and so is its historiography.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:25.
introduction • a day in the life of damascus
17
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1 Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts: The Multiple Histories of the Umayyad Mosque
T
he Great Mosque of Damascus was built between around 705 and 715, a mere eight decades after the death of the Prophet. To write the history of
its foundation is, in essence, to investigate micro events at a distance of over a millennium. The prime actors—the Muslim ruling élites—have left few textual declarations, opting instead to fashion and transmit their historical memories orally. It is only with the rise of Arabic historiography at the turn of the ninth century that the fleeting narratives of earlier times started to coalesce into a solid form. Even so, their contents were not fixed as each writer made decisions to select, reframe, expand, or abridge available materials. The extensive body of
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historical sources about the mosque reflects the ever-changing contexts of their authors. The passing of time made the stones and ornament of the p The west vestibule, Bāb al-Barīd, viewed from the courtyard of the mosque, with the city in the background. Kamil Chadirji, early to mid-twentieth century. Kamil and Rifat Chadirji Photographic Archive, courtesy of Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT).
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
monument just as layered as the texts composed about it. Fires, earthquakes, and the slow yet inevitable decay of the fabric led, year after year, to gradual losses of masonry and materials. Rulers and the local population sought to maintain, repair, and upgrade the monument that had become, at an early stage in its life, the beating heart of Damascus. To use a notion first articulated in 1845 by Thomas De Quincey as a
19
metaphor for human memory, the mosque is fundamentally
Al-Farazdaq and Jarīr, both of whom died around 110/729, were
palimpsestic. A palimpsest is a manuscript wholly or partly
famous for lampooning each other in verse through the years,
erased so that it can be rewritten, sometimes more than once.
along with al-Akhṭal (ca. 20–92/640‒710), a Christian. Al-Nābigha
After each erasure, it retains traces of its earlier layers, and
al-Shaybānī, whose birth name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Makhāriq,
these may eventually resurface. In architecture, likewise,
had a less illustrious posterity in the Arabic literary tradition,
a monument is never a stable entity: instead, each moment
but his sobriquet (literally nābighat Banī Shaybān, ‘the genius of
witnesses an ephemeral ‘instance’ that is inscribed on the base
the Shaybānid tribe’) reflects the esteem in which he was held
layer of the site. Some erasures are conscious while others are
by contemporaries. Jarīr and al-Farazdaq lived in Iraq, although
caused by time, decay, and natural disasters. This conceptual
the sources suggest that the former visited Damascus under ʿAbd
tool, pioneered for architectural history by Finbarr Barry
al-Malik.4 One anecdote places al-Farazdaq there after al-Walīd’s
Flood and Gülru Necipoğlu, is particularly relevant to the
destruction of the church, and another has both poets come into
Umayyad Mosque.
the mosque during his reign.5 In both cases, these details are
1
2
3
The tumultuous history of the mosque did not cease with the
introduced as a narrative backdrop to present selected verses and
advent of modernity: on the contrary, it accelerated. Images
their historical value is uncertain. The tenth-century littérateur
of the building had been extremely scarce until the 1840s,
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī also asserts that al-Nābigha regularly
when the revolutionary technology of photography marked a
visited Syria to recite his panegyrics to the Umayyads, receiving
profound change in its documentation. Half a century later, in
generous rewards in return.6 Unlike Jarīr and al-Farazdaq,
1893, a major fire devastated the mosque, followed by invasive
al-Nābigha includes a long description in his poem on the mosque,
restoration campaigns through much of the twentieth century.
which makes it likely that he saw it during its construction.
This increases the value of early daguerreotypes, photographs,
Umayyad poetry is only extant through later compilations,
and rare Orientalist paintings that now constitute an archive
but these have generally been accepted as reliable records of
of lost materials. They come into focus in the second half of
the original works.7 This assumption is based on the rules of
the chapter. For each period, the state of the building will be
rhyme and metre that govern every single syllable, making
considered in parallel with its growing historiography, as their
these texts more difficult to remodel than prose narratives. It
discursive and architectural realities were often intertwined.
is reinforced in the present case by circumstantial historical information and political ideas which, as will become apparent, are unlikely to have been invented later. Words, or even the
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The Mosque and its Historiography until the Ottoman Era
occasional hemistich, could be replaced by transmitters to convey a similar meaning, typically with a view to improving their literary quality, but most of their contents are likely to be
Towards the end of 705, the young caliph al-Walīd I (r. 86–96/
authentic. This seems confirmed by the minor variants that
705‒15) ordered the seizure and destruction of the church that
occur in some medieval citations of al-Farazdaq.8
had stood inside the Damascene temenos walls alongside a first
The three poems are extraordinary documents for such an
mosque dating to the Muslim conquest of the 630s. Three poets
early period of Islam and they are not the only evidence to
belonging to the literary firmament of the age—Jarīr, al-Farazdaq
survive. An Umayyad Qurʾan discovered in Sanaa, the Yemeni
and al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī—were called upon to vindicate this
capital, contains two schematic renditions of mosques—in
controversial act in panegyric form. The memorialisation of the
other words, of sacred architecture as envisioned by Umayyad
Umayyad Mosque thus began as it was still being built.
patrons and their illuminators in the first half of the eighth
20
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 3 Umayyad Qurʾan discovered in Sanaa, second illumination. Original dimensions ca. 51 × 47 cm. Probably Greater Syria, early eighth century. Sanaa, Dār al-Makhṭūṭātal-Yamaniyya, IN 20-33.1. From Von Bothmer, ‘Architekturbilder im Koran’, Abb. 2.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
21
century (Figure 3).9 Just as significant are the large segments
He then returned to Damascus and remained there for the rest
of an administrative archive from Aphrodito in Middle Egypt
of his life. During those years, the Crusades were reaching their
dating to the very years in which the mosque was built: a few of
height in Greater Syria, and Egypt was ruled by the Fatimids
these papyri even relate directly to its construction.
(909–1171), a dynasty professing the Ismaʿili creed of Islam. It is
10
in this context that Ibn ʿAsākir, a staunch proponent of Sunni The Syrian Historiographical Tradition
Islam, produced his oeuvre with support from the Zangid sultan
The fall of the Umayyads in 750 turned Damascus into a
Nūr al-Dīn (r. 541‒65/1146–74). His prolific writing was driven
relatively neglected provincial capital. The threat of relegation
by a multi-layered agenda: to assert the holiness of Syria and
and oblivion seems to have spurred a conscious interest among
its locales in the long course of prophetic, early Islamic, and
learned circles in the history of local spaces and events, real or
current history; to highlight the credentials of Shāfiʿī law and
imagined, and in the status of this mosque. It is from religious
Ashʿarī theology; and to firmly establish the standing of Syria in
scholars of this period, the second half of the eighth century,
a Muslim worldview hitherto dominated by Iraqi historiography.
that some of the earliest information about the monument was collected in the ninth century, notably by such Damascene
masterpiece: the History of Damascus (‘Tārīkh Madīnat
historians and traditionists as Ibn ʿĀʾidh (d. ca. 232–34/846–49),
Dimashq’), which occupies no fewer than seventy-four volumes
Abū Zurʿa (d. 281/895), and Muḥammad ibn al-Fayḍ al-Ghassānī
(plus six volumes of indices) in its modern printed edition.
(ca. 219–315/835–927). As already noted, their contemporary
The work begins with a topographical introduction before
Ibn al-Muʿallā (d. 286/900) probably wrote the first dedicated
spreading its contents over a staggering 10,226 biographical
history of the mosque.
entries that add up to a cross-section of religious and politico-
11
In parallel with the memorialisation of the building through
administrative life in the first five centuries of Islam.14 The
texts, a genre emerged that extolled the sacred aura of cities:
notices consist of citations of earlier writings and traditions,
Faḍāʾil (‘Virtues’) literature, which had among its outputs the
systematically backed by extensive transmission chains (asānīd,
Virtues of Syria and Damascus (‘Faḍāʾil al-Shām wa Dimashq’)
sg. isnād). I have opted to cite this important part of the medieval
by ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Rabaʿī (d. 444/1052). Thus, by
scholar’s critical apparatus in italics, both as information about
the eleventh century, there circulated in Syria a number of
the source materials and to give a clearer sense of the form in
traditions about the Damascene temple, the church, and the
which historical information has reached us.
12
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It took Ibn ʿAsākir some four decades to produce his
construction of the Umayyad Mosque. Spatial markers were also
Modern scholars working on different topics have assessed
provided to locate the former church and holy spots associated
the contents of selected entries against preserved early treatises
with such figures as John the Baptist, the Prophet Hūd, and the
and found in them ‘admirable accuracy’, in the words of
enigmatic al-Khiḍr. In the next century, a figure emerged who
Steven Judd—a judgement amply confirmed by this study and
would change the course of this tradition: Ibn ʿAsākir.
its specific concerns.15 Ibn ʿAsākir shows a particular interest
Ibn ʿAsākir (499–571/1105–76) was a scholar of prodigious
in early Islam: about a third of the History is devoted to the
ability, and the most prominent member of a family, the
century and a half between the time of the Prophet and the
Banū ʿAsākir, which gave Damascus a string of judges
downfall of the Umayyads, when many Companions settled in
and religious experts between the late eleventh and early
Syria and Damascus became the capital of the Islamic Empire.16
fourteenth centuries. Between 1126 and 1141, like many of
He thus preserves much otherwise lost material about the
his contemporaries, he travelled the Muslim world from the
period. For all these reasons, his work is of fundamental
Hijaz through Baghdad to Central Asia in search of knowledge.
importance for the study of the mosque.
13
22
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
Ibn ʿAsākir’s History of Damascus had a profound impact
features of the city ‘its mosque, of which there is none more
on the Syrian historiographical tradition. The biographical
beautiful in the whole of Islam, made with marble and gold;
format of his work, arranged in alphabetical order, had been
al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān built it during his
inspired by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071) and his History
reign’.20 His contemporary Ibn al-Faqīh (d. after 290/903)
of Baghdad (‘Tārīkh Baghdād’). It was emulated in the next two
wrote what may be its earliest preserved description:
centuries by his successors, such as al-Mizzī (654–742/1256–1341) and al-Dhahabī (673–748/1274–1348). Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311),
The mosque is built with marble and mosaics, with a
who is best known for his classical dictionary Lisān al-ʿarab,
ceiling of ebony (sāj), and ornamented in dark blue
produced an abridgement of the original History. As a
(al-lāzaward) and gold. The mihrab is inlaid with
scholarly genre, biography fell out of fashion in favour of
precious gems and wondrous stones.21
17
chronology from the fifteenth century onwards, but Ibn ʿAsākir had set a seminal precedent (again inspired by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī) with his topographical introduction to Damascus,
template for the ornament. Like others in his era, Ibn al-Faqīh
where he notably gathered materials about the foundation of
also records some anecdotes about the construction of the
the mosque and its Umayyad history. Much of this information
building.22 In the following century, a slightly more detailed
would be relayed, recast, and expanded by generation after
description was cited successively by Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhī
generation of writers in Syria, in different types of works:
(ca. 263–322/850–934), al-Iṣṭakhrī (d. 346/957), and Ibn Ḥawqal
annalistic histories, such as those of Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī
(d. 367/977), with minor variations of wording; this convergence
(686–764/1287–1363) and Ibn Kathīr (ca. 700–74/1300–73);
is unsurprising since these three authors were, to some extent,
chronicles with a narrower focus on the lifetime of their authors,
continuators of one another.23 Al-Masʿūdī (d. 336/948) briefly
as with Ibn Ṣaṣrā (fl. ca. 1400), Ibn Ṭūlūn (880–953/1473–1546),
discusses the mosaic inscription and shows an interest in the
and al-Budayrī al-Ḥallāq (fl. 1175/1762); topographical and
pre-Islamic past of the monument. Al-Muhallabī (d. 380/990)
geographical works like those of Ibn Shaddād (d. 684/1285) and
offers a more substantial description of the mosque, but with
Ibn Kannān (d. 1153/1740); or treatises mixing genres, such as
inaccuracies, in his geographical work al-Masālik wa’l-mamālik,
one on Damascene pleasure gardens composed by Abū al-Tuqā
which he dedicated to the Fatimids.24
18
(also Abū al-Baqāʾ) al-Badrī (d. 894/1489).19 This broad tradition
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Laconic though it may be, this account provides a general
The next description, in chronological order, marks a
was still alive at the beginning of the twentieth century. Thus,
turning point in the documentation of the mosque, being
the core reference represented by the History of Damascus can be
more extensive than any before it. Its author, al-Muqaddasī
supplemented by later works, which often yield unique shreds
(also al-Maqdisī, writing around 378/989), was from Jerusalem
of information, if typically with a reduced citational apparatus.
(Ar. al-Bayt al-Muqaddas, Bayt al-Maqdis). His geographical treatise The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of Regions (‘Aḥsan
Early Travel Relations and Geographical Works
al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm’) brought to a new level the
While the Syrian tradition preserves the bulk of historical
geographical genre initiated by Ibn al-Faqīh’s generation as
memory about the mosque, other strands of Arabic scholarly
he relied more heavily on corroboration through his own
writing also contributed to it. In the ninth century, Damascus
travels.25 Al-Muqaddasī was born into families of builders on
begins to emerge in the earliest accounts of major historians
both his paternal and maternal side and he seems to have taken
and geographers from Iraq, then the intellectual powerhouse of
a particular interest in the Umayyad Mosque when he visited
the Islamic world. Al-Yaʿqūbī (d. ca. 292/905) lists among other
Damascus. His description is included in a new translation as
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
23
an appendix to the present volume. Through it, our knowledge
(which is extant) and central dome (which has been rebuilt)
of the early state of the mosque is much greater than it would
were reportedly built under the Fatimids. A fountain outside
otherwise have been, since less than a century later, in 1069,
Bāb Jayrūn and two columns that held lamps in the courtyard
much of its early fabric was destroyed by fire.
were added during the eleventh century, when Damascus passed from Fatimid to Saljuq control.31 Relevant elements will
A few later authors of travel accounts and geographical works offered descriptions of the building as it stood in their
be discussed in more detail below: for now, it is sufficient to
time. The testimony of Ibn Jubayr, the Andalusi traveller who
note that the textual record, if taken on its own terms, would
visited Damascus in 581/1184, is by far the most detailed, not
imply that the monument changed relatively little during its
only for this period, but for the whole pre-modern era. The
first 350 years.
26
later account by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, whose travels spanned the years
Such a degree of transformation is consistent with the
1325–54, seems to be largely—but not entirely—derived from
historical reality of this period. After the fall of the Umayyads
it.27 Al-Idrīsī (d. 548/1154) and ʿAlī al-Harawī (d. 611/1215) also
in 132/750, the centre of gravity of the Muslim empire shifted
provide some original material.
from Syria to Iraq, where the Abbasids had founded their new capital Baghdad in 145/762. Some Abbasid caliphs visited
The Mosque in the Abbasid and Fatimid Periods
Damascus, and two of them, al-Maʾmūn (r. 198–213/813–33) and
Because of the vicissitudes of time, each of these writers
al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–47/847–61), briefly resided there during
encountered a slightly different monument from his predecessors.
military campaigns; but on the whole, the city, like the rest of
The first known damage to the mosque occurred three decades
Greater Syria, became a provincial backwater.32 In this respect,
after its completion, around 131/748, when an earthquake split
the Mosque of Damascus offers a marked contrast with the
the roof of the prayer hall. A century later, in 233/847, a second
Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca,
earthquake destroyed masonry from the Roman enclosure
which were also rebuilt by al-Walīd but continued to attract
28
wall (the temenos), part of the minaret, and some merlons.
extensive patronage from the Abbasids.33 These were, of course,
The sources on both events are late but the earthquakes are
the most sacred sites of Islam, but the neglect of Damascus
corroborated by other writers (with small variations of date),
is also explained by the depth of pro-Umayyad sympathies in
so one may cautiously accept their reports. These imply that
Syrian society and the achievements of the dynasty embodied
the mosque received some ceiling repairs in the eighth century
in the monument—too famous to be razed, but too close to the
and patching to the stonework in the ninth century. A third
arch-enemies of the Abbasids to receive major improvements.
29
earthquake is recorded in Damascus at the beginning of
Repairs must nevertheless have been periodically carried out
381/991, but without any mention of damage to the mosque. Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
30
Limited construction also seems to have occurred in this
during this period. One instance is recorded by al-Muqaddasī, who in the tenth century wrote about the eastern mihrab: ‘Its
period. The Bayt al-Māl, the chamber on columns in the
centre had crumbled, so I heard that 500 dinars were spent to
western part of the courtyard, is ascribed by several writers
restore it.’34 Undocumented interventions probably occurred
to the early decades of Abbasid rule, a question that will
on an ad hoc basis. The Dome of the Rock, the other great
be revisited in Chapter 4. A blind niche, or mihrab, on the
Syrian Umayyad monument, provides a benchmark for the
northern pier between Bāb al-Barīd and the courtyard may be
nature and scale of such repairs. Built in 72/691, it suffered
Tulunid since two comparable niches exist at the Mosque of
its first major disaster in 407/1017 when the dome collapsed.
Ibn Ṭūlūn (Fustat, 263–65/876–78); in any case, it must date to
As Temple Mount is set aside from the rest of Jerusalem by its
the ninth or tenth century. Also in the courtyard, the east dome
gigantic platform, its interior has never been ravaged by flames.
24
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
This may be why more traces of Abbasid restorations are
the Dār al-Mulk, which is the Khaḍrāʾ, bordering the qibla
preserved there: an early Abbasid carved wooden frieze above
side of the mosque. It burned down, and the fire spread
the current ceiling, a fragmentary marble inscription about
to the mosque. The ceilings collapsed, the gilded stones
a perpetual endowment for its upkeep under al-Muktafī
on its walls were scattered to the ground, and the mosaics
(r. 289–95/901–8) and small votive inscriptions in the name
on its floor and walls pulled down. Its landmarks and
of the mother of al-Muqtadir (r. 295–320/908–32) attached
beauties were altered; its splendour relapsed.38
to wooden beams in the roof.35 Similar commemorative inscriptions may or may not have existed at Damascus, a site
This version is consistent in its key elements with that
with a less universal aura than Jerusalem; if they ever did,
of Ibn al-Athīr, even though a few details vary: the warring
they were lost to subsequent fires and rebuilding.
factions are more explicitly named; the date is narrowed to the middle of Shaʿbān 469/first half of June 1069 (as also stated
The Fire of 1069 and the Later History of the Mosque
by al-ʿUmarī); and the edifice where the fire was kindled is
In his entry for the year 461/1069, Ibn al-Athīr (555–630/1160–
identified as the Khaḍrāʾ, the former palace of the Umayyads.
1233) writes:
Ibn Kathīr expands further on the ruined prayer hall, mosaics, marble, and ceiling of the mosque. He does so with a poetical
In Shaʿbān, the Mosque of Damascus burned. This was
rather than inventorial intent, in what still amounts to the most
caused by war in Damascus between the Westerners
concrete description of the damage available.
(al-maghāriba), who supported the Egyptians (al-miṣriyyin),
The earliest source to mention this fire seems to be Ibn
and the Easterners (al-mashāriqa). They kindled a fire in
al-Qalānisī (Damascene, ca. 465–555/1073–1160), who writes
a mansion adjacent to the mosque, which burned before
that only the four walls of the mosque remained standing.39
this spread to the mosque. The population helped the
Ibn Kathīr asserts that Ibn al-Jawzī (Baghdadi, 510–97/1126–1200),
Westerners and they stopped the fight to try and quell the
Ibn al-Sāʿī (Baghdadi, 593–674/1197–1276) and al-Dhahabī
fire in the mosque. The matter grew, intensified and the
(Damascene, 673–748/1274–1348) give 458/1065–66 as the date
fire destroyed the mosque. Its beauties were scattered to
of the fire. Ibn al-Jawzī, whose work is preserved, reports:
the ground, its rare works annihilated.
‘In Shaʿbān [458/June–July 1066], there was infighting in
36
Damascus, and a mansion next to the mosque was struck by
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
In Shaʿbān 461/May–June 1069, the mosque was thus ravaged
fire, so the mosque of Damascus burned.’40 Ibn al-Sāʿī’s account
by a major fire following a local fight between a pro-Saljuq
does not appear to be extant. Al-Dhahabī, on the other hand,
(hence pro-Abbasid and ‘eastern’) and a pro-Fatimid (‘western’)
does give the date as mid-Shaʿbān 461 on the basis of Ibn
faction. Al-ʿUmarī (a Damascene active in Cairo, 700–49/1301–49)
al-Athīr’s account.41 Thus local Damascene sources seem to
states in his version that the fight was triggered by the Fatimid
converge around an accepted date of 1069, whereas at least
vizier Badr al-Jamālī’s visit to Damascus. The event was also
one Iraqi writer, and possibly also a second, place the fire
described by Ibn Kathīr (Damascene, ca. 700–74/1300–73):
three years earlier. The date 1069 therefore carries more
37
weight than 1066. On the night of the middle of Shaʿbān of this year [461],
After a brief description of the mosque before the fire,
there was a fire in the Great Mosque of Damascus.
Ibn Kathīr continues his account in a way that will serve to
The reason was that, as slave-soldiers (ghulmān) of the
illustrate the type of textual evidence from which the later
Fatimids and Abbasids were fighting, a fire was kindled in
history of the mosque is to be reconstructed:
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
25
Then its floor became mud in winter and dust in summer,
Year
Event
ca. 131/748
Earthquake (ceiling and roof)
233/847
Earthquake (parts of the masonry; minaret; possibly merlons)
the four shrines (mashāhid) in the east and west, until the
461/1069
Major fire (prayer hall)
qadi Kamāl al-Dīn al-Shahruzūrī removed them at the
552/1158
Earthquake (mosaics loss)
562/1167
Fire (Bāb al-Sāʿāt)
[Nūr al-Dīn] gave him [Kamāl al-Dīn] and the judiciary
570/1175
Fire (north minaret)
oversight of it along with all the endowments (awqāf), the
597/1202
Earthquake (east minaret, dome)
598/1203
Earthquake (crowning parts of minarets, elevation on north side)
646/1249
Fire (east minaret)
803/1401
Fire following Timur’s invasion (roof and other parts)
884/1479
Fire (prayer hall, west minaret)
restorations under various Ayyubid, Zangid, and early Mamluk
1172/1758
Earthquake (dome, north arcade)
rulers. A mosaic inscription near the northeast corner does
1311/1893
Fire (prayer hall)
hollowed and abandoned. Thus it remained until it was paved at the time of al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb [the Ayyubid Sultan, d. 615/1218], after the year 600 of the hijra [1204–5]. All the fallen marble and wood were stored in
time of al-Malik al-ʿ Ādil Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Zankī [the Zangid Sultan, r. 541–65/1146–74]. At that point, he
mint, and other things. Later kings continued to restore its beauties and its rehabilitation has become nearly complete under the Amīr Sayf al-Dīn Tankiz ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nāṣirī [d. 740/1340], the governor of Syria, may God reward him!42
The description evokes a long period of neglect followed by
commemorate repair work carried out by Nūr al-Dīn ibn Zankī and thus corroborates the text. But much else is also left out by Ibn Kathīr. Extant inscriptions record restorations by the
p Table 1 Major disasters in the history of the mosque.
Saljuqs, who had captured Damascus from the Fatimids in
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
471/1079, in the transept and north temenos in 475/1083 and 503/1109. An inscription on the north arcade was written
anecdotes about their own era. Thus, in the above passage,
in the name of the late Abbasid caliph al-Mustaẓhir Bi’llāh
Ibn Kathīr mentions that remains of the original decoration
(r. 487–512/1094–1118). Further inscriptions from the intervening
were collected and stored in the four shrines (mashāhid). He
period record the refurbishment of marble cladding in 575/1180
is referring to the four side rooms of the Roman temenos;
under the Ayyubid sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (‘Saladin’, r. 570–89/
other sources confirm that they were variously associated
1174–93) and work ordered by the Mamluk sultan Baybars
across the centuries with the four Rightly-Guided caliphs
(r. 658–75/1260–77), probably on the mosaics.
and other holy figures.45 The account also asserts that the
43
Similarly, no single source contains a full record of events
mosque was transferred from the jurisdiction of rulers to that
affecting the mosque although one author, al-Nuʿaymī
of judges in the mid-twelfth century—a claim which, again,
(845–927/1442–1521), gathered many reports up to his own
deserves to be assessed against its broader historical context.
time. This relative exception notwithstanding, various
It is only by considering the full gamut of such evidence that a
testimonies need to be corroborated and complemented by
comprehensive history of the mosque—an account of the whole
surviving inscriptions. Individual texts often yield valuable
palimpsest—may eventually be reached.
44
26
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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Numerous earthquakes and fires occurred in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. Evidence of these and later
and it was wrapped in smoke. Every time a part of the roof collapsed, one heard a formidable thunder-like
transformations have already been collected by previous
noise. People could see each other in the night because
studies. Some major episodes are summarised in Table 1.
46
The fifteenth century was particularly devastating. In Safar 803/October 1401, the mosque was largely burnt down in the aftermath of the siege of Damascus by Tīmūr Lang
of the brightness of the fire. All grieved profoundly; even the ahl al-dhimma (Christians and Jews) wept at the sight, as did the people who flocked in from the villages. On Friday 29 Rajab [15 October 1479] a bench for the
(‘Tamerlane’, d. 1405), the founder of the Timurid dynasty in
preacher (al-khaṭīb) was placed in the courtyard before
Muslim Central Asia. Repairs were undertaken under the
the transept dome. He performed the sermon while the
Mamluk sultan al-Muʾayyad (r. 815–24/1412–21) but in Rajab
audience was heavily weeping. It was a terrible moment.49
47
884/October 1479, a major fire ravaged the whole building again, sparing only the side rooms along the temenos and part
The feeling of irretrievable loss, the destruction of treasured
of the north wall. An eyewitness account by Ibn al-Ḥimsī
objects amassed in the building come through as expressions
(841–934/1438–1527) provides a rare glimpse into the reality
of the symbiotic relationship between mosque and city. Ibn
experienced by the local population during such events:
al-Ḥimṣī’s account is also notable for its mention of Christians
48
working on marble repairs, thus contributing to the fabric of I was present most of the time, carrying away with my
the mosque seven centuries after the Umayyads, and for its
colleagues the carpets from the mosque to the courtyard
multiple allusions to holy spots revered at this particular point
and urging others to do the same. As the fire was
in time, in a spatial map of the site that slowly evolved over
progressing, I gave orders to remove the minbar and take
the centuries.
out the Qurʾan of ʿUthmān, Qurʾan volumes, and the ḍarīḥ (tomb) which belonged to the waqf (mosque endowment).
extensive maintenance works in its early years as noted by
We had just had straw mats of unparalleled fine quality
the historian Ibn Ṭūlūn: in 926/1520, floors and marbles were
newly made. They were placed near the window of
repaired; painting and regilding were carried out, including on
mashhad al-nāʾib (the Shrine of the Deputy) where they all
the four transept pillars; the doors were polished, ‘becoming
burned. However, the mashhad itself did not; it had also
like gold’, as were the two lanterns in the courtyard—probably
escaped the fire of Tīmūr.
those on the freestanding columns. ‘All the columns in the
Two months earlier the viceroy Qānṣūḥ al-Yaḥāwī had Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Ottoman rule, which began in 922/1516 in Damascus, saw
interior’, he also notes, ‘were painted, one green and the next
ordered the renovation of the mosque and the estate
deep red, whereas they had been stone white.’ 50 No other major
that belonged to its waqf. The marble panelling in the
restorations seem to be recorded until the eighteenth century.
southern wall had been entirely renovated by Christian
On 6 Rabiʿ II 1172/7 December 1758, an earthquake destroyed
craftsmen (naṣāra murakhkhimīn), as far as the shrine of
the dome and north arcade, which were rebuilt the following
Sīdī Hūd.
year.51 Our source, al-Budayrī al-Ḥallāq, also reports that the
The fire also destroyed the gilded ṭirāz (inscription
west gate (Bāb al-Barīd) and some minarets were damaged.
band) that had been entirely renovated. The marble
The monument received further targeted restorations in the
burned down and collapsed like melting salt. Glass bits
nineteenth century.52 At the end of this period, disaster struck
fell alongside a grilled glass window and the lead from the
again, setting in motion the latest phase in its history.
roof melted down. The beauty of the mosque vanished
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
27
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28
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
p figure 4 (opposite) The transept façade after the fire of 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem. p figure 5 (right) The local committee in charge of the 1890s reconstruction. From Ḥāfiẓ, Al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, 158.
The Mosque since the Nineteenth Century
In a tragic irony of fate, the disaster was triggered by a worker hired for the upkeep of the mosque.55 The damage was
The Fire of 1893
devastating (Figure 4). Beside the loss of a Qurʾan attributed
On 4 Rabiʿ II 1311 (15 October 1893), a fire ravaged the Great
to the early caliph ʿUthmān (r. 23–35/644–56), the roof and
Mosque of Damascus. The event was vividly described by
one of the two arcades on the west side of the prayer hall
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Qāsimī (1283–1332/1866–1914), a traditional
were destroyed.56 The transformative impact of the event was
scholar who became a leading figure of the Islamic Modernist
multiplied by the restoration campaign that followed. Western
movement; he was also the co-author of a two-volume
accounts often state that it was led by Paul Apéry, a European
Dictionary of Damascene Arts and Crafts, which records a now
from Istanbul who became chief architect (sar-muhandis) of
largely-vanished world. As he writes,
Damascus. Perhaps as a reflection of this role, he appears as
53
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‘the municipal architect (muhandis al-baladiyya) Apéry Efendi’ [The mosque] was clutched in the claws of disaster,
in the Arabic chronicle of Wilhelm II’s tour of the region in
its glories past killed by the present as fire came upon
1898, when he guided the Kaiser’s visit to the mosque.57 Other
its roof and walls and set ablaze its gates, doors and
Arabic sources barely mention Apéry, if at all, emphasizing
pillars, destroying an arcade on the west side, entering
instead the agency of local authorities, committees, and
the luminous house of the preachers, burning down its
craftsmen (Figure 5).58 Ottoman archival materials show that the
precious vestiges until it engulfed the large Qurʾan of
authorities in Istanbul were also involved in this project and that
ʿUthmān, on the morning of Saturday 4 Rabiʿ II 1311. This
debates arose around its course and the choice of an architect,
was caused by the fire lit by someone repairing the ceiling
with Damascene authorities rejecting names suggested by the
of the western chamber (mashhad) for his water pipe
Sublime Porte. Initial proposals to rebuild the monument in
(arkīla) and its accursed tombac: he placed it on the lead
reinforced concrete were abandoned on historical grounds.59
of its roof which melted, burning what was below.54
An unpublished document suggests that Raimondo D’Aronco,
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
29
p figure 6 Great Mosque of Damascus from the southwest. (Image flipped to reflect the actual orientation). Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, 1843–44. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rés. Eg7-763.
an Italian architect famous for his Art Nouveau work at the
held together by steel collars, were cleaved by the fire’.62 The
Ottoman capital, was commissioned to produce unspecified
history of this campaign, which triggered passions both locally
work for the mosque.60
and at the imperial capital, deserves a fuller investigation.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
The most consequential decision made at the time was to
In any case, the fire and its aftermath profoundly altered the
remove the remaining columns of the prayer hall in order to
fabric of the mosque. Fortunately, a technology invented a
build the space anew with modern shafts and neo-Corinthian
few decades earlier can help us retrieve some of what was lost
capitals. These were made with stone from the hills near
from oblivion.
Mezzeh, just outside Damascus. From photographs, one can 61
infer that many of the originals were still standing after the fire,
The Earliest Photographs of the Mosque
including the two large columns of the transept façade (Figure 4).
On 19 August 1839, the photographic process invented by
Some may have become structurally unsound: al-Ṭānṭāwī,
Louis Daguerre, building upon earlier work by Nicéphore
writing in 1961 but drawing from a surviving eyewitness and
Niépce, was presented to the public for the first time at the
other local sources, notes that ‘the columns of the mosque
Académie des Sciences in Paris. Three months later, several
were old and most of them, having already been broken and
French teams were sent to different countries with state-of-
30
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
the-art photographic equipment to create a book about the
documenting architecture, its mass reproduction facilitated
monuments and cities of the world. The earliest daguerreotype
by the invention of lithography in 1798. As if to underline
of Damascus, now lost, was made on 19 January 1840, five
this turning point, at the same moment, in May 1844, John
months to the day after the launch event in Paris. The oldest
Gardner Wilkinson produced in watercolour the earliest known
surviving photographs of the mosque were taken a mere three to
naturalistic representation of the mosque seen from
four years later, between 1843 and 1844, as part of an expedition
the house of Richard Wood, the British consul at Damascus
carried out by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804–92).
(Figure 8).65
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63
The three published daguerreotypes—others may yet surface—
The first European accounts of the mosque had been given
show the building from the southwest and west (Figures 6
by travellers such as Harry Maundrell in 1697, Jean de Thévenot
and 7). They mark a change of era: the moment when this age-
in the late seventeenth century, and Richard Pococke in the
old monument emerged from centuries of verbal descriptions—
1730s, but they were forbidden entry to the building and could
and rare schematic drawings—to a new medium that captured
only peek at it from the gates. In the early eighteenth century,
its appearance in facsimile. In an Islamic context, the image
etchings of the mosque were printed in books by Paul Lucas
was taking over from the word as the primary medium for
(1720) and Vasily Barsky (1723–47).66
64
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chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
31
p figure 7 (right) Great Mosque of Damascus from the west. (Image flipped to reflect the actual orientation). JosephPhilibert Girault de Prangey, 1843–44. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rés. Eg7-764. p figure 8 (opposite below) The Great Mosque of Damascus from the north. Watercolour. John Gardner Wilkinson, 1 May 1844. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Wilkinson, dep. d. 22, ff. 14v‒15r.
In 1807, the Spaniard Domingo Badía y Leblich offered
in place, as noted for instance by Alphonse de Lamartine
his French readers a proper description by passing himself
in 1833 and Charles de Pardieu in 1849.70 But the tone and
off as a descendant of the Abbasids called Ali Bey and donning
content of J.L. Porter’s account in 1855 suggest that he saw the
local dress, as he did throughout his travels. He noted in his
interior—even though he still commented, in relation to the
account of Damascus, ‘a European cannot without risk present
Christian inscriptions on its south wall, that this was a building
himself there in the dress of his homeland and has to adopt
‘within whose hallowed precinct the feet of Christ’s people
that of the Levant’. In 1816, James Silk Buckingham and his
dare not tread!’71
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67
68
companions also entered the mosque unnoticed, he says, ‘by
From that time onwards, it seems that restrictions still existed
the aid of our beards, white turbans, and a certain conformity
but could be overcome with the help of local contacts. Porter, an
to Turkish or Arabic movements only to be acquired by habit’.
Irish Presbyterian, had taken residence in Damascus since 1850
Still, times were changing. From 1832 to 1841, Syria passed
on a mission to convert Jews. The shots taken in 1862 by Francis
into the hands of the autonomous governors of Egypt who
Bedford, the official photographer of Prince Albert’s ‘tour of the
sought to open up trade with Europe and facilitate access to
East’, suggest that he had free access to the courtyard—he must
their lands. The ban on non-Muslims in the mosque remained
even have carried his equipment into the minarets—but not to the
69
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George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
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chapter 1 • palimpsests in stone and layered texts
33
prayer hall. By contrast, the French photographer Félix Bonfils,
Suleiman Hakim, a Syrian, opened his own studio in Damascus.72
who had established a studio in Beirut in 1867, was able to produce
Hakim, Dumas and others also worked for the Maison Bonfils.
images of both the exterior and interior at several intervals.
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Damascus, being part of the biblical horizon, was a
These photographers created their images for a variety of purposes: commercial, looking to cater for popular books and
natural magnet for European travellers and a string of other
postcards, but also historical and missionary. The first known
photographers began to immortalise the building. Their ranks
attempt to systematically survey the building through both
included Francis Frith, who visited it around 1857–58 as part of
photographs and notes was made by Max Van Berchem. He and
a series of trips to produce commercial images of the region;
Hakim straddled two eras in that they photographed the state
Tancrède Dumas, who was based in Beirut from 1867; Frank
of the mosque before the fire of 1893, and shortly afterwards as
Mason Good, who was employed by Frith and travelled to the
it lay in ruins (Figures 4 and 9).73 Van Berchem’s photographs
region four times in the 1860s to 1870s; Félix Bonfils’ son Adrien,
have outstanding historical value as they show aspects of the
who succeeded his father from 1877 to 1895; Henry Phillips,
building that had not been recorded previously and would
mandated by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1865 and 1867;
soon be lost to Ottoman restoration.
and Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, who visited Damascus in June 1893, four months before the fire. Towards the end of the century,
34
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
During the same period, a few paintings of the mosque were executed in Orientalist style by European artists.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 9 (opposite) The prayer hall, east wing. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem. p figure 10 (right) Portions of the Interior of the Grand Mosque of Damascus. Oil on canvas, 158 × 120 cm. Frederic Leighton, 1873–75. Preston, Lancashire, Harris Museum/Bridgeman Images.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
35
p figure 11 (far left) Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: Detachment of mosaic panel. From Anon., Fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, pl. 14. p figure 12 (left) Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: Craftsmen at work on the mosaics. From Rīḥāwī, ‘Fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ’, fig. 8
p figure 13 (far left) Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: In situ restoration of the mosaics on an arch. From Fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, pl. 13. p figure 14 (left) Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: Creation of a new mosaic panel in a workshop. From Anon., Fusayfisaʾ al-jamiʿ al-umawi, pl. 15.
Frederic Leighton (1830–96) depicted the central part of the
accurate when assessed against other evidence. Together with
qibla wall (Figure 10) on the basis of an oil sketch taken in situ
Wilkinson’s watercolour (Figure 8), they also record a dimension
in 1873, along with study drawings and possibly photographs.74
of the building not captured by early photographs: colour.
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In 1890, Gustav Bauernfeind (1848–1904) completed two oil paintings on canvas showing respectively the façade of the
Restorations of the 1920s to 1960s
transept from the north gate and the west gate. These were
The transformation of the mosque did not end with the fire
again done from sketches and watercolours executed in
of 1893. Limited restorations, mainly of marble panels, floor
Damascus in 1888–89, including a second view of the west gate.
tiles, and mosaics, were undertaken in the 1920s and 1930s.76
Both artists added fictitious figures to their works. Leighton
The famous mosaics in the west arcade of the Great Mosque
depicts a man praying towards the east rather than south in the
were revealed underneath their plaster cover in 1928 through
direction of Mecca and his finished painting has two children
the initiative of Victor Eustache de Lorey and Marguerite Van
not present in the sketch. Bauernfeind had reportedly paid
Berchem.77 The discovery put Umayyad art in the spotlight,
models to be sketched. But in both cases, the renditions of
inaugurating decades of interest in these spectacular
architecture are detailed and, as we shall see, impressively
creations. In 1937, Van Berchem started campaigning with
75
36
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
p figure 15 Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: preparatory drawing for a mosaic panel on the transept door arch (far left) and the same panel after restoration (left). From Anon., Fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, pls. 9–10.
Republic lasted until around 1385/1965–66, the date recorded in a mosaic inscription.81 Work on the mosaics followed procedures described by ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rīḥāwī, the head of excavations at the Syrian Direction of Antiquities.82 His testimony is worth paraphrasing in full as it has implications p figure 16 Restorations of the 1950s to 1960s: In situ restoration of the river mosaic, west courtyard wall. From Anon., Fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, pl. 12.
for the study of this ornament. Pieces of cloth soaked with a mixture of sugar, flour and glue were pressed against the mosaic panels, thus enabling the workers to pull them off the wall (Figure 11). They were taken to a workshop where their mortar was removed, leaving the tesserae attached to the cloth. Next, each panel was placed on a workbench and tesserae were added to fill any voids (Figure 12). A layer of reinforced concrete was applied to the back of the mosaics to hold them together and the cloth was soaked
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in water to detach it from the tesserae. The mosaics were then local authorities to have craftsmen trained so that, as she
brushed and cleaned before being reattached to the walls with
wrote in a letter, ‘Damascus may have mosaicists to look after
metal hooks set in another layer of reinforced concrete.83 At
the conservation of its mosaics in the future.’ 78 This project
that stage, any remaining small gaps caused by the restoration
was shelved during the Second World War when structural
were again filled with mosaic cubes (Figure 13). Entirely new
work was carried out on the Minaret of Jesus and on the north
panels were also created (Figure 14), particularly for the west
arcade, and emergency repairs were made to the mosaics of
vestibule (Figure 15), the adjoining river mosaic (Figure 16),
the northwest corner.
the transept façade, and the domed chamber on columns
79
In 1944, Syria gained its independence from the French
known as Bayt al-Māl.
Mandate. By the 1950s, attention was returning to the mosaics
While these procedures seem invasive by current standards,
as part of a broader initiative to restore or replace masonry,
they reflected common practice at the time. The detachment
columns, gates and other damaged elements in the mosque, as
method and the resetting of panels in cement with metal pins
summarily recorded in 1961 by Makīn al-Muʾayyad, erstwhile
were used on most major monuments at Ravenna from the
engineer of the Direction of Religious Endowments (Awqaf).
1910s to the 1970s.84 In the early twentieth century, Corrado
This phase of intensive work under the young Syrian Arab
Ricci had introduced the marking out of new areas with a line
80
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chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
37
of red tesserae; the same procedure was employed in some
were gathered in boxes, and the French took some away during
panels at Damascus. Italian restorers commonly added new
the Mandate.87 To this day, the Louvre in Paris holds some
areas of mosaics to fill gaps, an operation sometimes motivated
1,400 tesserae from the mosque in small fragments set in their
by the structural consolidation of the panel. Both al-Rīḥāwī and
original plaster.88 Ongoing scientific analysis by the museum
al-Muʾayyad mention similar imperatives for Damascus. It was
may eventually provide evidence about their provenance and
in the 1970s that the integrity of mosaics as artworks became a
manufacture, although it is unlikely to resolve the vexed issue
growing concern in Italy, so that new techniques were devised
of the mosaicists’ origin.
to retain the setting bed during detachment. Work in situ was preferred unless absolutely essential, and the scope and impact
underway, states that they extended to the northeast corner,
of any interventions was minimised.
the west arcade, and Bāb al-Barīd.89 Al-Muʾayyad, in 1961,
Cesare Brandi, an influential restorer who directed the
suggested a broader scope by noting that they were to be
Istituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome, had travelled to
undertaken ‘in all parts of the mosque’.90 Today, on the west
Jerusalem in 1956 to assess the mosaics at the Dome of the
arcade and the small fragments of the east arcade wall, one
Rock, then under the jurisdiction of the Hashemite Kingdom
can clearly see the concrete and metal pins, now corroded,
of Jordan. The restoration of that monument was steered by
where the mosaic has broken away (Figure 17). The masonry
an Egyptian committee and largely funded by Egypt. Since
of the Bayt al-Māl and transept façade is completely concealed
Syria and Egypt had nominally merged to form the United Arab
with modern mosaics, leaving no gaps to allow such a visual
Republic in 1958–61, it is conceivable that expertise was shared
assessment.
85
across both sites—but if so, the collaboration is not attested. On
In sum, the mosaics as they stand today on the west arcade,
the contrary, al-Rīḥāwī boasts that the works were undertaken
west wall, and probably in the rest of the mosque, have been
‘without relying on a foreign expert,’ albeit several years before
removed from the walls and stripped of their original mortar.
their completion. This does not mean that techniques were
New compositions were created to replace areas of loss and
not acquired from abroad, one way or another.
extant panel sections from the Umayyad to medieval periods
86
In the context of the period, the work undertaken at
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Al-Rīḥāwī, writing in 1960 while the restorations were still
were lightly reworked in a way that may not be perceptible
Damascus was unusual mainly for the extent of the new
to the naked eye—or even through materials analysis, since
mosaic compositions and for the apparent lack of detailed
original tesserae were reused in places. Columns and masonry
documentation about the process. A further account published
could likewise be invasively restored: in at least one instance,
in 1965 by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Qazīhā, an engineer in charge of the site
a historical column from the Mosque of Tankiz (1317) was used
in the early 1960s, adds further details to al-Rīḥāwī’s. Qazīhā
to replace a damaged column at the Umayyad Mosque.91 These
specifies that a furnace was built to produce over twenty types
interventions invite particular caution about using the current
of tesserae, while the silver and gold tesserae were imported
state of the building and its decoration as a basis for study.
from Italy and Germany. Original tesserae that had fallen from the walls had been collected over the years, and these were
Photographs of the 1920s to 1940s
also reused for repairs at the west gate known as Bāb al-Barīd:
How to distinguish original panels from modern recreations?
in other words, some twentieth-century interventions in this
As noted, in some cases the restorers marked out new areas
area cannot be distinguished through materials alone. Qazīhā
with a red line, but this was not done systematically. Early
also notes that, as a game, local boys used to hit the already
photographs are therefore, once again, key documents for
damaged panels with stones in order to detach tesserae; these
analysing the mosaics. After the First World War, as Islamic
38
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
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p figure 17 West courtyard pier with mosaics set in modern concrete. Alain George, 2010.
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chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
39
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40
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:49:52.
p figure 18 Reproductions of the mosaic panels on the west courtyard wall being painted on paper, 1928–29. © Paris, Musée du Louvre, Phototèque du Départment des Arts de l’Islam, Archives de Lorey, PAI 1059.
art was emerging as a field of modern historical research,
Their respective materials—texts and buildings—share the
K.A.C. Creswell produced an extensive photographic record
fundamental problematiques of memory, erasure, and rewriting.
of the monument at several intervals between the 1920s and
In the Umayyad Mosque, furthermore, these two realities fed
1940s; this body of work was donated, along with the rest of
into each other. From Ibn al-Muʿallā in the ninth century to
his archive, to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and a large
Ibn Kannān in the eighteenth, nearly every Syrian scholar
collection of his prints also exists at the Harvard Fine Arts
who wrote about the mosque had ambled in its courtyard
Library. Other images were taken by Eustache de Lorey, on
and prayed within its walls, witnessing its current state, or
whose initiative nine real-size reproductions of mosaic panels
‘instance’, as they sought to learn about its past. The narratives
on canvas were painted between October 1928 and September
they crafted also shaped the perception of travellers, such
1929 by Fehmi Kabbani, Kamal Kallass, and Nazmi Khair under
as al-Muqaddasī and Ibn Jubayr, and most of all locals. The
the supervision of Lucien Cavro (Figure 18). Their particular
framework set by texts nourished a growing reverence towards
value resides in the level of detail, which records single
the building and oriented attitudes towards its restoration.
tesserae, and colour; they are now kept at the Louvre. The
The mosque and its historiography thus came to form a single
archive of the French architect Michel Ecochard, preserved
compound of unusual temporal and spatial density.
92
at the Aga Khan Documentation Center, also contains several
When it comes to the eighth-century state of the building,
rare images datable to the 1940s. In the 1960s to 2000s, several
two turning points should be noted: the fire of 1069, which
Syrian scholars, notably Adnan Bounni, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rīḥāwī
destroyed a largely preserved Umayyad monument, thereby
and Muṭīʿ Ḥāfiẓ published early images of the mosque, some
increasing the value of prior textual accounts; and the fire of
their own work, others anonymous.93 Given the spread of
1893, which was followed by intrusive modern restorations,
tourism and portable cameras in the twentieth century, many
leaving early photographs as a key record of what was lost.
more photographs from this period must exist in Damascus and
This last fire also marks a change of epoch: it occurred at a
worldwide. The corpus collected in this book is therefore only
time when the perception of the monument’s history was still
the beginning of what could become a larger effort.
steeped in local narratives but the status of traditional modes of learning was receding. Thus, Damascene élites elected
pppp
to rebuild the mosque as a facsimile and avert a reinforced
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concrete rebuilding, but they also showed less reverence than Over the long history of the Umayyad Mosque, disasters and
earlier generations for its historic remains. Paradoxically,
decay led to one major intervention after the other. Many
much loss of early material was guided by the search for the
of these were themselves erased or concealed in their turn.
‘authentic’ Umayyad Mosque, particularly in the 1950s and
These constant evolutions, together with the natural wear
1960s. There is much to be gained, at our point in time, from
of materials, give the monument a deeply accretive nature,
re-embracing the monument in its full complexity. But Umayyad
turning it into an almost organic repository of human
and later layers of building were, of course, not the first in
endeavours in this particular place over the centuries. It is
the history of the site. In order to comprehend the events that
no coincidence that the concept of the palimpsest has been
unfolded in 705, we now need to reach further back in time,
of interest to both literary and architectural historians.
towards the Roman and Christian eras.
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chapter 1 • Palimpsests in Stone and Layered Texts
41
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2 Tangled Memories: The Temple, Church, and First Mosque
T
he Great Mosque of Damascus is one of the oldest continuously used cultic sites in the world. It was already ancient in the eighth century. A temple had
stood there in high antiquity, but the documented history of the site really begins with the first century CE, when the Romans built a massive Temple of Jupiter, the walls of which largely remain as the mosque enclosure of today. With the triumphant rise of Christianity in the fourth century, the Damascene sacred enclosure was closed to pagan cult and reconsecrated to the new religion. Finally, in the seventh century, as armies proclaiming the nascent faith of Islam seized Damascus, they established next to this church a first mosque that would later be remembered
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for its associations with Companions of the Prophet. The three centuries between the closure of the temple and the construction of al-Walīd’s mosque were among the most p The gate of the outer temple enclosure or peribolos with the inner enclosure, or temenos, in the background. The temenos is now the mosque wall. Detail of a photograph by K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.5459. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
momentous in the long history of the site. In what follows, I seek to recover glimpses of this period. Using overlooked archaeological evidence about the cella, the inner sanctuary of the Roman temple, I will first attempt to estimate its position, size, and height, before turning my attention to the church. Its location, as established nearly a century ago by Creswell, will be confirmed.1 Its form, however, is a more complex matter.
43
p figure 19 Tetradrachm with profile portrait of Antiochus XII (obverse) and cult statue of Hadad (reverse). Damascus, 85‒84 or 84‒83 BCE. From Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover, Seleucid Coins, Pt. II, SC 2472.2.
The Cella of the Roman Temple
with embellishments around the time of Septimius Severus
The Damascene temple was built by the Romans in the first
and frames of its four gates, and segments of its original masonry
century CE for the cult of Jupiter, assimilated with the Greek
including most of the west wall up to three stone courses above
(r. 193–211).10 It retains the layout of the Roman wall; the positions
god Zeus and the Semitic god of thunder Hadad, who had
the projecting pilasters; the centre and west of the south wall
probably been worshipped on this site for over a millennium.
below the windows; the north and centre of the east wall; and
The temple consisted of two massive concentric walls: the
the lower courses of the east and west corners of the north wall.11
inner enclosure, or temenos (158 × 99 m), largely preserved
The rest of its perimeter reflects later rebuilding, mostly from
as the walls of the Umayyad Mosque; and the outer enclosure,
the medieval period.
2
or peribolos (393 × 315 m at its largest extent), of which scantier remains are scattered throughout the old city. The
Layout of the Site
slightly trapezoidal shape of the Damascene peribolos has
The sacrificial altar probably stood in the centre of the
earned it the modern denomination Gamma, after the Greek
temenos, at the intersection of the axes defined by its four
letter of the same form. With its 124,000 square metres, the
gates, as was common in Roman temples. Its broad orientation
peribolos had the largest footprint of any in the Mediterranean
seems to be confirmed by a subterranean passageway under
world, with the exception of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem.
the east temenos gate excavated between 1992 and 1994 (Figure
The temenos was primarily intended for rituals performed
20).12 This would have been used to bring sacrificial beasts into
on the altar, under the gaze of a statue or image housed in
the temenos, as they could not easily climb monumental stairs
the cella, a part of the precinct normally reserved to the
and might have damaged them.
3
4
priesthood. Coins minted at Damascus by Antiochius XII show 5
an image of Hadad based on the cult statue as it existed in
The Ten Books on Architecture, a treatise dedicated to Augustus
the first century BCE: a bearded figure standing on a pedestal
at about the time the Damascene temple was being built.
flanked by two bulls, carrying an ear of wheat in the left hand
Vitruvius notes that the cella of a temple and its cult statue
(Figure 19).
should face the western quarter of the sky: this implies a
6
The exact function of the peribolos beyond the temenos, Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
This configuration resonates with a remark in Vitruvius’
theoretical preference for setting the building in the east side
whether for worship or commercial fairs, has been debated.
of the temenos, with the gates opening towards the centre.13
A dozen inscriptions related to the temple have been found
However, he adds:
7
in different parts of the precinct. Four of them have dates between 327 and 402 of the Seleucid era (15–91 CE).8 The Roman
But if the nature of the site is such as to forbid this,
temple was therefore probably begun at the very beginning of
then the principle of determining the quarter should be
the imperial period under Augustus (r. 31 BCE–14 CE), a dating
changed, so that the widest possible view of the city may
confirmed by stylistic analyses of the ornamental stonework.
be had from the sanctuaries of the gods.14
9
The mosque wall as it stands today has undergone numerous repairs and partial reconstructions over the centuries, starting
44
the umayyad mosque of damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
In practice, Roman temple orientation varied widely and
p figure 20 Underground stairs below the east temenos gate, Bāb Jayrūn, excavated in 1992‒94. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 6.
was often towards the east in Syria.15 The principle stated by
of the Khaḍrāʾ [in the south], the Palace of the Two Orphans
Vitruvius—to dominate local topography—is applicable at
(qaṣr al-yatīmayn), the Gold Stone (ḥajar al-dhahab), or Bāb
Damascus. The west wall of the temenos is close, in its current
al-Farādīs [in the north], entry is made at ground level, with
state, to the Roman street level, since it is still uncovered down
no stairs.18
to the base. The prayer hall has also essentially retained its Roman floor level, whereas the street behind it is now several metres higher. Bāb Jayrūn, the east temenos gate, is 5.4 m
In 1897, Archibald Campbell Dickie counted thirty-two steps.19 In 581/1184, Ibn Jubayr gave this further account:
above the Roman street level, to which it was connected by a monumental porch and stairway.16 The eastern temenos must
The most imposing [gate] to look upon is the vestibule
thus have been built on a raised platform.
connected with Bāb Jayrūn. Going forth from this door,
Bāb Jayrūn was the most monumental gate of the Roman temenos and its processional entryway. Standing on top of a hill
one comes to a long and broad portico at the front of which are five arched doorways with six tall columns.20
that sloped down towards the east of Damascus, it remained a Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
major landmark well into the Islamic period. The processional street leading to it, the via sacra of Roman times, has a marked
In 1855, J.L. Porter gave a very similar but more detailed description:
gradient to this day (Figure 21). The earliest source to discuss the gate, al-Masʿūdī, writing in 332/944, links it to ‘Iram of the
Before the eastern gate, called Bab Jeirûn, is a rather curious
Pillars’, the fabled Qurʾanic palace, but provides little by way of
portico. It is shut in by a solid wall at the sides and angles;
a description. Two centuries later, al-Idrīsī (d. 548/1154) noted:
but in front has six columns supporting semi-circular arches;
17
the central arch being nearly double the span of the others. If approaching it [the mosque] from the side of Bāb Jayrūn,
The columns, like those of the interior, are Corinthian; but
one climbs up a large and wide stairway of some thirty
while the latter are in general well-proportioned and finely
marble steps; but from Bāb al-Barīd [in the west], the Dome
executed, those are of a debased style.21
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chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
45
p figure 21 (left) Bāb Jayrūn exterior, present day. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2008.
Richard Phené Spiers, who visited Damascus in 1866, noted
width of the central arch, as described by Porter, only becomes
that the portico had collapsed in 1858. Some of its column bases
apparent without it. Thus, in its Roman (and Umayyad) state,
remained in the early twentieth century. Today, the lateral
Bāb Jayrūn probably had four columns and five arches.
22
walls to the north and south still stand, extensively repaired,
The portico roofing is not described by the sources, but
with their Roman engaged pilasters (Figure 22). This, together
according to Porter, the central arch was nearly twice the width
with the position of columns recorded in early publications,
of the others, which suggests a ‘Syrian’ type of pediment.24 One of
makes it possible to estimate the original dimensions of the
the best-preserved examples belongs to the Damascene temple
portico: it was 18.39 m deep from temenos wall to outer pilaster
enclosure itself: the west peribolos gate adjoining the modern
and about 28 m wide from wall to wall.
Sūq al-Ḥamīdiyye, which originally had four columns framed
23
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p figure 22 (above) Bāb Jayrūn, gate visible on the left and the remains of the north portico wall on the right. Sean Leatherbury/ Manar al-Athar, 2010.
Ibn Jubayr counted five arches in the portico, whereas Ibn
by two pillars with engaged semi-columns (Figure 24). Its width,
Baṭṭūṭa and Porter saw six columns, which would suggest seven
based on Dickie’s measurements, is about 24 m which is close to
arches. Because it is framed by walls, Creswell assumed that
the 28 m of Bāb Jayrūn.25 Both gates may thus have been broadly
there was a flat architrave rather than an arch at each end of
comparable in design, with two engaged columns and four
the gate. But Porter recorded five columns on his schematic
freestanding ones, which tallies with the above total of six.
ground plan, including one that nearly faced the axis between Bāb Jayrūn and the east peribolos gate (Figure 23). That column
The 1962–63 Soundings
must have been added later for structural support, as its position
The Roman structures within the temenos have never been
jarred with the alignment of the Roman colonnade. The larger
documented or indeed seen, except for a fleeting glimpse
46
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
p figure 23 (above) Ground plan of the mosque, J.L. Porter, Five Years in Damascus, vol. 1, between pages 60 and 61.
p figure 24 (below) West peribolos entrance, view from the east. Alain George, 2010.
caught between 1962 and 1963. At that time, archaeological soundings revealed the foundations of an ancient building between the treasury on columns known as the Bayt al-Māl and the prayer hall façade. These were on a massive scale, over 4 m wide, and were unearthed across a length of 20 m along the east–west axis, leaving their extension buried towards the centre of the courtyard (Figures 25, 26, 27 and 28). These foundations formed a corner just to the north of the Umayyad Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
triple arch leading to the west entrance vestibule (Bāb al-Barīd) and were surrounded by a pit filled with earth and rubble. A platform stood within these peripheral foundations and was linked to them by two narrow underground bridges (Figures 25 and 26). A massive fluted column fragment had crashed onto the floor of the platform, probably after a fall from a great height. The importance of these findings must have immediately struck the archaeologists involved, but their work came to an abrupt end due to an unspecified conflict of interests— possibly with the direction of Islamic religious endowments,
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
47
original publications are hard to find, and each image contains
p figure 25 Excavations in the Mosque courtyard, 1962–63. View from the centre of the north arcade roof. From Ḥāfiẓ, Al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, 164.
fragments of evidence not seen in the others. The fifth image, from Akili’s book, was too small to allow its inclusion here: it shows a perspective similar to that in Ḥāfiẓ’s image (Figure 25),
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
but with a wider angle. It is not known whether additional the Awqaf, which has authority over the mosque.26 This ill-fated
records of the sounding exist, and the current situation in
campaign was not to be published and the earliest photograph
Syria has made it impossible to investigate private and public
that I know of only surfaced two decades later among a series of
archives in Damascus. One is left to mine this very limited
others in a book by Muḥammad Muṭīʿ Ḥāfiẓ, without comment
documentation for potential insights on the pre-Islamic
(Figure 25). Another two decades would elapse before Adnan
history of the site.
27
Bounni (1926–2008), the long-time Director of Excavations at the Syrian Department of Antiquities and Museums, published three
Identification of the Remains
further images accompanied by a few lines of commentary in a
Three indications of scale were provided by Bounni: the width
general article about the mosque (Figures 26, 27 and 28).28 A fifth
of the foundations (about 4 m), the length over which they were
photograph appears in Talal Akili’s recent book on the mosque.
excavated (20 m, presumably along the east–west axis, albeit
29
These five images represent nearly all the available information about the remains. Four of them are reproduced here since the
48
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
without reaching the end of the structure) and the diameter of the column shaft (about 1.80 m).30 Further elements that appear
p figure 26 (above left) Excavations in the Mosque courtyard, 1962–63. View from the centre of the prayer hall façade. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 2.
p figure 27 (above right) Excavations in the Mosque courtyard, 1962–63. View from the west end of the prayer hall roof. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 3.
p figure 28 (right) Excavations in the Mosque courtyard, 1962–63. View from the northwest. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 4.
p figure 29 (below) Excavations in the Mosque courtyard, 1962–63. Photograph with outline of key lengths. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 2.
in the photographs also have known dimensions: the columns of the domed Bayt al-Māl rise 4.56 m from floor level to the top of capitals;31 the adjoining arcade columns measure 6.79 m to the top of the impost.32 The foundation wall next to the inner pit is six to seven
B
stone courses wide: this must be the structure said by Bounni to have measured about 4 m, since its width is nearly equal to Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
the height of the Bayt al-Māl columns (Figure 29, A). However,
D
these foundations extend outwards for another 2 m with a slight differential in level, as can be seen most clearly on the west
D
side, which runs parallel to the courtyard colonnade (B). They may be even larger: in the photographs, their continuation is concealed on one side by the courtyard flooring, and on
C
A
the other by rubble from the excavations. In either case, the width of the original foundations must have been at least 6 m (A+B). Their depth, in turn, was no less than 4 m (C), since it can be seen to match the height of the Bayt al-Māl columns,
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
chapter 2 • tangled memories
49
p figure 30 (below) Foundations of cella at the Temple of Bel, Palmyra, 32 CE. From Seyrig, Amy, and Will, Le temple de Bêl, 2, pl. 10.
p figure 31 (opposite left) Foundations of northwest cella corner at the Temple of Bel, Palmyra, 32 CE. From Seyrig, Amy, and Will, Le temple de Bêl, 1, pl. 10.1.
but again its full extent may have been larger. Above the
both sites share a massive outer foundation rectangle for the
foundations, one can discern several pipes, probably Islamic,
peristyle (A, B, and C in Figure 29), similar foundations for the
running from west to east within a thin layer of sandy rubble
cella walls (Figure 31), perpendicular foundation bridges to link
or soil (Figure 28).
these two parts of the design (Figure 29, D, and Figure 30), and
The scale of these foundations evokes the most monumental Roman architecture. At the Temple of Bel in Palmyra,
smaller rubble stones for the cella floor (Figure 28). The foundations of early Christian buildings have rarely
soundings have revealed a wall-like facing extending 13 to 15 m
been documented archaeologically but most churches, not
below ground level, down to a bedrock of compact clay (Figure
being as tall as the cellas of major temples, generally did not
30). As in Damascus, there were two distinct foundation
require such massive substructures. The largest Christian
walls, one for the cella wall and the other for the columns that
buildings, however, should be considered as possible exceptions
surrounded them (the peristyle). These were probably followed
to the rule. The Nea Church built by Justinian (r. 527–65) in
by a stepped base (the crepidoma). Similarly, at the Temple
Jerusalem must have been among the most monumental of its
of Artemis at Gerasa, the peristyle and cella walls stand on
age: partial excavations have suggested dimensions of more
foundation walls about 2.4 m thick. Between these foundations
than 100 x 52 m (5,200 sq. m) for the main body of the basilica,
are passageways and chambers entered down steps. The
and nearly 140 x 52 m (7,280 sq. m) if one includes the narthex
parallel between Damascus and Palmyra is particularly close:
and atrium.36 This makes the main body alone nearly equal in
33
34
35
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p figure 32 (opposite right) Chamber to the south of Bāb al-Barīd along the west temenos wall. From Bounni, ‘Du temple païen à la mosquée’, fig. 7.
50
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
size to the prayer hall at the Mosque of Damascus (about 136 x 37 m, 5,032 sq. m) and the entire building larger than a football pitch (105 x 68 m, 7,140 sq. m).37 In the Nea, the foundation wall segment from which the main arcade must have sprung was wide (2.4 m), but less so than in the Damascus soundings (at least 4 m); it could still have supported a very tall structure.38 Only the much more compact
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apse wall had wider foundations (6.50 m).39 Because the church was built on a natural hill, on one side its foundations required
Footprint of the Cella
the construction of a massive vaulted structure that was later
Judging from the pattern typical of other temples of the Syrian
turned into a water cistern. In other parts of the building, the
region, the cella in Damascus would have been bisected by
wall foundations reached down to the bedrock. They formed,
the east–west axis between Bāb al-Barīd and Bāb Jayrūn.41 The
in the words of the chief excavator, ‘a network of “boxes”
foundations form a corner that is aligned with the north pillar
reaching a uniform height, which were subsequently filled
of Bāb al-Barīd (Figure 26). The two rooms abutting the west
with tremendous amounts of earth fills’. Thus, the scale and
temenos wall have massive ashlar masonry consistent with a
construction technique of its foundations differ from those
Roman date (Figure 32).42 Their recess forms the vestibule of
revealed by the 1962–63 soundings at Damascus. Although
Bāb al-Barīd, which must therefore have framed the cella wall
the available data is limited, it points to the likelihood of the
in Roman times, giving the latter a width of about 13 m.43 To
excavated foundations being those of a major Roman temple.
reach the full cella width, one must add about 1.50 m for each
This conclusion seems reinforced, again tentatively,
pit and at least another 2 m for the peristyle columns and their
by the impact of the massive Roman shaft fragment that
bases. This adds up to no less than 20 m.
40
became lodged deep in the foundations: its presence there can scarcely be explained if these foundations are post-Roman.
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
The extent of the cella towards the centre of the temenos in the east is unknown. Vitruvius gives the ideal proportions
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
51
Temple
A. Column diameter
B. Column height
C. Ratio of column height to diameter
D. Cella walls
E. Cella within peristyle
F. Cella height
G. Temenos size
H. Peribolos size
BAALBEK ‘Bacchus’ 2nd century
1.79 m (peristyle and corner, plain); 1.65 m (anta, fluted)
17.59 m (peristyle); 16.09 (anta)
9.83 (peristyle); 9.75 (anta)
22.26 × 46.55 m
33.47 × 65.30 m
≃ 26.50 m
–
–
BAALBEK Jupiter 1st century
2.08 m (peristyle, plain) 1.78 m (anta, fluted)
19.76 m (peristyle)
9.5 (peristyle)
–
44.98 × 85.02 m
≃ 32 m
101 × 105 m (forecourt only)
–
DAMASCUS Jupiter 1st‒2nd century
≃ 1.80 m
–
–
≃ 13 m (width)
>20 m (width)
–
99 × 158 m
393 × 315 m (max.)
GERASA Artemis 2nd century
1.48 to 1.50 m
13.07 to 13.25 m
8.71 to 8.95
13.37 × 24.15 m (excl. antae)
22.6 × 40.1 m
–
88 × 124 m
121 × 161 m
PALMYRA Bel 32 CE
1.36 m
15.81 m
11.63
14.58 × 40.21 m
30.05 × 55.60 m
≃ 24 m (to top of pediment, excl. stepped base)
ca. 200 × 200 m
–
p table 2 Dimensions of the Damascene cella and of other Roman temples from the eastern Mediterranean.44
of temples as 2:1 for the peristyle and 5:4 for the cella walls.
diameter of about 1.80 m is smaller than that of the plain
In practice, the proportions of the largest temples with
peristyle columns at the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek (2.08 m),
peristyles were often close to 2:1, as at the temples of Jupiter
and virtually identical to that of the fluted columns that project
and ‘Bacchus’ in Baalbek and the Temple of Artemis in Gerasa.
at the front of the same temple, the anta (1.78 m). The peristyle
Different values are also attested: for instance, the ratio
columns of the ‘Temple of Bacchus’ in Baalbek are of the same
was unusually large at the Temple of Bel (close to 11:4) and
scale (1.79 m). The Damascene shaft otherwise exceeds the
conversely, some temples had a more compact footprint. At
column size of other Roman temples in this region (Table 2), or
Damascus, the north and south temenos gates are slightly off-
indeed elsewhere. The columns of the porch at the Pantheon in
centre (they currently face the east wall of the transept rather
Rome, for instance, have a diameter of ‘only’ 1.48 m, although
than its central door), probably because the altar stood on their
being granite monoliths, they presented a technical challenge
axis: this could suggest relatively elongated cella proportions,
different to composite stone columns.47
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45
although the idea is speculative.
In major temples of Roman Syria, the ratio of column diameter to height was between about 1:9 and 1:11 (Table 2).
Cella Elevation and Proportions
This largely overlaps with the theoretical claims of Vitruvius,
The fluted shaft fragment discovered among the foundations
who gives a range of proportions between 1:8 and 1:10.48
can provide evidence about the height of the cella.46 Its massive
Therefore the Damascus fragment probably belonged to a shaft
52
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
with a height between about 14 m (if the proportion was 1:8) and
The Church within the Temenos and the First Mosque
20 m (if it was 1:11). To this should be added the height of the column base (according to Vitruvius, half the width of a column,
In the fourth century, the fortunes of Christians in the Roman
hence about 90 cm in the present case), and the capital (which
Empire shifted dramatically. After centuries of persecution, their
was equal to the column width at the base in the Corinthian
faith was officially recognised at Milan in 313 by the Roman
order). This would put the total height of the original columns
emperors Constantine and Licinius. Constantine gradually
at Damascus between 16.50 and 22.50 m—and probably at the
asserted his own Christian faith and placed legal restrictions
lower end of this range, since even the gigantic columns at
on blood sacrifice, although temples remained open and other
Baalbek did not reach 20 m (Table 2, column B). Judging from
ceremonies, such as libation and the offering of incense, were
other temples, the entablature and pediment may have added
still permitted.54 In Jerusalem, the Temple of Aphrodite had
nearly 10 m to the elevation.50 These figures, which can only
been built by Hadrian (r. 117–38) on Golgotha, the site of the
serve to give an order of magnitude, suggest a cella height of
Crucifixion, thereby putting it off limits for Christian worship.
at least 26 m without counting the podium or stepped base
Constantine destroyed it and built in its place the Church of the
(crepidoma), for which the evidence is missing. The apex of
Holy Sepulchre, the first major imperially sponsored Christian
this building must thus have soared above the Roman temenos,
monument. This was a bold measure in a hitherto pagan
which currently has a height of nearly 11 m, although it has lost
world, which set a precedent for the closure and destruction
some of its crowning parts. The temple precinct would have
of temples, especially on Biblical sites.
49
51
dominated the city not only by its sheer mass, but also by its
was probably not an immediate target for conversion. As the
to the east.
fourth century wore on however, the official Roman stance
The cella may have had fluted columns only, as at the
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The Temple of Damascus, being devoid of such associations,
height, especially if approached from the processional route
towards pagan cults gradually hardened. The Theodosian Code
Temple of Bel in Palmyra, or a combination of fluted and plain
records in chronological order laws promulgated between the
columns, as at the temples of ‘Bacchus’ and Jupiter in Baalbek.
reigns of Constantine (who was sole emperor from 324 until
Even though its height must have been comparable to that
his death in 337), and Theodosius (375–95): pagan sacrifice
of both Heliopolitan sanctuaries, it was slightly over half the
was outlawed in 341 and an imperial decree of 346 stipulated
width of the Temple of Bacchus, making it appear taller but
that ‘the temples shall be immediately closed in all places
less massive. Similar configurations can be observed at the
and in all cities, and access to them forbidden, so as to deny
temples of Bel at Palmyra and Artemis at Gerasa, albeit with
to all abandoned men the opportunity to commit sin’.55 From
less accentuated heights. Indeed, in order to gain an idea of the
356, under Constantius II (r. 337–61), the making of sacrificial
scale of the cella within the temenos, one need look no further
offerings and the worship of idols became punishable by death.
than the transept of the Umayyad Mosque: its width of 22.10 m
It is difficult to know how far these measures were applied
is close to our estimate for the cella peristyle (over 20 m), and
in societies that remained largely pagan, and the fate of the
its height of 30.84 m to the crown of the pediment makes it
Damascene temple in this period is unknown.
taller than the cella might have been, but not by a large margin
After a period of renewed official backing under Julian (later
(unless one includes the transept dome, which would have risen
known as ‘the Apostate’, r. 360–63),56 then of toleration under
some 10 m above the gable).52 This surprising convergence may
the co-emperors Valens (364–78) and Valentinian I (364–75),
not be entirely coincidental, as we shall see.
the tide turned irreversibly against pagan worship under
53
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Theodosius. Between 391 and 392, he made it illegal to enter
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
53
a temple or approach a shrine and, in addition to sacrifice,
metres.57 Cella conversions could also involve the dismantling
proscribed more benign forms of pagan worship such as
of the inner walls combined with either the walling of the
incense burning and giving gifts to idols. It is also during his
surrounding columns or the construction of lateral aisles and
reign that, according to textual sources, the Temple of Jupiter
walls.58 The aim was to enlarge a space originally designed to
at Damascus was turned into a church.
house a cult statue, but too exiguous for a congregation. The conversion of temples to Christian use was, furthermore, often
Textual Narratives of Conversion
preceded by periods of abandonment—which was also the long-
How was the site transformed for Christian worship? The
term fate of many such precincts.59 With these possibilities in mind, let us turn to textual
archaeology of temple conversion suggests three main scenarios: the destruction of the cella and its replacement
accounts of the conversion. Three extant Christian sources
by a church, the closure of the cella and construction of an
assert that Theodosius was responsible for the conversion of
adjacent church, as at the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, or
the Damascene temple into a church: the Armenian chronicle
the conversion of the cella into a church, as at the Temple
of Movses Xorenac‘i (Moses of Khoren, fifth century), the
of Bel in Palmyra—where this transformation was marked
Greek chronicle of John Malalas (ca. 490–after 570), and the
by the addition of Christian frescoes up to a height of eight
anonymous Greek Chronicon Paschale (seventh century).
Movses Xorenacʻi
John Malalas
Chronicon Paschale
(Armenian, fifth century)
(Greek, ca. 490‒after 570)
(Greek, seventh century)
As soon as he began to reign, he
In the time of these consuls [Ausonius
[Theodosius] immediately returned
and Olybrius], Theodosius the emperor
the churches to the Orthodox, issuing
gave the churches to the Orthodox,
rescripts everywhere and expelling
after enacting rescripts everywhere,
the Arians. The emperor crowned
and expelled from them the so-called
his two sons…
Arian Exokionites, and he razed the
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shrines of the Hellenes to the ground. He [Theodosius] tore down to the
The emperor Theodosius razed all the
The celebrated Constantine, while he
ground the temples of the idols,
shrines of the Hellenes to the ground.
was emperor, only closed the temples
which had only been closed by Saint
He also destroyed (κατέλυσε) the large
and shrines of the Hellenes; this
Constantine, those dedicated to the
and famous temple of Helioupolis,
Theodosius also destroyed (κατέλυσεν)
sun and to Artemis and to Aphrodite
known as Trilithon, and made it a
them, including the Temple of Balanius
in Byzantium. He likewise destroyed
church for the Christians. Likewise
at Heliopolis, the great and renowned
(awereac‘) the Temple of Damascus
he made (έποίησεν) the Temple of
Trilithon, and made it a Christian church.
and made it into a church, and did
Damascus a Christian church. He made
Likewise too he made (έποίησεν) the
the same to the Temple of Heliopolis,
many other temples into churches and
temple at Damascus a Christian church.
the great and famous Trilithon of
Christianity advanced further during
And Christian affairs were further exalted
Lebanon.
his reign.
in the course of his reign.62
60
54
61
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p figure 33 Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek with the Christian basilica in the temenos, late fourth to midfifth century CE. The level of destruction of the two temples at that time is uncertain. Visualisation by Friedrich Ragette. From Ragette, Baalbek, 70.
The Greek versions are virtually identical with regard to Theodosius. The version of Movses Xorenacʻi, though written
also assert that Theodosius ‘razed the shrines of the Hellenes
in Armenian, has the same content and structure—the temples
to the ground (καταστρέφω)’; this implies that destruction was
of the Acropolis at Constantinople, which appear in this text,
the intended meaning in the case of Damascus, a conclusion
are also mentioned a few lines later by Malalas. Its Greek
supported by the more explicit Armenian wording awereac‘
derivation seems confirmed by the use of the Armenian
(‘he destroyed’).64
zerek‘k‘areann, ‘three-stoned’, to refer to Baalbek: this is a calque Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
etymologically means ‘to pull apart’, ‘to dismantle’. Both sources
The evidence from Baalbek, situated only some 50 km
of the Greek Trilithon, the name given to the three massive
to the northwest of Damascus, invites a more cautious
foundation stones for which the Heliopolitan sanctuary was
interpretation since the famous Trilithon, the Temple of Jupiter
famous. These three versions thus appear to stem from the
Heliopolitanus, was never destroyed and six gigantic columns
same Greek source, which each writer has lightly edited to fit
from its south peristyle side still stand today, while much of the
his own narrative.
adjoining ‘Temple of Bacchus’ also remains. It is conceivable
63
Both Greek versions state that Theodosius ‘made’ (έποίησεν) the Damascene temple into a church, a generic term which notionally could convey different types of conversion. The verb used in the preceding sentence about Baalbek (καταλύω)
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
that these temples underwent some partial degradation at the time, although there is no clear evidence that they did.65 A three-aisled early Christian basilica was built in the forecourt of the Trilithon (Figure 33).66 The remains of this
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
55
building were excavated and documented in the early twentieth
There is there a monastery at the second milestone,
century, then removed to reach the Roman strata below. The
where Saint Paul was converted in the street which is
church had been built atop the monumental pagan altar, which
called Straight, where many miracles are wrought.70
was razed, and from which stones were reused for the basilica. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Christ appeared to
The hexagonal entrance court to the Roman sanctuary was roofed and the church apse made to encroach on the stairs of
Saul (the future Paul) on the road to Damascus, in a vision of
the cella and obstruct access to it. Symbolically, these gestures
such radiance that he was thrown to the ground and left blind
enacted the consecration of the site to Christian worship and
for three days. His eyesight was miraculously restored by a
the triumph of the new religion of the empire. In a second
Christian called Ananias in the house of Judas, a Jew who lived
stage, the apse was moved from the west to the east, leading to
on Straight Street. The Piacenza pilgrim mentions a monastery
the impractical arrangement of a monument facing away from
of Saint Paul on the same street, implying that he was standing
the main entrance porch. While most scholars see the basilica
literally steps away from the Damascene temenos. But instead
as Theodosian, it has recently been argued that some aspects of
of mentioning it, he moves on to Baalbek and Emesa (Homs)
the decoration and structure point to a mid-fifth century date.
in the next sentence.
67
This brings into question the assertions of the sources even
After the above accounts of temple conversion, the first
about the moment of conversion, and would suggest a period of
source to record the existence of the church within the
abandonment prior to the reconsecration of the site.
Damascene temenos was De locis sanctis, a Latin treatise on
The material remains at Baalbek reveal a reality more
the Holy Land written by Adomnán (d. 704), the abbot of Iona
complex than the texts would suggest. The common source
in far-flung Scotland. Adomnán names Arculf, a bishop from
shared by Movses Xorenacʻi, John Malalas and the Chronicon
Gaul, as his informant. The identity of Arculf and his very
Paschale was making a statement about the triumph of
existence have been questioned,71 but whatever Adomnán’s
Christianity rather than architecture. Their combined evidence
source may have been, it is clear that he possessed information
cannot therefore be exploited to understand the nature of the
about the eastern Mediterranean around 670, during the
church inside the temenos.
reign of Muʿāwiya (who is named in the text).72 The passage on Damascus, which occurs between the sections on Galilee and
An Elusive Church
Tyre, reads as follows:
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None of the early Christian writers who mention Damascene churches refer to a sanctuary within the temenos. Procopius,
The great royal city of Damascus, as Arculf relates, who
writing about the buildings of Justinian I, lists a Church of
lodged for some days in it, is situated on a broad plain,
Leontius founded by this emperor and presumably dedicated
surrounded by an ample circuit of walls, and fortified
to the famous Syrian saint buried at Tripoli in Lebanon.
moreover by several towers, with several olive orchards
Anastasius of Sinai (fl. ca. 649–700) also mentions a Court of
in the territory surrounding the walls. Four great rivers,
Saint Cyprian in Damascus, without any further detail. The
which flow through it, make it pleasingly fertile. There
Piacenza pilgrim (ca. 570), like Sophronius (early seventh
the king of the Saracens reigns, having acquired his
century) and Willibald (720s) after him, primarily connects
empire. There, too, a great church has been founded in
the city with the conversion of Saint Paul:
honour of the holy John the Baptist. The unbelieving
68
69
Saracens have also constructed a kind of church in this same city, which they frequent.73
56
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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Adomnán, writing from the British Isles a mere two to four
Alexandria, and expanded from the eleventh century onwards,
decades into the Umayyad period, correctly notes that the
we also read: ‘It was a very beautiful church, the like of which
Arabs had established their capital at Damascus. He refers
could not be found in Syria.’80 Without exception, these vague
to a ‘kind of church’ (quaedam eclesia) that they built, in other
portrayals form part of entries about its destruction. They are
words the first mosque. He is also the first author to mention
rhetorical tools depicting al-Walīd as moved by a base feeling
that a church in Damascus was named after the Baptist. He
of envy towards the greatness of Christian accomplishments,
does not allude to the form of either building or to their relative
in what seems like aggrandisement after the fact.
locations which, from the account alone, could be construed as
In sum, the church within the temenos has left only the faintest of traces in the pre-Islamic historical record.
belonging to different sites. Two Syriac sources, Michael the Syrian (d. 1199) and the
Religious travellers did not stop there, or if they did, what they
anonymous Chronicle of 1234, report that in Damascus during
encountered did not seem worthy of their notice. Damascus in
the caliphate of ʿUthmān (r. 23–35/644–56), ʿAmr ibn Saʿd
the sixth to eighth centuries was mainly of interest to Christians
‘ordered all crosses to be extirpated and effaced’ from the
for its associations with Saint Paul and Straight Street.
public sphere, and so ‘one Jew had climbed onto the roof of the great temple of John the Baptist (hayklō rabō d-yuḥanōn
Location of the Church
maʿmdōnō) and had broken off the cross’. Like Adomnán,
The only discursive space in which further memories of the
they name the church after the Baptist, but this has limited
church are preserved is in the Arab-Muslim tradition. While
evidential value as, by their period, the name had also become
al-Walīd’s three panegyrists paint an eloquent (and disparaging)
current in Arabic sources.75
image of Muslim-Christian cohabitation in the temenos during
74
It was only after its destruction that the church started being
the first seven decades of Islam, they do not venture into a
widely mentioned by Christian writers. The earliest account
description of the church. From an early date however, the
may have been by Theophilus of Edessa (695–775), although his
Syrian historiographical tradition showed an interest in its
account of the event cannot be precisely reconstructed from later
location, and to a lesser extent its form. Anecdotes recorded
citations of his (lost) Syriac chronicle. Theophanes Confessor
by ninth-century traditionists have the Companions ʿAbd Allāh
(d. 818), writing in Greek from the region of Constantinople, set
ibn Masʿūd and ʿAṭiyya ibn Qays teaching on the steps of the
the tone for later Christian narratives by declaring:
church in the seventh century. This could imply the existence
76
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of a crepidoma, podium, or entrance stairway into the building; Walīd seized the most holy cathedral of Damascus. The
but the references are laconic and the detail may simply have
wretched man did this out of envy of the Christians,
been added for narrative effect.81 The following anecdote was
because this church was surpassingly beautiful.77
recorded by Ibn ʿAsākir (499–571/1105–76), followed by others, on the authority of Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-Fasawī (also al-Basawī,
Later Syriac writers call it the ‘great and splendid temple of
d. 277/891):
Saint John’ (Chronicle of 1234, and probably Dionysius of Tell Maḥrē, fl. 818–45), or simply the ‘great church’ (ʿidtō rabtō) of
Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Samarqandī told us, Abū Bakr ibn
Damascus (Michael the Syrian).78 The Arabic equivalent of
al-Ṭabarī declared, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl declared,
the latter expression (al-bīʿa al-kabīra) was used by Agapius
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar declared, Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said,
(Ar. Maḥbūb, writing in the 940s). In a later recension of
I asked Hishām ibn ʿAmmār about the story of the mosque
the history composed in 935–40 by Eutychius, patriarch of
of Damascus and the destruction of the church. He said:
79
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chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
57
… Its gate [of the church] was what is now the qibla of the
memories were cultivated by local circles in the ninth century
mosque, the mihrab in which people pray.
is confirmed by Abū ʿUbayd ibn Sallām (d. 224/839), who notes
82
at the end of a story about the church: ‘They showed me its Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān is a plausible source for this information:
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originally from Fasā in Fars (Iran), he is known from his own
location there, and the side it was on before its destruction.’86 Al-Fasawī’s account resonates with the most conspicuous
works to have travelled to Damascus in 217/832–33, 219/834–35
remnant of the church: the Greek biblical inscription over
and 241/855–56.83 His presence there is corroborated by the
the triple gate that marked the southern temenos entrance,
local scholar Abū Zurʿa, who also cites the same transmitter,
(Figure 34).87 Of the four Roman monumental gateways, only
Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, for some of his recollections about
this one has a Christian inscription, which confirms a shift of
Damascus. Hishām (153–245/770–859) began his instruction
emphasis from Bāb Jayrūn, the processional entry to the east of
in the late eighth century with Damascene authorities, some
the Roman temple, towards the south gate. What did people see
of whom had been born in the Umayyad era. The anecdote
from this vantage point in the seventh century? Let us turn to a
thus reflects a local transmission chain with a relatively short
passage from Ibn Kathīr (ca. 700–74/1300–73):
84
85
generational span. The fact that it purports to record, the location of the entrance gate to the church and first mosque,
The site of this mosque [of Damascus] used to be a church
belongs to the public realm: it would have been known to
called the Church of John (kanīsat yūḥannā). When the
anyone living in Damascus before 705. That such topographical
Companions conquered Damascus, they divided it in half.
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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p figure 34 Detail of central gate lintel with Greek inscription, triple gate of south temenos wall. Alain George, 2010.
They took the eastern side and made it into a mosque, and
Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir are late writers, and unlike
the west side remained a church from the year 14 [635–36]
Ibn ʿAsākir, they do not cite their sources, so that one could
until that year [i.e. 86/705].88
suspect a process of ‘growing backward’, a phrase coined by Rafael Talmon to describe religious narratives that
The account can, at first sight, seem to imply that a large
become increasingly detailed with successive generations of
church building was divided between Christians and Muslims.
transmitters.91 On the other hand, through comparisons with
But, as long ago argued by Creswell, the whole temenos area
the extant works of Abū Zurʿa, Ibn al-Fayḍ al-Ghassānī and
is the ‘church’ in this Arabic text. The same concept operated
al-Rabaʿī, some of their accounts can be shown to preserve
in reverse in the (lost) foundation inscription of the Umayyad
ample early material. Erroneous information can nevertheless
Mosque, which identified the whole site as the ‘mosque’
appear in these same works, which invites constant caution in
replacing ‘the church that was in it’. Al-Nābigha had likewise
approaching their contents. For instance, Ibn Kathīr states at
proclaimed in the same years: ‘You plucked their church from
one point in his chronicle that ʿAbd al-Malik built the Dome of
out our mosque’ (v. 12).
the Rock, but elsewhere he mistakenly attributes it to al-Walīd.92
89
Ibn Kathīr’s statement thus asserts that the church stood in
On their own merits these two anecdotes should neither be
the west side of the temenos, and the first mosque in the east.
accepted, nor rejected out of hand; further sources should be
A passage attributed by Ibn Shākir (686–764/1287–1363) to Ibn
interrogated on this question.
ʿAsākir, and which occurs in some manuscripts of the latter’s History of Damascus, provides further details about this spatial
The First Mosque and the Gate of the Khaḍrāʾ
configuration:
The passage above attributed to Ibn ʿAsākir refers to the second mihrab of the Umayyad Mosque, which lies to the east of
After him [Abū ʿUbayda, one of the Companions credited
the central mihrab and is known today as the Mihrab of the
with the conquest of Damascus], the Companions stood
Companions (miḥrāb al-ṣaḥāba). In the earliest detailed description
in the spot called Mihrab of the Companions. The wall
of the mosque, al-Muqaddasī (late tenth century) notes:
had not yet been carved to create a concave mihrab, but they held their prayers in this blessed spot. Muslims and
To the left [of the central mihrab] is another mihrab,
Christians entered by the same door, which was that
inferior to the first, for the authorities. Its centre had
of the original temple, on the qibla side where there is
crumbled (tashaʿʿat) so I heard that 500 dinars were spent
now the large mihrab. Then the Christians turned to the
to restore it.93
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west towards their church, and the Muslims to the right towards their mosque.90
Thus, in the tenth century, an ‘inferior’ mihrab on the left side of the prayer hall was reserved for the ruler, rather than
The passage, which is echoed in Ibn Kathīr, posits a coherent
the larger, more lavish central mihrab built by al-Walīd. The
spatial scheme with the church again in the west half of the
large sum spent on its repair confirms its status, even though
temenos, the first mosque in the southeastern part where the
al-Muqaddasī does not associate it with the Companions. The
‘Mihrab of the Companions’ stands today, and Muʿāwiya’s palace
first text to make this connection may arguably be a passage
abutting its wall to the south. It echoes al-Fasawī’s assertion
by Ibn ʿAsākir about the Qulayla, the famous pearl that used
that people used to enter this area through the triple gate on the
to hang in the mosque. In an account of its theft at the time of
south side.
the Abbasid caliph al-Amīn (r. 193–98/809–13), he writes that it
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
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59
‘used to be in the Mihrab of the Companions’.94 It is impossible
is the area in front of the mihrab reserved for the ruler and his
to establish whether this mention belongs to an early form of
entourage, often demarcated by a screen or platform in early
the anecdote or was added in the course of later transmissions
Islam. Al-Muqaddasī is probably here referring to the central
to identify the location. The only certainty is that it carried this
mihrab, hence the transept.
name by the time of Ibn ʿAsākir in the twelfth century, when
A few decades later, in the early eleventh century, al-Rabaʿī
ʿAlī al-Harawī also identified a Maqsura of the Companions in
stated that Bāb al-Khaḍrāʾ (the ‘Gate of the Khaḍrāʾ’) stood ‘after
the mosque.
the maqsura’ if one came from Bāb al-Sāʿāt.100 Since the latter
95
Beyond this landmark, the sources preserve virtually no
gate was on the west half of the qibla wall, this sequence places
memory of a seventh-century mosque. Al-Farazdaq calls it ‘a
Bāb al-Khaḍrāʾ in its east half, after the transept. Ibn Jubayr
mosque where fragrant words are read’ (v. 23), but this does not
visited the mosque in 581/1184, at a time when it had acquired
necessarily imply the existence of a building since, as already
a third mihrab on the west side. His account reflects the same
noted, the word ‘mosque’ was used to encompass the whole
spatial configuration:
temenos in this period. An anecdote recorded by Ibn al-Fayḍ al-Ghassānī states that ‘ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān often attended
The blessed mosque has three maqsuras. One is the
the circle of Umm al-Dardāʾ at the back (muʾakhkhar) of the
Maqsura of the Companions—may God hold them in His
Mosque of Damascus when he was caliph’. Umm al-Dardāʾ,
favour—which was the first maqsura ever built in Islam.
a wife of the Companion Abū al-Dardāʾ, was an important
It was erected by Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān—may God hold
early hadith transmitter, so the reference to the ‘back of the
him in His favour. Beside its mihrab, to the right of him
mosque’ stands as a narrative device to assert moral hierarchy.
who looks to the qibla, is the iron gate by which Muʿāwiya
It is ostensibly not about space, and even if taken at face value,
used to come into the maqsura and to the mihrab. Facing
would not necessarily imply the existence of a dedicated
this mihrab, towards the right, is the place of prayer
building. The only source to make this claim remains Adomnán,
(muṣallā) of Abū al-Dardāʾ—may God hold him in His
who describes it laconically as a ‘kind of church’. It seems
favour. Behind it used to be the palace (dār) of Muʿāwiya—
plausible that a building was erected in front of the eastern
may God hold him in His favour—which is now the great
mihrab, if only to shelter worshippers from the elements;
row (simāṭ) of coppersmiths. It runs along the qibla wall
but if so, like the first mosque on Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
of the mosque, and there is no more beautiful-looking
it has left barely any trace in Muslim historical memory.97
row than this, nor bigger in length and breadth. Behind
96
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The Khaḍrāʾ was the famed Damascene palace of Muʿāwiya
it and close-by is the cavalry barrack of Muʿāwiya, which
(r. 41–60/661–80) and later Umayyad caliphs; its name literally
today is inhabited, and in which the cloth-fullers have a
means ‘the green’, after the colour of its dome (which may
place. The length of this Maqsura of the Companions is
in fact have been a hue closer to blue). It lost its status as the
forty-four spans (shibr) and its breadth is half the length.101
nerve centre of the Muslim empire after the fall of the dynasty By then, the eastern mihrab and maqsura had become
in 750 but continued to stand until its destruction in the fire of 1069, serving variously as a barracks, a mint, and a prison.
firmly associated with the Companions, and a nearby spot
Several sources state that the Khaḍrāʾ was connected to the
commemorated Abū al-Dardāʾ. To its right, hence in the
mosque through a dedicated gateway. Al-Muqaddasī observes:
direction of the central mihrab, stood the iron gate through
‘From the Khaḍrāʾ, which is the palace of the authorities, are
which Muʿāwiya entered the building for prayer. Immediately
plated and gilded doors leading to the maqsura’. The maqsura
behind this wall were the remains of his palace, the Khaḍrāʾ,
98
99
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
p figure 35 Roman triple gate of south temenos, central gate. Adnan Nasser, 2019.
an arcade that seems to have run between the qibla wall and
down part of the qibla wall. It is a fine door built with carved
cavalry barracks. Different accounts all place the gate between
stone, flanked by two smaller doors, to its right and left.105
the east mihrab and the eastern boundary of the transept, a suitable position for access to both the central mihrab and the
the smaller door to the left as being open: this suggests that it
Mihrab of the Companions. The masonry of this wall is Roman up to the windowsills.
had been walled up by then, perhaps during one of the several
The only opening that interrupts the ashlar courses of the
restorations recorded for the marble panelling between 1269
temenos is the east door of the Roman triple gate: photographs of
and 1340.106 The reason is unknown, though at some point the
the exposed stonework and a stone-by-stone architectural survey
street level may have become too high, given that it currently
show no traces of another sealed gate between that section and
stands three metres above the prayer hall floor.
the southeast corner.
102
The west and central openings of the
A range of independent sources thus converge on a single
triple gate were walled up in the Umayyad period, together with
spatial configuration involving a Mihrab of the Companions in
its three windows, using massive ashlars that are nearly flush
the eastern part of the qibla wall, Muʿāwiya’s palace behind it,
with the temenos (Figure 35).
103
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The description of the Roman triple gate does not single out
The east gate follows a different
and a door—probably the east door of the Roman triple gate—
pattern, being deeply recessed (Figure 36) and filled with
linking the two.107 These elements seem to reflect a long memory
randomly cut stones (Figure 37). This gate, in other words, must
of space, an idea reinforced by the toponymy of Damascus,
have remained in service after the construction of the Umayyad
where several streets and locations carried related names long
104
Mosque. It is likely to be the Bāb al-Khaḍrāʾ of the sources.
after the palace was destroyed. As late as the eighteenth century,
By the fourteenth century, Ibn Shākir could remark about
al-Budayrī al-Ḥallāq still knew the area behind the eastern part
the Roman temple:
of the qibla wall as dār muʿāwiya: the ‘palace of Muʿāwiya’, the same expression used by Ibn Jubayr half a millennium before.108
Its gate used to open towards the side of the qibla, where the
There are, in sum, strong grounds for asserting that the first
mihrab is today, as we witnessed in person when they tore
mosque occupied the eastern half of the temenos and this,
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chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
61
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p figure 36 (above) Roman triple gate of south temenos, east gate. Adnan Nasser, 2019. p figure 37 (left) Roman triple gate of south temenos, east gate, detail. Adnan Nasser, 2019.
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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in turn, reinforces the likelihood that the church stood in its
‘Inner Church’ (al-kanīsa al-dākhila) of Muslim sources, a choice
western half, as stated by Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir.
that al-Walīd was able to impose because the former, unlike the
The shift of the main entrance from the east side to the
latter, was not protected by treaty. The same idea is repeated by
south by the Christians was not self-evident. Had purely spatial
a second early Damascene writer, Ibn al-Muʿallā (d. 286/900).111
considerations prevailed, the east gate (Bāb Jayrūn) would have
Just before the coming of Islam, another Damascene,
remained the obvious choice since it was on the east–west axis.
Sophronius (fl. ca. 581–639), implied the existence of a
This solution was probably avoided to give the church, which
sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Saint Thomas at Damascus:
already stood on the site of the cella, a different entry route from the one that had been used for temple processions.
In Damascus, this saint manifests manifold powers and frequent, stupendous miracles… The apostle is in
The Church and the Cella
extraordinary esteem amongst Damascenes, who harvest
The positioning of the Roman cella had been dictated by the
from him healing and grace.112
requirements of pagan ritual, with the processional route leading from the east gate to the sacrificial altar at the centre of
Several later Arabic sources also mention a Church of
the temenos. Had it been razed to make way for a new building,
Thomas located near the eponymous Bāb Tūmā, the ‘Gate of
Christian patrons would have had the vast perimeter of the
Thomas’, on the eastern city wall.113 It was burnt by Yemeni
temple enclosure at their disposal.109 In such a context, what
troops putting down a pro-Umayyad revolt in 176/793.114 As late
rationale might have led them to build the church in the eastern
as the seventeenth century, Jean de Thévenot saw its ruins ‘right
half of the temenos? The question is worth asking in the light of
outside’ the gate.115 But only al-Fasawī, echoed by the much later
one detail from the early report by al-Fasawī partially cited above:
Ibn Kathīr, provides a rationale for the alleged choice of the Christians in the Umayyad period: the Church of Thomas was
I asked Hishām ibn ʿAmmār about the story of the mosque of
larger than the church within the temenos.116 While the tone and
Damascus and the destruction of the church. He said:
content of their negotiations with al-Walīd were prone to later
Al-Walīd told the Christians of Damascus: ‘Whatever you
reshaping, this particular assertion reflects, like the comments
decide: since we took the Church of Thomas (kanīsat
on its location and entrance, a relatively stable memory of space.
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tūmā) by force and the Inner Church (al-kanīsa al-dākhila)
As already noted, the transmission chain for this account
by treaty, I will destroy the Church of Thomas’.
is local and relatively authoritative: al-Fasawī’s source, the
Hishām said:
Damascene traditionist Hishām ibn ʿAmmār (153–245/770–
The latter was larger than the Inner Church.
859), was born shortly after the Umayyad period. It implies
He said:
that, despite the size of the temenos, the church within it
So they consented for him to destroy the Inner Church
was relatively small. This could arguably have been true of
and integrate it into the mosque.
a building erected around the reign of Theodosius, but the
He said:
explanation does not sit comfortably with the socio-political
Its gate was what is now the qibla of the mosque,
climate of the fourth to fifth centuries. Damascus was the chief
the mihrab in which people pray.110
city of the province of Libanensis,117 and its temple stood on a par with those of Baalbek, Palmyra, and Jerusalem. The newly
The Christians would thus have opted to preserve the Church of Thomas rather than the church within the temenos, the
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consecrated church would have carried the symbolic weight of subjugating the pagan gods and their cult. At Baalbek, a site
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
63
already noted for its parallel trajectory with Damascus, the
referenced. Jarīr emphasizes the lexical range of height,
basilica was placed in front of the abandoned Temple of Jupiter,
with the verb ‘to raise’ (rafaʿa) in one verse and ‘to dwarf’ or
blocking its entrance and, with its considerable bulk (about
‘to soar above’ (ʿalā) in the next. The resulting image is of a
57 × 36 m), physically occupying the forecourt.
new building—al-Walīd’s mosque and its transept—rising
118
The stakes of conversion were high, and a new Damascene church might have been expected to rival or outdo the temple in its monumentality—and probably to sit at the centre of the
above its predecessor. It implies a sense of height for the destroyed church. Arabic sources converge on one main narrative for the
temenos, where it would have dominated the space while also
destruction of the church. According to al-Balādhurī, after
sitting atop the former pagan altar, just as at Baalbek. In this
unsuccessful attempts by Muʿāwiya and ʿAbd al-Malik,
position, it would also have been visible from all four entrance gates, hence from major streets in the walled city. Its position
in his turn, al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik called the Christians
on the east side and its relatively small size invite consideration
and offered them large sums for the church, and when they
of a second hypothesis: as with the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, the
refused, he threatened them, saying: ‘If ye do not agree,
church of Damascus may have been a conversion of the cella,
I will surely tear it down’. To this someone replied: ‘He,
a tall but exiguous building originally designed to house a cult
Commander of the Believers, who tears down a church will
statue. This idea resonates with Jarīr, who proclaims:
lose his wits and be affected with some blight’. Al-Walīd, being angered at what was said, ordered that a pickaxe
11. Al-Walīd the Caliph, son of a Caliph,
(miʿwal) be brought and began demolishing the walls with
has built on the greatest edifice!
his own hand, while he had a robe of yellow silk on him.
12. Your heritage now dwarfs the one you had raised;
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Yours are the brimming valley-basins.
He then called workmen and house-razers and they pulled the church down. Thus it was included in the mosque.119
Given the polysemic nature of Arabic poetry, these verses
This account, also given in abridged versions by Ibn al-Faqīh
may be understood on two levels: on the one hand, al-Walīd
(d. after 290/903) and al-Muhallabī (d. 380/990),120 is dramatised
‘has built on the greatest edifice’ (v. 11), which evokes his
for narrative effect. The portrayal of the Christians’ response
dynastic legacy, to give Muslims (addressed in the plural ‘your’)
aims to expose as unfounded the belief that anyone who
a heritage that ‘now dwarfs the one you had raised’. On the
violates a church will be met with divine wrath. Al-Walīd and
other hand, the various concepts of having ‘built’ on an ‘edifice’
his pickaxe seem, in performative terms, like a convenient
and of ‘heritage’ are all expressed through the same noun bināʾ,
vector to depict the act of destruction. At first sight, this is an
‘building’. The verses are thus open to a more literal reading:
unconvincing historical account. Al-Balādhurī’s contemporary (ca. 219–315/835–927), himself
11. Al-Walīd the Caliph, son of a Caliph, has raised (rafaʿa) a building over the greatest building!
a Damascene, repeats the story with additions and nuances that make it worth citing in full:
12. Your building now dwarfs the one you had honoured; Yours are the brimming valley-basins.
When al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik decided to destroy the church of Saint John and add it to the mosque, he entered
In the context of a poem on the mosque and church, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that both are being
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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the church and went up a polygonal121 tower (manāra) known as ‘[the Tower of] the Clocks’, where a monk (rāhib)
had taken refuge in a shelter (ṣawmaʿa).122 Hand on his nape, al-Walīd brought the vociferating monk down the tower, then he moved on to destroy the church. A group of Christian carpenters told him: ‘We dare not initiate its destruction, O commander of the faithful, as we fear stumbling or being hit by something’. Al-Walīd said: ‘How
17. He inherits the reins and lances of power; a house of deeds that is high to scale. 18. I see buildings devoid of their folk, brought down; but the site of your throne will not be razed. 19. He rose from high ground to soar for the good, and light where the Aʿyāṣ had stood, immune.
wary and fearful you are! Servant, give me the pickaxe (miʿwal)’. Then he was handed a ladder (sullam) which
The poet proclaims that al-Walīd has inherited a ‘house of
he placed on the altar chamber (miḥrāb al-madhbaḥ). He
deeds that is high to scale’, a phrase extolling the greatness
climbed up and hit the altar until he made a large dent on
of the Umayyad House. Once again, the poem is polysemic,
it. The Muslims then climbed up and destroyed it… Yaḥyā
and a more literal reading conveys the image of a caliph who,
ibn Yaḥyā said: ‘I saw al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik do this to
having inherited the ‘reins and lances of power’, ‘expands into
the church of the mosque of Damascus’.
the house of a noble deed with a tall ladder’ (intamā ilā bayti
123
makrumatin rafīʿi al-sullam, v. 17). The building is then emptied While this version is, at a glance, not fundamentally different from al-Balādhurī’s, some details have changed: al-Walīd’s
way for al-Walīd to metaphorically rise ‘from high ground to
robe is omitted, the ‘workmen and house-razers’ have become
soar for the good, and light where the Aʿyāṣ had stood, immune’
‘carpenters’ and an altercation between al-Walīd and a monk has
(v. 19). The Aʿyāṣ are the branch of the Umayyad clan to which
been added, along with his climb up a ‘ladder’ to start destroying
both al-Walīd and the early caliph ʿUthmān belonged. While
the ‘altar chamber’.
124
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(khawat) and brought down (tahaddamat) (v. 18), opening the
From Ibn al-Fayḍ’s perspective, there
their mention continues the dynastic metaphor, the patronym
was little incentive to introduce details that would, if anything,
literally means ‘knots’ or ‘entanglement’. It is given here in a
confuse his ninth-century audience. The point could have been
possessive form (aʿyāṣahu) that accentuates its nominal value.
made more effectively by simply asserting that the caliph began
Verse 19 can thus also be read: ‘He let go of those who escaped
striking the monument: this is essentially the approach taken by
(taraka al-nujāt) and undid the knot with its impregnable
al-Balādhurī, who reinforces it through the mention of al-Walīd’s
entanglement (ḥalla ḥaythu tamannaʿat aʿyāṣahu)’.
yellow silk robe, an anodyne detail that aids visualisation while
Once viewed in this light, the verses strikingly echo Ibn
giving the impression of an eyewitness account. The luxury of
al-Fayḍ’s account: the ladder (sullam) laid against a ‘house’ in
the robe also implies profligacy, a trait commonly associated
one case and an ‘altar chamber’ in the other; the emptying and
with the Umayyads by Abbasid-era writers as part of complex
destruction of buildings, while those who oppose the caliph are
strategies of character building.
left to go unharmed, as seems to be the case with Ibn al-Fayḍ’s
125
Whereas in al-Balādhurī’s version al-Walīd is driven into
monk; and the whole episode amounting to the untying by
action by anger, Ibn al-Fayḍ portrays him as decisive and
al-Walīd of an intractable Gordian knot. The theme is developed
steadfast in the face of Christian superstition. Each account
further by Jarīr in subsequent verses:
thus betrays a different sensibility towards the Umayyads. Ibn al-Fayḍ’s may seem no more deserving of serious consideration than al-Balādhurī’s until one considers the verses of Jarīr about this same event:
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
23. You leapt at the Christians—one bound; on landing, it caused the mountains of Daylam to shake! 24. The edifice of the church was razed by force; there was crushing defeat for the Slit-nosed (al-akhram)!
chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
65
The caliph ‘leapt at the Christians’ and the edifice of the
out this operation required no more than ‘two workmen’s pay’,
church was ‘razed by force’, two provocative statements
even though the columns had a massive circumference of
that amount to a defeat of al-akhram. This term designates a
16 cubits (about 7 m) hence a diameter of some 2.2 m, which
defeated enemy mutilated by his victors, most commonly by
is comparable to—and even larger than—the shaft fragment
cutting his nose. In the present context, it had more specific
unearthed at the Mosque of Damascus.127 The archaeology of
connotations to which I shall return. Jarīr then implies that
the Temple of Zeus at Cyrene in modern Libya has revealed a
armed forces (‘battalions’ with ‘their banners’) seized the
similar method of destruction, this time during a Jewish revolt
temenos by force:
in the early second century, which suggests an established technique rather than an ad hoc innovation.128
26. And when the battalions displayed their banners,
The first stage of such a demolition—the setting up of timbers—might naturally involve carpenters. This could also
noble eagles, hovering aloft, 27. A ram-skull crashed on [enemy] heads; they scattered;
explain why the fluted shaft fragment at Damascus was lodged deep into the ground after what must have been a dizzying fall;
its palate survived intact.
its grooves are quarter-spherical at one end, which implies These commonalties with Ibn al-Fayḍ’s account may be
that they may have belonged to the top or bottom of a column
explained in one of two ways: either the text contains an
(Figures 25 and 26). This again echoes Theodoret’s account of
unstated element of gloss on the poem, which it partly aims
the destruction at Apamaea: ‘The crash, which was tremendous,
to explicate; or it reflects parallel historical memories of this
was heard throughout the town, and all ran to see the sight.’129
event. In Ibn al-Fayḍ’s account, the demolition is initially
Ibn al-Fayḍ’s text asserts that al-Walīd climbed onto the ‘altar
assigned to carpenters, craftsmen whose skills do not seem
chamber’ (miḥrāb al-madhbaḥ) to initiate the destruction (a
relevant to this task. Al-Balādhurī more understandably calls
statue is also involved in some late, and probably unreliable,
them ‘workmen and house-razers’. But while workers with
versions).130 In the context of early church architecture, it could
pickaxes and hammers could destroy a building on the scale
bring to mind the apse—a standard feature of basilicas, but
of a basilica, a massive Roman cella would have presented a
also of converted temples—or possibly a canopy within the
different challenge. Theodoret of Cyrrhus (fifth century) notes
building.131 One of the earliest extant church canopies, that
about Apamaea in his own time:
on the north aisle of Sant’Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna,
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is datable by inscription to 806–10 CE (Figure 38).132 From An attempt was made to destroy the vast and magnificent
the fourth century onwards, numerous others are attested
shrine of Jupiter, but the building was so firm and solid that
archaeologically and through textual sources, notably in the
to break up its closely compacted stones seemed beyond
Syrian region.133 Such a furnishing may have existed in the
the power of man; for they were huge and well and truly
Damascene church, whether or not it was a conversion of the
laid, and moreover clamped fast with iron and lead.
cella. For instance, when the Temple of Bel at Palmyra was
126
turned into a church, a semi-circular structure was attached to The solution to this problem was ingenious: the architraves
the east wall some four metres above ground, probably to serve
of three massive peristyle columns were propped up with
as a canopy for the altar or the bishop’s cathedra (Figure 39).134
timbers before cuts were made into the columns. The timbers
The large square niche of the adyton, the holiest space housing
were burnt, which caused the columns to collapse, bringing
the cult statue or image, was also preserved. In other temples,
down the cella walls with them. The craftsman who carried
the latter could itself be a canopy (Figure 40).135
66
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:04.
p figure 38 Altar canopy on the north aisle, Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, added 806–10 CE, Sailko CC BY 4.0.
Thus, several details in Ibn al-Fayḍ’s account that may seem redundant on their own terms are corroborated by external evidence. They are inherently unlikely to have been invented for narrative effect. The chain of transmission for the story is short and essentially contained within a single family: Ibn al-Fayḍ received it from Ibrāhīm ibn Hishām al-Ghassānī whose father Hishām heard it from his own father Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, the witness of the event. Both Ibrāhīm and Hishām were hadith transmitters in Damascus, and Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (ca. 65–135/685–753) is indeed remembered by other sources as the son of a member of Marwān’s police (shurṭa).136 He was appointed to the governorship of Mosul under ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99–101/717–20) and became judge (qadi) in Damascus for some years under Hishām (r. 105–25/724–43). He thus belonged to Umayyad ruling circles and would have been a young adult in 705. Al-Balādhurī’s account, by contrast, is traced back to Medinan and Iraqi circles.137 In sum, Ibn al-Fayḍ’s story may contain an echo of events as they unfolded on that day. If so, this kernel was later shaped into a literary artefact by oral transmission and, depending on the author, by pro- or anti-Umayyad biases. The presence of carpenters in Ibn al-Fayḍ’s anecdote would then imply a structure with massive freestanding columns—the cella—since the technique described by Theodoret could not be
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The form of the ‘altar chamber’ cannot ultimately be
used to destroy a wall, and would have been unnecessary for
determined, but whatever it may have been, it is plausible that
a smaller basilican building. The conversion of the cella into
al-Walīd should have concentrated his initial attack on this
a church would also be the most convincing explanation for
part of the church. In Theodoret’s account about Apamaea,
the small size attributed to it by Muslim sources and the height
the timbers would not burn because the fire was put out by a
implied by Jarīr.138 This hypothesis has a cluster of evidence
black demon residing within the Temple of Zeus, so the bishop,
assembled around it—but evidence so thin that it is bound to
Marcellus, blessed water on a church altar, prayed upon it and
remain speculative.
ordered a deacon to ‘sprinkle it [on the temple] in faith and then apply the flame’. It was only then that the destruction
pppp
was effected, ‘in an instant’. Just as the power of Christian prayer enacted upon a church altar in Apamaea overcame the
The chequered history of the Roman sacred enclosure at
remnants of pagan religion, so al-Walīd might have sought to
Damascus was one of conflict and mutual accommodation
negate the aura of that holiest part of the church at Damascus
followed by successive formulations and reformulations of
by striking it first.
the past by Muslims and Christians. The evidence from the
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chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
67
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p figure 39 Trace of semi-circular canopy on east cella wall, Temple of Bel, Palmyra, before 729 CE. From Seyrig, Amy, and Will, Le temple de Bêl, vol. 1, 158.
p figure 40 Hypothetical reconstruction of the adyton at the Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek, first century CE. From Wiegand et al., Baalbek, vol. 2, Taf. 17.
68
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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1962–63 excavations, scant though it is, makes it possible to
church in the same half of the temenos as the cella; indeed, it
determine the location of the cella in the western half of the
could arguably have been the cella itself, or a reworked version
temenos, across the courtyard from its processional gate in
of it. But, crucially, Christian interventions, whatever their exact
the east, Bāb Jayrūn, and to tentatively estimate its massive
nature, did not create a structure of such symbolic weight as to
scale, towering over Roman Damascus and placing it on a par
overwhelm the pagan past.
with the greatest temples of the age. The Romans must have
When Muslims conquered the city, they left the existing
carried out an extensive levelling of the site to make way for
configuration in place and established a first mosque in the
their massive platform and monument: the only pre-existing
eastern half of the enclosure. This mosque has barely left any
remain identified so far is a sphinx carved in relief on a basalt
traces beyond the location of its mihrab on the qibla wall and
slab, probably in the early first millennium BCE, which was
the likely use by Umayyad rulers of a nearby Roman door
inserted in the lower courses of the northeast temenos tower.139
to access it from their palace. Al-Walīd’s destruction of the
However, given that most Roman structures, including much
church and foundation of the Umayyad Mosque were the most
of the temenos itself, were eventually lost, it is difficult to tell
significant erasure and reinscription on the site since Roman
whether other remains from high antiquity were integrated
times—and the most seminal. During two crucial transitions—
into the temple.
from the temple to the church and from the church to the
The site was reconsecrated for Christian worship around the
Umayyad Mosque—the site witnessed a cycle of violence and banishment of the defeated faith. The late antique temenos
Christians kept the awe-inspiring walls and gates of the temenos,
thus emerges as a site of conflicts that erupted at turning points
but emphasized the south wall as its principal entrance in order
in the ebb and flow of dominant creeds. It is now time to delve
to mark a new physical and spiritual orientation. Arabic sources,
deeper into the climactic event that forms the crux of this story:
physical remains, and toponymic markers converge to place the
the destruction of the church.
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reign of Theodosius. Probably driven by practical concerns,
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chapter 2 • Tangled Memories
69
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3 The Politics of Buildings: The Destruction of the Church and Construction of the Mosque
T
oWards the end of 705, the young caliph al-Walīd ordered his troops to seize and destroy the church within the temenos. The act, ill-advised for some,
divinely guided for others, upset the balance of MuslimChristian relations in the Umayyad Empire. So unusual was this hostile appropriation, and so aggrieved were the Christians, that a crisis erupted in Damascus and sent ripples beyond its epicentre. Three major Umayyad poets, Jarīr, al-Farazdaq, and al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī, were soon called upon to vindicate the caliph’s act in verse. Their panegyrics, which could reach far and wide by virtue of their immateriality, have the power
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to bring us back to the heat of this troubled moment. It is with them that this chapter begins. The destruction of the church left an empty site at the heart of Damascus. The next step for al-Walīd and his administration was to mobilise workers and gather materials for their new building. The construction of this mosque, along with a string p Request for materials for the Great Mosque of Damascus by the Umayyad governor of Egypt, Qurra ibn Sharīk, Aphrodito papyrus, issued in 710. Detail of Figure 41.
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of others in the provinces, required a strong logistical backbone that can be documented through Umayyad administrative papyri from Aphrodito. The cost would be astronomical, but the authorities were in a new-found position to extract regular
71
tax in both money and kind from most provinces. According
south. Christians, whether they faced east or west, prostrated
to Greek and Arabic sources, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian
themselves in front of al-ṣanam: the idol, a Qurʾanic term laden
II contributed craftsmen and materials to the construction of
with pagan connotations, and which in this context could refer
the mosque. The claim, which may seem dubious at first sight,
to an icon, a statue, or a cross.1 To this experience, al-Farazdaq
finds intriguing resonances in the three poems.
adds the dimension of sound, with the clappers of Christian worship responding to the recitation of the Qurʾan. He lays another violent charge against Christians by naming them
The Three Poems, the Foundation Inscription, and the Destruction of the Church
‘Acolytes of the Cross’ and implies that companies of ‘Readers who do not sleep’ had already been established to recite the Qurʾan day and night. Several of the same themes are echoed
The Arabic historical tradition asserts that, having decided
by al-Nābigha:
to destroy the church, al-Walīd stepped into the temenos to break the deadlock that had built up with the Christians and instigate the process by force. As the previous chapter has shown, this narrative may contain a historical core. But its
13. When People of the Book would pray, the chanting bishops echoed back; 14. Dissonance foreign, with pious acts;
earliest recensions date to the ninth century, whereas the three
like swallows chattering at dawn.
poems were composed for al-Walīd himself in the aftermath of
15. Now prayer of Holy Truth holds sway;
the crisis. By virtue of their literary form and context, they are
discerned is God’s authentic Word.
less linear and more allusive than prose accounts. Each of them also has a different thematic emphasis, yet they stand as the echo chambers of a shared discourse.
The words of Muslim prayer reverberate, this time, with Christian chanting in a barbarian tongue, probably Greek, mockingly likened to the squeaking of swallows. Ritual and
The Destruction as Divine Wisdom
aurality, rather than buildings and dogma, underlie these
The first half of al-Farazdaq’s poem (vv. 1–17) is a multi-layered
portrayals of worship. Between the lines of their polemics
eulogy of the Umayyads, with an emphasis on ʿUthmān and the
emerge glimpses of daily life in the seventh-century temenos.
Marwānid branch of the Umayyad clan, to which al-Walīd and
Most Arabic and Syriac sources converge to place the Muslim
his father ʿAbd al-Malik belonged. He then turns to the church:
conquest of Damascus in 13/635 or 14/636.2 The narrative involves two Companions of the Prophet as its main protagonists: Khālid
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18. You divided Christians in their churches from those who pray before dawn, and after dusk. 19. Together at worship, faces turned two ways: toward God, or toward the Idol. 20. How should clappers struck by Acolytes of the Cross intrude on Readers who do not sleep?
ibn al-Walīd, a controversial figure in Muslim tradition because of his opposition to Islam prior to conversion, and the more consensual Abū ʿUbayda ibn al-Jarrāḥ. Just as one commander and his troops entered Damascus by treaty through one gate, the other subjugated the city by force through another. Beyond this narrative skeleton, the sources are at variance on the respective roles of Khālid and Abū ʿUbayda, as well as
Al-Farazdaq paints an image of the Damascene temenos
the identification of the side of the city conquered by force.3
as it existed in the first decades of Islam, when the church
Anecdotal though the difference might seem, at the time of
stood next to the first mosque. Muslims prayed towards the
al-Walīd it would have determined whether the church was
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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protected by treaty (if it belonged to the half of the city that had
palace of rulers who were proclaiming a nascent monotheistic
surrendered), or had been left to the Christians as a goodwill
faith, Islam, and whose empire already stretched from Iran
gesture (if it belonged to the other half, conquered by arms).
to North Africa. The existence of a first mosque on the same
One is left with the sense that the conquest of Damascus
site, probably a modest structure, did not suffice to alter the
resulted in a complex settlement, and that its precise details
imbalance.
had become muddled by the early Abbasid period. The earliest
According to al-Balādhurī (d. 279/893) and al-Muhallabī
extant Arabic annalistic history, by Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ (Basran,
(d. 380/990), Muʿāwiya and ʿAbd al-Malik successively tried
d. 240/855), already records three versions of the event.
to persuade the Christians to sell them the grounds of the
4
In the Arabic sources, the narrative of this conquest
Damascene church. Al-Balādhurī’s version runs as follows:
continues with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–41) mounting a major offensive against the Muslim armies, which
When Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān came to power, he wished
retreated to Jabiya in the Golan, before inflicting a heavy defeat
to add the Church of John (yūḥannā) to the mosque in
on the Byzantines at the nearby Yarmuk River. A few months
Damascus. The Christians refused, so he refrained. Then,
after the initial campaign Damascus was seized again, this time
in his own day, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān requested for it
decisively, around Dhū al-Qaʿda 15/December 636. The city
to be added to the mosque and offered them money, but
and its administrative region (jund) were governed for three
they refused to hand it over to him.8
5
years by Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān, who established his headquarters in a palace adjacent to the southern part of the Damascene
policies towards Christians, particularly in Syria.9 The years
sources. Upon his death in 18/639, Yazīd was succeeded by his
60–65/680–85 were marked by the brief reigns of his son Yazīd I
brother Muʿāwiya, who had opposed the Prophet in Mecca
(r. 60–64/680–83) and grandson Muʿāwiya II (r. 64/683–84)
before becoming one of his secretaries and a Companion.
followed by Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (r. 64–65/684–85), who
The situation of the Damascene temenos during those years
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Muʿāwiya’s rule had been largely built upon consensual
temenos: the famed Khaḍrāʾ (‘the Green’) of later Arabic
installed the Marwānid branch of the Umayyad dynasty.
was far from exceptional. In most Syrian cities conquered by
Upon his accession to the caliphal office in 65/685, Marwān’s
treaty such as Aleppo, Homs, Diyarbakir, Edessa, Amman,
son ʿAbd al-Malik fought to prevail on his rival in Mecca, Ibn
and Rusafa, the churches were not seized by Muslims, who
al-Zubayr, in the Second Civil War (fitna). Having emerged
sometimes prayed in them, nor were they physically divided.
victorious in 72/691–92, he engaged in major construction
Instead, as shown by Mattia Guidetti, a congregational mosque
works in Jerusalem and Mecca. In this newly acquired position
was typically built near the main church, on land belonging to
of strength, it is plausible that he again sought to purchase
the latter’s precinct. In several cities this spatial configuration
the temenos enclosure from the Christians, and some sources
still prevailed in the later medieval period, when churches fell
also assert that he bought the Khaḍrāʾ, Muʿāwiya’s former
into disuse because of dwindling Christian populations.
palace, from the latter’s grandson Khālid ibn Yazīd.10 But, if
6
In 40/661, Muʿāwiya received the oath of allegiance in
the Christians refused to cede the church, his position was not
Jerusalem and Damascus became the capital of the Muslim
secure enough to coerce them into doing so. The move would
empire, at least for those factions that accepted his claim to the
have appeared particularly risky since it contravened a building
caliphate. From that time onwards, the shared temenos must
block of the Umayyad social order: respect for Christian property
have become a thorn in the side of Umayyad rulers: a church
and cultic rights. Yet this is precisely what al-Walīd did
now stood as the major religious monument abutting the
a decade or two later, as forcefully asserted by Jarīr:
7
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chapter 3 • the politics of buildings
73
23. You leapt at the Christians—one bound; on landing, it caused the mountains of Daylam to shake! 24. The edifice of the church was razed by force;
strayed there, and We bore witness to their judgement; and We made Solomon to understand it, and unto each gave We judgement and knowledge (Q. 21:78-79).
there was crushing defeat for the Slit-nosed! 25. Your Lord showed you, when you broke their cross, bright guidance; you knew what we did not; 26. And when the battalions displayed their banners, noble eagles, hovering aloft, 27. A ram-skull crashed on [enemy] heads; they scattered; its palate survived intact. 28. Crushing stone of the wars when wars ignite! Rain of Life when the ailing want for support!
These two verses were interpreted in Muslim tradition, starting with the earliest extant Qurʾan commentary by al-Farrāʾ (144–207/761–822) in a way that is consistent with the poem. David was once asked to arbitrate on a complaint about sheep that went astray at night and ate the vines in an adjacent plot of land. He ruled that the animals should be given to the petitioner, but Solomon suggested that he should instead be granted the milk, wool and progeny of the sheep until the damage had been repaid—a supremely fair exercise
The young caliph is portrayed sending armed troops
of judgement.11 Just as in the Qurʾan, God made Solomon
(‘battalions’ with ‘their banners’) into the site to disperse the
understand how to rule over this intractable dilemma, so He
Christians; he intervenes in person to resolve the situation.
did with al-Walīd when it came to the church, a point driven
After al-Farazdaq’s attack on the ‘idol’ and al-Nābigha’s disdain
home by al-Farazdaq in calquing the phrase fahhamaka Allāh
for Christian chant, Jarīr takes aim at the cross, which is
(v. 23) on the Qurʾan’s fahhamnāhā sulaymān (‘We made Solomon
destroyed by the caliph. Al-Walīd’s violent acts were ordained
to understand it’, Q. 21:79). Solomon was the archetype of the
through a ‘bright guidance’ (nūr al-hudā) as he ‘knew what we
just ruler and builder in early Islam.12 Al-Walīd is thus portrayed
did not’ (ʿalimta mā lam naʿlam), a Qurʾanic expression that
as acting in this crisis not out of youthful folly, but with a
blurs the boundaries of the source of this ‘guidance’ between
wisdom superior even to that of ʿAbd al-Malik, a recognised
God and the caliph. Like Jarīr, al-Farazdaq goes to some lengths
leader implicitly compared here with David. The image, which
to justify al-Walīd’s act as he proclaims:
is again echoed by Jarīr,13 seems to imply that al-Walīd’s act was perceived by at least some Arab Muslims as impulsive, if not
21. You were inspired to rid them [the ‘Readers who do not sleep’] of these
reckless. The poets were being called upon to reshape—and sublimate—the narrative.
with the wisdom, when they judged on the sheep and Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
the tilth, 22. Of David and [Solomon,] Right-guided King, who awarded their lambs and the wool of the shear. 23. God inspired you to extirpate their church
The Church, Justinian II, and Maslama’s Anatolian Campaigns The poems situate the seizure of the church in the context of war with Byzantium, a theme developed most extensively by al-Nābigha:
from a mosque where fragrant words are read. 5. A hailstorm-strike disgraced Ṭuranda;
This is an allusion to a passage from the Qurʾan:
troops not led by luckless fools. 6. There, Blessed Maslama did stand
And David and Solomon—when they gave judgement concerning the tillage, when the sheep of the people
74
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
to pound her sides with boulder-rock; 7. A clamorous host surrounding her,
Byzantine emperor Justinian II (r. 685–95, 705–11), whose nose
as fibre rings the crowns of palm,
and tongue were cut in front of the populace at the hippodrome
8. To scale her wall from every side till those within were stricken, grieved, 9. Her folk between slain and despoiled, and those whose arms were crossed with thongs. 10. Steady, you crop-nosed sniveller! Will the stroke of your Lord, once aimed, be turned?
of Constantinople in 695, and who was thereafter known in Greek as rhinotmetos (‘cut-nose’). Following his mutilation, Justinian was exiled to Cherson in modern Ukraine, on the Byzantine frontier, and eventually sought refuge at the Khazar court where he married the khagan’s sister, later known as Theodora. With the support of the Bulgars, he regained control
Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, the famous military commander and al-Walīd’s half-brother, has just seized Ṭuranda, a town
It is worth pausing to consider the chronological implications
near Malatya in southeastern Anatolia. According to the
of his appearance in the poems of Jarīr and al-Nābigha. Justinian
Syriac Chronicle of 819, composed shortly after that date,
was killed at the end of 711 near Constantinople, his head
probably at Qartmin in southeastern Turkey, in the year 1021
paraded in Ravenna and Rome, and according to one version,
AG (October 709–September 710), ‘he [Maslama] besieged the
his body thrown into the sea.20 News of his death cannot have
fortress of Turanda and the cities of Amasiya and Mostiya. He
taken long to reach Damascus, especially at a time of heightened
destroyed them and brought back as captives all who were in
conflict. Both poems are thus unlikely to be much later than the
them’. Michael the Syrian (twelfth century) records similar
beginning of 712, and al-Nābigha depicts as a recent event the
information under the year 1022 AG (October 710–September
siege of Ṭuranda, which the sources cited above place between
711).15 Al-Ṭabarī, probably referring to the same campaign,
October 709 and September 711. His verses about the ornament
notes that Maslama seized several towns near Malatya in 93/
of the mosque also suggest that he saw it as a nearly finished
October 711–October 712. This may have been the second time
building. His poem may thus date to around 711–12. Jarīr and
that Ṭuranda was seized by Muslims as other sources record its
al-Farazdaq, by contrast, do not allude in any clear way to the
capture in 83/702–3 or 84/703–4 by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Malik,
new mosque, presumably because its construction was not far
another brother of al-Walīd and Maslama.
advanced. Their two poems are unlikely to be later than 711,
14
16
17
The poem alludes to the breaching of the city walls by hurling massive stones, presumably with catapults or
and probably closer in time to the Damascene crisis. Strikingly, both Jarīr and al-Nābigha present the destruction
mangonels—war machines also used used during the civil
of the church as a personal defeat for Justinian. Jarīr does so in
war at Mecca in the 680s and the siege of Constantinople in
the most direct terms (v. 24), while al-Nābigha links the rivalry
99/717–18. Loss of freedom and terror await the vanquished,
more specifically to Maslama’s campaign in Anatolia (vv. 5–10),
al-Nābigha thunders (v. 9), before conjuring the powerful image
which would culminate with the siege of Constantinople in
of a ‘crop-nosed sniveller’ crying over this devastating loss
99/717–18, shortly after al-Walīd’s death. Caught in the midst
(v. 10). Would it have happened without God’s decree, he asks
of these larger conflicts were Christian populations, from the
rhetorically? This statement is directly echoed by the verse of
captives of Ṭuranda to the faithful at the church of Damascus
Jarīr (v. 24) discussed above: ‘The edifice of the church was
(al-Nābigha, v. 11): ‘The Christians pray God’s aid for us, it
razed by force; there was crushing defeat for the Slit-nosed
seems; but God knows best what ribs conceal’. These three
(al-akhram)!’
social groups—Umayyad ruling élites, Christians from their
18
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of Constantinople around July or August 705.19
Enigmatic though both invectives may seem, their target would have been plain to contemporary audiences: the
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
empire, and, through Justinian II, Byzantine élites—are thus pitted against each other in the poems.
chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
75
The (Lost) Foundation Inscription and the Date of the Mosque
2 February 707: this date provides a firm terminus ante quem
The poems are not the only known contemporary
for the destruction of the church.25 Allowing time for logistical
proclamations about these events that survive. The foundation
requests to be formulated in Damascus and to reach Egypt, one
inscription of the Umayyad Mosque, originally laid out in gold-
can infer that it must have happened before the end of 706. The
on-blue mosaic in the prayer hall, was lost at an early date,
first Arabic historian to mention the Umayyad Mosque, Khalīfa
but its contents were recorded in textual sources. The earliest
ibn Khayyāṭ, states, without referring to the inscription, that
version is a citation of the historian Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-
construction began in 87 AH (23 December 705–11 December
Fasawī (d. ca. 277/891) by Ibn ʿAsākir (499–571/1105–76). It states
706), which seems to corroborate al-Masʿūdī’s reading.26 Other
that after a long compilation of Qurʾanic verses, to which we
Arabic sources give dates between 86/705 and 88/706–7.27
shall return, the text ended with these words:
However, al-Balādhurī and Abū al-Faraj Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar al-Kātib (d. 337/949) state that in the mosque itself, next to the
The servant of God al-Walīd, commander of the faithful,
ceiling of ‘the arcade of the qibla, towards the minaret’, was an
ordered in Dhū al-Qaʿda of the year 86 [October–
inscription stating that ‘the commander of the faithful al-Walīd
November 705] the construction of this mosque and the
ordered its construction in 86 [January–December 705]’.28 This
destruction of the church which was in it.21
second Umayyad inscription (now also lost) was carved on a marble panel at one end of the prayer hall, on the arcade
The date recorded by al-Fasawī is only a month after the death
adjacent to the qibla wall. Its recorded date, which agrees with
of ʿAbd al-Malik, al-Walīd’s father and predecessor as caliph,
al-Fasawī’s reading, carries more weight than those contained in
which the sources converge to place in the middle of Shawwal
annalistic texts such as Khalīfa’s, as it outwardly stems from an
86/October 705. Such a tight sequence of events resonates
epigraphic source. Most Syriac chronicles, using the Seleucid
with al-Farazdaq’s vivid evocation of his funeral procession and
calendar, converge to place the destruction of the church in
burial (vv. 11–13) as a prelude to verses on the destruction of the
1017 AG (October 705–September 706), a date compatible with
church. But al-Masʿūdī, who visited Damascus in 332/944, gives
al-Fasawī’s reading, but not al-Masʿūdī’s.29 These Christian sources
this slightly different record of the text:
relate the event to the death of ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Walīd’s
22
accession to power.30 Thus, the weight of the evidence leans in The servant of God al-Walīd, commander of the faithful,
favour of the demolition taking place shortly after the death
ordered in Dhū al-Ḥijja 87 [November–December 706] the
of ʿAbd al-Malik, at the end of 86 AH, between October and
construction of this mosque and the destruction of the
December 705.
church which was in it. Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
23
Remarkably, in their foundation inscription, the patrons of the Umayyad Mosque placed this event on an equal footing to
In early Kufic script, the phrases Dhū al-ḥijja and Dhū al-qaʿda
the construction of the mosque.31 The statement would have
(for the month) could look similar in broad outline, and so
stood at the very heart of the new building, above the central
could the numbers sabʿ (seven) and sitt (six) in the year, except
mihrab and the head of the prayer leader, who would usually
for the last letter. From a distance, one could conceivably have
have been the caliph himself in Umayyad times. By choosing
mistaken one for the other. But which is the correct version? The
this wording, the patrons were consciously singling out this
answer is inherently elusive due to the lack of primary evidence.
destructive act for posterity.
24
The earliest administrative papyrus from Aphrodito in Egypt with a request concerning the mosque was issued on
76
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
The public declaration of the inscription thus nailed a point of contention that was also fiercely vindicated by the semi-
public declarations of the three poems. These offer a vivid
gate of the transept and the installation of columns—required
image of two phases in the life of the temenos: shared worship
large numbers of low-skill labourers. Then came the stone
by Christians and Muslims in the church and first mosque, now
masons, carpenters, and smiths for the roofing, and finally the
violently decried; then the forced destruction of the church
mosaicists, the marble workers, and the specialised carpenters
following al-Walīd’s decisive intervention, which is portrayed
and wood painters for the ceilings. Numerous foremen must
against a background of war with Byzantium. Underlying these
also have been active at every stage. These workers represented
events are the lurking role of Justinian II as a protagonist, and
many mouths to feed in Damascus, a relatively small city at the
the uneasy position of Christians within the escalating crisis.
time. Besides the tools, the list of essential materials was long:
Did the emperor of distant Constantinople really get involved in
limestone for the ashlars, lime for the mortar and plaster, sand
a Damascene crisis? If so, why imply a link with local Christians?
or raw glass slabs for the mosaics, marble for the floors and
Before turning to these questions, let us pursue the story where
dado, jewels for the famed vine frieze, teak for the ceilings, lead
we left it, as the clamour in the temenos fell silent.
for the roof tiles, gold in large amounts for various features of the ornament, and so on.35 To their number, one should add a regular supply of disposable items, such as ropes, baskets, and
The Aphrodito Papyri and the Logistics of Construction
timbers for scaffolding and arch centering.36 Transport entailed a complexity of its own: materials had to be loaded onto and offloaded from beasts of burden, notably camels, with sledges
The events of 705 left a hollow site at the heart of Damascus—
attached to carry larger items. The animals were led across
in the words of Jarīr, ‘buildings devoid of their folk, brought
different terrains, with some legs of the journey made on sea-
down’ (v. 18). Soon the rubble must have been cleared away
going ships and river barges.37 Roads in the vicinity of Damascus
and usable materials such as ashlars and columns set aside.32
must have been regularly congested with this two-way traffic.
Once a masterplan was agreed for al-Walīd’s mosque, a steady
Each different item had to be stockpiled in sufficient quantities
supply of workers and materials had to be secured for each
to avoid stalling the work. Fortunately, contemporary documents
construction stage. The temenos imposed the shape and size
survive to provide glimpses of the logistical processes whereby
of the design, but it was also a major asset since the most
men and materials were obtained.
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labour-intensive parts of the work—the foundations, platform, and enclosure wall—had already been built by the Romans.
Supply Networks for Labour and Materials
Substantial new foundations may only have been required for the
The Aphrodito Papyri are an administrative archive stemming
transept, with its soaring walls and dome. Indeed, Arabic sources
from the pagarchy of Aphrodito (Ar. Ishqawa, modern Kom
only place this type of work in its perimeter.
Ishqaw), between Sohag and Bawit in Middle Egypt.38 While
33
The new mosque also required much less wall construction
most of its contents are from the sixth century, some four
than a church of its size because most roofed areas rested
hundred published documents, now dispersed between
on Roman columns and colonnettes. New masonry was
collections worldwide, date to the early eighth century—notably
mainly needed for the superimposed rows of arches and their
the governorships of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (86–90/705–9),
elevation, the transept and its dome, the upper elevation of
al-Walīd’s half-brother, and Qurra ibn Sharīk (90–96/709–14),
the temenos on the qibla—and, if this structure was built
which coincide with the construction of the mosque.39 Half
by the Umayyads, the north minaret.34 The first phases of
a dozen of them relate directly to this project.40 They contain
work—probably the excavations in front of the triple Roman
requests for workers, maintenance stipends and, in one case,
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
77
Shelfmark
Date
Request
Duration
Local agent
Supervisor(s)
Monthly salary or unit price
Morelli No.
P. Lond. IV 1433
2 Feb. 707, 7 Feb. 707, 20 Mar. 707
Requisition of one worker with food stipend
8 months
Enoch, son of Theodorus, messenger
-
½ 1/16 dinar
A.1
P. Lond. IV 1433
24 Aug. 707
Part of the dotation for 40 craftsmen
6 months
Enoch, son of Victor, payment intermediary
-
1 1/3 dinar
A.2
P. Lond. IV 1433
31 Aug. 707
Salary and food stipend of a messenger
4 months
-
-
½ dinar
A.3
P. Lond. IV 1334 + P. Ross. Georg. IV 3
11 Feb. 709
Requisition of one sawyer with salary, food stipend in money and maintenance
6 months
-
Yazīd ibn Tamīm
-
A.4
P. Lond. IV 1341 + P. Lond. IV 1411
3 Nov. 709
Salary and food stipend of a sawyer
6 months
-
-
Possibly 1 1/3 dinar
A.6
P. Lond. IV 1397
Ca. 709-10
Advance of 10 dinars, which are late, for the food stipend of craftsmen
-
-
-
-
A.7
P. Lond. IV 1368
20 Oct. 710
47 litrae of chains
-
-
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn … ‘of the Commander of the Faithful’
-
A.8
ʿUbayd ibn Hurmuz p table 3 Requests for the Great Mosque of Damascus, Aphrodito papyri, 710. From Morelli, ‘Legname’, 173–75.
47 litrae (about 15–20 kg) of chains (Table 3 and Figure 41).41
Basilios, the pagarch of Aphrodito, dispatched his agents
These formed part of the annual ‘fiscal package’ paid by each
to collect money or materials, or to get the requisitioned
district, a mix of taxes in money and in kind calculated on the
person to travel to the allocated site. In relation to Damascus,
basis of the population register and land cadastre.
for instance, a certain Enoch, son of Victor was instructed to
The administrative unit to which the Aphrodito Papyri
serve as payment intermediary in a salary collection for forty
belonged, the pagarchy, was the smallest in Egypt, coming
craftsmen, while Enoch, son of Theodorus was the messenger
below the levels of the eparchy, province, and empire. The
for labour requisitions in 707 (Table 3, A.1, A.2). In several
documents carry orders from the governor, based on requests
cases, we also hear of fugitives running away from their allotted
sent by supervisors in Damascus, to the pagarch, who in his
tasks. While the position of pagarch was one of local power
turn conveyed them to local towns, villages, and monasteries,
and status, it entailed constant negotiation with, and coercion
each one named individually with the required contribution.
of, the local population, but also deliberate inertia towards
The orders reflect the extended reach of the fiscal system under
the Muslim authorities.44 These processes appear to have
the reigns of ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Walīd, when population
been rooted in the corvée system of Roman Egypt, which
censuses and land surveys were periodically carried out in
is mostly known in relation to agriculture, dikes, and the
different provinces. These involved such coercive measures
postal service.45
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42
as the return of all persons to their village or town of origin in order to be registered along with their father and children.
43
78
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
The papyri convey three broad types of requests: for labour, maintenance payments, and materials. The requisition periods,
p figure 41 Papyrus issued by Qurra ibn Sharīk, governor of Egypt, to the pagarch of Aphrodito, 20 October 710. The document conveys a request by ‘ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn…’ and ʿUbayd ibn Hurmuz for 47 litrae of chains for the Great Mosque of Damascus. London, British Library, P. Lond. IV 1368. © The British Library Board.
(Table 3, a.2, a.6).47 The ratio between the lowest and highest of these payments is slightly under 3:1. Thus, salaried work was imposed for a fixed period, and funded by the community dispatching these men as a form of taxation. Materials were sourced through the same system, as tax in kind. Construction Supervisors At the apex of this command chain were the supervisors working on the actual sites who identified forthcoming needs and communicated them to the governor, who in turn relayed them to the pagarch. Letters thus travelled from Damascus to the provincial capital and onwards to local administrative units in a system premised on the smooth running of the postal service (barīd)—a complex infrastructure of roads, milestones, mounts, and manned stations, expanded and systematised under ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Walīd.48 The papyri contain the names of three supervisors (έπικείµενοι) involved in work on the Great Mosque of Damascus. The first two, ‘ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn … of the Commander of the Faithful’ and ʿUbayd ibn Hurmuz, are those by whom the mosque ‘is being built’ according to the request for 47 litrae of chains
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(Table 3, a.8, and Figure 41).49 ʿUbayd ibn Hurmuz seems to in this small corpus, vary from three months to a year. It is
be otherwise unknown in the textual record. The patronym
also possible that some craftsmen stayed for longer, but that
of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is not legible in the document, but Harold
their expenses were collected on a yearly basis; this may be
Idris Bell and Federico Morelli tentatively identified him with
why money was requested to support some workers for
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Salmān and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Salma,
twelve months, without any mention of their requisition. In
who appear in other papyri respectively as the supervisor of a
addition to paying for their transportation, local communities
palace (location unknown, 709), and a treasury, possibly the
had to bear the cost of their salaries and food, summed up
Bayt al-Māl at Damascus or another public building (probably
as ‘oil and salt’ in some documents. The lowest attested
707–8).50 In any case, as noted by Bell, the suffix appended to
payment, at half a dinar per month including the food stipend,
his name (‘of the Commander of the Faithful’) implies that he
is for a messenger on the site of the Mosque of Damascus
was probably a mawlā of al-Walīd, since this was by far the most
(Table 3, a.3), a less qualified and presumably less taxing job
common bond of clientelage.51
46
than manual labour. Skilled craftsmen (τεχνίται) received
More solid evidence emerges for the third supervisor,
total monthly payments between a dinar and a quarter for a
Yazīd ibn Tamīm, who issued the request for a sawyer in 709
carpenter at Jerusalem and a dinar and a third for a sawyer
(Table 3, a.4).52 He is remembered by Ibn ʿAsākir in relation to
and other unspecified craftsmen at the mosque of Damascus
the destruction of the Damascene church:
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
chapter 3 • the politics of buildings
79
p figure 42 Executive stamp of Yazīd ibn Tamīm. Egypt, late Umayyad period. Glass, diameter 3 cm.
Ibn ʿAsākir’s text, based on the authority of Ibn al-Muʿallā (d. 286/900), states that those summoned by Yazīd for the destruction were Jewish, which would have helped al-Walīd sidestep Christians fears about this undertaking. According to another early writer, Ibn al-Fayḍ (d. 315/928), it was Muslims who carried out the destruction; it is not possible to assert which of the two reports is correct, and indeed they are not necessarily contradictory.57 The direct source of Ibn ʿAsākir’s anecdote on the destruction of the church is given as ʿAbd Tammām said, Abū Bakr Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith
al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀmir al-Yaḥṣubī, the brother of the eminent
told me, from ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿUmar al-Māzinī, they said,
Damascene Qurʾan reader ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Yaḥṣubī.58
through Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿallā ibn Yazīd al-Asadī, Shayba
Al-Dhahabī writes about his more famous sibling:
ibn al-Walīd al-Qurashī told me, my father related to me, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀmir al-Yaḥṣubī, when he recalled the
Yaḥyā al-Dhimārī said: Ibn ʿĀmir was judge of the district
episode of al-Walīd’s destruction of the church of Damascus so
(jund) [of Damascus]. He was involved in the construction
he could build the mosque:
of the mosque and was head of the mosque: he never saw
Then he turned to Yazīd ibn Tamīm who was part of his
an innovation (bidʿa) there without changing it.59
fiscal administration and said: ‘Send for the Jews so they come and destroy it’. He did so, and the Jews came to
According to Muslim tradition, Ibn ʿĀmir was born around 21/642 and learned to recite the Qurʾan from Companions of the
destroy it.53
Prophet that include, in some versions, ʿUthmān (d. 35/656). He Ibn ʿAsākir asserts that Yazīd was a member of the fiscal administration (kharāj). It is plausible that having been called
118/29 January 736.60 If he did play a role in the construction
upon to have the Damascene church destroyed towards the
of the mosque, his concerns are likely to have been religious
end of 705, he should have been involved in the logistics of
rather than logistical, as when work began around 706, he
building some two years later. Elsewhere, Ibn ʿAsākir notes that
would already have been elderly and a prominent authority on
Yazīd was a client (mawlā) of the secretary ʿUbayd Allāh ibn
the Qurʾan. His headship of the mosque started, according to
Naṣr ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿIlāṭ al-Sulamī, a member of Muʿāwiya’s
al-Fasawī, during the days of ʿAbd al-Malik and continued after
administration. This convergence highlights the astonishing
the inauguration of the Umayyad Mosque. This might explain
accuracy of some information preserved in the Syrian historical
why he was given some oversight over the construction of the
tradition. Several Umayyad glass weights and executive stamps
new building.61
54
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died a near-centenarian on 10 Muharram (the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ)
from Egypt also bear the name Yazīd ibn Tamīm, and these may
There is, however, one difficulty with this report: as
represent evidence of his continued role in the administration
leader of the mosque, Ibn ʿĀmir’s purported severity against
(Figure 42). However as they are probably of late Umayyad
innovation (bidʿa) seems to be at odds with his apparent lack of
date, the identification of this Yazīd with that of the papyrus
objection to its novelty and wealth. His attitude was so severe
and texts would require him to have had a very long career,
that he sparked controversy when he beat another respected
which is possible but not certain. That connection therefore
Qurʾan reader, ʿAṭiyya ibn Qays, for raising his hands at the
remains speculative.
wrong time during prayer.62 Ibn ʿĀmir had close links to the
55
56
80
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
Umayyads, who appointed him as qadi in Damascus, and
Hurmuz—can be accepted with confidence, while those of the
there is no way to ascertain whether his row with ʿAṭiyya had
traditionalists ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir and Zayd ibn Wāqid, as well
a personal dimension, and whether he was as concerned with
as al-Walīd’s brother Sulaymān, remain uncertain. If any of
architectural ornament as he seems to have been with ritual.
the latter did play a role, it was probably more consultative
Ibn al-Muʿallā, as again cited by Ibn ʿAsākir, relates another
than logistical.
anecdote in which ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀmir, the brother, recalls that the men initially tasked with destroying the church
Beyond Aphrodito
were Yazīd ibn Tamīm and Abū Nāʾil. The transmission chain
The Aphrodito Papyri are only the partial archive of a small
for this story is short and familial: the author heard it from
provincial district in Egypt.69 The workers and materials listed
Yazīd’s great-grandson Shayba ibn al-Walīd, whose father
in them are but a drop in the ocean of a project on this scale.
(Yazīd’s grandson) had heard it from an elderly ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.
Systems of forced labour broadly resembling the one reflected in
Ibn Kathīr (ca. 700–74/1300–73) also asserts, without giving a
the Aphrodito Papyri must have been used to extract resources
transmission chain, that during this crisis al-Walīd ordered Abū
from other districts and provinces, although the administrative
Nāʾil to ‘hit the Christians until they made their way out’, which
procedures will have varied. Evidence of this exists for Anjar,
echoes Jarīr’s poem (vv. 26-27). Abū Nāʾil is remembered by the
a palatial city in modern Lebanon about 60 km northwest of
early historian Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ as chief of police (shurṭa)
Damascus, probably built during al-Walīd’s reign with two
under both this caliph and his father ʿAbd al-Malik. Al-Walīd
palaces, a mosque, and rows of shops. The Aphrodito Papyri
eventually replaced him in that post, which confirms that he
contain a message from a certain ʿUbayd ibn Shuʿayb about a
was active at the beginning of his reign. Thus, different sources
worker who returned from that site to Fustat.70 At Kamed,
paint a coherent picture of Umayyad officials involved in the
a quarry on the western slopes of the Anti-Lebanon mountain
crisis, with Yazīd ibn Tamīm’s role emerging with relative clarity.
range, over thirty Syriac inscriptions have been carved by
63
64
65
The sources name at least two other supervisors: Zayd ibn Wāqid (d. 138/756) was an established Damascene hadith
Iraq.71 Thus, manpower for this project was supplied from at
transmitter who features in the sources as the eyewitness of
least these two provinces, whether the authors of the Kamed
the discovery by al-Walīd of the Baptist’s relics in the mosque
inscriptions were conscripted or had come of their own will.72
precinct.66 In the earliest recorded version of this story, Zayd
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workers probably active at Anjar, many of them from northern
Indeed, even if expanded across the provinces, forced labour
begins his account by noting: ‘Al-Walīd put me in charge of the
cannot have fulfilled all the requirements of a major building
workers for the construction of the Great Mosque of Damascus.’67
project. Some workers and supplies must have been obtained
Since as we shall see, the historicity of the whole anecdote is
through regular hire and payment. If other materials and
open to doubt and there is no other evidence to link Zayd to the
artefacts came as spoils of war, many more must have been
construction of the mosque, this claim remains conjectural.
purchased. For instance teak, the timber used for the ceilings
Ibn Kathīr also asserts that al-Walīd put his brother Sulaymān
at Damascus and other mosques of the period, probably had to
(r. 96–99/715–17) in charge of the works, to which he would
be imported from India or Southeast Asia.73 The precious stones
have put the finishing touches in 715, at the very beginning of
inlaid into the vine frieze and mihrab must also have been
his reign.68 There is no way to ascertain the authenticity of this
sourced through other means.
claim, which is not echoed by earlier sources. In the final analysis, the three names given in the Aphrodito Papyri—Yazīd ibn Tamīm, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and ʿUbayd ibn
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
The use of both forced and voluntary labour as manpower is suggested, in a slightly earlier context, by a Christian account written around 638 that is preserved in a Georgian version.
chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
81
It states that at the time of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem,
The completion of this string of buildings within a decade
an archdeacon named John worked as a marble layer on
appears a feat not only of architectural creation, but also of
the building of the first mosque on Temple Mount; his
administration.
excommunication by Sophronius received divine sanction
Conversely, the Aphrodito Papyri shed light on the
when his leg became gangrenous and eventually killed him.
situation of ordinary Christians faced with a declining status,
John, we are told, had willingly entered into the service
a hardening tax policy and increasing demand for forced
of Muslims as they ‘took with them men, some by force,
labour. Some of them may also have relished the opportunities
others by their own will in order to clean this place and
presented by Umayyad patronage and felt the appeal of the
build this damned thing destined for their prayer which
Islamic religious message, even if Muslim authorities were
they call mosque’. Indeed, mechanisms similar to those
not actively seeking conversions in this period. It is also in this
of forced labour were at play in the market, as indicated by
broader context that one should view the connection between
Egyptian papyri of the fifth to seventh centuries that preserve
Justinian II and the 705 crisis implied by the poems of Jarīr and
correspondence between patrons and their agents about
al-Nābigha. In order to assess this issue, we need to retrace our
workers, their salaries, maintenance allowances, and the
steps to the previous decade.
74
transport of materials. It is difficult to assess whether the 75
chance survival of Basilios’ archive at Aphrodito skews the
Justinian II and Umayyad Building Projects
available evidence towards forced labour, or whether the Umayyads were heavily reliant on this system because of the scale of al-Walīd’s projects, and possibly also due to the
Gethsemane and the Columns of Mecca
reluctance of the largely Christian population to work on them.
In his entry for the year 6183 AM (September 691–August 692), Theophanes Confessor (d. 818), a chronicler active near
The logistics must, at any rate, have been considerable
Constantinople, writes:
and highly rationalised in order for the apposite teams and
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materials to be mobilised, particularly when one considers the time it took for messages entrusted to the postal service
ʿAbd al-Malik sent orders to rebuild the temple at Mecca.
to reach any given province, for the requests to be fulfilled
He wanted to take away pillars from holy Gethsemane
locally, and for workers or materials to travel back to the site.
but Sergius, the son of Manṣūr, a Christian who was
Each region will have gathered a particular set of skills. To
public finance minister and was very friendly with ʿAbd
give but one example, the Red Monastery near Sohag in the
al-Malik, and his co-leader of the Palestinian Christians,
region of Aphrodito, has extensive figural wall paintings and
Patricius, surnamed Klausus, asked him not to do this, but
marbling that may have been created by local craftsmen. To
to persuade Justinian through their request to send other
muster resources at the level of detail reflected in the papyri
columns in place of these. This was done.78
76
(for example, a sawyer for six months, with a set salary and allowance) would have required, for a project like Damascus,
In 692, having just prevailed over Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca,
a whole team of supervisors versed in fiscal administration and
ʿAbd al-Malik sought to take columns from the Church
conversant with the requirements of the site. The full complexity
of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for
of this organisation becomes apparent when one considers that
use in the Masjid al-Haram, the sanctuary of the Kaʿba in
al-Walīd was concurrently building not one, but eight or more
Mecca. The timing was propitious: in the same year, he had
mosques, along with a range of palaces and other structures.
emerged victorious from the Second Civil War and was able
77
82
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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to manoeuvre himself out of the exorbitant annual tribute
Al-Walīd thus razed the Masjid al-Haram to build it anew, and
he had been forced to pay Justinian II since 685—the sources
he would have been the first to bring marble columns to this
mention 1,000 gold coins, a horse and a slave per day.79 By having
sanctuary. Their arrival in Mecca, presumably from the port
columns sent to the holiest Muslim site, he was effectively
of Jeddah, each harnessed to several camels, would not have
extracting a concession in return for refraining from destroying
gone unnoticed amongst the populace; this probably explains
that church. Indeed, Theophanes lists this episode immediately
why the detail stuck in local historical memory, with al-Azraqī’s
after the end of the tribute payments to Justinian, as if to imply
sources forming a purely Meccan chain of transmission.
that both events reflected the same shift in the balance of power. This account finds an echo, at the receiving end, in the
The accounts of both Theophanes and al-Azraqī are credible on their own terms, but they leave a decade-long gap between
Meccan chronicle of Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Azraqī
the dispatch of the columns around 692 and their sighting in
(d. 222/837) as cited by his grandson Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh:
Mecca between 705 and 715. Al-Azraqī may of course have mistakenly ascribed this event to the reign of al-Walīd instead
My grandfather said …:
of ʿAbd al-Malik, but the historical context lends some weight to
Then [after Ibn al-Zubayr’s defeat] ʿAbd al-Malik built in it
his dating. The logistics required to transport columns to Mecca
[the Masjid al-Haram]. He did not enlarge it but raised its
were considerable: after being loaded onto ships, whether in
walls, gave it a teak ceiling, and built it beautifully.
the Umayyad or Byzantine Empire, they had to be transported
My grandfather said, Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna told us, from Saʿīd
across southern Palestine, the Sinai, or Egypt, then transferred
ibn Farwa, from his father:
to new ships in the Red Sea and finally carried across the 90 km
I was involved in work on the mosque at the time of ʿAbd
of desert that separate Jeddah from Mecca. Al-Walīd, having
al-Malik ibn Marwān.
developed extensive supply networks to support his large-scale architectural programme across Syria, Egypt, Yemen, and the
He said: They applied to each column capital fifty mithqāls of gold.
80
Hijaz, would have been better equipped than his father to accomplish this, and al-Azraqī also implies that he imported
ʿAbd al-Malik thus raised the walls of the Meccan sanctuary
marble slabs and mosaics for the Masjid al-Haram. But there
and added to its decoration. The arrival of marble columns in
could be a simpler explanation: the columns dispatched by
Mecca is recorded a few years later:
al-Walīd may not have been the ones obtained from Justinian.
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Having reached its initial port of call in Palestine or Egypt, the Abū Muḥammad Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad told us, Abū al-Walīd told
original shipment may simply have been re-routed to another
us, my grandfather said:
destination. Evidence about the Gethsemane columns may help
Then al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān built the
to clarify the issue.
Masjid al-Haram. He built and decorated mosques. He
Two churches were associated with Gethsemane in the
demolished ʿAbd al-Malik’s work and rebuilt it to the
early Islamic period: the Church of the Agony and the Tomb
highest standard. He was the first to transport marble
of Mary. While the former was set in a cave, the latter was
columns there. He made it [the Masjid al-Haram] with a
a large building and in an allusive miracle story, Gregory of
single arcade of marble columns and teak ceilings, and
Tours (d. ca. 594) implies that it had enormous columns.83 It
gilded the column capitals in sheets of the finest brass
may have been looted or destroyed during the Sasanian sack of
(al-shabah min al-ṣufr). He covered the inside of the
Jerusalem in 614, but if so, it had been rebuilt by the Umayyad
81
mosque with marble, and the spandrels with mosaics.
82
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period since Muʿāwiya prayed there after receiving the oath
chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
83
p figure 43 Green and red marble columns, Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, 72/691–92. Said Nuseibeh, 2006.
of allegiance in 661. This church appears to have remained a
porches (Figure 43).86 Could the columns of Gethsemane
shared site of Christian-Muslim pilgrimage for most of its later
have been intended for this monument rather than for
history. Adomnán (d. 704) describes it as a round church with
distant Mecca? If so, the Dome of the Rock might have been
four altars and an underground crypt housing the tomb. It
the destination of Justinian II’s shipment although logistical
had lost its roof by the time Bernard the Monk saw it around
obstacles would still have remained. When Justinian I (r. 527–65)
870. In 569/1173, after it had been rebuilt by the Crusaders,
built the massive Nea Church in Jerusalem, Procopius reported:
ʿAlī al-Harawī saw ‘sixteen columns, eight red and eight green’
‘the site itself, being inland very far from the sea and walled
under the dome and ‘six imposing columns’ at each of the
about on all sides by quite steep hills, … made it impossible for
four gates. It is likely, if only for practical reasons, that any
those who were preparing the foundations to bring columns
available earlier columns were used to rebuild the lower and
from outside.’87 The same difficulty may have been encountered
upper church. Al-Harawī seems to have seen such architectural
in the following century, although Roman builders had
vestiges scattered about as he remarked: ‘there are here many
succeeded in bringing marble monoliths into the city for their
wondrous columns and other building remains.’ In sum,
projects and the Umayyads reportedly brought columns from
in the late seventh century, the Church of Gethsemane was a
Antioch to Damascus.88 In the absence of more solid evidence,
building on two levels with a centralised design and remarkable
the trajectories of these different columns remain unclear.
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84
85
columns, some of which may have been made of red and green marble. The Dome of the Rock was built in 72/691–92 by ʿAbd al-
At any rate, the Gethsemane episode shows that Justinian II had successfully intervened to protect a church in the Islamic empire around 692. When al-Walīd decided to destroy the
Malik on Temple Mount, just across the Kidron Valley from
Damascene church a decade later, this event was still a
Gethsemane. It contains rare red and green columns with white
recent memory among Umayyad ruling élites, and a potential
spots and specks, both within the building and in its entrance
precedent for the protagonists involved in the new crisis.
84
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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Justinian II and the Mosque of Damascus
concealed from your father, it is a stain on you. I am
According to later Arabic sources, Justinian II also became
sending you what you requested’.
involved in the aftermath of the 705 crisis. The story first
As he [al-Walīd] wished to draw up a response, men of
emerges in the ninth century with Ibn Qutayba and Ibn al-Faqīh
judgement convened with him in the mosque enclosure to
and occurs also in Syrian historiographical works, notably by Ibn
deliberate. Al-Farazdaq joined them, saying: ‘What is on
ʿAsākir and Ibn Kathīr. Ibn ʿAsākir’s version, reported on the
people’s minds? I see them assembled in circles’. He was
authority of an early source, Ibn al-Muʿallā, is the most complete:
told: ‘The cause is such and such’.
89
He said: ‘I will give him an answer from the Book of God, Tammām said, Abū Bakr Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith
Blessed and Exalted be He. God, Exalted be He, said: ‘And
told me, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—the correct name is ʿAbd al-Raḥīm
We made Solomon to understand it, and unto each gave
—ibn ʿUmar al-Māzinī said, Ibn al-Muʿallā said, Hammām
We judgement and knowledge’ [Q. 21:79].91
ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Qurashī told me, my father told me, Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd Allāh
Justinian reprimands the young caliph for diverging from his
ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān told me:
father’s policy, while at the same time acceding to his demand.
Having decided to build the Mosque of Damascus, al-Walīd
The form of the statement seems paradoxical, with the
ibn ʿAbd al-Malik required numerous craftsmen. He wrote
emperor arguing that if ʿAbd al-Malik knew that the destruction
to the Tyrant [the Byzantine Emperor]: ‘Send me two
was the right course of action, he wrongly abstained from it,
hundred craftsmen from among the Rūm [Romans]:
while belittling al-Walīd for understanding what his father did
I wish to build a mosque like no one has ever built before
not. The versions of Ibn al-Faqīh and Ibn Kathīr more logically
or ever will. If you do not proceed, you shall be overtaken
assert that if ʿAbd al-Malik was in the right, then al-Walīd
by armies, and I shall destroy the churches in my land,
was in the wrong, and vice-versa.92 In either case, the gist of
including the Church of Jerusalem, the Church of Edessa,
the statement is that ʿAbd al-Malik had chosen to safeguard
and other monuments (āthār) of the Rūm’.
churches (with Gethsemane as a possible reference point)
90
and to refrain from attacking core territories of the Byzantine The story relates a political escalation: al-Walīd, having presumably destroyed the Damascene church, requires
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Justinian II to dispatch two hundred skilled craftsmen lest
Empire. Justinian is therefore prompting al-Walīd to follow his father’s example while, crucially, also giving in to his demand. The passage continues with a portrayal of the caliph’s
he (al-Walīd) should multiply church demolitions in his
embarrassment. Al-Farazdaq’s literary genius allowed him
lands, targeting the ‘Church of Jerusalem’ (probably the
to turn the tables on Justinian, both verbally and morally, by
Holy Sepulchre) and the ‘Church of Edessa’ (the famed great
citing the Qurʾanic verse about Solomon and the shearing of
cathedral of that city), and launch his armies against the
the sheep. The latent narrative flavour of the text raises the
Byzantine Empire. The anecdote continues:
possibility that it is a later, implicit gloss on al-Farazdaq’s poem and its calque of Q. 21:78–79 (vv. 21–23). The imprint
The Tyrant wished to steer him away from its
of this ‘scripting’ is apparent in Justinian’s response, which
construction and to reduce his determination, so
conveniently paraphrases the Qurʾan but lacks clarity and
he wrote back: ‘By God, if your father was made to
picks an unspecified subject (referred to as ‘it’) as the target of
understand it and refrained from it, it is a stain on him;
the emperor’s ire. Yet the anecdote also captures the political
while if you were made to understand it and it was
dynamics of the moment like no other.
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chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
85
While the degree of verbal aggression attributed to al-Walīd might seem far-fetched, it is entirely consistent with the tone
(ca. 59–100/679–718), a figure we have already encountered on
of the three poems. When Jarīr (v. 24) and al-Nābigha (v. 10)
military campaign in Anatolia around 702–4, and as governor of
mock Justinian II, they leave untold the crux that links him,
Egypt in 705–9. He is named in several papyri from Aphrodito
the destruction of the church, and the Anatolian campaign.
that communicate requests for labour and materials for the
Ibn ʿAsākir’s story provides a plausible rationale for the
Mosque of Damascus (and the ‘Mosque of Jerusalem’).98 In a
intervening political sequence, which took place around 706‒7.
literary anecdote about his dismissal from the governorship in
The text implies that after the destruction of the church,
709, ʿAbd Allāh also joins Yaḥyā ibn Ḥanẓala, a person identified
al-Walīd blatantly provoked Justinian by requiring craftsmen
in three of the Aphrodito Papyri as the supervisor of building
for the very mosque that would replace it, backing this
works of the governor’s palace in that city, for a promenade in
offensive request with threats that more churches would be
Giza near Fustat.99 ʿAbd Allāh belonged to the inner circle of the
razed, including major ones if necessary. Christian chronicles
ruling élite that shaped these events, and it is credible that if
precisely assert that the caliph destroyed several buildings in
an exchange with Justinian II occurred, his son and grandson
Damascus at the beginning of his reign—no further exactions
would have known about it.
are mentioned after that, which suggests that they stopped.
93
In the text, even Justinian’s alleged response spells out
In the tenth century, al-Masʿūdī also stated that al-Walīd had
a plausible diplomatic manoeuvre in which he grudgingly
taken ‘wondrous columns’ from the Church of Mary at Antioch
concedes to al-Walīd’s core demand, the dispatch of craftsmen,
(then a frontier city in the Umayyad Empire) for the Mosque
while seeking to steer him away from aggressive policies by
of Damascus.94
recalling ʿAbd al-Malik’s precedent.100 Whether or not the
The Byzantine Empire itself, al-Walīd claims in the letter,
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grandson of al-Walīd’s half-brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Malik
emperor really accused al-Walīd in this way, the bold gesture
might also come under attack. Again, this resonates with the
of destroying the church must have prompted the perception,
political context: after making a first incursion in 86/2 January–
among some subjects, of a young and rash ruler. In this
22 December 705, Maslama fully launched his campaign
context, al-Farazdaq’s poem would have provided al-Walīd
into Anatolia and the Caucasus from 87/23 December 705–12
with verbal and moral ammunition, if primarily for Arab
December 706 according to Muslim sources, and about a year
Muslim consumption. His verses are echoed by al-Nābigha’s
later, in 1019 AG/October 707–September 708, according to
‘measured, sure’ caliph (v. 2), an image contravening the
Christian ones.95 In an anecdote attributed to Ṣafwān ibn Ṣāliḥ
impression of haste that events may have elicited.
(Damascene, ca. 167–238/783–853), soldiers on these campaigns
Seen from the perspective of Ibn ʿAsākir’s text, the
were required to carry back from the field ‘one qafīz of mosaics
destruction of the church triggered an escalating string
and a square cubit of marble’ for work at Damascus, thereby
of demands that may have served as the pretext for a full-
linking the war effort with the construction of the mosque.
blown attack on Anatolia and, eventually, Constantinople.
96
Ibn ʿAsākir’s narrative betrays a subtle understanding of the
The account does not explain why Justinian only got involved
political climate and developments of the 700s, even though
after the original event, rather than trying to pre-empt it.
its presentation may have been reframed in the course of oral
The destruction of the church may simply have happened
transmission and written composition. As noted above, the
too quickly for correspondence to travel back and forth to
anecdote was recorded on the authority of Ibn al-Muʿallā, the
Constantinople—thereby adding to perceptions of al-Walīd’s
author of the earliest known treatise on the construction of
impulsiveness, and leaving Justinian II to enter the fray one
the mosque. Its originator, Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, was a
step too late to set the pace.
97
86
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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The Byzantine Mosaicists at Medina
agreement are worthy of notice: Ibn Zabāla states that Justinian
A third, better known episode recorded in the sources arguably
sent al-Walīd ten to twenty craftsmen with ‘loads of mosaic
may be related to this context of fraught Umayyad-Byzantine
cubes’ and ‘80,000 dinars as a subvention for you’105 This
relations. Its earliest version was given by Ibn Zabāla (d. after
resonates with the system of forced labour evidenced by the
199/814), the early historian of Medina, as cited by al-Samhūdī
Aphrodito Papyri; in other words, with the habitual procedure
(d. 911/1506):
whereby Umayyad administrators obtained craftsmen, materials, and money from their own provinces. The story presents a plausible form for the articulation of such requests.
They report:
Figures detailing expenses in building projects are inherently
Al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to the King of the Rūm: ‘We wish to build the great mosque of our Prophet; aid us
unreliable, but they may be briefly considered for comparison.
to do so with workers and mosaic cubes’.
As already mentioned, in the 680s, Justinian II received an
They said:
annual tribute of 365,000 gold coins—more than four times
And he sent him loads of mosaic cubes and some twenty-
what he would have paid for the Medinan mosque two decades
odd workmen—but some say ten workmen, adding ‘I have
later.106 ʿAbd al-Malik additionally had to provide one horse and
sent to you ten who are equal to a hundred and 80,000
one slave per day and the whole ‘package’ was maintained over
dinars as a subvention for you.
not one, but some seven years, making the total sum vastly
101
larger than Justinian’s 80,000 gold coins. At the Mosque of The veracity of the anecdote is, once again, open to question.
stones, would alone have cost a comparable 70,000 dinars and
Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, since their craft was not native to
the two green columns in the transept, 1,500 dinars.107
the Hijaz; but they could have come from an Umayyad province
Ibn ʿAsākir, the source of the above information on the vine,
such as Syria or Egypt. Nonetheless, Hamilton Gibb argued for
also cites a total expenditure for the mosque of four hundred
its authenticity based on the early date of the source, a position
coffers of 14,000 dinars and two coffers of 28,000 dinars,
subsequently criticised by Marguerite Van Berchem.
102
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Damascus, the famous marble vine frieze inlaid with precious
Mosaicists had to be imported for the rebuilding of the
Why,
which adds up to 5,656,000 dinars (presumably above and
she asked, would the Byzantine emperor have acceded to such a
beyond forced labour and other forms of taxation). This sum
request in war time? Why, indeed, would the request have even
is about equal to the revenue of Basra for the year 670, given
been made in such a context? For Van Berchem, these questions
by al-Balādhurī as 60,000,000 dirhams (hence some 5,000,000
made the whole episode inherently implausible, whereas Gibb
to 6,000,000 dinars). According to the same source, 4,000,000
assumed that ‘a state of official war did not necessarily involve
dirhams (between 333,000 and 400,000 dinars) of that Basran
the suspension of all commercial or courtesy relations’.
103
He
income, hence about seven percent, were sent to the caliph in
cited, to support this point, a story according to which al-Walīd
Damascus, while the bulk of the money was reserved for the
stored 20,000 dinars’ worth of pepper at Fustat that he intended
essential function of military pay.108
to present to the Byzantine Emperor.104 Diplomatic niceties are an unlikely reason for Justinian to
These figures, drawn from unrelated sources (the Medinan Ibn Zabāla, the Iraqi al-Balādhurī, and the Syrian Ibn ʿAsākir),
have dispatched mosaicists to work on the Prophet’s Mosque,
imply consistent orders of magnitude. They suggest, for instance,
a core sanctuary of the new faith, given the destruction of the
that in order to build the Mosque of Damascus, al-Walīd had to
Damascene church and the degree of aggression expressed by
commit, over a period of ten years, the equivalent of his share
al-Walīd’s court poets towards him. The terms of the purported
of the revenue of a city the size of Basra. The multiplication
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chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
87
p figure 44 Detail of upper tier, west courtyard arcade, Great Mosque of Damascus. Said Nuseibeh, 2006.
of these projects would indeed have drained public coffers,
have been a pig, the obvious choice if the intention was to
as asserted by several sources, but would still have been within
offend Muslims; second, and more importantly, the stones were
reach. What is more, successful military expansion towards the
probably reused from a Christian building within the temenos
west, north and east brought in a steady flow of booty.
and they contain a range of other signs also drawn in red, such
Al-Walīd’s stated demands on Justinian thus appear realistic.
as geometrical patterns and the Greek capital letter alpha.110
If he did make them, they would have been perceived as acts of
The animal sketch was drawn above one such occurrence of
extortion backed up by his political ascendancy. The reaction of
a letter and its hue is slightly lighter. In other words, these
the craftsmen dispatched to Medina, as recorded by Ibn Zabāla,
images may predate Islam, and their relevance to the Umayyad
may be read in this light:
period is uncertain. In either case, different sources converge to assert that
When these [Byzantine] craftsmen were working at the
Justinian II was coerced into contributing craftsmen, materials
mosque, they would be left alone on site, so one of them
and money to at least three Umayyad building projects: the
said: ‘I will urinate on the tomb of their prophet’. He got
Masjid al-Haram in Mecca (or possibly the Dome of the Rock)
into position just as some of his companions were trying
in 692 to save the Church of Gethsemane, the Prophet’s Mosque
to dissuade him. At the moment he was about to start,
in Medina around 707–9, and the Great Mosque of Damascus
he was lifted up and thrown down on his head, his brain
around 706 to prevent the destruction of further churches and
smashed. Some of these Christians converted to Islam
a military onslaught against Anatolia (which was nevertheless
as a result. One of the workers drew on the apex of five
launched that year or the following one). There are strong
arches on the qibla side of the courtyard façade the image
reasons for accepting the gist of these accounts as authentic.
of a pig. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz discovered him, so he was
From Justinian’s perspective, the outcome of this policy was
beheaded. Some of the craftsmen who made the mosaics
reasonably successful in the 690s, but much less so in the 700s.
said: ‘We made it according to the images of the trees of paradise and its palaces’.109
The Banū Manṣūr Between the Umayyads and Heraclians The sources do not record comparable dealings with the
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Supernatural elements aside, the account echoes the
Umayyads under Leontius (r. 695–98) and Tiberius III
numerous cases of desertion reported in the Aphrodito Papyri.
(r. 698–705) while Justinian was in exile, or after his death in
There is bound to have been resentment among at least some
711.111 The apparent correlation of these events with Justinian’s
of the Christian craftsmen brought to this remote locale in
reigns may be the result not only of his policy decisions, but
the Arabian desert to rebuild, and to the highest standard,
also of Christian-Muslim dynamics at the Umayyad court.
a mosque associated with a holy figure, whose followers
In the Gethsemane episode of the 690s, Theophanes notes
challenged their empire and core aspects of their faith. In
that two prominent Christians from Greater Syria had taken
such conditions, small acts of defiance within the limits of
the initiative to seek his support. One of them, the ‘co-leader
their power may indeed have been attempted.
of the Palestinian Christians, Patricius, surnamed Klausus’,
At the Mosque of Damascus, the voussoirs of the upper
seems otherwise unknown.112 But the other, Sergius son of
west arcade contain an animal with two horns and four legs,
Manṣūr, was a key figure in the early Umayyad state, known to
sketchily outlined in red (Figure 44). One might be tempted
Muslim writers as the secretary Sarjūn ibn Manṣūr and mostly
to attribute it to an episode like the one mentioned above,
remembered today as the father (or grandfather) of Saint John
but this interpretation is not obvious. First, the animal cannot
of Damascus (d. between 749 and 753), a towering figure of
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eastern Christian theology. Their family, the Banū Manṣūr
Arabic sources to have been in charge of core offices of the
(‘sons of Manṣūr’), held a central position in Damascene
administration, such as tax collection and the army payroll,
politics across the century that straddled Byzantine and Muslim
between the reigns of Muʿāwiya and ʿAbd al-Malik.118 The
rule. Several of its members were prominent figures in Syrian
Gethsemane episode implies that in the 690s, he had open
Christian society well into the ninth century, although not
communication channels with Justinian II, just as his father
within the administration.113 The church within the temenos
had with Heraclius half a century earlier. Sarjūn’s demise is
was destroyed at the juncture between these two phases of
placed by most writers in the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik: depending
their history.
on the source, it was either caused by his death or by a shift to
The earliest reference to the Banū Manṣūr is related to the Muslim conquest of Damascus. Arabic sources state that the
A son of Sarjūn worked for some time in the service of the
surrender of the city, or at least half of it, in the 630s, was
Umayyads although, as with Manṣūr, his trace in the textual
negotiated by a Christian variously called a ‘monk’ (rāhib),
record is faint. He has generally been identified with John
‘bishop’ (usquf), ‘patriarch’ (biṭrīq), or ‘governor’ (ṣāḥib). Only
of Damascus who started his career in the Umayyad fiscal
two sources identify him by name. According to the Syriac
administration before embracing priesthood and moving to
Chronicle of 1234, he was ‘ the deacon John, son of Sarjūn,
Jerusalem at an unknown date; a recent study has suggested
himself a Damascene, who was loved and well-known among
that he may in fact have been Sarjūn’s grandson.120 Since Sarjūn
the Arabs’: this first name could reflect a confusion with his
was still active under ʿAbd al-Malik, there is every reason to
descendant John Damascene. Eutychius, writing around
think that, under either scenario, John was either employed at
935–40, names him as Manṣūr (and in later manuscripts of
the court or gravitated around Umayyad ruling circles when the
his work, ‘son of Sarjūn’), an official in charge of tax collection
crisis surrounding the church erupted.
114
115
since the reign of Maurice (582–602). After the Sasanian
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Arabic as the language of administration (the dīwān).119
One can begin to perceive the situation in which the Banū
conquest of the city in 612 and its recapture by the Byzantines
Manṣūr were caught at that time. Their prosperous family had
in 630, he became embroiled in a conflict with Heraclius over
overseen the collection of taxes from Christians on behalf of
tax handed to the Persians which, a few years later, prompted
Muslims, hence was naturally exposed to the hostility of their
him to open the gates of Damascus to the Arabs when they
coreligionists. The resentment can only have been exacerbated
reached its walls.
under al-Walīd, when some of the tax revenue was used to
116
Eutychius is a relatively late source, and while plausible, his account cannot be corroborated by other evidence. His mention of Manṣūr arguably may have been a later reworking of an
build his new mosque of Damascus and several churches were destroyed. The trajectory of Yazīd ibn Tamīm, the best-attested
early text that simply mentioned a Christian who negotiated
protagonist in the crisis surrounding the church, reflects
surrender of the city.117 The profile of the Banū Manṣūr emerges
the same dynamic in reverse. He had been a member of the
with greater clarity after the rise of the Umayyads. Sarjūn ibn
Umayyad fiscal administration (kharāj), an office hitherto
Manṣūr, presumably the son of the Manṣūr above, is said in
run by the Banū Manṣūr; but as the stand-off in the temenos
George, A. (2021). The umayyad mosque of damascus : Art, faith and empire in early islam. Gingko Press, Incorporated. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-12 10:50:30.
chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
89
reached its climax, he was reportedly among the first to hit
If the demise of the Banū Manṣūr did occur during those
the stones of the church, presumably against the will of his
years, their days in positions of power matched those of the
hierarchical superior, be it Sarjūn, his son, or his grandson.
Heraclian dynasty (610–711), of which Justinian II was the last
The sources do not reveal which course of action the Banū
ruler. This Heraclian connection may have contributed to
Manṣūr embraced during the crisis. One might logically ask
their relevance for the Umayyads—and its loss, to their eroded
whether, having witnessed the Gethsemane episode a decade
stature. At any rate, given John’s family background, his writings
earlier, they sought to prevent further exactions by persuading
offer an opposite perspective on the same socio-historical
Justinian II, as self-appointed protector of Chalcedonian
context as the poems—that of Christians increasingly demoted
Christians in the Muslim Empire, to accede to new requests
in the social fabric of the Umayyad Empire. They carry the
from al-Walīd. If they did, the chain reaction that ensued
reverse echo of hostile Muslim discourse towards their lot.
was a disaster of existential proportions for Byzantium.
The earliest of John’s three treatises in defence of icons must
This could explain why, in the four anathema brought
have been composed in the late 720s. Its articulate content
against John of Damascus at the council of Hiereia in 754,
suggests a prior period of intellectual maturation that brings
he is called out not just as a ‘worshipper of icons’, but also
their inception close to al-Walīd’s reign.124 In its opening pages,
a ‘conspirator against the Empire’.121 The perception of his
he writes:
treacherousness would only have been reinforced if his ancestor Manṣūr had indeed opened the gates of Damascus
I see the Church ... battered as by the surging sea
to the Arabs in the 630s.
overwhelming it with wave upon wave, tossed about
The role of the Banū Manṣūr in the rising hostilities with Justinian II is bound to remain speculative. One can be more
Compelled to speak by a fear that cannot be borne, I have
certain that they came out of the crisis weakened. They had
come forward, not putting the majesty of kings before
failed, despite their status, to avert this major setback for the
the truth, but hearing David, the divine ancestor, say,
Christians, and their authority over Muslim administrators
‘I spoke before kings and was not ashamed’, goaded more
like Yazīd ibn Tamīm could hardly recover from the blow.
and more to speak. For the word of a king exercises
Their position at the Umayyad court must have become all
terror over his subjects … It seems to me a calamity,
but untenable.
and more than a calamity, that the Church, adorned
John of Damascus was ordained by John V, the patriarch of
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and troubled by the grievous assault of wicked spirits…
with such privileges, and arrayed with traditions received
Jerusalem from 706 to 735, who revived a see that had been
from above by the most godly men, should return to
vacant since the death of Sophronius around 638. The accession
the poor elements, afraid where no fear was, and as if
of John V, the destruction of the church, the return to the
it did not know the true God, be suspicious of the snare
throne of Justinian II, and his heated diplomatic exchange
of idolatry and therefore decline in the smallest degree
with al-Walīd all occurred between late 705 and 707. This
from perfection.125
conjunction of events may have triggered John’s departure for Jerusalem.122 Indeed, textual references to the Banū Manṣūr
The ‘snare of idolatry’ echoes the three poets, particularly
at the Umayyad court are frequent until ʿAbd al-Malik’s reign,
al-Farazdaq: ‘Together at worship, faces turned two ways:
rare under al-Walīd, and virtually non-existent thereafter.123 The
toward God, or toward the Idol’ (v. 19). While one could link
violence of the Damascene crisis as it transpires from the three
the trials evoked by John and the ‘kings’ that caused them with
poems reinforces the likelihood of this chronology.
Constantinople, it seems more plausible that they reflected
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the situation in Syria.126 Likewise, the ‘surging sea’ battering
The poems suggest that these events were related to the
the Church ‘wave after wave’ resonates with the Damascene
military campaign launched against Byzantium during those
crisis, but also with a pattern of growing vexations against his
years, culminating in Maslama’s siege of Constantinople in
community during the same period.
99/717–18. Here again, the internal and external threads of the story connect, since the Aphrodito Papyri and other documents
pppp
record Umayyad shipbuilding efforts that fed into the same siege.127 On this occasion, the forced labour system showed
By delving into the logistics and politics of al-Walīd’s building
its limitations to the Umayyads as defecting Egyptian sailors
programme, a complex picture emerges. For the projects to
provided Leo III with vital intelligence that led to their defeat.128
be realised, a stable administration was required, alongside
Thus, Christians under Umayyad rule, especially those from
firm control of at least some provinces. Supervisors, at least
élite circles, had to negotiate their allegiances in a delicate
three of whom can be confidently identified, assessed and
balancing act. The fate of the Banū Manṣūr epitomises their
pre-empted needs on the ground for materials and for a
predicament in this tense period, and their vain attempts to
vast number of craftsmen: from unqualified labourers to
shape a favourable course of events.
accomplished mosaicists and marble workers. Provincial governors transmitted their requests to district authorities
Ultimately, the local Christian community was silenced in the destruction of the church, as literally expressed by al-Nābigha:
who negotiated their implementation with the population of their towns, villages, and monasteries. Through a system rooted in pre-Islamic fiscal organisation, labour was extracted
14. Dissonance foreign, with pious acts; like swallows chattering at dawn.
as a form of tax. The levy was coercive, so it must have been
15. Now prayer of Holy Truth holds sway;
largely resented, but was also salaried and hence not entirely
discerned is God’s authentic Word.
exploitative. After meeting the core priority of military pay, war booty and money sent from the provincial capitals generated additional streams of revenue. With these funds, the caliph and
was appropriated by Muslims, who articulated it for posterity.
his circle could finance additional labour and materials.
The accounts in the Syriac and Greek chronicles were
Three episodes related respectively by a Byzantine, a
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From that point onwards the narration of the destruction
discordant, but too laconic to leave a comparable imprint on
Damascene, and a Medinan source about Jerusalem, Damascus,
collective memories. However, a major Christian voice—that
and Medina, corroborate each other by involving Justinian II
of John Damascene—did arise from this context in defiance of
in Umayyad building projects. The three poems invite a
hardening Muslim attitudes. His familial acquaintance with the
reappraisal of their claims, which turn out to corroborate and
Umayyad élite in Damascus makes his perspective an apposite
echo one another. Justinian probably did contribute to these
counterpoint to Muslim declarations about the Damascene
projects, but not as an underhand continuation of diplomacy
church. The mosque, even before its completion, had come
in times of war, as assumed by Gibb: if he sent craftsmen and
to crystallise the shifting political and societal dynamics. The
materials to the Umayyads, it was instead under the threat of
destruction of the church thus emerges as an event of historical
war and of exactions against Christian buildings under their
proportions—a lasting trauma for some, and a victory to
control. The destruction of the church and construction of the
remember for others.
mosque were acts of power politics that resonated far beyond the site itself.
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chapter 3 • The Politics of Buildings
91
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4 Silenced and Imagined Pasts: The Church in the Fabric of the Umayyad Mosque
T
he act of demolition by Al-Walīd was an imposition of raw power at the heart of Damascus. By openly defying Christian beliefs about the sacred
aura of their church, the young caliph was making a bold statement about Muslim religious and political authority. The Umayyads had to contend with the legacy of their violent takeover, for the church remained present in the minds of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Damascenes who had witnessed its last moments. This is why it emerges as the core concern of the three Umayyad panegyrics composed on this occasion,
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above and beyond the mosque. The new building also contained within its fabric multiple echoes of its predecessor. The most monumental part of the mosque—the transept— was probably conceived in a dialectical relationship with the p The chamber on columns in the courtyard known as Bayt al-Māl. Part of the structure may have been erected in the Christian era. Detail of a photograph by Francis Bedford, 1862. Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 2700961. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021.
church. The vanished building has also left some material remains, but these are not always what they seem. One corner tower, despite being generally acknowledged as Roman, might have been an early Byzantine foundation. The copper revetment on several gates of the mosque, which is late Mamluk to early Ottoman, probably carries distant echoes of
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
93
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p figure 45 Transept of the Umayyad Mosque. Alain George, 2010.
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
the church.1 The relics of John the Baptist that are housed in a
Jarīr may provide a first inkling of their motivations when he
shrine within the prayer hall stand as the most obvious of these
declares in his poem about al-Walīd: ‘The Lord of the Throne
Christian remains, yet further probing reveals issues about
ordained that the Caliph be you; kingship is given; ascend to
the moment of their ‘invention’ (in the theological sense of
the pulpits, secure!’ (v. 16). There is no reason to link the verse
the term). And while the Bayt al-Māl—the famous treasury on
specifically to this inscription, but it reveals a contrasting
columns in the mosque courtyard—has been widely assumed
Umayyad perspective on the same themes. Kingship does not
to be an Umayyad or early Abbasid structure, it is in fact
belong eternally to Christ but is bestowed by God on the caliph,
the product of a layered history that may have begun in the
often addressed in panegyrics as khalīfat Allāh—literally, the
Christian era. I will now consider each of these elements in
Deputy of God.4 Blessings from the Throne of God, a symbol
turn before turning to their broader implications.
of absolute divine power for both Christians and Muslims, descend upon al-Walīd. The Arabic mosaic inscription on the inner side of the wall echoed this theme through its citation of
Scattered Echoes of the Church in the Mosque
the Throne Verse (Q. 2:255), which stated: ‘Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?’ This was probably
The Transept
understood at the time as an allusion to the Prophet, whose
The hollowed-out imprint of the church was placed at the
intercession on Judgement Day had been asserted a few years
heart of the new mosque by the Umayyads when they stated
earlier in the inscriptions at the Dome of the Rock.5 With
in its monumental inscription: ‘The servant of God al-Walīd,
the destruction of the church, the claims of this new Islamic
commander of the faithful, ordered … the construction of this
paradigm to religious legitimacy had been staked with utmost
mosque and the destruction of the church which was in it.’
force. To the dispossessed Christians, the Greek inscription
2
The declaration was placed on the qibla side of the transept,
must now have sounded dissonant with historical reality.
the tall gable of which soared over the prayer hall and temenos
Without needing to be being altered, it was turning into a
(Figure 45). One could not have chosen a more central position.
negative memorial of the church.
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Standing to the left of this inscription, the east door of the
The newly inaugurated transept must itself have evoked
Roman triple gate had become, since the days of Muʿāwiya, a
the demolished building for contemporaries. As discussed
reserved entrance for the ruler (Figure 36). Nevertheless, when
in Chapter 2, the church had been either a basilica or, more
the church was destroyed, the Greek biblical inscription above
probably, a conversion of the cella, the inner sanctum of
that triple gate was kept intact (Figure 34). Its text is divided
the Roman temple. In either case, it shared its architectonic
between Psalm 88:8 on the west door (‘You have taken from me
basis—a rectangular base crowned by a pediment—with the
my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them’), Psalm
transept. This is the way the central nave of early basilicas was
145:13 on the central door (Septuagint version, ‘Your kingdom,
built—as, for instance, at the relatively well-preserved church of
O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures
Kharab Shams in northern Syria (Figure 46).6 The resemblance
through all generations’) and a fragmentary sentence echoing
would have been greater if the church was a converted cella
the Apocalypse on the Throne of God on the east door (‘The
because these structures projected their mass vertically, as with
eagle has adorned His throne; His reign…’).3 Since Greek was a
the Temple of Vienne in France (Figure 47), whereas basilicas
widespread language of liturgy and learning among Damascene
did so horizontally. Indeed, the foregoing study has shown
Christians, the Umayyads must have been aware of its contents.
that the cella had a footprint and elevation close to those of the
But they still chose to preserve it in this prominent position.
mosque transept, hence similar volumes.7
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
95
p figure 46 (left) Church of Kharab Shams. Syria, fourth to fifth century. Jane Chick/Manar al-Athar, 2006.
p figure 47 (below left) Cella at the Temple of Vienne, France, first century BCE–first century CE, as it stood around 1816. The walls, which were added in the sixth century to convert it into a church, have been removed since. From Laborde, Les monumens de la France, vol. 1, pl. XL.
Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the arcade facing the mihrab was marked out by a shallow inner dome, a decorated wooden ceiling, and probably a floor raised about a metre above the rest of the prayer hall.9 In other eighth- and ninth-century mosques from al-Andalus to Iraq, the corresponding arcade was sometimes marked out by its decoration and accentuated width. But in all cases, the elevation barely rose above the rest of the prayer hall.10 At Damascus, by contrast, the transept, when measured to the tip of the gable, is nearly twice as tall as the courtyard façade below, without counting the dome.11 A conscious decision was thus made to mark the structure out by its height. But if its form echoed that of the church, it was only to depart from its model. The transept stood on a north–south axis, rather than the east–west one of the church, thereby reorienting the direction of prayer. It was extensively clad with exterior mosaics, which barely occurred in even the most lavish churches, and its interior was devoid of any cult images. Whereas the church had been relatively exiguous, the transept opened onto an immense covered hall and the whole temenos, now turned into a vast expanse for the congregation. Under either scenario—cella or basilica—contemporaries
The Greek and Arabic inscriptions, with their contrasting views
must have recognised a parallel between the old and new
of salvation history, affirmed the substance of the contrast.
structures. Jarīr explicitly compares them in his poem, making
Al-Farazdaq ascribes a corrective value to al-Walīd’s act:
the mosque overshadow the church through its height. Reading his verses literally:
18. You divided Christians in their churches from those who pray before dawn, and after dusk. 19. Together at worship, faces turned
11. Al-Walīd the Caliph, son of a Caliph, Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
has raised (rafaʿa) a building over the greatest building! 12. Your building now dwarfs (ʿalā) the one you had
two ways: toward God, or toward the Idol. 20. How should clappers struck by Acolytes of the Cross intrude on Readers who do not sleep?
honoured; Yours are the brimming valley-basins.
8
Thus, Umayyad-era declarations situate the mosque and its Al-Nābigha similarly emphasizes the upward reach of the
architecture in a relationship of physical and dialectic rivalry
transept by likening its dome to a beacon ‘illumining Mount
with the church. This is not the way most modern scholars have
Lebanon and the coastal Sīf’ (v. 21). The height of the Damascene
interpreted it, arguing instead that it was modelled on the Great
transept, far from being incidental, is a distinguishing feature
Palace of Constantinople and its famed vestibule, the Chalke
in early mosque architecture. In al-Walīd’s rebuilding of the
(‘Bronze Gate’), which was rebuilt after 532 by Justinian I as
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
an elevated structure with a cupola.12 This hypothesis poses a
would have resulted in a blatant imbalance.16 A description
formal difficulty as the Chalke has long been lost and is known
cited by Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir confirms this:
only through very limited evidence: a sixth-century description by Procopius, two late antique images more or less closely
Al-Walīd built the northern minaret called Minaret of the
inspired by it, and recent archaeological excavations that may
Bride (miʾdhanat al-ʿarūs). As regards the east and west
have uncovered part of its foundations. The triangulation of
minarets, they already existed long before this, for there
this evidence to reach an understanding of the original palace
was a tower (ṣawmaʿa) of great height in each corner
is far from obvious.
of this temple built by the Greeks for [astronomical]
13
More importantly, the web of citations contained by the
observation. The two northern towers collapsed, whilst
Umayyad Mosque and its transept lead back to the recently
the two on the qibla side remain to this day. Part of the
destroyed church. It is primarily with this structure that the
eastern one burned after 740 [1339–40] so it was destroyed
new building had to contend, as the three poems emphatically
and rebuilt with money from the Christians, since they
show. The mosque embodied a bold affirmation of religious
had been accused of triggering the fire.17
legitimacy and orthopraxy on al-Walīd’s part, and it is unlikely that its model was a palace, however important, in distant
The Roman temple would have had four corner towers, of
Constantinople. If a further horizon for implicit comparisons
which only those on the south side remained, an assumption
existed, it may have opened onto the major churches of
shared by later Syrian historians such as Abū al-Tuqā al-Badrī
the Syrian region, such as the Holy Sepulchre and Nea in
(d. 894/1489), who writes: ‘It is said that both northern corners
Jerusalem. Even so, the Damascene church remained at the
[of the mosque] used to have similar towers [to the ones on
forefront of Umayyad concerns.
the south side] and that al-Walīd destroyed them’.18 He goes on
14
to assert that al-Walīd reused their stones to build two domed The Corner Towers
chambers in the courtyard—erroneously since, as we shall
In Umayyad times, the prayer hall was flanked by two corner
see, only one such chamber existed in early Islam. He also
towers rising to its east and west. Ibn Jubayr gave their earliest
notes about the corner towers: ‘These were built by the Greeks
relatively detailed description in 581/1184:
(al-yūnān) as towers (al-ṣawāmiʿ) for the striking of clappers
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(al-nawāqīs) and astronomical observation (al-raṣd)’.19 His The mosque has three minarets. One on the west side
understanding of their function brings together astronomy,
is like a lofty tower with large apartments and spacious
which suggests the ancient Greeks (often called al-yūnān),
zawiyas [Sufi lodges], all leading to large doors and lived in
with the clappers of Christian cult (nawāqīs, sg. nāqūs). In
by strangers of pious mode of life… The second minaret is
al-Badrī’s mind, their origin may have been ancient or Christian:
on the west (sic) side after the same style, and the third is
the case is unclear and as a fifteenth-century Damascene,
on the north at the gate known as Bāb al-Nāṭifiyyin.
he simply may not have made much of this distinction.
15
The passage by Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir cited above must The mosque, at that date, thus had three towers: the Islamic-
have been drawn from a common source. According to Ibn
era north minaret (which will be discussed in Chapter 5); and
Shākir, this was Ibn ʿAsākir, which is possible even though
two towers with rooms inhabited by ascetics. The text locates
it does not appear in the printed version of his History of
both towers on the west side, probably as a result of a slip since
Damascus. In the early tenth century, al-Masʿūdī wrote about
having two towers in the northwest and southwest corners
the Roman temple: ‘Its towers (ṣawāmiʿ) did not change: they
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
97
p figure 48 (left) Southwest tower with west temenos below. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2007. p figure 49 (below left) Transition between temenos and cubical elevation; detail of masonry of the southwest tower. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2009.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 50 (below right) View of the southwest tower, looking down towards the south temenos with the prayer hall on the left. Lucien Golvin, before 1971.
98
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
p figure 51 (left) Southwest tower with south temenos below and Umayyad masonry on the right. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2010.
p figure 52 (above) Inscription from southwest cubical tower. From Herzfeld, ‘Damascus’, fig. 2.
currency in modern scholarship.23 However, they do not fit squarely with the evidence. The upper levels of masonry in the northeast and northwest corners show no remains of a previous elevation above the level of the temenos walls, which can be identified through their engaged pilasters. The southeast corner has been rebuilt in several phases from the medieval period onwards. The only tower that may preserve substantial pre-Islamic remains is therefore the one in the southwest corner. In its cubical elevation, the ashlars have the same height as in the temenos wall below, but they are also much less wide, and the masons inserted narrow slabs between some of them (Figures 48 and 49). The masonry bonds with the temenos are irregular and their respective wall surfaces were worked with distinct methods: rough hammering applied with a point chisel at a near right angle for the temenos ashlars, as opposed to bullnosed flattening with a shallow angle for the tower above.24 are the minarets (al-manāʾir) for the call to prayer to this day’.20
The ashlar hue is also whiter in the temenos and yellower in
While he did not specify their number, his use of the plural
the tower. A photograph taken from above by Lucien Golvin,
form (rather than the dual) could imply four towers; it is also
at a time when the structure was not roofed, reveals stonework
possible he was simply not concerned with such details and
made up of two walls, each with a regular exterior facing, an
only wanted to convey their age.
irregular interior, and a rubble fill between them (Figure 50).
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
A tradition about Judgement Day attributed to the Prophet
This technique generates a thickness close to that of the Roman
in the compilation by Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261/875) has
masonry, with the vertical slabs serving to stabilise the rubble
been taken to imply the existence of the southeast tower in the
between stones. Given this array of differences, the tower is
ninth century: ‘At that time, God will send Christ, the son of
unlikely to be coeval with the Roman temenos.
Mary, and he will descend on the White Minaret in the east of
The hypothesis of two distinct phases, Roman for the base
Damascus between two yellow draperies.’ However the Arabic
and later for the cubical elevation, tallies with the observations
phrasing points to the east gate of Damascus rather than of
of Ernst Herzfeld, who collected half-a-dozen Greek masons’
21
the mosque, as confirmed by al-Rabaʿī and most later writers,
marks in the lower levels of the southwest tower, below the
who explicitly identify it with Bāb Sharqī, along the city walls.
height of the temenos, but none in the cubical elevation.25 The
The ideas implied in the other texts—that there were originally
temenos configuration which it implies, without towers, was
four corner towers, and that these were Roman—have gained
common for Roman sacred enclosures in Greater Syria.26
22
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
99
On its south side, the tower abuts an Umayyad section of the qibla wall. The masonry of these two parts is disjointed and features different ashlar sizes and cuts (Figure 51). A commission
stood alone on that wall by the ninth century, and this would explain the reference to a single Christian tower by Ibn al-Faqīh. While the material record suggests that the southwest tower
by al-Walīd is therefore unlikely, and an earlier or later date
is not Roman, Umayyad, or post-Fatimid, textual sources point
should be considered. Herzfeld recorded an Arabic inscription
to a pre-Islamic date. The weight of the evidence leans towards a
carved inside the tower, but above the level of the temenos wall,
Christian foundation between the fourth and seventh centuries
that reads: ‘God forgive the qadi Salmān ibn ʿAlī’ (Figure 52).
for this tower and its (now lost) counterpart in the southeast.32
He ascribed it to the Saljuq period on palaeographical grounds,
The texts by Ibn al-Fayḍ and Ibn al-Jubayr could also imply a
but it is in fact slightly earlier: the person named can be
continuity of use between the Christian and Islamic periods,
identified through a notice by Ibn ʿAsākir as the Damascene
with chambers in the tower used as dwellings for pious ascetics
qadi Salmān ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Nuʿmān, known as Abū al-Ḥasan
in both the early eighth and late twelfth centuries. The gap of
(fl. 409/1019). The structure must therefore have been standing
nearly half a millennium between these two occurrences makes
by the early Fatimid period, before the fire of 1069.
it uncertain whether the practice continued uninterrupted,
27
28
There is no reason to assert a priori that the tower was built by the Abbasids, given their general lack of interest in this monument. Indeed, writers of this period assumed that it
or enjoyed a resurgence as the mosque became more deeply embedded in the Muslim urban fabric. While the existence of a northeast and a northwest tower
was pre-Islamic, which they would not have done had it been
can be neither proved nor disproved, there would have been
recent. The assumption was clearly stated by al-Masʿūdī in the
little incentive to build them in this period. The southeast and
tenth century, and it seems to have been shared by writers of
southwest towers, by contrast, would have served the same
the ninth century. Ibn al-Fayḍ’s account of the destruction of
rationale as the Greek inscription on the triple gate of their
the church was noted in Chapter 2 for its historical value. It
wall: to shift the emphasis of the temenos away from the east,
mentions al-Walīd’s altercation with a Christian ascetic who
where the Roman processional route led to the monumental
dwelt in a shelter (ṣawmaʿa) in the tower (manāra) known as
Bāb Jayrūn, and towards the south, where Christians now
‘the Clocks’ (al-sāʿāt). As shown by Finbarr Barry Flood, the
entered the church. They were even better suited to the
public gate on the west side of the prayer hall was called ‘Gate
mosque given their alignment with the qibla wall and the way
of the Clocks’ in early Islam. Ibn al-Fayḍ, a Damascene, thus
they framed the transept. The reason for keeping them may
seems to be referring to the southwest tower and assuming its
therefore have been primarily practical.
29
existence before Islam. Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Ibn al-Faqīh, in turn, wrote: ‘The minaret (miʾdhana) in
The Mosque Doors
Damascus used to be an observation post (nāṭūr) for the
The wooden doors that lead into the temenos were repaired and
Romans (al-Rūm) in the Church of John the Baptist (yaḥyā).’
replaced time and again through the centuries, but they may
This statement echoes the later one by al-Badrī cited above, but
nevertheless carry a distant echo of the Christian sanctuary.
it asserts a Christian origin more clearly. Al-Dhahabī, echoed
Six doors on the west, east, and north sides are sheathed with
by several other writers, noted that the minaret (manāra)
nailed, embossed brass plaques, five of which have dates
collapsed in the earthquake of 233/847.31 The structure is
between 808/1405 and 820/1417, under the Mamluk Sultanate;
again not identified, but the damage suffered by the qibla wall
the sixth has cladding from 933/1527, in the early Ottoman
could point to one of its corner towers on the south side of the
period. A seventh Mamluk door at the centre of Bāb Jayrūn was
mosque. In other words, the southwest tower may already have
lost some time after the fire of 1893, but can be documented
30
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the umayyad mosque of damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
Detail of Figure 3 (below) Mosque doors, second illuminated page from the Sanaa Qur’an.
p figure 53 (right) Bāb Jayrūn, north side entrance. Mamluk, reign of Muʾayyad Shaykh, 820/1417. Luitgard Mols, 2006.
through photographs.33 The leaves of Bāb al-Barīd have also undergone repairs in the last century: Makīn al-Muʾayyad notes that, in 1958, ‘after removing the damaged wood and copper, it was returned to its former state by putting back ornaments, decorations, and copper segments’.34 The statement is ambiguous as to whether any original materials were discarded in the process. In either case, the general composition was not altered. On each of the seven doors, the leaves are subdivided vertically into rectangular panels: three nearly square panels at Bāb Jayrūn (Figure 53) and Bāb al-Farādīs; two vertical ones separated by a narrow horizontal band in the central door at Bāb al-Barīd; and five panels in the two side doors at Bāb al-Barīd. The overall design is cruciform, like the square grids within each panel, which serve to frame decorative motifs— primarily rosettes, inscriptions and Mamluk blazons.35 This typology is unusual for the period, when metal doors typically had either concentric designs or grids of much smaller squares. But it closely echoes the mosque doors represented in an Umayyad Qurʾan discovered in Sanaa (detail
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
of Figure 3 below), which have one large central door and a
chapter 4 • silenced and imagined pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
101
smaller side door to the left (only a small fragment remains
Inventing the Relics of the Baptist
of the third door, to the right). Both the real and depicted 36
doors are laid out in three rectangular panels subdivided into
Absence of the Relics in Christian Sources
rectangles that form a cross. The central panel of the main door
As shown in Chapter 2, the church within the temenos was
in the manuscript also has four gold dots that may, again, hark
barely noticed in Christian sources before the Islamic era.
back to a cruciform pattern.
After appearing in the Greek common source about the
Thus, as shown by Luitgard Mols, the Damascus doors are,
conversion of the Temple of Jupiter, it re-emerges with the
in all likelihood, based on Byzantine prototypes that once
mention by Adomnán (d. 704) of a Church of the Baptist in
adorned the temenos, either directly or through intermediary
Damascus, based on a testimony from around 670. The silence
replicas crafted after previous disasters. A similar practice is
is remarkable, given that the Damascene church was later
attested at the Great Mosque of Sanaa, which was also rebuilt
believed to have housed relics of John the Baptist’s head:
under al-Walīd and retains a Christian-era door on its qibla
these alone would have been worthy of notice in the Christian
wall. The idea also resonates with an assertion made by
landscape of late antiquity. The testimony of the Piacenza
al-Masʿūdī about Bāb Jayrūn:
pilgrim (ca. 570 CE) is significant in this respect. After a section
37
on Galilee, he writes about Damascus: This great edifice used to be the palace of that king [Jayrūn ibn Saʿd ibn ʿĀd]. It had wondrous copper doors (abwāb
There is there a monastery at the second milestone, where
min al-nuḥās), some of which remain in their original
Saint Paul was converted in the street which is called
place while others have become gates of the mosque.38
Straight, where many miracles are wrought. Thence we came to Heliopolis, and thence to Emesa, where there is
He thus assumed that the gates of the mosque once belonged to Iram of the Pillars, the fabled palace of the Qurʾan (Q. 89:6–8).
the head of John the Baptist in a glass jar, and we with our own eyes saw it within the jar and adored it.40
The anecdote reflects later dynamics of sanctification of the
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
site but for our present purposes, it shows that the antiquity
Like Sophronius a few decades after him,41 the Piacenza
of these doors was already recognised in the tenth century.39
pilgrim connects Damascus with the conversion of Saint
Older door sheathings may indeed have been preserved by the
Paul. Given his interest in the relics of the Baptist at Emesa
Umayyads because of their age and craftsmanship, or indeed
(Homs), it is improbable that he would have omitted their
as another victory symbol. In either case, their preservation
veneration at Damascus, had it occurred there, since he stood
was facilitated by the fact that their cross symbol, being made
mere paces away from the temenos on Straight Street. The
up of a square repeat pattern, is easily elided by the mind’s eye.
remaining evidence of their cult in the Christian era consists
The Sanaa Qurʾan illumination, which shows a polychromatic
of a statement by René Dussaud to the effect that the relics were
treatment of the door surfaces (detail of Figure 3, page 101),
seen at both Damascus and Emesa shortly before the Islamic
opens the possibility that these doors were painted.
conquest (duplication was, after all, not uncommon in the realm of relics).42 However, no reference to their presence at Damascus is to be found in Dussaud’s source, a lengthy Latin study of the three inventions of the relics published at Antwerp in 1707. The passage he cites relates a first invention of the relics at Jerusalem in the fourth century, when they were stolen
102
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
by a potter from Emesa. The second invention occurred in
Muslim Traditions About the Relics
that city around the mid-fifth century, and the third in Comana
As with the location of the church, Arabic Muslim sources
(Cappadocia) in the ninth century, before their translation to
contain more material than Christian ones about the relics
Constantinople. Damascus only features in these passages in
of Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā (‘John, son of Zechariah’, the Baptist’s
43
narratives of the Muslim conquest, not as the locale of the relics.
44
Other sources confirm their association, in the Syrian
name in the Qurʾan). The most extensive collection of traditions on the subject occurs in the Faḍāʾil al-Shām wa Dimashq
area, with Emesa and the region of Jerusalem, rather than
(‘Virtues of Syria and Damascus’) by al-Rabaʿī (Damascene,
Damascus. In the 720s, the English pilgrim Willibald, later
d. 444/1053). These are worth citing in full to convey the form
bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, saw at Emesa ‘a large church
in which they were compiled at that time. They are numbered
which Saint Helena built in honour of Saint John the Baptist,
here for ease of reference, with key names in bold type:
and his head, which is now in Syria, was there for a long time’.45 Days later, he spent a week in Damascus ‘where,’ he says, ‘Saint
1. Tammām ibn Muḥammad told us, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd
Ananias rests’, which could imply a cult of the latter’s relics.
Allāh al-Qurashī narrated to us, my father told us, al-
Willibald also visited a church that commemorated Paul’s
Qāsim ibn ʿUthmān told us, al-Walīd [ibn Muslim] said:
conversion two miles outside the city but, like the Piacenza
I asked al-Awzāʿī: ‘Abū ʿAmr, where were you told the
pilgrim a century and a half earlier, he makes no mention of
head of Yaḥyā, son of Zakariyyā was?’ He said: ‘We
the Baptist in relation to Damascus. His statement about the
were told it was at the fourth column, which has a
translation of the relics from Emesa is echoed in Theophanes
basket capital’.
46
Confessor’s entry for the year 760–61 CE (6252 AM): 2. Tammām told us, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad The head of the holy John the forerunner and Baptist was
ibn al-Muʿallā narrated to us, al-Qāsim ibn ʿUthmān
moved from the monastery of Spelaion [near Jerusalem]
narrated to us:
to his famous church in Emesa. A way down to it was
I heard al-Walīd ibn Muslim say, as a man asked
built, whereat the faithful have adored it until the present
him, ‘Abū al-ʿAbbās, where were you told the head of
for both its physical and spiritual sweet smell.
Yaḥyā, son of Zakariyyā, peace be upon him, was?’:
47
‘I was told there’, pointing towards the fourth column
A relic of the skull of the Baptist was thus moved from the
from the east pillar, with a basket capital.
region of Jerusalem to Emesa, and an underground crypt built Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
for it, in the mid-eighth century. These stories bear yet further
3. Tammām told us, Aḥmad narrated to us, Abū Shabīb
complexities: in an early version of the first invention, the relics
Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿallā narrated to us,
were moved to Constantinople. According to the Chronicon
Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿallā narrated to us, Ism[ā]ʿīl ibn Abān
Paschale, relics of his body were ‘scattered around’ under Julian
told me, Zayd ibn Wāqid narrated to me:
(r. 360–63) from Sebaste in Palestine, where Willibald does,
I saw the head of Yaḥyā, son of Zakariyyā, peace be
however, report their presence. Perplexing though these
upon them. It was taken out of the pavement tile
itineraries may be, there is no indication that they were ever
(balāṭa)49 on the east qibla side, which is near the
related to Damascus. It is telling, in this respect, that even
column of Bajīla. It was placed under the column of
later Christian chronicles that mention the church within the
the Sakāsik.
48
temenos do not link it to these relics.
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
103
4. Tammām told us, Abū Bakr al-Birāmī narrated to us,
7. Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Jaʿfar told us,
Abū Shabīb narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn H[ā]rūn
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rabaʿī narrated to us,
narrated to us, ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd narrated to us, I heard
Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, Aḥmad ibn
Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab say:
Ibrāhīm al-Ghassānī narrated to us, my father narrated
When Bukht entered Damascus victorious and went
to me from his father, Zayd ibn Wāqid said:
up the stairs to enter the church which is now the
Al-Walīd had put me in charge of the workers for the
congregational mosque, he saw the blood of Yaḥyā,
construction of the great mosque of Damascus. We
son of Zakariyyā, peace be upon them, spout and
found a cave and informed al-Walīd about it. When
boil. He said: 75,000 were killed upon it before the
it was night he went down with a candle in his hand.
blood stood still.
It was a pretty church of three cubits [by three] in which was a coffer. He opened the coffer: in it was a
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
5. Abū Mushir said: The head of Yaḥyā, son of Zakariyyā, peace be upon
Zakariyyā. Al-Walīd ordered that it be returned to its
them, is under the column with a basket capital in
place and said: ‘Make the column above it distinct
the east of the mosque known as the column of the
from the others’. So they made a column with a
Sakāsik.
basket capital.50
6. Abū Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥm[ā]n ibn ʿUmar al-Imām told us,
104
basket, and in the basket the head of Yaḥyā, son of
Thus, by the eleventh century, the fourth column to the
Ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us, Abū ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to
east of a central pillar of the mosque had a basket capital, a
us, Mahdī ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us, al-Walīd ibn Muslim
type commonly attested in this period, notably at Jerusalem
narrated to us, Zayd ibn Wāqid narrated to us:
(Figure 54) and in Egypt.51 It was believed to mark the site
I saw the head of Yaḥyā, son of Zakariyyā, peace
of the Baptist’s relics (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4). In its present form, the
be upon them, when they decided to build the
Shrine of the Baptist in the prayer hall (Figure 55) dates to the
mosque of Damascus. It was taken out from below
early twentieth century. It stands between the third and fourth
a pillar of the dome. The skin and hair on his head
columns from the transept, a position that corresponds to the
had not altered.
one cited in al-Rabaʿī’s accounts. The traditions cited above
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
p figure 54 (opposite left) Basket capital, Al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf, Jerusalem. Melanie Gibson, 2019.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 55 (opposite right) The Shrine of the Baptist, current state. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2009.
p figure 56 (above right) The Shrine of the Baptist in the nineteenth century, viewed from the east. Maison Bonfils, 1866. Badr El-Hage Collection. p figure 57 (right) The Shrine of the Baptist in the nineteenth century, viewed from the west. Sulayman Hakim, ca. 1890. Badr El-Hage Collection.
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
105
p figure 58 Shrine of John the Baptist, cenotaph. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2009.
inscribed in white lettering: ‘O Zakariyyā, we give thee glad tidings of a son, whose name [shall be] Yaḥyā’ [Q. 19:7].55
Thus the cenotaph, which Ibn Baṭṭūṭa mistook for that of Zakariyyā, perhaps because of the inscription, lay between two columns, as it still does today (Figure 58). Two centuries earlier, in 581/1184, Ibn Jubayr had remarked about the shrines in the mosque: The first of these is the Shrine of the Head of Yaḥyā, son
also converge to imply that, again in the eleventh century, the
of Zakariyyā, peace be upon them. This is buried in the
column with a basket capital was named after the Sakāsik, a
south aisle of the venerated mosque in front of the pillar
Yemeni tribe of Kinda that supported the Umayyads (Nos. 3, 5).
to the right of the Maqsura of the Companions—may God
Like the space in the prayer hall named after the Bajīla (No. 3),
hold them in His favour. Over it is a wooden coffin (tābūt
a tribe from the region of Mecca, it points to the appropriation
khashab) in the sense of width from the column. Above
by different Arab factions of specific parts of the prayer hall,
it is a lamp that seems to be of hollow crystal, and like
a space at the heart of Muslim religious and political life in
a large drinking vessel. It is not known whether it is the
Damascus.
glass of Iraq or Tyre, or some other ware.56
52
The current columns within the prayer hall date to the aftermath of the fire that ravaged the mosque in 1893. No traces of a basket capital are apparent in earlier photographs,
from the transept: Ibn Jubayr thus seems to have already seen
even though the third and fourth columns have distinctive
the cenotaph in its current position. He also noted a distinctive
vaulted capitals (Figures 56 and 57). With their slender white
lamp above it, presumably hanging from the arch.
shafts, which are straight rather than flared at the centre, and
The traditions cited by al-Rabaʿī do not imply the existence of
the cursive inscription around their neck, these appear to be
a cenotaph in the early eleventh century, as they describe a spot
modern. In 1807, Domingo Badía y Leblich (alias Ali Bey) noted
only distinguished by a basket capital. This seems consistent
that the shrine consisted of a ‘wooden maisonette with jalousie
with its absence from al-Muqaddasī’s tenth-century description
windows, mouldings and ornaments in gold, and arabesque
of the mosque, even though he observed such minute details
paintings’. In photographs of the 1860s to 1870s, it had been
as the ornament of the gates and the apex of the dome. Because
replaced by a domed structure built of stone, which the current
the mosque remained close to its Umayyad state in the first
shrine imitates.
half of the eleventh century, the basket capital may have been
53
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The Mihrab of the Companions is in front of the fifth column
In the fourteenth century, according to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, a cenotaph could be seen here:
erected at the time of al-Walīd. Whether its associations with Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā stretch that far back in time is a more complicated matter.
In the centre of the mosque is the Tomb of Zakariyyā (upon him be peace), surmounted by a coffin (tābūt)
written transmission and as such do not yield a single well-
set breadthwise between two pillars and covered by
defined narrative. Three of the seven anecdotes deal with the
an embroidered (muʿlam fīhi) black silk cloth. This is
location of the relics. They all feature an authority pointing to
54
106
Al-Rabaʿī’s anecdotes were shaped by generations of oral and
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
a spot within the mosque: first al-Awzāʿī (d. 157/774) (No. 1),
Sabaeans for their prayers. Then it came into the hands of
the most prominent pro-Umayyad theologian; then from
the Greeks, who practised their religion there. Then came
the next generation, the no less seminal al-Walīd ibn Muslim
the Jews and pagan kings. Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā, peace be
(d. ca. 194–95/810–12) (No. 2); and finally, again a generation
upon him, was killed in that time, and his head was hung
later, the religious scholar Abū Mushir al-Ghassānī (d. 218/834)
on the gate of this mosque called Bāb Jayrūn. The head of
(No. 5). All three scholars were Damascene. The first two
Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā was hung, then the head of al-Ḥusayn
anecdotes follow the narration of Tammām ibn Muḥammad
ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, God’s prayers be on him.62
57
58
(330–414/942–1023), a prominent Hadith scholar and Qurʾan reciter from Damascus.59 The third (No. 5) does not have a transmission chain, although it was already known to Ibn
tenth century onwards with the head of the Baptist, which
al-Faqīh in the ninth century.60 The traditions are primarily
Herod or the Romans hung in the doorway after killing him.
intended to validate a local belief about the location of the
This tradition incidentally confirms that the relics of the Shiʿite
relics and its link to the basket capital. They suggest that by
imam al-Ḥusayn were already linked with the east temenos
the eleventh century, this belief had become broadly accepted
wall by that time. Three centuries later, Yāqūt al-Rūmī
in local circles, but also that it still needed affirmation and was
(ca. 574–626/1179–1229) also identified the ‘small mosque
not entirely self-evident.
which is behind Jayrūn’ as the site of Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā’s
According to a fourth anecdote cited by al-Rabaʿī (No. 4),
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Bāb Jayrūn was thus associated by some historians of the
murder.63 These sources present an alternate narrative linking
when the Babylonians conquered Damascus, the blood of
the head of the Baptist to the east wall of the mosque. It may
John the Baptist was found to be spouting and boiling, only to
have enjoyed a substantial diffusion, but only among non-
be quenched by 75,000 deaths—a graphic image that makes
Damascenes. Notionally, the two stories could have been
for powerful storytelling. The relics are thereby associated
conflated by identifying the earlier Bāb Jayrūn relics with
with Bukht(-Naṣṣār), the Bible’s Nebuchadnezzar, who
those discovered by al-Walīd, but this did not happen, and
lived centuries before the Baptist. This blatantly ahistorical
the two traditions seem to have remained parallel.
anecdote is also the only one among al-Rabaʿī’s seven with
Al-Rabaʿī gives three more traditions stating that al-Walīd
a non-Damascene originator: Ibn al-Musayyab (d. 94/713),
discovered the relics underground in what was to become the
who was a second-generation Muslim (tābiʿī) from Medina.
prayer hall (Nos. 3, 6, 7). All three are presented as having been
His transmissions reached Damascus through his students,
witnessed by Zayd ibn Wāqid (d. 138/756), a Damascene religious
especially al-Zuhrī, a Medinan who moved to the Umayyad
scholar.64 At least two of them (Nos. 6, 7) had entered into
capital under ʿAbd al-Malik.61
circulation by the ninth century, when they were cited by Ibn
The mention of ‘stairs to enter the church’ could imply
al-Faqīh.65 Their most significant implication is obvious, but has
that the scene is to be set on the monumental steps of Bāb
so far been barely remarked on. According to Muslim tradition,
Jayrūn. A related story was reported by a string of writers from
the relics were invented in Umayyad times; hitherto they had
the tenth century onwards. According to the earliest version,
been unknown. Christian sources—or rather their silence on
by al-Balkhī (d. 322/934):
this subject—tally with this assumption, especially by contrast with their many references to the prominently displayed
There [in Damascus] stands a mosque with no equal in
relics at Emesa. By taking the Arabic texts at face value, one
age or size throughout Islam. The wall and dome above
might conclude that a skull was found in Umayyad times in an
the mihrab, towards the maqsura, were built by the
underground chamber opposite the south temenos entrance.
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
107
This could have been a forgotten funerary vault, the contents
through one Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf to reach Ismāʿīl ibn Abān
of which became associated with the Baptist by Muslims.
(d. 263/877), who is cited by Ibn ʿAsākir as a teacher of Ibn
However, the whole story rather appears as a vivid and
al-Muʿallā and a transmitter from Abū Mushir; it ends with Zayd
inherently unverifiable literary device.
ibn Wāqid, the presumed eyewitness.68 The time lag between
One tradition (No. 6) asserts that the relics originally lay below the pillar of the dome and another (No. 3), under a tile
filled thanks to Ibn ʿAsākir’s version of the anecdote, which gives
(balāṭa) at the meeting place of the Bajīla ‘on the east qibla
Ismāʿīl’s source as Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾidh al-Qurashī (b. 150/768,
side’. Both seem to indicate the eastern pillars of the transept,
d. ca. 232–34/846–49). Ibn ʿĀʾidh, in turn, would have received it
which lie on the north–south axis of the temenos (Ground plan,
from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and he from Zayd ibn Wāqid.69
Figure 1). This would imply that the relics were found in front
Al-Walīd ibn Muslim thus emerges as the source of four
of the central gateway to the church but had to be displaced to
anecdotes about the relics in the Umayyad period. This
make way for pillar foundations. The most complete tradition
prominent figure of early Damascene religious scholarship,
(No. 7) states that al-Walīd ordered them to be returned to
reputed to have produced numerous written works, appears
their discovery spot and had it marked by the basket capital,
to have started life as a slave in the household of Maslama,
thereby suggesting that the relics were not moved. The story is
the famed half-brother of caliph al-Walīd who is lauded as a
related on the authority of Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghassānī, his
military commander in al-Nābigha’s poem about the mosque
father Ibrāhīm ibn Hishām, and his grandfather Hishām ibn
(v. 6). He remained a client (mawlā) of the Umayyads after his
Yaḥyā, whose own father Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā served as governor
manumission.70 Al-Rabaʿī also cites him as the source of other
of Mosul and qadi of Damascus between the reigns of ʿUmar II
traditions exalting Damascus and its mosque. One of them
(99–101/717–20) and Hishām (105–25/724–43).
relates the discovery of an ancient inscription from the time
66
In the story about the destruction of the church, it was
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Ismāʿīl (ninth century) and Zayd (early eighth century) can be
of Solomon in the qibla wall, giving its full text. This wall,
al-Walīd who struck the first blow to the monument and
according to the same tradition, reflected the workmanship
overcame the hesitations of his workers—a narrative which,
of the Qurʾanic prophet Hūd, who was buried there.71 Another
as we have seen, seems to be echoed in his court poetry and
tradition asserts the identification of Damascus with a
may have a historical basis. In this account, the caliph is again
Qurʾanic term, al-tīn (the fig) in al-tīn wa’l-zaytūn (Q. 95:1).72
the main agent in the genesis of the mosque, for it is he, rather
Furthermore, he is the source of a Hadith according to which
than the workers, who goes down into the chamber, at night
the Prophet foresaw the impending greatness of Damascus;73
and with a candle for added atmosphere. There, he discovers a
and another in which he asserts that Jesus would descend on the
small decorated chapel (kanīsa laṭīfa), with the head in a coffer
‘white minaret in the east of Damascus’ on Judgement Day.74
(in Ibn ʿAsākir’s version, the latter is conveniently accompanied
Al-Walīd ibn Muslim was one amongst several Damascene scholars to circulate traditions of this type—the core material
by an identifying inscription). The tradition narrated by Tammām (No. 3), although concise,
from which Faḍāʾil traditions eventually took shape. They—and
includes key elements from most of the others: the testimony
the successive generations who relayed their stories—contributed
of Zayd, the discovery of the relics below ground and their
to establishing the sacred status of Damascus in the emerging
relocation under the column of the Sakāsik. Tammām’s source
landscape of Islam, just as its political power had waned with
is Muḥammad Abū Shabīb, a little-known son of Aḥmad ibn
the rise of the Abbasid Empire. The invention of the relics
al-Muʿallā (d. 286/900), the historian, qadi of Damascus and
should be viewed in this context, as part of a process of the
prominent Hadith transmitter. The transmission chain goes
sanctification of space through storytelling.75
67
108
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
p figure 59 Bayt al-Māl, south side. Alain George, 2010.
The destruction of the church had a public resonance, having been carried out in broad daylight before numerous witnesses. Likewise, the configuration of the site, with the church on the right and first mosque on the left, had been visible to any Damascene until the reign of al-Walīd. The invention of the relics, by contrast, would have happened after dark and out of sight, with Zayd as its witness. In this, it echoes al-Walīd’s encounter with the legendary al-Khiḍr, which would have occurred at night, near the qibla, with the mosque expressly closed off to visitors.76 Both stories have in common their unverifiability, even by locals in Umayyad times. Similarly, the find spot of the relics under the dome was obliterated when massive foundation pillars were built for the Umayyad Mosque. These anecdotes were probably crafted in eighth-century Damascene circles with a narrative framework that facilitated their entry into circulation. By anchoring the mosque deeper in its Christian past, they bestowed on it a sacred aura that the church itself had lacked.
The Origins of the Bayt al-M l The Bayt al-Māl in Arabic Sources Of the three domed structures that now stand in the courtyard, only one existed in the first Islamic centuries: the raised octagonal chamber on columns near the northwest corner
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
(Figure 59). By the time of Ibn Jubayr’s visit in 581/1184, two other domes had been added in the centre and to the east, a
mosaic.’ 79 This was also the term used by sources in early Islam
configuration that continues to this day, even if the current
to describe similar structures at Fustat and elsewhere.80 This
central dome is a recent rebuilding.77 In modern Damascus,
suggests that it served as a treasury—the general meaning of
the older chamber to the northwest is known as the Dome of
bayt al-māl—whether for mosque endowments or some other
the Treasury (qubbat al-khazna, or simply al-khazne in Syro-
public fund, as assumed by some medieval writers.81 With the
Levantine dialect); some medieval sources call it the ‘Dome of
passing of time, it grew into a repository for discarded old
the Monies’ (qubbat al-māl) or ‘Dome of Aisha’ (qubbat ʿāʾisha).
manuscripts that began to attract the attention of European
But its earliest name is likely to have been Bayt al-Māl (lit.
scholars from the turn of the twentieth century.82
78
the ‘house of monies’). In the tenth century, al-Muqaddasī
No author appears to have discussed the origins of this
wrote: ‘On the right [if one faces the qibla], in the courtyard,
monument before the twelfth century. According to al-Badrī,
is a treasury (bayt māl) on eight columns, its walls inlaid with
the Bayt al-Māl dates to the days of al-Walīd and was built with
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
109
p figure 60 The Bayt al-Māl, south side. K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.612. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ also said: I stood on the dome as it was being built. Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ is remembered as the maternal uncle of Ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa. He reached the age of nearly a hundred.85
Al-Faḍl’s father Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the uncle of the second Abbasid caliph, al-Manṣūr (r. 136–58/754–75), had taken over Egypt from the Umayyads for the new dynasty. According to other sources cited by Ibn ʿAsākir, al-Faḍl (122–72/739–89) was governor of Damascus in 149–58/766–75.86 If this information is correct, he would have built the structure under al-Manṣūr (his first cousin) rather than al-Mahdī or Hārūn. The originator of the report, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, was reportedly remembered by Abū Zurʿa as ‘an old man from among the people of the Mosque [of Damascus]’. He seems to have gained repute in the ninth century for having met the religious scholars al-Awzāʿī (d. 157/774), the slightly younger Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. ca. 167/784), the storyteller (qāṣṣ) ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀtika (d. ca. 149–55/766–72), and some of the last second-generation Muslims (tābiʿūn). He thus provided a living stones from the northeast and northwest temenos towers (which, as we have just seen, may or may not have existed).83
Both attributions for the Bayt al-Māl—to al-Walīd or to
This attribution is unusual in the Syrian historiographical
al-Faḍl, the latter under al-Manṣūr, al-Mahdī, or Hārūn—are
tradition. Al-Dhahabī (673–748/1274–1348) and Ibn Taghrī Birdī
credible in themselves, especially as these early Abbasid
(ca. 812–74/1409–70) assert that it was founded by the Abbasid
caliphs are known to have sponsored mosaic work at Mecca
governor of Damascus al-Faḍl ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, under the
and Medina.88 Ibn ʿAsākir’s version carries more weight than
caliph al-Mahdī (r. 158–69/775–85), while Ibn Kathīr dates it to
the others because it alone has a cited source and fits within
around 160/777, under the same caliph. Ibn ʿAsākir provides
a detailed understanding of al-Faḍl’s career. Based on these
the most detailed account of its origins on the authority of Abū
sources, one would be led to accept the foundation of the Bayt
al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī (d. 347/959):
al-Māl by al-Faḍl. Yet while they set the question as a binary
84
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connection with these figures of authority.87
between an Abbasid or Umayyad origin, the monument itself Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī said, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Ḥumayd ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī al-ʿAjāʾiz al-Kindī told me, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan
110
suggests a more layered history. The walls of the Bayt al-Māl are currently concealed by
ibn Ḥalqum (?) told us, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ said:
its mosaics, most of which are twentieth-century creations
I knew al-Faḍl ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Hāshimī when he was governor
based on limited original fragments. These were revealed
of Damascus. It is he who made doors for the mosque
underneath plaster in 1928–29, together with the mosaics of
and the dome in the courtyard known as the Dome of the
the west courtyard arcade.89 The building remained in this
Treasury (qubbat al-māl).
state until at least 1962–63, as attested in a photograph of the
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 61 Bayt al-Māl, northeast side. Michel Ecochard, 1941. Michel Ecochard Archive, courtesy of Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT).
soundings undertaken at that time (Figure 26). The masonry
from a similar lintel or architrave. The capital on the northeast
and historical mosaics can thus be documented through
corner is smaller than the others, which is consistent with
photographs taken in that interval (Figures 60 and 61). The
their being spolia. The inner dome below the chamber has its
architraves, with their downward-facing ovoid globes, vegetal
apex at the same level as the top of the second stone course:
motifs, and three recessed steps, echo the outer frame of the
its structure is concealed by plaster, making it impossible to
cella gate at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra (Figure 62), as well
date. In photographs from the early twentieth century, the
as other Roman monuments. They were probably cut to size
original mosaic panels cover the upper decorative border of the
90
91
chapter 4 • Silenced and Imagined Pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
111
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p figure 62 (above) Cella entrance gate and detail of carved mouldings of lintel (reconstruction), Temple of Bel, Palmyra, 32 CE. From Seyrig, Amy, and Will, Le temple de Bêl, vol. 2, pls. 44, 45. p figure 63 (left) Bayt al-Māl, dome and architraves viewed from the interior. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2009.
architrave fragments. This border appears to have been cropped
of which involve carved Roman stonework except in column
vertically from a larger frieze, and it has no counterpart on the
capitals. This raises the possibility that the base of the building
inner sides of the architraves (Figure 63). It seems unlikely that
is older than its walls.
work was put into this feature only to conceal it in the same phase of building. The architraves are also recessed in relation
The Bayt al-Māl and the Typology of the Baptistery
to the capitals and have small gaps between them. The standard
Once envisaged without its upper storey, the Bayt al-Māl takes
of work is inferior to that in Umayyad parts of the mosque, none
on an intriguing resonance with another famous structure from
112
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
p figure 64 (right) Octagon of the Lateran Baptistery, Rome, 432–40 CE. Péter Tamás Nagy, 2019.
p figure 65 (below right) Sistine phase of the Lateran baptistery (reconstruction). Rome, 432–40 CE. From Giovenale, Il Battistero Lateranense, 105.
the late antique Mediterranean: the Lateran Baptistery in Rome. The core as rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III (432–40) consists of eight porphyry columns joined by Roman architraves (Figure 64).92 The structure was originally crowned by a drum and dome and surrounded by a barrel-vaulted ambulatory (Figure 65). It housed a large basin and fountain at its centre, a structure now lost but recorded in a sixteenth-century engraving by Antonio Lafreri.93 Sixtus III set the Lateran Baptistery in an octagonal roofed building, with floor mosaics in the ambulatory. At Damascus, between the Bayt al-Māl and north arcade, the 1962–63 soundings also revealed some 30 sq. m of white floor mosaics with tesserae measuring about 2.5 sq. cm each (Figure 66). They had been laid 48 to 57 cm below ground, which corresponds to floor levels in the Roman to Umayyad periods.94 No similar mosaics were found in the other sounding points across the mosque courtyard, which revealed instead a pavement of large marble slabs for both the Roman and Umayyad periods. There were roughly cut stones around the mosaics, arranged to form a flat surface, which either marked a threshold on the same floor or, as proposed by ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rīḥāwī, a building base.95 In either case, the floor mosaics and pavement slabs most likely belonged to a Christian building. Given the difference in ground level just observed, the Bayt al-Māl columns with their capitals would have risen about 5.10 m above this mosaic floor, as opposed to 4.56 m today. The height of the Lateran columns is 6.10 m, counting the base, shaft, and capital. The Bayt al-Māl has a maximum span of 7.37 m whereas it is 10–11 m at the Lateran Baptistery.96 Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Even though the latter structure is larger, they are both of a comparable scale. The columns of the Bayt al-Māl have a larger diameter than those of the Umayyad arcades, yet are not as tall. A sounding carried out by Michel Ecochard in 1941 showed that they reach 2.30 m below the modern ground level, which corresponds to about a third of their height, and that most of them do not have bases.97 In the only photograph of this sounding that I could source (Figure 61), the area at the centre is underexposed, but the image does confirm that the columns continue uninterrupted below ground. At about 1.80 m below
chapter 4 • silenced and imagined pasts
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
113
p figure 66 Floor mosaics near the Bayt al-Māl, excavated in 1962–63. From Anon., Maʿraḍ fusayfisāʾ al-jāmiʿ al-umawī, Dimashq 1964.
the white mosaic floor level, they were at the right depth to
used to make the structure more elegant and better matched
provide a piscine for full immersion, especially if steps led
with its surroundings. Furthermore the building, being at an
into the water.
uneven distance from the north and west arcades (Ground
98
The baptistery hypothesis fits the broader context of
of the mosque—and of other early Islamic architecture.100 In
of Phoenicia Libanensis, hence a city in which baptism was
the Christian era, this position was adjacent to the church:
performed. As already noted, Straight Street, a few dozen
depending on the orientation of this building towards east or
metres south of the temenos, was associated with the baptism
west, the Bayt al-Māl columns would have stood just north
of Paul. This may have provided the rationale for adding a
of either the main entrance or the apse. Both locations are
baptistery to this church, and perhaps for naming it after the
attested in early Christian architecture.101 Thus, the Bayt al-
Baptist, since his relics were not worshipped here before Islam.
Māl columns, architraves, and floor mosaics are likely to have
99
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plan, Figure 1), is at odds with the symmetrical organisation
Damascus. This was, first of all, the metropolitan bishopric
By contrast, the rationale for the size and placement of
originally formed the core of a baptistery—a hypothesis already
the columns becomes difficult to explain if the Bayt al-Māl
raised in passing by Richard Pococke in 1745, Charles William
was created in the eighth century. The Umayyad Mosque had
Wilson in 1880 and Geoffrey King in 1976.102
dozens of standard columns to carry its arcades and roofs. These must have been widely available and could have been
114
What was the date of the original structure? The type represented by the Lateran Baptistery—a font with a canopy
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:48:30.
set at the centre of an octagonal, square, round, or hexagonal
is itself a memorial’.105 The remark echoes the words of Abū
building—was shared by baptisteries across the Christian
ʿUbayd ibn Sallām (d. 224/839) about the Damascene church:
world. However the sub-type with eight freestanding columns
‘They showed me its location there, and the side it was on
surrounded by an ambulatory is primarily attested in France
before its destruction’.106 The memory of the vanished building
and Italy, notably at Aix-en-Provence and Aquileia in the
was still alive at that time, decades after its destruction, but
fifth century (in the latter case, with six columns) and
as a negative imprint, just as the Bristol plinth has come to
Nocera Superiore in the sixth century.
103
In the eastern
Mediterranean, a range of fifth- to sixth-century baptisteries
While this interest eventually faded, the Damascene church
from Constantinople through Syria to Egypt had a font
continues to cast a shadow over the fabric of the mosque to
surrounded by an octagonal structure, but the latter was
this day. The most impressive part of al-Walīd’s building, the
formed by niches alternating with arches. This other derivation
transept, probably mirrored and sought to outdo it. On its
of the type may have spread from the Byzantine capital to the
exterior wall, framing the entrance used by the rulers, a Greek
provinces in this period.
104
The structure at Damascus may
biblical inscription served as another reminder of its hollowed
thus have been a work of the late fourth or early fifth century,
presence. As one stepped inside, the mosaic inscription on
when the temple was converted into the church, and before
the qibla wall came into focus, affirming for posterity the
the spread of the newer Constantinopolitan model. But a later
obliteration of the church, in a voice echoed by those of
date, up until the early seventh century, remains possible.
Umayyad panegyrists. The metal sheathing of the church gates
In the early eighth century, al-Walīd must have decided to
was probably preserved, either to symbolise defeat or because
keep these eight columns standing when all the surrounding
they were seen as remains of a mythical past. As Umayyad-
buildings were destroyed. He or his Abbasid successors then
leaning circles ‘invented’ the relics of the Baptist in the
turned it into a domed chamber. But why keep the structure and
following decades, they were, again, harnessing the Roman
thereby disturb the symmetrical order of the whole precinct?
and Christian past of the site to augment its aura.
Reasons of economy are unconvincing in a building on which
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symbolise the fall of its statue.
The corner towers, on the other hand, must have been
such immense resources were lavished. The columns of the Bayt
retained for practical reasons, given their perfect fit with the
al-Māl could arguably have served as a memorial of the 705 crisis
qibla wall of the mosque. One of the most distinctive structures
and the defeat of Christians, thereby completing the message of
of the mosque, the eight columns of the Bayt al-Māl, are another
the mosaic inscription, transept, and gates. One cannot rule out
probable remainder of the Christian era. They may have been
that a micro-event involving al-Walīd happened there, or that
kept as a forlorn victory symbol or for another, long-forgotten
this spot had a small piece of sacred history attached to it; but if
reason. Long after its rubble was cleared, the church thus
so, any memory of these associations was eventually lost.
continued to stand in a relationship of conflict and erasure, but also appropriation and continuity, with al-Walīd’s mosque.
pppp
On 7 June 2020, the statue of Edward Colston, an English philanthropist who had made his fortune in the slave trade, was toppled and thrown into Bristol harbour by protesters. In the same week, The Economist magazine reported: ‘The plinth already attracts crowds; the absence of a memorial
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115
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5 A Vast Expanse of Splendour: Towards a Reconstruction of the Umayyad Mosque
B
etween 706 and 715, Damascus must have been teeming with craftsmen and workers from the four corners of the Umayyad Empire. Thirteen centuries
later, the monument that they built still stands at the heart of the modern city. This impression of permanence is illusory however, for the current mosque, like a living organism, never ceased to evolve from the moment of its foundation. In order to gain an understanding of the Umayyad state of the building, it is necessary to retrace our steps as far back
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across history as the evidence will allow in order to identify extant original sections, themselves more or less heavily repaired, in conjunction with the testimonies of texts and early photographs. While certainty about every aspect of the Umayyad building lies beyond our grasp, careful consideration makes it possible to reach hypotheses about most of its p The transept and east side of the prayer hall. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
features. I will now analyse the structure of the mosque— its masonry, supports, and elevation—before turning to its ornament—a vast expanse of marble, mosaic, woodwork, and inlaid precious stones, with accents of gold throughout.
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
117
Structure
width as the large arch underneath, so that each column or
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pillar in the lower tier is aligned with a pillar above (Figure 69). Courtyard Arcades
These contrasting alternations of vertical elements animate
Standing at one end of the courtyard with the prayer hall to the
the scheme visually, while placing the load on the pillars in the
left, one faces the west arcade, the best-preserved part of the
upper tier. The construction is not strictly precise: for instance
Umayyad Mosque (Figure 67). Its masonry is original, as can be
in Figure 69, the pillar above the spandrel with a mosaic tree is
deduced from the Umayyad mosaic panels on the arches and
slightly staggered to the left. The span of each arch also varies
the Roman wall behind. In areas where the mosaic is missing,
between 4.09 m and 4.57 m across the arcade.1 Such variability
original ashlars are exposed: these are made of sandstone, and
makes it inherently difficult to reconstruct the proportional
their cut can be irregular, probably because some stones were
relationships that may have existed between the parts of the
reused from an older structure (Figure 44). Behind the arcade,
original building.
the masonry of the west wall is Roman (Figure 68). The arcade consists of nine large arches and eighteen small
The arcade elevation was described at an early date by Ibn al-Muʿallā (d. 286/900) by putting these words in the
ones. The rhythm of the lower tier is defined by the alternation
mouth of Umayyad stonemasons: ‘It should be built with
of two columns to one pier, whereas in the upper tier there
arches (qanāṭir), then above them pillars (asāṭīn), columns
is one colonnette for every pier, hence three colonnettes for
(ʿumud) and further arches that will carry the ceiling and
every pair of columns. Each pair of small arches is the same
reduce the load on the columns. Between every two columns,
118
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 67 (opposite) View of courtyard with prayer hall façade to the left, west arcade opposite, and north arcade to the right. Alain George, 2010. p figure 68 (right) West arcade, section of temenos wall with exposed masonry. René Mouterde, after 1928. Beirut, Bibliothèque Orientale.
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p figure 69 (below) Section of west arcade. Alain George, 2010.
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119
there should be a pillar (rukn).’2 The testimony of Ibn Jubayr in 581/1184 confirms that the same pattern was repeated for the other courtyard arcades: ‘As to the colonnades that enclose the court from three sides, they are supported by columns over
p figure 70 (above) The east arcade (north side) and northeast corner, present day. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2009.
which are arched embrasures sustained by smaller columns
p figure 72 (opposite below) The north arcade (left) and detail of northeast corner (right). Late nineteenth century. Courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.
that go round the whole of the court.’3 The east arcade faces the west arcade across the courtyard and replicates its structure symmetrically. No original mosaics remain here and only four columns out of six—the pairs at the Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 71 (opposite) The east arcade (south side) and southeast corner, present day. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2009.
centre and south of the arcade—are original (Figures 70 and 71). An early photograph shows that in the nineteenth century, a further Roman column remained in the northeast corner,
Looking left from the east arcade, with one’s back turned
while its twin had been replaced by a pier (Figure 72 and detail).
to the prayer hall, the north arcade comes into sight (Figure
All the spandrels in the upper tier of this arcade were restored
72). It consists, in its current state, of twenty-four arches
or rebuilt between the medieval and modern periods. The
supported by an imposing row of thick piers that probably
Roman wall behind was also extensively repaired in its lower
date to the reconstruction recorded by al-Budayrī al-Ḥallāq in
elevation and entirely rebuilt above; both parts of the structure
1173/1759–60, after the arcade was devastated by a succession
were probably affected by the same unidentified disaster.
of earthquakes in Rabiʿ II 1172/December 1758.4 The east end
120
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chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
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121
of the arcade bears mosaics that are no earlier than the Saljuq period.5 In the nineteenth century, two old columns of a darker hue appeared here (Figures 72 and 73). By the early twentieth Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
century, they had been replaced with white columns like those
p figure 73 (above) The north arcade from the northeast corner. Tancrède Dumas, ca. 1870. Badr El-Hage Collection.
made for the prayer hall in the 1890s (Figure 74). The west end of the north arcade also has a single original column, with later masonry to the right and above (Figure 75). In the nineteenth century, a second original column stood here, along with three colonnettes and two pilasters, as recorded in three photographs by Bedford (1862, Figure 76), a fourth by Phillips (1866, Figure 77) and a fifth by Bonfils (undated).6 Later photographs by Bonfils show the upper tier being rebuilt, which suggests that this part of the mosque collapsed towards
122
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 74 (opposite above, left) The northeast courtyard corner. K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.396. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. p figure 75 (opposite above, right) The northwest courtyard corner. Michael Greenhalgh/Manar al-Athar, 2003.
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p figure 76 The Bayt al-Māl and northwest courtyard corner. Francis Bedford, 1862. Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 2700961 © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021.
p figure 77 The Bayt al-Māl and northwest courtyard corner. Henry Phillips, 1866.
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123
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p figure 78 The northwest courtyard corner viewed from the west arcade. Said Nuseibeh, 2006.
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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p figure 79 (above) The northwest courtyard corner pillar. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2004.
p figure 80 (below) West half of the prayer hall, looking towards the transept. Alain George, 2010.
the end of the 1860s.7 In a further image also by Bonfils, the colonnettes have been replaced by the current stone masonry.8 The cause may have been an earthquake reported by the press on 14 April 1867.9 In each of the northeast and northwest corners, concealed from view in the courtyard, are two arches aligned with the adjacent arcade, for which they provide structural support. There is reason to think that these structures did not exist in the Umayyad period. The arch on the west side of the northwest corner runs over the river mosaic, which does not have a border at this juncture (Figure 78).10 The two columns in the same corner both date to the twentieth century, probably the 1950s (Figure 79). Their imposts appear to be medieval but in order to create them, the craftsmen had to cut into the cornice of the adjacent pier, which is Umayyad. Furthermore, the pier protrudes from the two arches above and bears holes for the marble dado. All these elements imply that the original corner was not connected to the Roman walls by arches. These must have been added later to provide structural support, perhaps after an earthquake, and thus contributed to preserve the original columns at both ends of the north arcade. Prayer Hall Arcades Moving inside the prayer hall, the four arcades that run from the transept to the side walls are entirely a work of the 1890s to early 1900s (Figure 80). Early photographs show that in the nineteenth century, this space still had Roman shafts with Corinthian capitals (Figure 81). Unlike in Umayyad sections Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
of the courtyard, a few capitals were markedly smaller than their shafts, which suggests a reshuffling of earlier elements during a rebuilding (Figure 82, third column from the right). The arch masonry above was concealed by plaster except in the photographs taken by Max Van Berchem after the fire of 1893, by which time much of this revetment had been either lost or removed (Figure 83). The arches are built with more cleanly cut stones than in the courtyard, notably in the outline of the intrados and extrados, and these also have a whiter hue. This type of masonry, which is similar to that of the arcade outside
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
125
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p figure 81 (opposite) West half of the prayer hall, looking towards the transept. Max Van Berchem, before 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
p figure 82 (above) Prayer hall, northeast arcade. Maison Bonfils, 1867–93. Courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.
with pointed arches stood between the seventh and eight columns from the east wall on the northeast arcade (Figure 82). The Roman shafts in the prayer hall had a glossy appearance that suggests some form of coating. Ibn Ṭūlūn (880–953/1473– 1546) records that in 926/1520, ‘all the columns of the interior were painted, one green and the next deep red, whereas they
the west gate (Figure 84), continues into the arcade windows
had been stone white; their capitals were picked out in white
above and may reflect the use of a hard limestone from the
on black, whereas they had been in gold over dark blue since
region of Damascus. The combination of this material and
the time of the chief qadi Najm al-Dīn ibn Jiḥā’. One can infer
technique point to a date no earlier than the Saljuq period.
11
that the coating observed in the nineteenth century, with its
All the columns documented in the nineteenth-century
light hue, came later.12 At the Takiyya Sulaymaniyya (1554–60)
prayer hall have Corinthian capitals except for the pair that
and Darwish Pasha Mosque (1574) in Damascus, the columns
frames the Shrine of the Baptist, which must have been late
have dark, square bases with bevelled corners.13 The bases at
Ottoman (Figure 57). An Ottoman-era raised platform (dikka)
the Umayyad Mosque were broadly comparable to theirs,
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
127
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p figure 83 Section of the southwest prayer hall arcade after the fire of 1893. Max Van Berchem. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
128
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even though their style, with nearly vertical bevels and a horizontal lozenge in the middle of each panel, is more ‘classical’. Thus, this feature may have been introduced in the second half of the sixteenth century, although a later date remains conceivable. In photographs taken by Van Berchem after the fire, the ‘skin’ of the shafts has flaked off in places to reveal the stone below (Figures 83 and 85). The surface layer has a markedly darker hue than the stone it covers, probably because it was carbonised by the fire. It is difficult to infer the material of the shafts from the photographs, but one image shows, in the same frame, several column fragments from the prayer hall alongside one original column from the west arcade of the courtyard, all under the same direct sunlight (detail of Figure 85). Their hue and texture appear similar, which suggests that the prayer hall
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columns were made of the same marble.
p figure 84 (above left) Arcade outside Bāb al-Barīd. Sean Weatherbury/Manar Al-Athar, 2010
p figure 85 (above and detail below) The prayer hall, west side, after the fire of 1893. Max Van Berchem. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
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129
p figure 87 (above) The prayer hall façade. K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.386. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
p figure 88 (opposite) Courtyard façade, centre and east sections. Francis Bedford, 1862. Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 2700959 © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021.
The Transept The masonry of the transept as it stands today is essentially Umayyad. This is indicated by its ashlars, which have the same texture as those of the west arcade and a comparable, relatively large size. The inner part of the four central pillars that support
p figure 86 Buttress behind central mihrab. K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.713. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
the transept was built later than the outer part, probably under the Saljuqs, who left commemorative inscriptions on them. Thus, the Umayyad transept was only supported by the parts of the pillars aligned with the wall, as long ago argued by Creswell (Ground plan, Figure 1).15 At the back of the qibla wall stands an exterior buttress exactly aligned with these pillars (they appear
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In medieval and early modern restorations, usable columns
to the left of the mihrab in Figure 1; see also Figure 86). This
and capitals are likely to have been re-erected, if only for
buttress must date to the same period since it is related to these
practical reasons: it would have been much more difficult to
pillars by its type and size of masonry, and by the shape of the
source large matching Roman columns with their capitals in
crowning cornice.16 It must have originally been mirrored by
the twelfth or sixteenth century than in the eighth, when the
a corresponding east buttress to match the pair of buttresses
whole of Syria was still dotted with temples abandoned less
on the courtyard façade, which are extant (Figure 87). These
than four centuries earlier. Indeed, this still proved an issue
supports, together with the arcades extending east and west in
during the restorations that followed the fire of 1893: once a
the prayer hall, relieved downward pressure from the transept
suitable quarry for new columns had been identified in Mezzeh
and dome.
near Damascus, and after much deliberation, a massive chariot
by two massive Roman columns that withstood the fire of 1893,
pulled by bulls and cows was constructed to transport the shafts, and the achievement became a matter of civic pride.
14
130
In the nineteenth century, the transept façade was supported but had become damaged and were removed in the subsequent
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
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restoration (Figure 4). Before the fire, the column on the right
reaches the shape of each window grille, the texture of the lead
had already had its base replaced with some type of concrete or
roofing on cornices and the decorative patterns of the wooden
mortar (Figure 88). It was crowned with a classical Corinthian
door. The two colonnettes in the upper tier, which remain in
capital, whereas the column on the left-hand side had a
place to this day, are accurately depicted as red; Bauernfeind’s
Composite capital datable between the late fifth century and
two paintings of Bāb al-Barīd also show its large columns
the Umayyad period.
realistically, with a reddish hue. James Silk Buckingham, who
17
Bauernfeind’s painting of the transept façade seen from
visited the mosque dressed as a Muslim in 1816, had also heard
Bāb al-Farādīs depicts the left-hand column as green (Figure 89).
of these columns and their colour as he stated: ‘We did not
The accuracy of his depiction can be measured by comparing
observe the columns of verd-antique which are said to be in
it with photographs (Figures 88 and 90): the level of detail
that front of the mosque which faces towards the court’.18
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
131
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132
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p figure 89 (opposite and above) The transept façade viewed from Bāb al-Farādīs, with detail of the large column to the left. Oil on panel, 121 × 97 cm. Gustav Bauernfeind, 1888–89. Doha, Qatar Museums/ Orientalist Museum, OM.699. Photography © Qatar Museums/ Orientalist Museum, Doha.
p figure 90 (above and right) The transept façade, with detail of the two large columns. Henry Phillips, 1875.
Ibn ʿAsākir notes about the origin of these two columns: I read under ʿAbd al-Karīm, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Tammām Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
told us, Abū Bakr al-Birāmī told us, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Hārūn (by which he means al-ʿĀmilī) told us, Khālid ibn Tabūk told us, a learned man told me: ʿAbd al-Malik bought the two large green columns which are below the transept (nisr) from Ḥarb ibn Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya for 1,500 dinars.19
In later versions of the same anecdote, the purchase is made by al-Walīd rather than his father.20 In either case, by the twelfth century, the transept had two massive green columns
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
133
that were thought to be Umayyad. Ibn ʿAsākir does not specify
said that it was removed one night and that this white one
their location, but since in his period Ibn Jubayr saw four pillars
was put in its place.24
(arjul) that supported the dome, even measuring their size,
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they are unlikely to have been inside the prayer hall.21 This is
This configuration, with an original green column and a later
confirmed by the inscriptions on the two southern pillars which
white one, matches the one observed in the nineteenth century.
record their building by Malik Shāh in 475/1082 and designate
Thus, it is likely that one original green column survived on
them with the Arabic word arkān, in the plural rather than the
the transept façade until then, possibly along with the capital
dual. Ibn ʿAsākir’s anecdote also echoes accounts in which
of its counterpart.
22
Ḥarb’s father Khālid ibn Yazīd sells the palace of his grandfather
Umayyad mosaics appear on every tier of the north transept
Muʿāwiya in Damascus, the famed Khaḍrāʾ, to ʿAbd al-Malik.
façade, which faces the courtyard (Figure 87). In the nineteenth
In the sixteenth century, al-ʿAlmāwī (b. 907/1501) was still able
century, a substantial panel remained on its east side. One
to see one of the two columns standing ‘under the nisr’:
image of the mosque captured by Frank Mason Good from
23
the southeast in 1866–67 shows two dark patches at the centre
134
There is only a green one; it is very large. The other one is
of the east transept wall, just below the drum (Figure 91).25
white and tall. It seems that it [the second green column]
They appear again in two photographs taken by Van Berchem
was slit, broken, destroyed, or someone took it—as it is
three decades later, by which time less than half of the surface
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 91 (opposite) The Great Mosque of Damascus from the southeast. Frank Mason Good, 1866–67. The Lenkin Family Collection of Photography, University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Detail of Figure 9 (above). Mosaic fragment on east transept wall. p figure 92 (right) View of the transept and prayer hall roofs from the east minaret. Michel Ecochard, 1934. Michel Ecochard Archive, courtesy of Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT).
captured in Good’s image remained. Whereas the latter was
all along the qibla wall. There is no matching evidence for the
shot from a distant rooftop, Van Berchem took his from the
south side facing towards the street, which probably remained
prayer hall after the roof had been destroyed by the fire of
undecorated, like other parts of the temenos exterior.
1893. From this relatively close viewpoint, his images yielded a superior level of detail that partially reveals this area of
The Dome
mosaic (detail of Figure 9 above).
The current dome is modern, having been built to new
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The panel shows the crowning part of a tower, with a square
specifications after the fire of 1893. The nineteenth-century
shaft surrounded by a gallery, a small lantern dome, and a
dome rested on an octagonal base, with two windows on
golden finial consisting of two or three small stacked globes.
each of its eight sides and eight windows in the dome itself.
The image suggests a quality of craftsmanship consistent
Inscriptions and textual sources imply that by that date, it been
with an Umayyad date. Stylistically, the striation of the upper
rebuilt at least four times: in the aftermath of the fires of 1069,
shaft, the lozenge pattern of the balcony, and the approach to
1401, and 1479 and the earthquake of 1758, after which it must
foreshortening echo the river mosaic, but the type of building
have reached its nineteenth-century form.26 The earliest written
is unlike those seen in other parts of the mosque. By 1934, the
evocation of the dome occurred in al-Walīd’s lifetime, in these
mosaic had vanished, as shown in a photograph by Ecochard
verses from al-Nābigha’s panegyric:
(Figure 92). The existence of this fragment implies that the east side of the transept was initially covered with mosaics, hence also the west side. The detail also represents a decorative element set between two windows, a configuration scarcely found in the extant mosaic fragments, but which was once used
20. A dome that birds can scarcely reach, its upper portions ceiled in teak, 21. With lamps whose oil is gold—their light glows on from Lebanon and the Sīf
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
135
p figure 93 Finial from a mosque in Alcolea, near Cordoba, later refitted with a cross. Tenth century. Cordoba, Museo Arqueológico.
The inner dome of the mosque was thus lined with teak. Al-Nābigha emphasizes its height through the mention of lamps shedding light far outwards, which suggests a drum with windows.27 Ibn al-Jawzī (510–97/1126–1200) notes: In Rabiʿ II [233/ November–December 847] there was a strong tremor in Damascus at the height of the morning. Houses collapsed and great stones tumbled. A number of houses and arcades in the markets fell upon those inside. Many men, women and youths were killed. Some merlons (baʿḍ al-shurāfāt) from the mosque fell down, and the arcades of the dome (ṭāqāt al-qubba) at the centre of the mosque, next to the mihrab, collapsed. A quarter of the minaret of the mosque was cut down.28
This could imply that the drum was lost at this early stage, unless ‘the arcades of the dome’ refer to another part of the prayer hall. In his account of the same event, al-Dhahabī (673–748/1274–1348) only says that ‘the wall of the mihrab was cracked’, and al-Suyūṭī does not mention this wall or the dome at all.29 Taken together, these reports do not clearly imply that the dome was brought down by the earthquake of 847. In any case, only minimal information can be derived from the two descriptions that predate its certain destruction in the fire of 1069. Al-Muhallabī (d. 380/990) is the only writer
of the transept.33 His information on this detail should
to provide a measurement for its height in his description of
be disregarded.
the prayer hall: ‘In its centre is a dome about 50 cubits high, decorated (manqūsha) and gilded from within, and covered on
facing the mihrab, is a large dome’ and that ‘on the apex of the
the outside with lead tiles, like all roofs of the mosque.’ He
dome is a citron (turnuja) on top of which is a pomegranate
goes on to state that the mosque is 150 cubits deep from the
(rummāna), both of them in gold’.34 The outer dome must have
north wall to the qibla wall and 170 cubits wide, measurements
been clearly visible from the courtyard, suggesting that it rested
that correspond to a ratio of width to length of 1:13, which is
on a drum that raised it above the transept gable. The finial
far from the true ratio of 1:60, and inconsistent as it entails a
with its pomegranate and citron evokes two stacked spheres
30
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In the same period, al-Muqaddasī noted that ‘in the middle,
cubit of 93.02 cm for the length and 65.82 cm for the width.
of decreasing size. The description reflects the form an extant
The cubit measured 63 cm in Mamluk Damascus and around
tenth-century finial from the region of Cordoba, albeit with
55 to 56 cm in Umayyad buildings. Al-Muhallabī’s 50 cubits
four spheres; its cross was of course added later (Figure 93).
would therefore entail an elevation of 27.50 to 31.50 m for the
It is impossible to tell whether the one seen by al-Muqaddasī
dome—too small to be realistic since this is about the height
was original.
31
32
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 94 Southwest courtyard corner with first three arches of prayer hall façade. Alain George, 2010.
Textual sources, in sum, reveal only basic facts about the Umayyad dome: its height, wooden inner dome, drum with windows, and the possible existence of lead covering and a finial made of two stacked spheres. Prayer Hall Façade The prayer hall façade currently has twenty arches—ten on either side of the transept—supported by stone piers. The same masonry was already in place in the nineteenth century, as attested by photographs starting with those taken by Bedford in 1862 (Figure 88). In the earliest detailed account of the mosque,
The current intercolumnation in the prayer hall is the same
al-Muqaddasī describes the prayer hall as having ‘black (sūd)
as in Umayyad sections of the courtyard. Furthermore, the
polished columns as its supports in three very wide rows’.
engaged pillars that abut the arcades on the east and west wall
Since the prayer hall has two interior arcades, he saw a façade
are Umayyad, which implies that the total span of the arcades
supported by columns. Two centuries later, Ibn Jubayr gave a
has remained unchanged. The total of forty columns must
more detailed description of the same scheme:
therefore be valid for the Umayyad period. Ibn Jubayr’s mention of eight interspersed pillars between
It [the prayer hall] rests upon sixty-eight supports (sg.
the columns rules out the possibility that there were two
ʿamūd): fifty-four columns (sg. sāriya) between which are
columns to one pier in both the prayer hall and its façade,
interspersed eight plastered supports (arjul jiṣṣiyya); two
since this would imply at least twelve such pillars (two for
marble-clad supports engaged (mulṣaqa, lit. ‘joined’) with
each of the six half-arcades). His count of fifty-four columns
the wall that borders the courtyard; and four supports
is also incompatible with a row of columns on the façade and
clad with marble in a most wonderful way, being inlaid
two columns to a pier in the prayer hall, which would yield a
with coloured marble pieces arranged in annular form
maximum of forty-four columns.37 In addition, such a scheme
and in the likeness of mihrabs and other strange shapes.
would not fit easily with the Shrine of the Baptist, which had
The latter stand in the central area, carrying the lead
been flanked by two columns since the early Islamic period (see
dome along with the dome next to the mihrab.36
Chapter 4). The four arcades of the Umayyad prayer hall must
35
therefore have had ten columns each, in positions very close to Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Ibn Jubayr saw fifty-four columns that he distinguishes from
the present ones, and in Ibn Jubayr’s time there must have been
fourteen other supports: four richly decorated piers carrying
fourteen more on the façade, with a rhythm of two columns
the central dome, which still stand today, two engaged pilasters
to one pillar: six columns on either side, plus the two larger
on either side of the transept façade and eight ‘plastered
columns of the transept façade.38
supports’ interspersed between columns. Let us examine these observations alongside the actual
Echoes of this earlier pattern can be discerned at the two ends of the current façade. In the first two arches of the
structure. Today, each arcade in the prayer hall consists of
southwest courtyard corner, the springers are narrow (about
ten columns, which brings their number up to forty. This
the height of a voussoir), as opposed to about twice this
was already the case in the nineteenth century when original
width in subsequent arches (Figure 94); their size is suited to
columns survived, even though many had been remounted.
support by a column rather than a pillar.39 A vertical strip of
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
137
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138
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 95 (opposite) Southwest courtyard corner. K.A.C. Creswell, after 1928. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.391. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Detail of Figure 87 (right). Masonry of west transept buttress and adjoining arch. p figure 96 (far right) Original marble window below mosaic panel, west arcade. Alain George, 2010.
mosaic joins the two façades but it did not exist when Creswell photographed this corner in the early twentieth century (Figure .
95). His image does record a small mosaic fragment on the first spandrel of the prayer hall façade: since mosaics stopped being produced in the Ottoman period and the earliest modern restorations date to the 1940s, it cannot be later than the Mamluk period. The underlying masonry may thus be either original or medieval. In either case, the thinness of the first two piers suggests that this part of the courtyard façade bears the imprint of an Umayyad scheme in which two columns followed the southwest corner. The two arches flanking the transept are slightly lower and narrower than on the rest of the façade. Their masonry is different than in the middle of the arcade, with larger ashlars
collapsed at that point.41 It is thus plausible that this was also
that echo those on the southwest corner (Figure 95). On the
the Umayyad scheme, an idea which finds further support in
east side, the arches are coursed with the Umayyad masonry
the window grilles.
of the adjoining transept buttress at window level (Figure 45). The same pattern could be observed at the level of the first pier
Windows and Door Hangings
below until the adjoining part of the buttress was concealed by
Today, six Umayyad marble grilles remain above dado level in
new decoration (detail of Figure 87 above). This part of the
the west side of the courtyard: four on the arcade wall that were
façade is therefore likely to be earlier than the rest.
moved up slightly into the mosaics above to make way for the
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40
The present reconstruction implies that, at a previous
medieval inscription at their foot (Figures 69 and 96), and two
stage in its history, the mosque had one pillar on either side
in the vestibule of Bāb al-Barīd.42 Several more could be seen
of the transept, followed by a rhythm of two columns to one
on the prayer hall façade in the nineteenth century. While they
pillar, hence two more pillars on each side, until each corner.
mostly seem to have been from medieval and later restorations,
Counting the two buttresses that frame the transept arches,
a few resonate closely with Umayyad specimens: three large
one reaches Ibn Jubayr’s total of eight pillars. Accounts of
composite windows at the centre of the transept, the single
the fire of 1069—the major disaster suffered by the mosque
window and two oculi above, and the second window to the
up until the time of his visit—do not suggest that the columns
right on the arcade, which has been patched with a square
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139
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p figure 97 (above) East courtyard dome and east half of prayer hall façade. Maison Bonfils, 1867–93. Courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. Detail of Figure 88 (below) The transept façade and first six windows of the west prayer hall façade.
140
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
Detail of Figure 4 (left). Composite windows of the transept façade. Detail of Figure 88 (centre). The second, ‘patched’ window to the west of the transept before the fire of 1893. Detail of Figure 4 (right). The second, ‘patched’ window after the fire.
featuring a different grid pattern (see the details above). Like
of the wall towards the court, forty-seven windows
the extant windows in the west arcade and vestibule, they are
(sg. shamsiyya).43
constructed with relatively large voids in the patterns, suitable for the insertion of glass panes. At the centre of the transept (detail of Figure 4 above), one can detect an opaque fill that may
fourteen windows around the one near the mihrab: these must
have been glass, and there are carved colonnettes similar to
all have belonged to the south part of the transept, which has
those in extant Umayyad windows (Figure 96). The remaining
eight windows on the qibla side, facing the street behind, and
windows and lunettes of the prayer hall façade also have lattice
three on each lateral wall. The central dome had ten: since
work, but with tighter patterns (Figure 97). Unlike the set
there are six on the central part of the transept walls, three
described above, they appear to have burned down in the fire
on each side, one may infer that the drum had another four.
of 1893 (Figure 4): they are likely to have been made later, and
The six windows ‘in the cupola adjoining the wall on the court’
of a flammable material such as stucco. Indeed, in the ‘patched’
correspond, again, to the lateral windows in this section of the
window, the original grille, though calcinated, remained
transept—hence not those on the courtyard façade. The forty-
in place, while half of the newer insert was consumed. The
four are the rest of those on the qibla wall, to the east and west
openwork of these Umayyad grilles expands the range of
of the transept. Taken together, these add up to the seventy-four
ornamental forms already known from the west courtyard:
windows that he describes as gilded and fitted with stained glass.
complex centralised designs generated through multiple
One might infer that the forty-seven windows that he saw
intersections between circles of different sizes and parallel
‘on the outside of the wall towards the court’ were somewhat
lines set in a small number of orientations.
different, yet he uses the same term for both types: shamsiyya,
The upper tier of the prayer hall arcades is not described
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By then, the transept had three domes. Ibn Jubayr saw
which in his native Maghrib usually denotes windows grilles
directly in any of the available sources. Did it consist of
(the equivalent term in Egypt and further east being qamariyya).44
windows set in stone arches as in the nineteenth century,
The windows on the prayer hall façade must therefore have been
or of open arches with colonnettes and piers as in the rest of
arches framed by stone pillars. Today there are forty-six windows
the Umayyad courtyard? In his description Ibn Jubayr notes:
on the arcades of this façade: twenty on each of the southeast and southwest arcades, and six on the transept façade (the three
The number of its gilt and stained-glass windows
composite windows at the centre, and the smaller window and
(shamsiyyāt) is seventy-four. In the cupola beneath the
two oculi above). This minor discrepancy notwithstanding, by
Lead Dome are ten; in the cupola adjoining the mihrab
including them in his tally Ibn Jubayr implies that he saw closed
and in the adjacent wall, fourteen; along the length of the
windows on that façade. The survival of an original window
wall right and left of the mihrab, forty-four; in the cupola
in the nineteenth century arcade (details of Figures 4 and 88
adjoining the wall on the court, six; and on the outside
above) reinforces the idea that this was the Umayyad scheme.
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
141
p figure 98 (left) Umayyad Palace at Anjar, elevation partly reconstructed, early eighth century. Alain George, 2011.
p figure 99 (opposite) The Bayt al-Māl, original mosaics on north side (Panel A). Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2009.
‘On its doorways [of the mosque] were varicoloured curtains of silk’, rather than felt.47 The description of the mosque shared by Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir states more vaguely that ‘the doors from the courtyard [to the prayer hall] were not closed but had loose curtains (al-sutūr murkhāt)’.48 These sources differ on the nature of the textiles, which may indeed have changed over the course of two centuries; but they plausibly agree on their use. Pavement and Floor Levels The lower tier of the prayer hall façade is likely to have
The prayer hall must have retained the same floor level since
remained open onto the courtyard since doors cannot be
Umayyad times as it corresponds to the foot of the Roman
practically fitted between columns, especially if these are flared
triple gate.49 A sounding carried out by Creswell and Grunther
towards the centre as in standard Roman practice. A passage
right outside the blocked south temenos entrance revealed
recorded by Ibn ʿAsākir shows that the prayer hall façade had
Roman pavement 14.3 cm below the door sill—which must
felt hangings at the time of Ibn al-Muʿallā, and that they were
have been the street level two millennia ago.50 By contrast,
thought to have existed in the Umayyad period:
the Umayyad courtyard floor was at least 48 cm lower than the present one, as this corresponds to the shallowest floor level
Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akfānī and ʿAbd al-Karīm both
unearthed by soundings undertaken in different parts of the
narrated to us, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed us, Tammām informed
courtyard in 1962–63.51 Al-Muqaddasī described the courtyard
us (and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb said, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn
as ‘paved with white marble’, an assertion echoed by other early
al-Muʿallā informed us, from Tammām), Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd
writers which probably reflects its Umayyad state.52 Today, the
Allāh narrated to me, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [= Raḥīm, ed.]
courtyard is level with the prayer hall but it must originally
ibn ʿUmar informed us, Ibn al-Muʿallā told us:
have been accessed from the courtyard up at least two steps
We used to hang in the Mosque of Damascus, in winter,
about 24 cm high or three steps of about 16 cm. Two steps can
felt (lubūd) of fine quality.
be seen on the prayer hall arcades and transept façades in some
He said:
nineteenth-century photographs (Figure 88). The lower step is
The wind blew inside and made it tremble in the reign
partly concealed by the courtyard floor: this makes it clear that
of al-Walīd, so people panicked, tearing the felt as they
it was not a modern threshold for rainwater but an earlier step
rushed out.
gradually engulfed by rising courtyard pavements.53 Stairs and
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45
a raised prayer hall would have been necessary to avoid flooding Since the façade faces north and receives little direct sunlight, hangings would have been essential in winter rather
from rain or snow in winter, especially if the original mosque did not have doors on this façade.
than summer, as asserted here. Whether or not these fixtures had already been introduced under al-Walīd, as asserted by
The Bayt al-Māl Chamber
Ibn al-Muʿallā, is more difficult to ascertain. Other early sources
As discussed in Chapter 4, the columns and architraves
mention that under ʿAbd al-Malik the entrances to the Dome
of the Bayt al-Māl must have originally formed part of a
of the Rock were screened by red felt hangings in winter and
Christian monument, though the date of its transformation
a different type in summer. Ibn Ṣaṣrā notes about Damascus:
into a chamber is yet to be determined. It was perhaps this
46
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
conversion that Arabic sources recall as its construction,
of Anjar, near Damascus (Figure 98). Stone and brick masonry
whether in the 770s under the Abbasid governor al-Faḍl ibn
is also attested in the palace and church at Qasr ibn Wardan,
Ṣāliḥ or, according to one source, half a century earlier under
built around 564 in northern Syria, and the early ninth-century
al-Walīd. The masonry of the octagonal chamber consists of a
church of Dere Ağzı in southwestern Anatolia.56 The technique
first level with two courses of large ashlars, then a stack of four
is virtually identical at Anjar and the Bayt al-Māl, with three or
brick slabs followed by a course of smaller ashlars, repeated
four stacked brick slabs alternating with a single stone course,
five times (Figures 60 and 61). While one could infer a later
whereas at Constantinople and elsewhere there are typically
stage of construction for the upper walls, the small door above
at least three stone courses between the brick layers. This
is framed by the same large ashlars as in the first two courses.
convergence opens the possibility that, despite the assertions of
It seems, therefore, that all eight walls were built in one phase.
most sources, the chamber may in fact be Umayyad.
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54
Stone and brick masonry was typical of Constantinople and
Four original mosaic fragments can be identified on the
neighbouring areas, and it differs from anything observed in
Bayt al-Māl. Three of these (Figures 99, 100 and 101) were
the Umayyad remains of the mosque.55 This could confirm an
uncovered in 1928: a scene with a date palm flanked by
early Abbasid date for the chamber, but the issue is complicated
houses and a border with pearly vegetal scrolls sprouting out
by the existence of masonry with layers of brick slabs at an
of an acanthus (panel A, lower half of north–northwest side,
Umayyad foundation from the same decade: the palatial city
with lacuna in lower-left corner); vegetal scrolls growing
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
143
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p figure 100 Bayt al-Māl, panel B (above) and panel A just visible on the right. Alain George, 2010.
p figure 101 Bayt al-Māl, panels C.a (right border) and C.b (upper border). Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2009.
upwards with bejewelled motifs (panel B, central third of
of a semi-circle with pearl decoration and an eight-pointed star
north–northeast side, excluding the vegetal base); a horizontal
set in a circle at the apex; this main motif is framed, on either
border of six-pointed pearly stars set in circles alternating
side, by two similar stars, but with six points. The same star
with lozenges, and a vertical border of symmetrical sprouting
design appears in the plant formations of panel B (Figure 100)
vegetal motifs (panels C.a and C.b respectively, right border and
and the repeat patterns of panel C.b (Figure 101).
upper border of the south–southeast side). They can be seen in photographs from the late 1920s to the 1950s (Figures 60 and 61). The fourth panel (D), on the north–southwest side, appears
The design of panel A, with a large central tree flanked by small houses, and a river below, echoes the river mosaic on the west arcade (Figure 103): the relationships of scale are
to have disappeared by the 1920s but can be recovered from a
comparable, as are the small houses with pitched roofs, the
photograph by Bonfils, which shows the plaster coating with
pearl finials at the apex of the triangular pediments and the
fishbone incisions applied under the mosaics (Figure 102).
graded hues to convey shade and depth. Minor details differ,
The decoration, which can only be faintly discerned, consists
such as the edges of the frontons which are more curved
57
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 102 Bayt al-Māl, southwest side (above) and detail of lost mosaic, panel D (right). Maison Bonfils, 1867–93. Courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.
in the river mosaic. The Bayt al-Māl panel has deep greens
but much more so than in Saljuq and Mamluk restorations—
for the house fronts whereas these are only used for door
still holds.58 However, her judgement that they are ‘distinctly
frames in the river mosaic, and the colours of the riverbanks
inferior’ to nearby Umayyad mosaics requires nuancing.
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are more strongly contrasted in the former than the latter.
The acanthus in the lower border of panel A and in panel B
Most strikingly, the execution of the date fruits on panel A
are refined and closely echo similar themes on the soffits,
is coarse in contrast with the finely shaded fruit of the west
pilasters and spandrels of the west arcade, and also at the
arcade. The vertical vegetal border motifs in panels A and
Dome of the Rock: shared details include jagged leaf edges,
C are likewise relatively unrefined, and while they echo an
red tips and the insertion of pearls in the plants. Panel A is only
Umayyad vocabulary of ornament, some of their forms do not
distinguished from the other mosaics by a more pronounced
find an exact parallel in the rest of the mosque or at the Dome
use of grey. The six- and eight-pointed stars with pearly rays
of the Rock: the striated cups in the vertical border of panel A,
that occur in panels B, C.b, and D also find close parallels in
for instance, appear to be unique. The conclusion reached by
other parts of the mosque and at the Dome of the Rock (see the
Marguerite Van Berchem—that the Bayt al-Māl panels are less
borders in the background of Figure 69, and around the edges
accomplished than those in Umayyad sections of the mosque,
of Figure 104). On the basis of the stars and of plant scrolls,
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
145
p figure 103 River mosaic, west courtyard wall, detail. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2007.
it would be difficult to tell apart the mosaics of the Bayt
Two early mosques built at Hama and Homs on sites that
al-Māl from the original Umayyad decoration in the rest of
had also housed churches have a comparable octagonal
the courtyard.
chamber on columns in the courtyard, and by the tenth century
Taken as a whole, these mosaic panels seem somewhat
al-Iṣṭakhrī and al-Muqaddasī identified this type of structure as
contradictory: while some elements are relatively coarse,
characteristically Syrian.62 But the chronology of the Bayt al-Māl
others are highly accomplished, even though different work
at both mosques is even less clear than at Damascus, so they
phases are not apparent. In part, we are faced with the limits of
cannot be used to elucidate the matter. The material evidence
our documentation. The vast majority of the original mosaics
is inconclusive, which brings us back to where we started—
are lost and multiple teams of mosaicists with different styles
the textual sources. An early tradition recorded by al-Wāsiṭī (eleventh century)
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must have contributed to this immense project. Stylistic study has already identified the work of two to three teams at the
asserts that when ʿAbd al-Malik decided to build the Dome of the
Dome of the Rock, originally a much smaller programme,
Rock, ‘he then ordered the building of the treasury (bayt al-māl) to
although it is better preserved today.59
the east of the Rock, which is on the edge of the Rock, and filled
The two putative dates for the mosaics of the Bayt al-Māl
it with money’.63 There has been some debate as to whether this
are only separated by the six decades between the 710s and
was the Dome of the Chain, which stands just east of the Dome
770s. Some of the same craftsmen could have been alive across
of the Rock, close enough for the distance between them to be
the entire period, and more practically, there is likely to have
easily bridged.64 In either case, al-Wāsiṭī’s account asserts the
been continuity in the practice of this craft. Indeed, Umayyad
existence of a treasury on the Ḥaram al-Sharīf. Egyptian sources
mosaics from the intervening decades have been found at sites
also state that the Mosque of ʿAmr in Fustat had a Bayt al-Māl
such as Khirbat al-Mafjar (740s), Khirbat al-Minya (710s to 740s),
on columns in the early Islamic period. The dates given for its
and Baysan (probably late 730s).60 A Greek text suggests that a
foundation range between 97/715–16 and 99/717–18, hence shortly
mosaic workshop was active at Damascus in the ninth century.
after the great mosque to which it belonged had been rebuilt by
Thus, the mosaic evidence does not yield any clearer insights
al-Walīd.65 Al-Maqrīzī notes that it stood above a fountain, while
into the issue of date than the masonry.
Ibn Rusta gives an account that is worth citing in full:
61
146
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 104 Dome of the Rock, detail of the mosaics in the octagonal arcade. Jerusalem 72/ 691–92. Said Nuseibeh, 1992.
The treasury of Egypt (bayt māl miṣr) is in the
The sources do not attribute another Bayt al-Māl to the
congregational mosque, facing the minbar. It is set
Abbasids, although the transfer of the capital from Syria to
apart from the mosque roofs and does not touch them.
Iraq could also provide a plausible reason for building such a
It is raised on stone pillars and looks like an elevated
structure in the former capital. In 161/778, al-Mahdī ordered an
dome. People sit and walk underneath it. There is a
enlargement of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and the lowering
wooden arched bridge (qanṭara): when they want to
of the maqsura floor, which had hitherto been higher than the
enter the chamber, they pull these bridges with ropes
rest of the mosque.67 Although the screen, hence the exclusive
until their side rests on the mosque roof; after coming
precinct of the maqsura, was maintained (with a new teak frame),
out, they remove the bridge. It has a metal gate and
the caliphs were no longer raised above the rest of the community.
locks. After the last evening prayer, people have to
Similarly, at Damascus, the building of the Bayt al-Māl chamber
leave the mosque; no one is left inside and the gates
may have allowed some treasury funds to be moved to a public
are closed, because of the Bayt al-Māl.
space. Al-Faḍl, if it was he who undertook the transformation of
66
the building, may have done so to mark the change of regime,
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Whereas the Bayt al-Māl at Fustat was entered from the
and possibly to obliterate the symbolism of Umayyad victory over
arcades across a removable bridge, the one at Damascus
Christians embodied by its columns.68 But this evidence, again,
must have been accessed up a ladder since its entrance faces
is inconclusive. The question, in the final analysis, is surprisingly
away from the arcades and is, in any case, too distant from
resistant to elucidation, and either an Umayyad or an early Abbasid
them. This is probably because its location was set before the
date remains plausible in the current state of our knowledge.
Islamic era. The textual evidence for Jerusalem in 692 and Fustat around 715‒18 suggests that the tradition of building a
Merlons
domed treasury in the courtyard of a major religious building
The mosque roofline was originally lined with stepped
dates to at least the early Marwānid period. It is therefore
merlons. Merlons first appear in the historical record with
conceivable that the Damascene structure was created for
the earthquake of 847, when some of them are said to have
the same purpose.
collapsed.69 Preserved accounts of this event are late and
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
147
p figure 105 Stepped merlons, Temple of Bel, Palmyra, 32 CE. Seyrig, Amy, and Will, Le temple de Bêl, vol. 1, 17.
although the assertion is credible, it cannot be verified. The earliest direct observation of the merlons was recorded by al-Muqaddasī, who noted that ‘the merlons (al-shurāfiyyāt) have mosaics on both sides’.70 He must have been referring to the courtyard, where unclad merlons would have created an awkward break with the mosaics on the walls below. The anonymous description cited by Ibn Shākir and Ibn Kathīr four centuries later also asserts: ‘They made merlons (shurufāt) all around it [the mosque].’71 What was the shape of these ornaments? In the Roman era, the Temple of Bel at Palmyra had stepped triangular merlons (Figure 105), and a similar type notionally may have been found at the Damascene temple.72 The archaeology of the Umayyad palaces at Anjar (built during al-Walīd’s reign), Qasr al-Hallabat (many building phases), Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (720s), Khirbat al-Minya (710s to 740s), and Khirbat al-Mafjar (740s, Figure 106) has also yielded several variations of the Palmyrene type, but with flaring sides.73 The Great Mosque of Cordoba displays the flared type on its façades, including some that survive from its first construction phase (170/786).74 Stepped triangular merlons that run across the outer edge of the temenos wall also appear in early modern depictions of the Mosque at Damascus by Paul Lucas (1714, Figure 107) and Vasily Barsky (1723–47, Figure 108). Both are approximative visual documents, yet their authors had no reason to invent this detail.75 The earliest photographs of the mosque were taken a century later by Girault de Prangey. The earthquakes of 1758 had struck Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
in the meantime and his photographs only show merlons on the southwest tower. They are of two types: the ones to the south (detail of Figure 6, page 150) are tall and have rounded edges, like those that appear on a Mamluk wall near the mosque in an Italian oil painting of 1511.76 The squatter merlons on the west and east sides appear more heavily weathered, p figure 106 Stepped merlons with flaring sides at the Umayyad palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, 740s. Reconstruction by Hamilton, Khirbat al-Mafjar, Pl. CVII.
148
which could suggest an earlier date (details of Figures 7 and 85, page 150). They are also closer in form to an equilateral triangle and thus echo Lucas and Barsky’s drawings as well as from the Temple of Bel. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus must
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 107 The Great Mosque of Damascus (right). Details of the merlons (above). Engraving from Lucas, Voyage, 246.
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p figure 108 The Great Mosque of Damascus, schematic rendition. Vasily Barsky, 1723–47. From Dussaud, ‘Le temple de Jupiter damascénien’, 249.
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
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149
Detail of Figure 6 (above). The southwest tower and its merlons, south side. Detail of Figure 7 (left). The southwest tower and its merlons, west side.
have had similar triangular stepped merlons across its entire roofline, clad with mosaics on the courtyard façades, and plain on the temenos exterior. Roofing The prayer hall has a roof consisting of three gables on either Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
side of the transept. Each gable spans the width of three lateral transept windows, of which there are eighteen in total (nine on each side). The gables reach above the apex of the central window, which they entirely cover along with a portion of the flanking windows (Figures 92 and 109). In the nineteenth century, the gables were slightly lower but still nearly reached the apex of the central window. In early Byzantine buildings, Detail of Figure 85. The southwest tower and its merlons, east side.
150
where a gable roof meets a transept or drum, the tip of the gable reaches just below the window.77 Since the transept windows at Damascus are Umayyad, the original gables
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 109 The mosque viewed from the southwest. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 1991.
p figure 110 (below) Southwest courtyard corner and west end of prayer hall. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
the ceiling collapsed.79 According to Ibn ʿAsākir, citing Ibn al-Birāmī, when al-Walīd had gathered the requisite amount of this material from the cities of the empire, a small quantity was still missing. A woman who had been offered payment for the lead she owned chose to donate it, and the tiles made from it were stamped with the mark li’llāh (‘for God’). In a variant on this story involving a Jewish woman, some tiles were stamped with al-isrāʾīliyya (‘the Israelite’).80 One should probably must likewise reached below their sills, with a much gentler
conclude that some of the original tiles had a one-word Kufic
roof slope than today. This has implications for the visual
inscription embossed on them.
appearance of the monument, as the merlons of the courtyard façade would have concealed the roofing from ground level. In the tenth century, al-Balkhī and al-Muqaddasī mentioned
The roofs extended across three courtyard arcades. In the nineteenth century, these were less inclined than at present and looked nearly flat from a distance (Figure 110).
that the roof was covered with lead, an assertion echoed by
The temenos chambers on the east and west sides each had
all later sources. Ibn Jubayr notably saw lead tiles during
a separate roof with a sharply raised gable (Figure 91).81
his climb onto the roof in 581/1184, even though most of the
There are no grounds to determine whether that state of the
originals must have been destroyed in the fire of 1069, when
arcade roofs kept any imprint of the Umayyad template.
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78
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
151
Detail of Figure 83 (left). Eagle capital from the prayer hall.
p figure 111 (below) Eagle capital at the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, 72/691–92. Lawrence Nees, 2012.
Columns and Colonnettes The foregoing study suggests that the original mosque had eighty-six ‘standard’ Roman columns like those still extant in the courtyard: forty in the prayer hall arcades and twelve on the prayer hall façade (all lost); twelve between the east and west courtyard arcades (ten of which remain); sixteen on the north arcade (of which only one survives); four inside Bāb al-Barīd (extant); and two inside Bāb Jayrūn (where the present shafts are composites from ancient materials, while the bases and capitals are modern).82 In the upper tier, there must have been at least forty-nine colonnettes: forty-two above the courtyard arcades (three for every two large columns); two (a double colonnette) inside Bāb al-Barīd; one to three inside Bāb Jayrūn;83 and four engaged colonnettes on the transept façade (two on either side). It is not clear whether the prayer hall arcades had colonnettes, pillars, or a combination of both in the upper tier: depending on the configuration, this may have added dozens more colonnettes to the total. Some extant columns and colonnettes have been remounted over the years, so that a modern shaft may carry an ancient capital and vice-versa. These objects deserve to be fully catalogued and studied in their own right.84 As noted above, the courtyard entrance to the transept was originally framed by two large green columns, one of which probably survived into the nineteenth century (Figure 90). The courtyard façades of Bāb al-Barīd and Bāb Jayrūn each have two original colonnettes with deep green shafts on either side and a white one in the middle (Figures 71, 94 and 95). These Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
are matched by two red and two green engaged colonnettes between the transept windows, respectively inside and outside (Figure 45). In the nineteenth century, one column in the western half of the prayer hall also had an eagle in its abacus. It appears in a photograph by Van Berchem, with its head turned towards the right and folded wings that curve down at the level of the beak (detail of Figure 83 above). Eagle capitals were integrated in the Umayyad building programme on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where six of them were found at the Dome of the Rock, the Dome of the Chain and the
152
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
Detail of Figure 82 (left). Corinthian capital from the northeast arcade. Detail of the third column from the right. p figure 112 (right) Bāb al-Barīd exterior. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2004.
Aqsa Mosque.85 The Damascus eagle was particularly close to two at the Dome of the Rock, now defaced (Figure 111). The position of the column in Van Berchem’s photograph would be difficult to determine, were it not for another shaft in the same image (Figure 83) distinguished by a metal ring at the base. Through a comparison with another photograph (Figure 81), one can infer that the eagle capital was the second
Gates and Vestibules
one after the transept. Lawrence Nees has shown that the eagle
The mosque today has four main gates.88 Three belonged to the
capitals in Jerusalem flanked the north and east gates at the
original Roman temenos and are situated along its axes: the
Dome of the Rock and the main entrance to the Aqsa Mosque.
triple gates of Bāb al-Barīd (the ‘Gate of the Post’) in the west
It is possible that a similar pattern of capitals with eagle reliefs
and Bāb Jayrūn (sometimes simply called ‘Jayrūn’ in Arabic
on columns adjacent to the transept existed at Damascus.
sources) in the east; and the single gate of Bāb al-Farādīs (the
The matter is complicated by the fact that many prayer hall
‘Gate of the Gardens’) in the north. A further Roman triple gate,
columns must have been remounted before the nineteenth
along the south wall, was sealed under al-Walīd to make way for
century and by the lack, so far, of clear early photographs of
the central mihrab of the Umayyad Mosque. The east door of
all the capitals in this area. If it were to be confirmed, it could
this triple gate may have been kept open for several centuries,
explain why Arabic sources called the transept ‘the dome of the
becoming known as Bāb al-Khaḍrāʾ, the gate offering Umayyad
eagle’ (qubbat al-nisr), as an alternative to the literal translation
rulers discrete access to the qibla from their adjacent palace.89
of the Greek aetos (‘eagle’, a term also used for ‘pediment’)
The most monumental gate inherited from the Roman
proposed by Creswell. At any rate, it seems that the cardinal
temple, Bāb Jayrūn in the east, had massive stairs leading to
axes of the Umayyad Mosque—the temenos gates, the transept,
an exterior portico with columns and an inner vestibule with
and the prayer hall columns immediately flanking it—were
columns. It has already been discussed in Chapter 2. Standing
marked by distinctive columns.
at the opposite end of the courtyard, Bāb al-Barīd (Figure 112)
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86
Finally, in a photograph by Bonfils, the capital of the third
was described by al-Muqaddasī as having a large central door,
column from the transept in the northeast arcade bears an
two side doors, arches, and columns. Its masonry remains
ornament on the abacus that could be either a face or a vegetal
largely intact to this day, even if most of the surface ornament
(or indeed abstract) motif, framed by two leaves with joined
is modern and some of the mosaics are from medieval and
stems (detail of Figure 82 above). This capital is also notable,
modern restorations.90 Al-Muqaddasī’s Bāb al-Farādīs, the north
among those recorded in the nineteenth-century prayer hall,
gate of the mosque, has been known at different times in its
for being markedly smaller than its shaft, which could imply
history as Bāb al-Kallāsa (after the eponymous madrasa and mosque that once stood outside it), Bāb al-Nāṭifiyyin (the
that it was introduced during a later restoration: if the detail was indeed figural, it may not have been noticed at that time.
87
‘Gate of the Confectionery Sellers’), and Bāb al-Sumaysāṭiyya
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
153
p figure 113 (left) Bāb al-Farādīs and base of north minaret. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2008.
p figure 114 (above) West end of the qibla wall from the west. Flood’s Bāb al-Sāʿāt is immediately to the left of the current Bāb al-Ziyāda and its projecting portico. Adnan Nasser, 2019.
equally large ashlars in the first two to three stone courses above may have formed part of the Roman or Umayyad gate, whereas the rest of the elevation is later (Figure 113). Two inscriptions, respectively dated 482/1089 and 503/1110, record restorations around this part of the mosque.94 Today, a further gate near the west corner of the qibla wall, Bāb al-Ziyāda, gives direct access to the prayer hall. In the tenth century, al-Muqaddasī wrote about the same wall: ‘Bāb al-Sāʿāt, in the east corner of the prayer hall, has two unadorned leaves (after a nearby Sufi lodge). It currently consists of a single gate
and arches where experts in legal documents (al-shurūṭiyyūn)
with two leaves that leads directly into the north arcade. If one
and such people sit.’95 Like Bāb Jayrūn, Bāb al-Sāʿāt soon
restores the original rhythm of two columns to one pillar that
acquired supernatural associations. According to a tradition
prevailed on the courtyard arcades, it would have been framed
recorded by al-Rabaʿī (d. 444/1053), at the time of Cain and Abel,
by two columns. Al-Muqaddasī described it thus:
there used to be a rock outside it where offerings were left: if
91
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accepted, these would be instantly consumed by fire, but they The fourth gate is Bāb al-Farādīs, opposite the mihrab. It
would otherwise remain untouched.96 The aura of the mosque is
has two leaves. It is set in arches between two extensions
thereby made to reach back to the very beginning of mankind.
(ziyādatayn), to the right and left. Above it is a modern
More prosaically, al-ʿAlmāwī (b. 907/1501) asserts that Maslama
tower inlaid as already described.
ibn ʿAbd al-Malik’s house was close to this gate.97
92
Finbarr Barry Flood has shown that Bāb al-Sāʿāt must have He therefore saw a single gate below the north minaret,
stood towards the west end of the qibla wall rather than its east
flanked by arcades as it is today. The two ‘extensions’ find an
end.98 He localised it immediately to the west of the present Bāb
echo in later structures that were built along this wall, such as
al-Ziyāda (Figure 114), where an arcade reportedly extended
the Kallāsa and Sumaysāṭiyya. The sides of the current gate
into the city to the south in the mid-nineteenth century. The
are engulfed by later structures, but the massive lintel and
observation seems to be derived from the way ashlars break
93
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 115 (left) West end of the qibla wall from the east, with southwest tower on the left. From Degeorge, La grande mosquée des omeyyades, 118.
p figure 117 (above) Sealed gate in west half of qibla wall. Adnan Nasser, 2019
p figure 116 (below) Detail of southwest end of qibla wall, with bust in relief in the sixth stone course above ground level. Ross Burns/ Manar al-Athar, 2009.
along two vertical lines in this area (Figure 115). However, the ashlars of the third stone course cut across these lines, and this whole wall section is coursed with Roman masonry on either side up to the fifth row of ashlars, with consistent tooling traces and patterns of wear. It is only in the sixth and seventh stone courses, several metres above the ground, that ashlars of a lesser height appear, followed by a narrow horizontal gap. The first seven courses seem to be made of the same hard stone, which differs from the softer stone of the Umayyad upper Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
wall. An intervention was thus made over the sixth and seven courses; its nature is unclear but it involved the insertion of an ashlar with a bust in relief, now defaced—probably an image of Jupiter or Christ, types that were related in classical to late antiquity (Figure 116). This work may therefore have been undertaken in the Roman or Christian era. At any rate, given the continuity in the lower courses of masonry, it is far from obvious that a full gate was ever opened here. A walled arch currently stands further to the right, between the present Bāb al-Ziyāda and the central mihrab (Figure 117).99
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
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155
p figure 118 (left) Clock of the Bū ʿInāniyya Madrasa. Fez, 758/1357. Postcard, mid-twentieth century. Brussels, Dahan-Hirsch Collection. (right) Section drawing of the clock. From Ricard, ‘L’horloge’, 251.
described by Abū Muhammad ibn al-Akfānī (d. 524/1130) on the authority of Abū Sulaymān ibn Zabr (fourth/tenth century) in this citation preserved by Ibn ʿAsākir: Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Akfānī told us orally, Tammām ibn Aḥmad told us, Abū Naṣr told us, Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zabr, the ḥāfiẓ, told us, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Zabr, the qadi, narrated to us: Bāb al-Sāʿāt was named after a timepiece (birkār al-sāʿāt or binkām al-sāʿāt)102 that was made there through which
Its span of about 4 m is between those of Bāb al-Barīd (3.38 m,
each passing hour of the day was known. On it were birds
Figure 112) and Bāb Jayrūn (4.50 m, Figure 21), which could
of bronze, a serpent of bronze, and a crow of bronze.
suggest it was the lunette of a similar gate.
100
However the
Roman-Umayyad street level lies a mere 2.50 m below, a depth
At the end of each hour, the serpent came out, the birds chirped, the crow cawed, and a pebble dropped.103
too shallow for a gate of this width.101 The arch was probably
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designed instead to discharge weight from the wall above and
This piece of mechanical engineering, which must have
open within it the smaller rectangular gate, now walled up,
resembled a Byzantine clock, may arguably have been created
which can be distinguished through its lintel and incomplete
in the Umayyad period.104 One of the best-preserved medieval
side frames. Its size is compatible with al-Muqaddasī’s
clocks is the one inaugurated in 758/1357 at the Bū ʿInāniyya
description of Bāb al-Sāʿāt as having had two leaves. In Umayyad
Madrasa in Fez. It consisted of an upper tier with thirteen
times, it would have been the exact counterpart of Bāb al-Khaḍrāʾ,
hollowed projecting beams through which a string must have
the Roman side door to the right of the transept (Figure 36):
carried a weight; at each hour, a window opened and a weight
both gates share a width of about 2 m and their lintels are
dropped into one of the thirteen bronze bowls below, also
horizontally aligned. Al-Walīd’s reign presented an opportunity
supported by beams inserted into the wall (Figure 118).105 Ibn
for its addition as the wall above was being dismantled and
ʿAsākir’s description suggests that the mechanism at Damascus
rebuilt to provide the new prayer hall with windows.
was more compact, since there was a single bowl, but also
As shown by Flood, the name Bāb al-Sāʿāt (the ‘Gate of the Clocks’ or ‘of the Hours’) was probably derived from a clock
156
mechanically more complex since it involved three automata. Its construction would have required the insertion of timbers
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 119 Sealed gate in west half of qibla wall and surrounding masonry with beam holes. Adnan Nasser, 2019.
originally matched by a similar southeast tower. The Syrian historiographical tradition unanimously attributes the north minaret to al-Walīd.108 While its current elevation is from a later rebuilding, it features a base of massive ashlars up to five courses above the current ground level (Figure 113). These were probably reused from a Roman building, a pattern consistent with the blocking of the Roman gate on the south side carried out under al-Walīd (Figure 35), whereas evidence of such reuse into the wall, and there is indeed a concentration of beam
in later periods is lacking.109
sockets around the walled-up gate (Figure 119). Although their
The north minaret was first described in the late tenth
placement may seem random, several of the square holes are
century by al-Muqaddasī, who wrote about Bāb al-Farādīs,
aligned along three horizontal levels just above the arch.
the adjoining gate of the mosque: ‘Above it is a modern tower
Most of them are probably from shops and other structures
inlaid (muraṣṣaʿa) as already described.’ In the rest of his
that once abutted the mosque, but some may have served to
account, the adjective muraṣṣaʿa is followed each time by
secure to the famous clock. Their distribution would deserve
‘with mosaics’, and is used only to designate this type of work:
to be studied in this light.
al-Muqaddasī therefore saw this minaret clad with mosaics.110
The gate was eventually closed, maybe because the street
The observation is plausible in the context of the Umayyad
gradually came to encroach on it. By contrast, even today,
Mosque. Whatever the height of the original minaret, the
the ground has not risen much above its Roman level near the
surface of its walls (presumably the three walls visible from
southwest corner of the mosque, the site of the current Bāb
the courtyard) would have been but a small addition to the
al-Ziyāda. Its transfer would also have facilitated the inauguration
immense mosaic expanse in the courtyard and prayer hall.
of a new ‘mihrab of the Hanafites’ since this mihrab stands
The inclusion of this decoration would also have contributed
immediately to the west of the sealed gate, at the same distance
to the coherence of the design since three sides of the transept
from the central mihrab as the ‘mihrab of the Companions’ to
facing this minaret across the courtyard were covered with
the east (Ground plan, Figure 1). A ‘maqsura of the Hanafites’
mosaics. Conversely, a minaret clad with mosaics would have
was noted in this side of the mosque by Ibn Jubayr in 581/1184:
represented work on a scale far larger than anything attributed
this might imply the existence of a mihrab by that time.106
to the Abbasids in Damascus; had they established it, this
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would probably not have gone unnoticed in the Syrian sources. The North Minaret
The north minaret might therefore have been a work of
The mosque currently has three minarets: two corner towers
al-Walīd, and the first ashlar courses of the present square
in the southwest and southeast known respectively as the
base may be from this period.
‘west minaret’ (miʾdhanat al-gharbiyya) and the ‘minaret of
The sources state that ‘a quarter’ of the Damascus minaret
Jesus’ (miʾdhanat ʿīsā); and the northern tower known as the
(or, in some versions, the whole structure) was destroyed in
‘minaret of the bride’ (miʾdhanat al- ʿarūs) above the middle
the earthquake of 233/847; this may have been its upper tier,
of the north wall on the axis of the mihrab. The slender
but since damage seems to have mainly occurred along the
shafts in the elevation of both corner towers are medieval
qibla wall, these reports could equally be about one of the
additions.
107
As noted in Chapter 4, the cubical base of the
southwest tower probably belongs to the Christian era and was
corner towers and the north minaret may have remained intact at that date.111
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
157
Detail of Figure 3 (left) Vase in front of a mosque, second illuminated page from the Umayyad Qurʾan discovered in Sanaa. p figure 120 (below) Marble fountain in the prayer hall. Christian Sahner, 2008.
Water Reservoirs and Ablution Facilities Water was an essential feature of the mosque, but the traces of its meanderings have been lost to later restorations. In the account of the mosque by al-Balkhī (d. 322/934), one reads: ‘When they want to wash it, the flood gates are opened and water spreads into the mosque, gushing forth to cover all corners.’112 A manuscript variant of al-Muqaddasī’s account echoes this statement: There is, too, in the mosque a spot where an opening is made once every year, so that the mosque is filled with water to the depth of about a cubit, and so the walls and the floor of the mosque are washed. Then another spot is
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opened so that all the water seeps away through it.113
Thus, by the tenth century a canalisation system with flood gates existed in the mosque. Al-Muqaddasī also notes about the four public gates: ‘Each of these gates has a marble ablution fountain in chambers (buyūt) from which water springs, and great exterior fountains in great marble basins.’ This description resonates with the first mosque depiction in the illuminated pages of the Sanaa Qurʾan, which shows two large vases flanking the entrance stairway, presumably to symbolise this function (detail of Figure 3 above).
158
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
Ibn Jubayr gives a detailed account of the canalisation system
Ornament
as he saw it in the twelfth century: In the earliest description of the ornamental programme of the Round this venerated mosque, one at each side, stand
mosque, Ibn al-Faqīh noted: ‘The mosque is built with marble and
four reservoirs, and each is like a large house. They are
mosaic, ceilings of teak, inscriptions of gold and dark blue, and
enclosed by lavatories to all of which runs water from
the mihrab is inlaid with precious gems and astonishing stones.’118
them [the reservoirs]. Lengthways through the court runs
Brief though it is, the statement summarises the main features
an oblong basin of stone (hawḍ min al-ḥajar mustaṭīl)
of the ornament, which will now be explored in greater detail.
with many spouts along its length pouring forth water.
114
Marble Dado The passage continues with a lengthy description of the
Textual sources underline the prominence of marble in the
reservoirs. It mentions that a stone basin with multiple spouts
ornament. In the days of al-Walīd, al-Nābigha already sang
ran across the courtyard—presumably from west to east,
that the mosque had ‘its each approach—adorned by God—
following the natural slope of the terrain. Al-ʿUmarī reports
with Syrian marble lined and robed’ (v. 22). At the turn of the
that maintenance works in the fourteenth century revealed
tenth century, al-Balkhī noted: ‘Its walls are faced with veined
underground vaults to channel water. In a photograph from
marble (rukhām mujazzaʿ)’.119 Al-Muqaddasī remarked a few
the soundings of 1962–63 (Figure 28), one can notice at least
decades later: ‘A most extraordinary thing is the composition of
one pipe, and possibly two or three, running along the axis
its veined marble, with every vein matched to its counterpart.’
between Bāb Jayrūn and Bāb al-Barīd: these seem to be a type
By the twelfth century, at a time when some of the original
of canalisation, although there is no way to ascertain their date.
ornament had been lost to the fire of 1069, Ibn ʿAsākir implied a
115
In the nineteenth century, the prayer hall contained a
distinction between two types of marble, rukhām and marmar:
fountain near the east wall and northeast arcade (Figure 82). This structure has since been stripped of its plaster, exposing
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Khaṭīb narrated to us, my grandfather Abū
white marble (Figure 120). Its date is unknown, although Ibn
ʿAbd Allāh told us, [Abū] ʿAlī al-Ahwāzī told us, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb
Baṭṭūṭa may have been referring to it—or to its predecessor on
ibn al-Ḥasan told us, from Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm
the same spot—when he wrote: ‘in the east of the mosque is a
ibn ʿAbādil (?), who said, I heard Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn
large enclosure with a water tank for the use of the Africans
Hishām say, I heard my father say:
from Zaylāʿ’ (a port on the Somalian coast). Al-ʿUmarī also
There is no rukhām in the Mosque of Damascus, except for
mentions that there were water basins (sg. ṣaḥn) with running
the two marble panels of the shrine (maqām) which are said
water in different parts of the mosque, including one ‘at the
to be from the Throne of Sheba. All the rest is marmar.120
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116
pillar of the eagle, within the arcade’, which suggests the area of the transept.117 Water was thus omnipresent in the building,
In classical texts, marmar usually denotes ‘white marble’,
constantly flowing into basins of various shapes and sizes at its
as opposed to ‘coloured marble’ for rukhām, so the statement
gates, through the courtyard, and possibly in the prayer hall,
seems to imply that white marble dominated the decoration.121
serving for ablutions but also to refresh and quench thirst.
Even when al-ʿUmarī inverted the terms, asserting that rukhām was white, he was still pressing the same point.122 Thus, for Ibn ʿAsākir, there were only two panels of coloured marble in the whole mosque, and these belonged to the ‘Throne
chapter 5 • a Vast expanse of splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
159
p figure 121 (left) Bāb Jayrūn vestibule, southeast wall (left) and south wall (right). Max Van Berchem, late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem. p figure 122 (opposite left) Bāb Jayrūn vestibule, southeast wall (left) and south wall (right). K.A.C. Creswell, early twentieth century. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.107. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
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p figure 123 (opposite right) Bāb Jayrūn vestibule, southeast wall (left) and south wall (right). Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2008.
of Sheba’, in reference to the legendary Queen Bilqīs, wife of Solomon.
123
The location of these panels is uncertain.
reddish veining (mujazzaʿa bi-jamra), said to have belonged to the Throne of Bilqīs; God knows best’.125 He is referring to a part
A tradition cited by Ibn ʿAsākir places them in the ‘west shrine’
of the transept: perhaps again its mihrab, or the engaged red
(al-maqām al-gharbī), which could suggest one of the two Roman
colonnettes that still stand outside its façade today (Figure 45).
rooms on the west side of the temenos. Al-ʿUmarī, however,
The relationship, if any, between these colonnettes and Ibn
explains it as a reference to the central mihrab, where Ibn
ʿAsākir’s marble panels remains unclear.
Iyās (d. 930/1524) also identifies two small columns from the Throne of Bilqīs.
124
ʿAlī al-Harawī (d. 611/1215) states that ‘in the
mosque are small columns under the Dome of the Eagle with
160
At any rate, Syrian historians converge to portray the marble revetment of the mosque as overwhelmingly white. Ibn Ṣaṣrā (fl. ca. 1400) removes any residual doubts about this question:
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
The walls were covered up to the edge of the mosaic with
gate, is largely original (Figure 122), although a few tiles just
the same marble that is above the mihrab today, and there is
below the mosaic frieze have been lost since the 1930s (Figure
nothing like it at this time. It is called ‘foam of the sea’ (mawj
123). The historical revetment was composed from the base
al-baḥr) by architects, and when a man examines it, he sees
upwards as follows:
that it is one of the wonders and marvels of the world.
126
Lower border: a thin strip of quartered oblong panels of
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Ibn Ṣaṣrā’s ‘foam of the sea’ conjures up quartered, veined,
white veined marble.
white marble: he saw this original decoration above the mihrab,
Lower register: rectangular and lozenge-shaped panels
which implies that marble panelling of a different type had
of various colours.
become predominant by then. Different sections of the dado
Upper register: three rows of quartered marble tiles
were indeed restored in multiple campaigns between 630/1233
interspersed with pilasters, of which the pale yellow
and 730/1330, and a further one took place in 815/1413, not long
one on the east wall seems original (left side of Figure 123).
after he wrote this chronicle.
Upper border: a further row of quartered tiles like those
127
The marble panelling presently in the mosque is almost all
of the upper register
later than the fire of 1893. The only early dado segments are found inside Bāb Jayrūn, the east gate to the mosque (Figure 121). The revetment of its southeast wall, to the right of the central
Despite assertions in the sources about the absence of coloured marble, the greenish-grey lozenges set within the
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
161
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borders above the side door seem to be original, like the small
Creswell (Figure 129).128 The lower registers are largely patched
tilted squares that frame the central door. To the right of the
up with later tilework that can be immediately distinguished
east wall, the lower half of the south wall has chevron motifs
from the marble by its dense patterns. The upper border is
and red rectangles that must belong to a later restoration,
made up of oblong quartered marble panels alternating with
probably Mamluk. Moving to the other side of the central gate,
vertical russet tiles. The upper register has pilasters as at Bāb
the left half of the east wall has been heavily restored since the
Jayrūn. In the register below, above both Roman side gates,
late nineteenth century, although part of its lower tier, including
there is a circular panel of quartered white marble flanked
the green lozenges, may be original, together with the panels to
by two green half lozenges. The same composition with a
the right of the yellow pilaster in the middle tier (see Figure 124
green lozenge at its centre is repeated above the lateral doors
and the blurred record of its earlier state in Figure 125).
leading to the Roman chambers. All four door panels are set in
Extensive marble revetment from Bāb al-Barīd, now lost,
rectangular frames filled with quartered white marble. Judging
can be seen in two paintings by Bauernfeind (Figures 126 and
from the photographs, these different elements all appear to
127), as well as photographs by Van Berchem (Figure 128) and
have been original.
162
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 124 (opposite) Bāb Jayrūn vestibule, northeast wall. Batoul Diab, 2008. p figure 125 (right) Bāb Jayrūn vestibule at the turn of the twentieth century. From Rivoira, Moslem Architecture, fig. 85.
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Inside the prayer hall, the central part of the qibla wall also
possibly white or pale yellow as at Bāb Jayrūn. Above this
retained marble panelling until the fire of 1893, as documented
register, instead of the upper border seen in the courtyard,
in photographs by Hakim and Gervais-Courtellemont (Figure
was a frieze identified by Flood as the famed vine (Ar. karma)
130), as well as an oil painting by Frederic Leighton (Figure
of the Umayyad Mosque or a later recreation of it.130 There
10).129 A photograph by Van Berchem shows that many panels
was more white marble panelling in the central tier below the
were lost in the fire of 1893, in the aftermath of which the
colonnettes, with a large square panel containing a lozenge of
lower part of the wall was buried in rubble (Figure 131). As in
coloured marble on either side of the mihrab—a pattern that
Bāb Jayrūn and Bāb al-Barīd, the upper register had quartered
again echoed both Bāb Jayrūn and Bāb al-Barīd. Likewise, the
marble; the pilasters in Leighton’s painting are dark green,
border below, with its russet tiles alternating with quartered
but the photographs suggest that they were of a lighter hue,
marble, resembled the upper border at Bāb al-Barīd.
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
163
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164
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
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p figure 126 (opposite) Bāb al-Barīd, north wall. Oil on canvas, 120.8 × 92.2 cm. Gustav Bauernfeind, 1890. Private collection. Image courtesy of Christie’s images. p figure 127 (right) Bāb al-Barīd, south wall. Watercolour, 57.8 × 41.5 cm. Gustav Bauernfeind, 1889. Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Inv.-Nr. 44344 Z.
chapter 5 • a Vast expanse of splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
165
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p figure 128 (above) Bāb al-Barīd, south wall. Max Van Berchem, late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
166
p figure 129 (opposite above) Bāb al-Barīd. K.A.C. Creswell, 1920. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA.CA.612. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 130 (opposite below) Central mihrab and minbar. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, before 1893.
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167
The lower tier of wall panelling around the mihrab, as at Bāb Jayrūn and Bāb al-Barīd, resembles Mamluk ornament
the nineteenth century must have preserved some work from
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Since there was
these restoration phases. Both the central mihrab area and Bāb
no clean break with early Ottoman work of the sixteenth
al-Barīd also bore traces of haphazard repairs that must date to
131
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with the southwestern side’.135 The marble revetment visible in
century, it could also date to that period.
132
The Mamluk
sultan al-Muʾayyad Shaykh extensively restored the dado of the mosque after the fire of 1410, and it was renovated again under Qaytbay two months before the fire of 1479.
133
later Ottoman times. The Umayyad programme of marble revetment can be summarised as follows, starting from the base:
According
to Ibn al-Ḥimṣī (Damascene, 841–932/1438–1527), ‘the marble
Lower border: Not securely identified.
panelling burned down and collapsed like melting salt’ during
Lower register: Not securely identified but probably
He also reports
dominated by large quartered tiles of veined marble.
that disaster, which he witnessed in person.
134
that in Rabiʿ I 885/May–June 1480, ‘they began the restoration of
Door and mihrab frames: Large rectangular panels centred
the marble dado sponsored by the sultan [Qaytbay], beginning
on a green lozenge or white circle flanked by two green
168
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 131 The central mihrab and wall. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
Detail of Figure 76. Now lost mosaic panels at the west end of the north courtyard arcade.
lozenges or half-lozenges and filled with white quartered marble; or a series of lozenge tiles in alternating colours, dark against a white ground, then white against a dark ground. Upper register: Veined white marble in small, quartered tiles, interspersed with pilasters with white or pale yellow shafts and white or dark red capitals, and a variety of capital shapes. Upper border: Not securely identified but probably dominated by small quartered tiles of veined marble. The quality and scale of the marble panelling makes it clear that it was a central element of the Umayyad decoration. Variety was key in the impact of the symmetrical waves of quartered veined marble, augmented with accents of colour in the colonnettes and around the gates and two mihrabs. Mosaics Today, Umayyad mosaics survive primarily in the west arcade,
spandrel border band and curly patterns at the centre may
in Bāb al-Barīd and on the transept façade. They were heavily
suggest a vegetal motif.
repaired and expanded in the 1950s and 1960s (see Chapter 1). According to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rīḥāwī, the original gold tesserae
of Bāb al-Barīd, one can observe a mosaic fragment with an
were inclined downward at an angle of 35 degrees, a technique
acanthus leaf from which springs a vegetal design (Figure
also used in other Umayyad and early Christian monuments
126). By the time of Van Berchem’s visit a decade later, it had
to make them glitter at ground level.
136
Preliminary results of
disappeared (Figure 128). The degree of verisimilitude in
the scientific analysis being carried out on fragments from the
Bauernfeind’s work makes it probable that this was not his
Louvre suggest that the tesserae were made of glass with gold
imaginary addition but an actual remnant. The date of the
or silver leaf, coloured stones, and seashell fragments cut into a
mosaic cannot be ascertained, although the painting suggests
tear shape.
a quality of execution compatible with the Umayyad period.
137
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In the oil painting by Bauernfeind showing the north side
In the process of studying early photographs and paintings,
A small panel on the east wall of Bāb Jayrūn shows a vine
several lost mosaic panels have come to light. Two of these,
scroll bordering parts of a house, a tree and a monumental
one on the east transept wall (detail of Figure 9, page 135)
building (Figure 132). The scroll is very close in form to one
and the other on the Bayt al-Māl (Figure 102), have already
of Umayyad date on a soffit at Bāb al-Barīd, but is cruder in
been discussed in this chapter. In two nineteenth-century
execution. It may be a later creation based on the original
photographs of the northwest corner, one can discern mosaics
design, although one cannot rule out the work of a less
on the left spandrel of an arch in the north arcade and the
competent eighth-century team.
pillar above (detail of Figure 76 above; see also Figure 77). It is impossible to see the details clearly, but the shape of the
Today, the only mosaics that survive inside the prayer hall are on the inner transept façade, and these are datable to the
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
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169
p figure 132 Bāb Jayrūn, detail of southeast wall. From Degeorge, La grande mosquée des omeyyades, 140.
late eleventh or the twelfth century.138 Originally, most of the masonry in this immense space—the upper walls, pillars, spandrels and soffits—was covered with this ornament, of which a few glimpses emerge in the sources. Al-Muqaddasī famously asserted: ‘There is no tree or land that has not been represented on these walls.’ The early Damascene writer Abū Zurʿa (d. 281/895), as cited by Ibn ʿAsākir, stated that al-Walīd’s second successor, his cousin ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99–101/717–20), was once preparing to have the qibla wall whitewashed or covered, so some Damascenes told him: ‘This is a likeness of (tuḍāhī) the Kaʿba.’139 The description shared by Ibn Shākir and Ibn Kathīr (both writing in the fourteenth century) echoes this assertion: They depicted with them [mosaics] all famous countries, with the Kaʿba above the mihrab, and the remaining regions to its right and left. They depicted all manner of trees that exist in different lands: beautiful, fruit-bearing, blossoming, and so on.140
In another part of his work, Ibn Kathīr notes again: Its walls were covered with gilt coloured cubes with
were referring to lost mosaics. In either case, the belief that
which were depicted all the countries of the earth: the
mosaics representing the Kaʿba were part of the Umayyad
Kaʿba and Mecca in the mihrab and all countries east and
Mosque was widespread from at least the ninth century
west, each in in its proper place. Every fruit-bearing and
onwards. Since there have been no mosaics around the mihrab
fruit-less tree was also depicted. These were shown in all
for centuries, it is impossible to assess whether the image in
their variety, each in its country and land.141
question was a random cubic structure or whether a depiction
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of the holy site was indeed intended in the original mosque. The idea of a Kaʿba representation is echoed by later Syrian writers.
142
As recently as the early twentieth century, Henri
The descriptions of al-Muqaddasī, Ibn Shākir, and Ibn Kathīr imply that the mosaics depicted a wide variety of building
Saladin noted in his brief discussion of the transept façade
types and trees, and that these formed coherent landscapes.
mosaics: ‘the shaykhs of the mosque asserted that they
This idea finds a resonance, if inevitably partial, in extant and
represented Mecca and Medina’.
143
However neither holy city
known mosaic panels. The trees on the west arcade and wall
seems to be depicted there (Figure 45). It is possible that,
evoke a temperate climate that seems compatible with the
by that time, the interpretation of an earlier motif above the
Roman-type buildings depicted nearby. By contrast, the later
mihrab had become conflated with this extant panel. Saladin
panels on the east extremity of the north arcade show a boat
may have also simply misunderstood that his interlocutors
with a flat bottom and raised ends that is reminiscent of
170
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 133 Mosaic panel at the eastern end of the north arcade, eleventh century. Judith McKenzie, 2010.
Nilotic barges (Figure 133).144 The spandrel below depicts a
extensively by Flood.145 Its most detailed description is given by
palm tree laden with fruit, which tallies with Ibn Kathīr’s claim
Ibn Ṣaṣrā:
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
of a match between the buildings and plants of a given clime. These panels are datable to the late eleventh to twelfth century,
[It is related] concerning ʿUmar ibn Muhājir, who was
probably the reign of Nūr al-Dīn ibn Zankī (r. 541–65/1146–74),
secretary of the exchequer (kātib bayt al-māl) in the days of
but are likely to reproduce the Umayyad mosaics that they
al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, that he said:
replaced. The lost fragment from the transept side shows a
The expense of the vine which was put above the mihrab
tower different in style from architectural images on the transept
and that of the gold which went into it was computed and
façade and west courtyard (detail of Figure 9, page 135). Such
it was fifty thousand dinars.
elements provide but a small glimpse of what must originally
...
have been a striking vision.
It [the mosque] was inlaid with jewels, sapphires, pearls, coral, carnelian and all sorts of gems which were in the
The Vine Frieze with Precious Stones
vine above the mihrab. This, however, was taken out
A renowned feature of the Umayyad Mosque was a marble
when [the mosque] burned and fell into ruin. This was
frieze that ran around the prayer hall, above the level of
replaced with the glass mosaics and other things which
the dado: the vine (al-karma), which has been studied
are there today.146
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
171
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p figure 134 Interior of the transept facing north. Watercolour, 54.2 × 30 cm. Richard Phené Spiers, 1866. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.5-1917. Presented by the Executors of the Artist.
172
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 135 The transept, looking towards the central and east courtyard facades. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
In Leighton’s painting (Figure 10) and nineteenth-century
If the vine extended to the courtyard façade of the prayer
photographs (Figures 130 and 131), one can see a frieze of vine
hall, it would have run at the level of the imposts.150 This is
scrolls running above the central mihrab and across the east and
unlikely since this façade was open, with no solid separation
west walls of the prayer hall: as first noted by Creswell, this must
between the interior and the exterior; nor was there space for
have been the vine, a later recreation, or a combination of both.
it to run along the inner transept façade because of the
The height of the frieze has been estimated by Flood at 45 cm,
windows. Flood noted a dark patch on the pier to the left of
and other textual accounts agree with Ibn Ṣaṣrā’s assertion that
the transept in the watercolour by Spiers (Figure 134) as its
the original was gilded and inlaid with precious stones.
147
Its
possible continuation, but a photograph by Van Berchem shows
height is about 7.83 m from ground level to the top of the frieze
a matching fragment on the right: it seems to be a carved
itself.148 This must have been its original position, given that
frieze, probably in stucco, like the one on the transept pillars
some of the marble panels below it were original, and that it
(Figure 135). The vine thus probably ran around only the three
corresponds to the height of the extant dado segments, both lost
walls of the prayer hall.
and extant, at Bāb Jayrūn (7.89 m) and Bāb al-Barīd (7.79 m).
149
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
173
Detail of Figure 3. Mihrab (left) and minbar (right), second illuminated page from the Sanaa Qur’an.
The Central Mihrab and Minbar
16. You see there chrysolite, glittering sapphire;
From the time of its inception, the mosque had two mihrabs. The older ‘Mihrab of the Companions’, on the east side of
limestone, with purest gold inlaid; 17. Such figures on the qibla-line emerge,
the prayer hall, has been studied in Chapter 2, but it was the
of varied hue and shade!
central mihrab, one of the first to be given a concave form,
151
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that captured the attention of early writers. In the description of the mosque shared by al-Balkhī, al-Iṣṭakhrī and Ibn Ḥawqal,
One must await the visit of Ibn Jubayr in 581/1184, for a more detailed description to emerge:
one reads that al-Walīd had ‘its mihrab gilded and inlaid with precious stones’.152 According to al-Muqaddasī, ‘inside
Its mihrab is the most wonderful in Islam for its beauty
the mihrab and around it are carnelian and turquoise stones
and rare art, and the whole of it gleams with gold. Within
(fuṣūṣ ʿaqīqiyya wa fayrūziyya) of the largest kind’.
it are small mihrabs adjoining its wall and surrounded
153
Thus, the
mihrab echoed the vine frieze above it, in that both were
by small columns, voluted like a bracelet as if done by a
gilded and inlaid with precious stones in red and blue hues.
turner, than which nothing more beautiful could be seen,
The concentration of precious materials in this area was
some of them being red as coral. The glory of the qibla
emphasized by al-Walīd’s court poet, al-Nābigha:
of this blessed mosque and the three cupolas adjoining it,
174
the umayyad mosque of damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
irradiated by the gilded and coloured windows whose
Jaʿfar: Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān [al-Fasawī] said:
every colour is reflected on the qibla wall as the rays of
I read in wide panels (ṣafāʾiḥ) in the qibla of the mosque of
the sun pour through them, is such as to dazzle the eyes.154
Damascus, in gold on dark blue: ‘In the name of God, the Clement, the Merciful. God,
His description of rows of blind niches echoes the nineteenth-century mihrab, which may have dated to the late
Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs
Mamluk or early Ottoman period (Figure 130). It is possible
all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that
that Ibn Jubayr was still looking at the Umayyad mihrab, since
shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows
the fire of 1069, according to Ibn Kathīr’s account, primarily
what lies before them and what is after them…’ to the end
ravaged the ceilings and mosaics.
155
Even if it had been
of the verse [Q. 2:255].
recreated, it is likely to have reflected the original, a tendency
‘There is no God but God alone, He has no associate,
observed throughout medieval restorations of the mosque.
we worship but God. Our Lord is God alone, our religion
The mihrab in the second illuminated frontispiece of the
is Islam, and our Prophet is Muḥammad (wa dīnunā
Sanaa Qurʾan has a radial motif in its hood (detail of Figure 3
al-islām wa nabiyyunā muḥammad)—peace be upon
opposite). Given that the mosque of Cordoba had a scallop hood
him. The servant of God al-Walīd, commander of the
in its tenth-century mihrab and that most representations of
faithful, ordered in Dhū al-Qaʿda of the year 86 [October-
niches in this period, from the mosaics of Ravenna through to
November 705] the construction of this mosque and the
those in the courtyard in this mosque, also bear this form, one
destruction of the church which was in it’.
could argue, as proposed by Flood, that it also occurred in the
This was in three wide panels, and in the fourth: ‘Praise
central mihrab at Damascus.
belongs to God, the Lord of all Being, the All-merciful,
156
The Sanaa Qurʾan illumination also shows part of a minbar
the All-compassionate, the Master of the Day of Doom’ to
with steps and a ramp. The sources, both early and late, do
the end of the sura [Q. 1:2-7], then Al-Nāziʿāt [Q. 79] to the
not mention the minbar of the Umayyad Mosque directly.
end, then ʿAbasa [Q. 80] to the end, then ‘When the sun
They only state that Muʿāwiya, ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Walīd
darkens…’ [Q. 81].
tried to have the Prophet’s minbar brought to Damascus from
Abū Yūsuf said:
Medina, and that on the occasion of the hajj, Muʿāwiya had
I returned afterwards and saw that it had been erased.
taken the minbar built for him at Damascus to Mecca, where it
This was before the days of al-Maʾmūn.158
remained for over a century.
157
Either the original mihrab was
unremarkable, or it was destroyed at an early date as a symbol Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
there is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting.
of Umayyad authority.
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-Fasawī (d. ca. 277/891) is a plausible source for this information, as he mentions having visited Damascus at the end of 217/832–33, in 219/834–35, and again in
The Mosaic Inscription
241/855–56. His presence there is corroborated by Abū Zurʿa,
The original mosaic inscription was lost at an early date, but its
a Damascene scholar of the period. The account implies that
record by Ibn ʿAsākir, repeated by several later Syrian writers,
the inscription had been erased by the end of al-Maʾmūn’s reign
is worth citing in full:
(198–213/813–33), as explicitly stated in Ibn Shākir and Ibn Kathīr’s version: ‘Then it was erased after al-Maʾmūn came to
Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Samarqandī told us, from Abū Bakr ibn
Damascus.’159 The assertion is again credible: this caliph erased
al-Ṭabarī, from Abū Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn
ʿAbd al-Malik’s name from the mosaic and copper inscriptions
chapter 5 • a Vast expanse of splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
175
at the Dome of the Rock to replace it with his own in Rabiʿ
would have targeted the historical part and erased the name
II 216/May–June 831. He was in Damascus at least twice, in
of al-Walīd in an act of damnatio memoriae. It is also possible
215/830–31 and 216/831–32, near the time of al-Fasawī’s visit.
to envisage an erasure in the ninth century followed by a
Al-Maʾmūn may thus have destroyed or otherwise altered the
restoration in the following decades, but there is no evidence to
inscription around those years. However, a full century later,
support this idea. The question, for now, remains unresolved.
al-Masʿūdī wrote:
Based on the citations given in al-Fasawī’s account, the Umayyad inscription was some 555 words long but unevenly
Al-Walīd ordered that it be written in gold on dark blue
distributed, with 98 words of Qurʾanic and historical text in the
(al-lāzaward) on the wall of the mosque: ‘Our lord is
first three lines and 457 words of Qurʾanic citations in a single
God; we worship but God. The servant of God al-Walīd,
line below.163 The fourth line, in other words, was over thirteen
commander of the faithful, ordered in Dhū al-Ḥijja of the
times as long as each of the first three. While the latter are said
year 87 [November‒December 706] the construction of
to have been on the qibla, which must mean the south transept
this mosque and the destruction of the church that was
wall, the fourth line would have extended along the rest of the
in it’. This text is still written in gold in the mosque of
qibla wall and possibly beyond, into the east and west walls of
Damascus in our time, in the year 332 [943–44].
the prayer hall. If the 98 words of the first three lines occupied
160
the full span of the transept wall on its qibla side (17.28 m),164 Al-Masʿūdī saw the historical part of the inscription intact and the last sentence reads like an implicit refutation of al-Fasawī’s
width of 52.3 cm. The real figure must have been slightly
statement. Both records of the inscription appear to have been
smaller since these panels were probably framed by a border.
made from direct observation but the month and year are
The qibla wall sides to the right and left of the transept
different. There are also differences in the wording: the first
respectively measure 56.45 m and 57.73 m (114.18 m in total),
two phrases (‘Our lord… but God’) are the same, but in reverse
while the transept width is 21.66 m including the engaged
order, and the following two phrases in al-Fasawī’s version
pillars. To these figures, one should add about 60 cm for the
(‘Our religion… in his guard’) are omitted by al-Masʿūdī. These
two lateral sides of each pillar (2.40 m in total).165 The total
last devotional utterings lend al-Fasawī’s account further
span available for the inscription on this wall was thus about
credence since they echo Umayyad phraseology at the Dome of
138.20 m. The lateral walls in the east and west of the prayer
the Rock.162 The historical part is identical in both cases except
hall measure 37.47 m each (74.94 m in total). In order to run
for a minor detail: where al-Fasawī’s text has the word bunyān
across these walls, the inscription had to circle around the
for ‘construction’, al-Masʿūdī gives bināʾ—both words have the
imposts of four engaged pillars, one at the extremity of each
same meaning.
arcade, which appear to be Umayyad and have an average
161
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every line of about 33 words would have had an average word
There are several possible explanations for the discrepancy
depth of about 1.46 m (5.84 m in total).166 If deployed across the
between al-Fasawī’s claim that the inscription had been erased
three walls of the prayer hall, the fourth line would thus have
under al-Maʾmūn and its reported presence in al-Masʿūdī’s
had a length of 218.98 m, hence words 47.9 cm wide on average.
lifetime. Most simply, this could have been a later scribal error,
This is close to the estimate for the first three lines, making it
or an extraneous addition at the end of al-Fasawī’s account.
likely that the average word width in the original inscription
Alternatively, only part of the inscription may have been
was around 50 cm.
destroyed in the ninth century but if this was the case, the evidence from the Dome of the Rock suggests that al-Maʾmūn
176
The long line is described by al-Fasawī as the fourth, in sequence with the first three, which implies that it lay below
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
Detail of Figure 131. Ceramic frieze and carved stone inscription on the qibla wall, to the left of the transept.
In the tenth century, al-Muhallabī wrote about the inscription: One singular thing [about the mosque] is that suras from the Qurʾan were written on its qibla wall in gold mosaic in multiple rows. The first sura was Wa’l-nāziʿāt gharqan [Q. 79:1]. It was made in such a way as to place at the
them, just above the vine and dado. The inscription and vine
level of the qibla, towards the face of the imam, ʿāmilatun
were probably paired, running across the same parts of the
nāṣibatun taṣlā nāran ḥāmiyatan [Q. 88:3–4].170
prayer hall: the qibla wall and two lateral walls. A photograph by Van Berchem taken after the fire of 1893
This brief account matches al-Fasawī’s description in its
shows a fragment of decoration to the left of the transept that
essential features: a mosaic inscription laid out in several
was lost shortly afterwards in the restoration works (detail
lines on the qibla wall and including sura 79; but sura 88 is
of Figure 131 above). It features a Qurʾanic inscription (from
mentioned here instead of suras 80 and 81. Al-Muhallabī
Q. 67:3) running above a ceramic frieze with a geometrical
implies that the imam—in Umayyad times the caliph himself—
design. A further fragment on the same wall appears in the
stood below these verses as he led prayer:
background of an image by Tancrède Dumas from around 1870.167 Its continuation to the right of the transept is visible
Faces on that day humbled, labouring, toilworn, roasting
in a photograph by Gervais-Courtellemont, skirting around
at a scorching fire, watered at a boiling fountain, no food
the gate that led into a small chamber behind this part of the
for them but cactus thorn unfattening, unappeasing
wall (Figure 130). The original position of the vine would have
hunger (Q. 88:2–7).
been markedly higher, above the original marble dado (both elements can be seen in Figures 130 and 131). The level of the later frieze matches the Mamluk to early Ottoman dado on
the inscription as to tell an amusing anecdote. Unlike al-Fasawī
both sides of the qibla. These were created at a time when the
and al-Masʿūdī, there is nothing to indicate that he visited the
mosaic landscapes above had been lost, so there was no need to
mosque, and indeed other details in his account such as the
reach their baseline, and funding was presumably scarcer than
allegedly erroneous qibla, a confused description of the arcades,
in the Umayyad period.
and the measurements, are inaccurate.171 But based on al-Fasawī’s
The tricolour imbricated pattern of the frieze is comparable Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Al-Muhallabī’s aim was not so much to record the contents of
more reliable record of the contents, it is possible that such a
to Mamluk examples; the exact same motif, with a rise of each
layout did occur, for the middle of the fourth line (around word
vertical line in five segments, was recorded in an unspecified
228 of 457) would have fallen at or near this passage:
Cairene monument from this period by Prisse d’Avennes. A similar pattern, but with a three-segment rise, also appears at
But the self-sufficient, to him thou attendest though it
the khānqāh of Sultan Baybars al-Jāshnakīr (709/1310).
is not thy concern, if he does not cleanse himself. And
168
Thus,
the Damascus frieze probably dated to the late thirteenth or
he who comes to thee eagerly and fearfully, to him thou
fourteenth century. Just as the Mamluk metalwork on the
payest no heed (Q. 80:5–9).
mosque gates seems to echo Christian patterns, so the ceramic frieze may have replicated, in the visual language of its time, the initial coupling of the vine with the inscription.
169
Al-Muhallabī’s anecdote may preserve the distorted memory of this (accidental) configuration.
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
177
p figure 136 Coffered ceiling of west courtyard arcade, Great Mosque of Sanaa. James Allan, 1984.
At the Dome of the Rock, the inscription on the inner face of the octagonal arcade has a total of 212 words spread over 128.35 m, which corresponds to a width of about 60.5 cm per word. The inscription on the outer face has 180 words spread over 125.91 m, hence an average width of about 70 cm per word.172 Hence, the letters at Damascus were fifteen to thirty percent smaller, even though the whole inscription was slightly longer at about 270 m, as opposed to 254 m at the Dome of the Rock. The height of the latter inscriptions is about 30 cm, or some 35 mosaic cubes.173 If it had similar proportions, the one
like) of which a part has been eaten’, which in the present
at Damascus would have been 21 to 26 cm tall—about half the
context could imply corbelling.179 This detail remains unclear
height of the vine.
but suggests that a variation in the ornament occurred at the
In sum, it is likely that the mosaic inscription ran across the
junction of the wall and ceiling. According to Ibn Ṣaṣrā, ‘its
three walls of the prayer hall, coupled with the vine below and
ceiling was not in its present state, but all of it was painted
that it had slightly smaller letters than the extant inscriptions
(madhūna) with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and other things’.180
at the Dome of the Rock. Its position 8.30 m above the ground
These brief texts converge to imply that the ceiling was
was about 1.50 m lower than at the Dome of the Rock and it
wooden and decorated, probably with gold and other colours.
was better lit, so it may well have been more legible.
They point to a flat ceiling rather than exposed rafters, without
174
being entirely clear about its appearance. The description of Ceilings
Ibn Shākir and Ibn Kathīr is more detailed: ‘Under al-Walīd,
Wooden ceilings and roof beams are eminently prone to loss
they made the ceiling in the form of ridges (jamalūnāt); its
through fire. Today, no fragments of the Umayyad ceilings
inner part (bāṭinuhā) was horizontal (musaṭṭaḥ) and corbelled
survive in any part of the mosque, and early written sources
(muqarnaṣ) with gold.’181 According to lexicographers of their
are elusive on the subject. Ibn al-Faqīh states that ‘its ceiling
era, a muqarnaṣ ceiling is one ‘built like a ladder’, hence
is of teak’, the same timber cited in al-Nābigha’s evocation of
its translation above as ‘corbelled’.182 Ibn Kathīr says more
the inner dome (v. 20). The ceiling is said to have partly split
explicitly in his discussion of the fire of 1069 that ‘all its
in the earthquake of 131/748, at the very end of the Umayyad
ceilings used to be gilded and coffered (mubaṭṭana), with ridges
175
period.
176
Nevertheless in the tenth century, al-Muqaddasī
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could still say about the arcades: ‘All ceilings are ornamented (muzawwaqa) in the finest manner.’
177
According to al-Balkhī
(jamalūnāt) above’.183 Taken together, these texts clearly point to a coffered ceiling. Remarkably, one such structure may survive from the reign of al-Walīd in the west courtyard arcade of the
and al-Iṣṭakhrī, ‘the pourtour of the ceiling is all muktab/
Great Mosque of Sanaa in the Yemen (Figure 136). But its date
mukattab in gold, and it surrounds the whole mosque wall ...
is disputed as it has also been attributed the Ṣulayḥid queen
Its ceiling is of gilded wood’.
178
In Arabic, the words muktab
Arwā bint Aḥmad in 525/1131.184 In either case, it can serve as
and mukattab are only distinguished by a small orthographic
an illustration of the type, given the rarity of Byzantine-era
sign (a shadda) and could thus easily have been confused
wooden ceilings.185 It was made by resting longitudinal beams
in the course of scribal transmission. Muktab means ‘sewn’,
on transversal ones to create three stepped vertical recesses
which could evoke an interlace or a repeat pattern, whereas
and carving part of their surface with vegetal and geometrical
Edward Lane defines mukattab as ‘(a bunch of grapes and the
motifs. The square coffers were painted in a variety of patterns
178
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 137 Inner transept façade, with detail (above) of upper masonry. Max Van Berchem, after 1893. Geneva, Fondation Max van Berchem.
chapter 5 • A Vast Expanse of Splendour
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
179
Detail of Figure 131 (left) Corbel on qibla wall, at centre of transept. The corbel is in the middle of the first stone course above the central window.
p figure 138 (below) Mosque lamp in the Sanaa Qurʾan, early eighth century. Ursula Dreibholz.
also shows three holes in the wall that must have held tie-beams; a fourth hole can be seen to the right in another photograph from the same series. A matching corbel and hole are on the opposite side of the transept, above the mihrab (detail of Figure 131 above). The hole is bricked up, which shows that it belonged to an earlier phase of building and was no longer in use by the nineteenth century. The lack of similar masonry holes at other heights suggests that this was the level of the Umayyad ceiling. Al-Nābigha mentions in his poem that ‘precious silver curves up high, resplendent on the awed beholder’ (v. 19), thereby implying that this material was used in the elevation, probably the inner dome or its circular base. Ibn Ṣaṣrā also mentions silver among the pigments applied to the wooden ceilings.187 Lamps, Lighting, and Incense In the days of al-Walīd, al-Nābigha described the dome of the mosque as furnished ‘with lamps whose oil is gold’ (v. 21), seemingly to suggest transparent containers. The Sanaa Qurʾan illuminations show, hanging from the centre of the arch in both mosques, a round glass lamp with two green handles, a wick holder and a lit wick (Figure 138). The lamps, which are attached to the arch by a cord strung with small green and yellow disc hinges and a hook at the apex, are coloured in gold, either to imply that the glass was gilded or to convey the light shining from them. Ibn al-Faqīh states that the Mosque of Damascus had six hundred gold chains for its lamps, a figure repeated by
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
several later authors.188 It is unclear whether he assumed that based on a circle inscribed inside a square. Carved Umayyad
these were Umayyad, but the order of magnitude is consistent
ceiling beams and panels also survive from the southern
with the two hundred and ninety lamps that Ibn Zabāla (d. after
part of the prayer hall at Sanaa and from the Aqsa Mosque in
199/814) reported for the smaller Umayyad Mosque of Medina.189
Jerusalem, and these show a range of motifs shared with other
Ibn Kathīr and Ibn Shākir also assert that the original mosque
media in this period.
at Damascus had chains of gold and silver for its lamps.190
186
In the nineteenth century, the transept appears to have had a
The mosque had about one hundred and thirty large arches
flat wooden ceiling on either side of the dome, as can be seen in
from which lamps could be suspended.191 This figure should be
a watercolour from 1866 by Richard Phené Spiers (Figure 134).
multiplied by three if the two smaller arches or windows above
A photograph of its inner façade taken by Van Berchem after
each large arch are included, adding up to a total of some four
the fire of 1893 shows a stone corbel below the upper window
hundred lamps. Of course, it is also possible that lamps were
(Figure 137), matching the level of Spiers’ ceiling. The photograph
hung in ways that are less obviously related to architecture,
180
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
p figure 139 Painted column from the Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem. From Hamilton, Structural History, Pl. III.4.
for example across arcades, from the ceiling, or on freestanding posts. According to Shams al-Dīn al-Anṣārī al-Dimashqī (654–727/1256–1327), ‘at the night of the middle of Shaʿban, twelve thousand lamps are lit [in the mosque] with fifty Damascene qinṭārs of olive oil, without counting what is burnt in the madrasas’.192 His statement may be hyperbole, but it implies that in the Mamluk period, lamps were still lit in great numbers and tons of olive oil consumed on special occasions. The more sober figure of six hundred lamps given in the ninth century may or may not be an exaggeration, but it implies extensive lighting on a daily basis. The refilling of oil lamps involved significant human and material logistics, as suggested in an early source about the Dome of the Rock.193 Al-Badrī also wrote that in Umayyad times, ‘a row of censers was placed on columns in its courtyard [of the mosque]; its servants were tasked with this, not abating night or day until incense could be smelled two farsakhs [about 12 km] away’.194 The claim is again inflated and unreferenced, but it echoes a practice also attested at the Dome of the Rock.195 There and in two of al-Walīd’s other mosques, the rebuilt Prophet’s Mosque and the Great Mosque of Sanaa, the sources report that the walls were regularly anointed with fragrance (khalūq)— specifically the marble dado at Medina, and the mihrab with its decorative plasterwork at Sanaa. The same treatment was applied to the rock that gave its name to the Dome of the Rock and to the Kaʿba in Mecca.196 Thus, incense burning and the rubbing of fragrance are likely to have also occurred at the
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Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Paint on Capitals and Columns
mosque is decorated with wavy lines in white, green, red, and
Al-Muqaddasī states that, in his day, the column capitals of the
dark blue. Rich polychrome decoration is consistent with late
mosque were gilded. An Umayyad painted capital does survive
antique aesthetic tastes, as attested by the painted columns at the
from the late Umayyad palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, and in the
Red Monastery near Sohag in Egypt (fifth to eighth century).198
architectural frontispieces of the Sanaa Qurʾan, the capitals and
During al-Walīd’s rebuilding of the Prophet’s Mosque at Medina,
column bases of both mosques are coloured gold (Figure 3).197
the stone columns in the prayer hall were plastered white to
The column shafts in these illuminations are painted with
imitate marble, even though actual marble was used in the
chevrons in alternating red and green, or red and dark blue.
courtyard, and the capitals were gilded.199 Three stone columns
The pair of columns that frames the transept in the first
with painted plaster datable to between the mid-eighth and
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
181
twelfth centuries have also been discovered at the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Figure 139).
Initially, the sheer openness of the structure would have struck the beholder and induced the sense of a unified space
200
In view of this existing tradition, it is conceivable that the
that drew the gaze towards the qibla. The impression of size
columns in the prayer hall at Damascus were originally painted.
was magnified by the transept, gable, and dome that towered
The extensive use of costly marble columns might suggest
over the whole temenos enclosure. Inside this central part
otherwise, but paint on a smooth marble surface would have
of the prayer hall, natural light flooded in through multiple
been amongst the first elements of the decoration to fade away.
windows. The glittering surface ornament was concentrated
Al-Muqaddasī, the earliest author to describe the columns, states
around the bejewelled mihrab, the vine, four lines of mosaic
that the prayer hall had ‘black (sūd) polished columns as its
inscription, and coloured marble columns. These accents in the
supports in three very wide rows’. In ancient Greek and Roman
decoration and structure did not interrupt the open vistas, but
statues, white marble commonly served as a base for richly
they did put a marked emphasis on the transept as an honorific
painted decorations, and in at least some cases, a wax-based
canopy for the caliph.
coating was applied for both protection and added lustre.
201
Such
Seeing the mosque was a dynamic experience. The light
a treatment might explain why al-Muqaddasī saw the columns
reflected off the glass mosaics, jewels, and marble varied
as ‘polished’ and ‘black’—for the painted surface would have
throughout each day and, with the changing trajectory of
required regular makeovers to remove the accumulated dust
the sun, throughout each season too. Water burst forth in
and lamp soot on its coating. Thus, an arrangement of painted
multiple basins. As one walked around the building, its various
columns should be envisaged, though it cannot be proven.
architectural forms overlapped and shone in ever-changing ways.202 At night, the flickering light of hundreds of oil lamps
pppp
gave new life to its imagined landscapes and myriad details. This must indeed have been a sight to take the breath away.
In 715, standing in one corner of the Umayyad Mosque, one
One can better understand the trope reported in the ninth
would have encountered a monument substantially different
century by Ibn al-Faqīh: ‘One of the wonders of the Mosque
from the one that stands today. This was, first of all, an open
of Damascus is that even if a man stayed there for a hundred
space, the covered prayer hall separated from the courtyard
years, he would ceaselessly discover new marvels.’203
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only by arcades with curtains, rather than doors. From any
Later Syrian writers, when they expressed their admiration
vantage point, the gaze could roam unimpeded through the
for the building, could still see fragments of the original
vast expanse of the temenos, embracing arches, columns,
scheme, in a vision that became increasingly dense with
the mosaic panels, and the richly ornate qibla wall. The
historical and mythical memories. As the years went by,
courtyard arcades featured Roman columns of varied hues,
damage and disasters prompted restorations in different parts
with a prevalence of grey. Above the gilded, mostly Corinthian
of the fabric. Collapsed materials were routinely stockpiled for
capitals sprang masonry entirely covered with mosaics. The
reuse. Ibn Kathīr noted that in the aftermath of the fire of 1069
same scheme continued inside the prayer hall: moving into
‘all the fallen marble and wood was stored in the four shrines in
this covered space and looking up, one discovered coffered
the east and west’.204 This practice, which endured for centuries,
teak ceilings, a wooden inner dome, and the famed vine,
seems to have been motivated not only by expediency, but also
a magnificent carved marble frieze inlaid with precious
by a reverence for the materiality of the building. The same
stones, coupled with a mosaic inscription in gold script
attitude was apparent when sections of the ornament had to be
over a dark blue (or dark green) ground.
created anew, with original compositions typically replicated
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-13 14:49:12.
in the visual language of the day, as with the sheathing of the temenos gates (Figure 53). Thus, most historical interventions on the mosque were made with an awareness of its palimpsestic nature as viewed through the lens of the age. Endowments also tied the daily upkeep of the mosque to the economic life of Damascus and its environs.205 Its place at the heart of the urban fabric was thus spun like a thread across thousands of ordinary days. Uneventful by definition, these were seldom recorded but occasional glimpses emerge, as in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s fourteenth-century evocation of the courtyard: Here, the people of the city gather in the evenings: Qurʾan reciters, hadith experts, passers-by, strolling about after the last evening prayer. When an important person—a theologian or some such—meets a friend, they hurry towards each other and incline their heads.206
Or when al-Badrī noted in the fifteenth century: This courtyard is a most beautiful sight. Here local people gather for leisure. Every evening, you see them coming and going from Bāb al-Barīd to Bāb Jayrūn until the end of the last prayer. Some chat with their friends; some read. This is their habit, night and day, especially the former. Futile people call them ‘the tillers’.207
The mosque thus became, in the course of its long history, a living organism that not only evolved, but was also Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
symbiotically linked to the life of the city and its inhabitants.
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183
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6 ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’: The Mosque and Umayyad Aesthetics
I
n 715, the last scaffolding was removed from al-Walīd’s new monument just as the caliph, a man of about forty years, was in his death throes. Stepping over
the threshold of the temenos, the inhabitants of Damascus discovered a mosque of dazzling scale and opulence—columns and arches as far as the eye could see, clad with varied marbles and glittering mosaics, the whole scheme crowned by a majestic dome. The Muslim call to prayer and the Qurʾan were once again heard within the Roman walls, this time without the echo of Christian chants. Soon, the rhythms of ordinary life returned to this transformed space. Muslims came to
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pray, sermons were delivered, and heated political exchanges sometimes erupted during the weekly congregation.1 Religious scholars taught their followers at different locations in the courtyard, as they had done in previous decades. For much of the day and night, passers-by strolled about, chatted, and marvelled at what they saw. To eighth-century eyes, the monument, with its multiple p Detail of the river mosaic on the west courtyard wall. Bernard O’Kane/Alamy, 2007.
departures from the norms of both mosque and church architecture, must have exuded novelty. These innovations also make it possible for us to envisage more precisely the
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
185
agency of Umayyad patrons, and to revisit the long-debated
represented in the workforce. The residents of Damascus
meaning of the mosaics. Having considered these issues, I will
would have encountered these workers during their daily life,
widen my focus to encompass the whole ornamental scheme,
conversing with them, selling them their daily bread and oil,
taking as a guide al-Walīd’s panegyrist al-Nābigha al-Shaybānī,
worshipping alongside them in their churches before they
whose verses have given this chapter its title. From these
eventually left again after six months, a year, or longer, only
various threads, there will emerge a convergence of aesthetic
to be replaced by others. Having been enrolled—willingly or
sensibilities between the visual perception of the mosque and
not—in al-Walīd’s project, this labour force reflected the long
aural reception of the Qurʾan.
arm of the Muslim administration. Every town and village, in Egypt and several other provinces, could now be made to submit goods, money, and labour towards the construction
The Novelty of al-Wal d’s Building
of Umayyad monumental buildings. Those returning home after these assignments spread news of the projects far and
Embodying Power
wide across the empire, thereby inadvertently contributing
By founding the Umayyad Mosque, al-Walīd enacted two
to their notoriety.
fundamental assertions of power. First, he carried out the demolition of the church within the temenos against the will
a chain of command headed by a group of supervisors, some
of local Christians, thereby upsetting the balance of power
of whose names are recorded in the Aphrodito Papyri and
between Umayyad ruling élites and this essential constituency.
later sources. Several anecdotes cited in Arabic historical texts
The Byzantine Emperor, Justinian II (r. 685–95, 705–11), was
attribute interventions in the details of the project to al-Walīd
part of this horizon, as asserted by al-Walīd’s own court poets.
himself, for instance the construction of the dome and the
Since the 690s, he had become embroiled in the life of both
lead roofing.3 These entertaining stories cannot be taken at
Christian and Muslim buildings at Damascus, Jerusalem,
face value, yet the idea is plausible. Al-Walīd’s panegyrists
Medina, and probably Mecca, under financial and other
emphasize his direct involvement in the destruction of the
conditions that became increasingly exorbitant as the years
church, and their verses imply that the stakes were raised by
went by. The very existence of the mosque attested to these
this event, with the new mosque coming to reflect the standing
shifting power dynamics, as did the inability of the Christian
of the young caliph. Given that his Damascene palace, the
community in Damascus to make the caliph change course.
Khaḍrāʾ, abutted the site, his role might have gone beyond the
Victorious military campaigns brought about an influx of
formulation of general guidelines—the level of involvement
surplus income and prisoners, some of whom will have been
suggested by the sources for his other mosques.4 Damascus
skilled craftsmen, to be exploited at will.
stood out, both practically and symbolically, because of its
2
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During the months spent on site, craftsmen worked under
For contemporaries, the building also embodied the growing
proximity to the heart of caliphal power.
reach of Umayyad power networks within the empire. The mosque could only stand because al-Walīd was in a position
Work Procedures
to mobilise resources and skills from several of his provinces
In the light of these factors, it is tempting to see the mosque
during the decade it took to complete it. Direct evidence
as the projection in space of al-Walīd’s vision, but the reality
of this pattern has emerged, for Egypt, from the Aphrodito
was of course more complex than this. At least two phases of
Papyri, and for northern Iraq, from the palatial city of Anjar
interaction had to take place before work on the ground could
near Damascus, although other regions must also have been
begin: from caliph to supervisor and supervisor to craftsmen,
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the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
p figure 140 Mosque of Wasit, ca. 84/703. From Safar, Wasit, fig. 11.
not to mention the likely (but undocumented) role of foremen and other intermediaries. The desires of the patron, whether general or detailed, had to be articulated by his entourage, then communicated to workers who spoke Aramaic, Greek, or Coptic rather than Arabic. Most of these exchanges would have been oral, although pattern books, sketches, and written notes are attested in late antique papyri from Egypt and may also have been used in Umayyad times.5 According to an early account later compiled by al-Wāsiṭī (writing before 410/1020), when al-Walīd’s father ʿAbd al-Malik decided to build the Dome of the Rock, he asked craftsmen ‘to provide him with [its] description (ṣifa) and form (samṭ)’.6 This implies that some type of model was produced, whether it was the building in miniature or simply drawings. In Damascus, documents may similarly have
Reshaping Building Types
served to preview architectural designs, mosaic motifs, and
The earliest mosque for which there is securely datable archaeology is the one built at Wasit, when this city was
repeat patterns for woodwork and carved marble. Forms could also be sketched onto walls or plaster to show them in real size.
founded around 84/703 as the new capital of Iraq. It predates
Direct evidence of these intermediary procedures, if they did
the Mosque of Damascus by a mere two or three years, but its
occur, is lacking.
social and architectural contexts were different: this was
7
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The actual building process must have been less linear than
a monument typical of Iraq, with its newly founded Arab
even this outline suggests. The patron could revisit his ideas
Muslim settlements and recent Sasanian past. Its patron,
or be urged to do so by his craftsmen in the face of practical
al-Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf, the governor of the eastern provinces,
constraints. If dissatisfied with an aspect of the work, he and
was arguably the second-most powerful figure of the Umayyad
his supervisors could request modifications. Craftsmen could
administration after the caliph. Soundings carried out in
likewise reframe their own understanding of a brief—be it
Wasit from 1936 to 1942 revealed remains of four successive
patterns for window grilles, the shape of arches, or mosaics.
mosques, the first of which was Umayyad. With its qibla
The mosque was thus the result of repeated formulations of
misaligned, it lies at a different angle from later buildings and
requests, chains of responses, and accommodations between
is easy to distinguish even in photographs. The mosque was
patrons, craftsmen, and their intermediaries. By identifying
a square building (103.5 x 104.3 m) with a central courtyard
ways in which the building departed from established norms,
surrounded by three arcades and an open prayer hall with
both from a Muslim and a Christian perspective, one can
columns (Figure 140). It was built of materials common in Iraq:
edge closer to an understanding of the vision that guided its
baked bricks and gypsum mortar for the walls, red brick tiles
construction. The Damascus mosque has often been compared
for the floors, and columns composed of sandstone cylinders
with churches, from which it borrowed its vocabulary of
joined by iron rods bedded in lead. Different types of vegetal
forms and ornament. Yet for an eighth-century Muslim, it also
and geometrical repeat patterns were carved in relief on some
represented the transformation of another building type:
of the shafts (Figure 141).8 The prayer hall was five aisles deep.
the early mosque.
A fragment of pipework in the courtyard could suggest the existence of an ablution basin.
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
187
p figure 141 Column from the Umayyad Mosque of Wasit, ca. 84/703. Baghdad Museum. From Degeorge, La grande mosquée des omeyyades, 40.
Thus, the evidence suggests a simple open plan enlivened by the carved—and possibly painted—ornament of the columns. Beyond Wasit, our knowledge of mosques predating al-Walīd’s reign is almost entirely derived from texts. Ziyād ibn Abīhi, al-Hajjāj’s predecessor as governor of Iraq, rebuilt the mosques of Basra (45/666) and Kufa (50/671), which were described by later sources from direct observation. According to alBalādhurī, the mosque of Basra was made of baked bricks and gypsum mortar with a five-aisle deep prayer hall resting on composite stone columns, and it had a teak ceiling.11 Ziyād’s mosque at Kufa was noted for the height of its roof (30 cubits, or around 15 m, according to al-Ṭabarī), which was carried by massive columns made of stacked cylinders as at Wasit.12 The prayer hall was again five aisles deep with a teak ceiling. In the twelfth century, Ibn Jubayr observed that its columns had ‘no arches over them’, so it must have had a trabeated ceiling.13 A double colonnade surrounded the courtyard. Carsten Niebuhr, who saw its ruins in 1765, measured it at about 104 m to one side: the same size as at Wasit.14 This group of three mosques at Basra, Kufa, and Wasit was built between about 665 and 703. It appears to reflect a common typology, with some variations: a square plan with a five-aisle deep hypostyle prayer hall opening onto a courtyard surrounded by colonnades. It is not known whether similar features were applied to mosques outside Iraq. The most substantial piece of evidence for the Syrian region is a description datable to the 670s attributed to ‘Arculf’ by Adomnán (d. 704), abbot of Iona in Scotland. It states that on Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
The columns in the area of the mihrab must have supported
Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
a relatively heavy superstructure, given that they had wider foundations than in the rest of the prayer hall (2.60 m, as
the Saracens now have a quadrangular prayer house. They
opposed to 1.60 m). Since only part of the first three aisles
built it roughly by erecting upright boards and great beams
facing the mihrab was excavated, we do not know whether
(magnis trabibus) on some ruined remains. The building, it
architectural emphasis was placed on this area or extended
is said, can accommodate three thousand people at once.15
9
to the whole maqsura, the space between the mihrab and courtyard façade. The mihrab itself consisted of a diminutive
The description points to a building devoid of lavish
rectangular wall recess rather than a concave niche, a feature
ornament, and the Latin term trabibus, commonly translated
that was probably first introduced in al-Walīd’s mosques.
as ‘beams’, may imply wooden columns.16 Although the
10
188
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
p figure 142 Bāb al-Barīd mosaics, with bushy trees. Alain George, 2010.
direct source of the account is subject to debate, there can
a person looking towards the qibla in Damascus, the spacing
be little doubt that it reflects actual observation and that a
between colonnades was more than twice as wide as at Wasit.20
relatively modest building stood in Jerusalem.17 Likewise, as
Together with the use of arches, this increased the airiness of
the discussion in Chapter 2 has shown, the first mosque at
the building, opening up sweeping views from one end of the
Damascus must have been unexceptionable.
temenos to the other.
Mosques from Iraq thus stand as the most reliable evidence for what Jeremy Johns has called the ‘concept of the mosque’
perpendicular to it, and were framed by the transept and
in the first decades of Islam. The patrons of the Umayyad
a Roman wall at either end, which allowed them to relieve
Mosque of Damascus were clearly seeking to reproduce the
the weight of the central dome; they were also turned into a
same general template, with a courtyard surrounded by three
dynamic feature by the mosaic decoration of their spandrels,
arcades and an open transition into the hypostyle prayer hall.
possibly complemented by waxed paint on the shafts. As
However, the Roman temenos imposed a design with a wide
one walked through the mosque, ever-changing alignments
breadth. The mosque itself reflected the building tradition
between rows of regularly spaced columns and arches emerged.
of Greater Syria, which had until recently belonged to the
Assuming that the mosaics on these arches echoed extant
Byzantine realm: stone was used instead of brick, round arches
Umayyad sections of the west courtyard arcade (Figure 142),
served to raise the roof and open up space, and these were
various trees and edifices would have appeared, giving the
supported by fine Roman marble columns available in plentiful
beholder the sense of walking through fertile landscapes
supply as spolia.
scattered with buildings.21 Few churches appear to have been
18
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The arcades ran parallel to the qibla, rather than
While these choices were natural in the context of
decorated with mosaics on the spandrels and had they been,
Damascus, others point more distinctly to the agency of the
the orientation of the basilica towards the apse would not have
patrons. The prayer hall has a depth of 38 m, which is a third
lent itself to such overlaps.
larger than at Wasit (about 28 m). Within this space, only three 19
To opt for an open arcade between the courtyard and the
colonnades stood between the qibla wall and the courtyard,
prayer hall was to place the unity of the space within the
as opposed to five at Wasit, Basra, and Kufa. As a result, for
temenos above more practical concerns, such as shelter from
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
189
the elements. These were made less pressing by the brevity of
Recasting Mosaic Forms
Damascene winters, and by the fact that the prayer hall façade
The mosque was built mostly by Christian hands and it shared
was north-facing, hence naturally sheltered from the sun.
a repertoire of forms with church architecture, but recast to
Several texts suggest that curtains served to screen this space.
create a new impact. Beyond the structural elements already
The open façade marked a departure from the architecture
mentioned, its most striking aspect was the surface ornament
of churches, which were entered through doors at a few key
with its sequence, from the ground up, of large marble floor
locations. It was probably derived from earlier mosques,
tiles, a dado of quartered marble, wall mosaics, and coffered
as at Wasit.
ceilings. The mosaics, in particular, would have looked familiar
Having opened up the prayer hall through these various features, the makers of the mosque placed at its heart a
The Great Mosque of Damascus is the second oldest Islamic
transept that soared to twice the height of the adjacent covered
monument, after the Dome of the Rock, to preserve wall
aisles and broke their rhythm, a contrast accentuated by the
mosaics. Some of the other mosques built or rebuilt by al-Walīd
merlons that lined the façade of the prayer hall and concealed
— the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the Masjid al-Haram in
its gable roofs. By contrast, the maqsura at the Umayyad
Mecca, the Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Mosque of ʿAmr in Fustat,
mosques of Wasit, Jerusalem, Medina, Fustat, and Sanaa was
and the Qubaʾ Mosque in Medina—featured this medium,26 but
emphasized through internal features rather than a sharp
it was deployed on a larger scale at Damascus than in any other
elevation of the roof. The massive Damascene transept stood
Muslim building: across the enormous span of the four temenos
out uniquely and served to underscore the centrality of the
walls above dado level, on the arcades, prayer hall façade,
maqsura. With its towering dome, it effectively served as an
courtyard arcades, enclosure walls, transept exterior, including
honorific canopy for the caliph, who would have entered it
its two side walls, and probably on the north minaret. Only a few
through a separate door to lead prayer and deliver sermons,
of the greatest churches, such as Hagia Sophia at Constantinople,
part spiritual and part political, from the minbar.
could claim to rival the sheer extent of this work.
22
The maqsura at Damascus thus articulated in spatial terms
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yet uncannily different to an eighth-century observer.
The origin of the mosaicists at Damascus has been
what court panegyrics expressed through such metaphors for
debated by modern scholars, who have variously ascribed it
Umayyad patrons as ‘pole’ or ‘tent peg’: the ideological claim
to Constantinople, Greater Syria, and Egypt. This complex
that the caliph was a celestial axis guiding the community of
question is unlikely to ever receive a straight answer. Indeed,
believers on the righteous path.23 Al-Walīd was lauded by
even though the foregoing study has suggested that Justinian II
al-Nābigha as ‘the caliph of God through whom clouds of rain
may have contributed, under duress, to Umayyad building
are sought’ and by al-Farazdaq as ‘the shepherd of God on earth’.
projects, one should not infer that the work of craftsmen
Crafting a similar image within a mosque setting, Ibn Qays
from Constantinople is reflected in extant panels. Given the
al-Ruqayyāt evoked al-Walīd’s father ʿAbd al-Malik as ‘the deputy
sheer scale of the mosque, multiple teams must have been
of God on his minbar’. The transept, by its sheer bulk and height,
active across the site, and Umayyad patrons probably sought
disrupted the egalitarian ethos implied by the vast, open space at
to gather skilled craftsmen from every potential source in
eye level. It carried subliminal echoes of the church it replaced,
their territories or beyond.27 This is not the place to revisit this
thereby acting as a victory monument, and placed the caliph
issue: my present aim is rather to identify ways in which the
not only at the heart of the community of believers, but also on
mosaics at Damascus diverged from the usual practice of the
a vertical axis leading to the dome. The structure thus embodied
craft.28 In order to do so, they need to be considered against the
in stone his station as a connecting node with the divine.25
background of Christian mosaics.
24
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
p figure 143 South lunette mosaic, monastery of Mar Gabriel. Kartmin region (southeastern Turkey), sixth century. Liz James, 2013.
The passage of time has left more or less fragmentary wall mosaics in about two hundred churches built between the
coast and Egypt were home to some of the world’s major glass
fourth and eighth centuries, primarily in the regions between
production centres and, in addition, tesserae could be reused
Italy and Egypt.29 Most survive as relatively small panels; where
from older monuments.32 Floor mosaics were more widely
larger compositions remain, they are usually in the apse, as in
commissioned than wall mosaics, having been a sought-after
churches at Rome, Ravenna, Poreč, Sinai, and Cyprus, hence
feature in domestic buildings since antiquity, and later in
in a quarter-spherical form that is not replicated at Damascus.
churches. By virtue of their location, they were more prone to
Buildings that preserve larger expanses of decoration are
survive the decay of their original building than wall mosaics
concentrated at Ravenna, Thessaloniki, and to a lesser extent
and have thus left more extensive remains.
Constantinople, where the extant sixth-century fragments at
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
was clearly not an issue for Damascus, as the Syro-Palestinian
The preserved mosaics at the Umayyad Mosque represent
Hagia Sophia, while substantial, only reflect secondary aspects
only a fraction of the original programme, hence of its
of the original programme. Monuments at Sinai, Cyprus, and a
repertoire of forms. Most motifs in the extant panels can
small church at the Monastery of Mar Gabriel near Kartmin in
be individually compared to late antique mosaics: acanthus
northern Mesopotamia (Figure 143), along with archaeological
scrolls (detail of Figure 69, page 192; Figures 144, 145 and 146),
finds of glass tesserae, show that the craft was also native to the
rocky outcrops (Figures 147 and 148), fruit trees (Figures 149,
Eastern Mediterranean.
150 and 151), pointed cypress-type trees (Figures 151 and 152),
30
Ornamental floor mosaics were made of stone rather
trees with three clumps of leaves (Figures 152 and 153) and
than glass, yet they should not be disregarded since they reflect
bushy trees (Figures 142 and 148). The motifs in the Damascus
the same technique: the setting of small tesserae in fresh
mosaics most strongly resemble examples from a few sites
plaster to realise a design, often following underdrawing on a
datable around the sixth century: the church of the Monastery
base layer of plaster. There was no significant obstacle to floor
of Saint Catherine at Sinai (Figure 148), the Villa of the Amazons
mosaicists working on the vertical surface of a wall, so long
at Edessa (Figure 151), the Great Palace in Constantinople
as the raw material—glass tesserae—could be obtained. This
(Figures 146 and 150), and the cathedral of Hagia Sophia in the
31
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
191
Detail of Figure 69 (above). Upper pillar from the west courtyard arcade, Great Mosque of Damascus.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
p figure 144 (right) West courtyard arcade, Great Mosque of Damascus. Alain George, 2010.
p figure 145 Vegetal scrolls, vault of room over the southwest ramp mosaics, Hagia Sophia. Constantinople, sixth century. Washington DC, Dumbarton Oaks, DcWaDIC MS.BZ.004-03-01-02-010-041.
p figure 146 Vegetal scroll, Great Palace mosaic. Constantinople, fifth to seventh century. From Cimok, Mosaics in Istanbul, fig. 28.
same city (Figure 145).33 At Damascus as at the Great Palace,
Figures 144, 145 and 146). Differences still remain, such as the
Hagia Sophia, and the Villa of the Amazons, for instance,
wider range of leaf and blossom forms and the occurrence of
the acanthus scrolls are thickly textured, with variations in
vases, pearls, and pearl-studded rings at Damascus.34 Likewise,
the width of the stems and an impression of volume created
the tree trunks at Damascus are composed with hues that
through parallel curved lines. Each pair of curling leaves
gradually fade from dark to light between the edges and the
opens widely to enclose the next (detail of Figure 69 above,
centre, with a predilection for a brown palette—an approach
192
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
p figure 147 (right) Section of the river mosaic, Great Mosque of Damascus. Alain George, 2010. p figure 148 (below) The Burning Bush, detail of wall mosaic above the apse, Church of the Monastery of Saint Catherine. Mount Sinai, sixth century. Araldo de Luca for CCA-Roma.
only otherwise seen at Edessa. While they remain short of identical, these mosaics form a coherent group. By contrast, the same motifs in extant wall mosaics at Rome, Ravenna, and Thessaloniki (fourth to eighth centuries) show a distinct formal articulation and colour palette, and less attempt to render volume.35 The tesserae, whether they were being prepared for a wall or floor, had to be cut to specific sizes and shapes to fit different parts of a design, such as the pointed tip of a leaf or the narrow heart of a fruit. Multiple colours were achieved through the careful selection of stones and the manufacture of custom-made glass cubes. These were laid to create the illusion of form and texture from a distance through such Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
techniques as interlocking inlay, in which pieces of two different hues were alternated in a chequerboard pattern, or parallel inlay, in which graduated tones, from light to dark, were applied in straight lines.36 Parallel inlay was used at all five sites mentioned above, as well as at Damascus, and the method is also attested elsewhere, for instance at Ravenna. Interlocking inlay is relatively rare in this small corpus, but it
in themselves, imply direct connections: they merely confirm—
occurs in some of the Great Palace mosaics. This group is also
expectedly—a shared background for this craft in the Eastern
brought together by a comparable approach to contouring,
Mediterranean. The relationships, if any, between sites over
tonality, and the detailing of motifs. Such affinities do not,
time still await to be mapped by future research.
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193
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194
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p figure 149 (opposite far left) Spandrel with tree, west courtyard arcade, Great Mosque of Damascus, Alain George, 2010. p figure 150 (opposite left) Tree with parallel inlay mosaic at the Great Palace. Constantinople, fifth to seventh century. From Cimok, Mosaics in Istanbul, fig. 42.
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p figure 151 (opposite below) Floor mosaic, Villa of the Amazons, Edessa (Urfa/Şanlıurfa), fifth or sixth century. Sean Leatherbury/ Manar al-Athar, 2018.
p figure 152 (above right) Detail of transept façade, Great Mosque of Damascus. Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar, 2003. p figure 153 (right) Apse mosaic, Sant’Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, sixth century (with area to the left of the saint dating from the restoration of 1906–11). Ludvig14, CC BY 4.0.
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
195
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196
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p figure 154 (opposite) Apse mosaic with details of fortress and four rivers, church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Rome, sixth century. Alain George, 2010. p figure 155 (above right) Apse mosaic, church of Hosios David. Thessaloniki, fifth century. Liz James, 2005. p figure 156 (right) Ceiling painting, Villa of Dar Buc Amira, Zliten, Lybia, ca. 70 AD.
Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
While precedents can be traced for most vegetal motifs used
century), notably palatial structures crowned by a conch
by the Umayyads, this is less clearly the case with architectural
hood and framed by pyramidal roofs, as well as square kiosks
images. Many depictions of buildings in known church mosaics
with arches. Their pictorial type can again be traced back to
are fortress-like or palatial and shaped as solid rectangular
the imperial Roman period, in wall paintings at Pompeii and
blocks (Figure 154). Examples resembling the buildings found
Boscoreale (first century CE).39
37
at Damascus are rare. One relative exception is a cluster of
While these mosaics and images are far removed from
small buildings shown on a hill at the small church of Hosios
Damascus in space and time, the Church of the Holy Virgin
David in Thessaloniki (Figure 155). These have simple a simple
at Dayr al-Suryan in Egypt provides a hint at the missing link.
rectangular structure with a black door and gable roof, a type
It contains a wall painting which, on the basis of style, paint
that ultimately harks back to Roman village scenes such as a
stratigraphy, and the history of the site, can be dated to the
ceiling painting from Zliten near Leptis Magna (Figure 156).
eighth century (Figure 157).40 Despite the different medium,
Parallels to the Damascene images of monumental architecture
its composition and articulation warrant comparison with
can be found at the Rotunda in Thessaloniki (fourth to eighth
the finest church mosaics. Both frescoes and mosaics were
38
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
197
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p figure 157 (above and left) The Annunciation, wall painting on the western semi-dome, with detail of architectural depictions, Church of the Holy Virgin, Dayr al-Suryan, Egypt, eighth century. Mat Immerzeel (Paul van Moorsel Centre/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), 1992.
begun by outlining the composition on the plaster, typically
flowers and grassy foregrounds, curtains, vases and jars, the
in red and green, to prepare for their execution. The parallels
holy book (Figure 155), and clouds, usually reddish, white, and
with the Damascus mosaics are striking: the slightly curved
blue (Figure 154), spring to mind as examples.41 Comparisons with
triangular edge of the gable front in the basilican buildings,
the floor mosaics at Edessa and Constantinople, as well as earlier
the towers with pointed roofs, the clustering of the buildings
examples at Antioch and Apamaea,42 yield a close correspondence
in a pyramidal fashion, the articulation of doors as rectangles
not only in the range of forms, but also in their relative sizes: large
with thickened outlines and windows as small squares, and the
trees with ample foliage, small buildings, and relatively bulky
trees that stem out of the architecture. The Dayr al-Suryan apse
rocky outcrops. It seems probable, in view of these convergences,
suggests that similar motifs may have been executed in mosaic
that floor mosaicists played a significant role in the creation of the
in churches from the Syro-Egyptian region.
Damascus mosaics, alongside their peers used to working on walls.
Many elements from the Christian repertoire were omitted at Damascus despite their compatibility with an aniconic stance:
198
Indeed, these two groups of craftsmen need not have been distinct in the first instance. Overlaps may have existed between them.
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
p figure 158 (right) Procession of saints, nave mosaic detail, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, sixth century. Alain George, 2010. p figure 159 (below) House and river, Great Palace mosaic. Constantinople, fifth to seventh century. Dick Osseman, 2016.
Poetic Composition and the Mosque If the Damascus mosaicists drew selected motifs from an existing repertoire, they also made bold experiments with composition. This is most evident in the river mosaic (sometimes called the ‘Barada panel’) on the west courtyard wall (Figure 147). With dimensions just over 7 × 34 m, hence a surface of about 250 sq. m, it dwarfs all others in the mosque.43 In the original building, its area was equal to that on the east courtyard wall opposite and to only about a third of that on the north courtyard wall. The south (qibla) wall was of the same size as the north wall but interrupted by windows. The scale of these mosaics must have presented a particular challenge to both patrons and craftsmen. Only one extant early church, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
at Ravenna (sixth century), preserves wall mosaics of a comparable format (Figure 158), although the two rectangular nave panels are much shorter than the river mosaic. Most other large panels in churches are from domes or apses: their spherical shape, with a clear axial focus rising towards the apex, is more compact and naturally invites symmetry.44 The lack of a direct equivalent is not merely accidental, for in the basilica and martyrium, walls are supported by arches in the nave or drum and pierced by windows on the exterior. The mosaic ornament has to be articulated around these
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199
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architectonic forms: full rectangular wall panels are unlikely to
followed by a human, animal, or mythical figure, followed by
ever have reached such a scale in buildings with this typology.
another tree, and so on; the different elements are also of a
Floor mosaics, on the other hand, routinely occupied large
fixed height (Figures 151 and 158). The river mosaic, with its
surfaces. In them, tall trees were often given more visual
pairs of trees and building clusters, and variable motif sizes,
prominence than at Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, thereby setting
breaks these conventions. Its vast landscapes are unified
the basic rhythm of the composition, as at Heraclea Lyncestis
by the river that runs across their foot. Rivers are rare in
in Macedonia and Nikopolis in Greece (sixth century). When
early Christian wall mosaics, where they typically appear as
style, scale, and composition are combined, the closest parallel
diminutive streams stemming from a rock (Figure 154). The
with Damascus is once again the floor mosaic at the Villa of
difference is not just one of size: the waters in the Umayyad
the Amazons in Edessa (Figure 151). Churches from modern
Mosque are in movement, swirling furiously in some sections
Jordan commonly featured similar compositions well into
and flowing calmly in others, whereas in churches they are
the Umayyad period, but over smaller surfaces and with less
still. A river fragment from the Great Palace in Constantinople
refined detail in the execution.
offers, once again, a more salient comparison: the foamy water
45
46
In all of these Christian floor and wall mosaics, each visual unit alternates with the next in binary fashion: typically, a tree
200
rendered in white surges from the architectural foundations (Figure 159). The scale, however, is much smaller.
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
Thus, in the river mosaic, large trees form the armature of the composition, as in floor mosaics, but with an altered rhythm. Clusters of buildings like those occasionally found in church apses have been inserted between those tall trees.
p figure 160 (top) River mosaic, west courtyard mosaic panel. Drawing by Farah Dabbous for Alain George.
p figure 161 (centre) River mosaic, west courtyard mosaic panel. Collage of photographs by Eustache de Lorey. Johanna and Loreline Simonis.
In the original design, four rivers would have formed a Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
continuous water course that encircled the mosque, uniting the composition. The extant panel was thereby conceived as a succession of vertical elements—trees, rocks, and building
by the addition of a corner arch, as discussed in Chapter 5.
clusters—rooted in horizontal rivers and composed in a non-
The missing section leading up to the north corner must have
binary rhythm. Its whole composition can be envisioned in a
been taken up mostly by the large tree of which a few branches
new drawing by Farah Dabbous (Figure 160). A photographic
now remain (Figure 78), followed by a wide geometrical
collage of Eustache de Lorey’s photographs by Johanna and
double border. Between these two elements, a small building
Loreline Simonis is reproduced alongside it to help distinguish
cluster may have been inserted, and perhaps a slender tree
sections that predate twentieth-century restorations (Figure 161).
paired with the large one, like at the opposite end of the panel
The right end of the panel was cut off in the medieval period
(see the left side of Figure 160). Even if these features did exist,
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
201
b
T
T
B
T
b T T b T
B
T
b
T
B
T b T b T
Left half of panel
T
b
T
T
B
T
b
T
[b]
T
{B}
T
b
T
right half of panel
p figure 162 Composition of the west courtyard mosaic panel.
Key
and notwithstanding the gaps filled by restorers, the current
(Figure 164): its two halves unfold with a matching rhythm from
composition is very close to the original one. Its articulation is
right to left, which is the direction of Arabic script, again with
schematised above with the letter ‘B’ denoting tall buildings or
the central tree acting as the caesura. Starting from the tree at
building clusters (full panel height), ‘b’ for small ones (half the
the right end of the composition (marked with a green ‘T’) and
panel height or less), and ‘T’ for a tree (full panel height).
the central tree (red ‘T’) respectively, the same elements—trees
The panel had roughly equal halves on either side of
B
Building or building cluster, full panel height b Building or building cluster, half panel height or less {B} Building from medieval and modern restorations, probably reproducing the original composition
[b] Building from modern restoration, probably reflecting the height of the original, given that the foliage of the large trees overhead survives T Tree, full panel height b Left end of composition T Centre of composition T Right end of composition
or buildings—occur in the same sequence across no fewer
the central tree flanked by two round pavilions (red ‘T’ in
than sixteen consecutive units. Only in the last unit does the
Figure 162). Each half now contains seventeen units; twelve
left half of the panel feature a tree and small building cluster
of these—nine large trees (‘T’) and three large buildings or
(marked with a brown ‘b’), as opposed to a small monumental
building clusters (‘B’) on either side—occupy the full height of
building at the end of the right half, just before the central tree
the panel. The rest—five monumental buildings or building
(red ‘T’). Since the two trees that precede the left end of the
clusters on either side (‘b’)—are half this height or less. Each
panel (before the brown ‘b’) are closely intertwined, arguably
half of the panel thus contains the same number of primary
they may form a single visual unit, which would make the
types, and there is some symmetrical correspondence between
convergence complete.
them (Figure 163). Each circular pavilion on either side of Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
B
The entire panel was thus carefully constructed to impose
the central tree (red ‘T’) is flanked by a monumental building
a rhythm repeated across both halves with an element of
with a conch niche, two side towers, a colonnaded elevation,
symmetry at the centre. The principle resonates with Arabic
and water flowing from the lower level. Next, a pair of trees
poetry, where each verse is divided into two hemistiches, each
frames a small building cluster. After these first six elements,
one governed by a set succession of long and short syllables.
the composition diverges between both sides, although more
The Basit tetrameter, for example, has fourteen syllables per
correspondences re-emerge at the end of each sequence.
hemistich (Figure 165). The alternation of a long syllable with
Symmetry is thus maintained primarily at the centre of the
a short one predominates, but two consecutive short syllables
panel, and becomes looser as one moves towards the edges.
occur once or twice per hemistich, just as two consecutive
The composition also follows a second, overlapping pattern
trees occur in each half of the mosaic panel (once on the
202
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
right half of panel
left half of panel
T → Right half of panel
b
T
B
T
b
T
T
B
T
b
T
[b]
T
{B}
T
b
T
←T left half of panel
b
T
B
T
b
T
B
T
b
T
T
b
T
B
T
T
b
p figure 163 Development of the composition from either side of the central tree.
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Right half of panel
left half of panel
b
b
T
B
T
b
T
T
B
T
b
T
[b]
T
{B}
T
b
T
T
T
B
T
b
T
T
b
T
B
T
b
T
B
T
b
T
p figure 164 Development of the composition in a right-to-left direction: comparison of right and left panel halves.
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
203
L
S
S
L
S
L
S
L
S
S
L
S
L
S
L
S
S
L
S
L
S
L
S
S
L
S
L
S
p figure 165 One articulation of the Basit tetrameter, from right to left (L = long syllable; S = short syllable)
right and twice on the left, if one counts the two intertwined
of Arabian culture and Arab-Muslim social life. Faced with
trees as a pair rather than a unit).47 More complex rhythms
the challenge of conceiving novel visual compositions, the
existed in other meters, with sequences of up to four short
supervisors at Damascus seem to have replicated habits forged
or long syllables combined in different ways. Within this
by this highly codified art form.
structure, sounds generate echoes and contrasts; in the mosaic panel, depth and texture are similarly enriched through the modulation between tall (‘B’) and short (‘b’) buildings or
Mosaics, Empire and Polysemy
building clusters, which steer the composition away from monotony, both as a linear progression and as two matching
Paradise and Earthly Dominion
halves, since a few large buildings in one half correspond to
What were Umayyad ruling circles seeking to convey through
small ones in the other half.
the vast landscapes that they created? This issue has been
In other words, the idea of composing through the regular
debated for decades by modern scholars. According to a line
alternation of two essential units (long and short syllables,
of interpretation initiated by Eva Börsch-Supan and Barbara
building clusters and trees), each occurring either individually
Finster, the programme reflects the Qurʾanic imagery of
or in short commensurate sequences and with textural variety,
paradise with its lofty chambers, palaces, jewels, gardens, and
was inherent to both the Damascus river panel and Arabic
rivers.50 For instance:
poetry, but not to earlier mosaic traditions. Small variations could occur between hemistiches in some meters, especially
But those who fear their lord, for them await lofty
at the end of a verse, just as the two halves of the mosaic
chambers above which are built lofty chambers
composition slightly diverge, if read from right to left, in
(ghuraf min fawqihā ghuraf mabniyyatun), underneath
their final components (Figure 164). The overall composition
which rivers flow—God’s promise, God fails not the tryst
is structured and rhythmical, rather than one-directional
(Q. 39:20).
and binary.
Blessed be He who, if He will, shall assign to thee better
48
In a seminal study on late antique culture, Michael Roberts observed a range of values shared by literature and the visual
than that—gardens underneath which rivers flow, and He shall assign to thee palaces (Q. 25:10).51
arts in the Latin world, including mosaics, which he termed
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the ‘jeweled style’. ‘The style’, he notes, ‘involves enumerative
The same elements occur in the landscapes, along with
sequences, emphasis on ornamental detail at the expense
golden skies and hints of gold (hence light) in trees, and
of plastic realism, and the elaboration of geometrically
pearls suspended from arches. If the mosaicists were asked
defined compositional units.’ This sensitivity shares with
to represent paradise without showing humans, animals, and
the Damascene mosaics the importance of sequence, the
angels—given the pictorial tools at their disposal—the mosaics
accumulation of details and lack of emphasis on naturalism
at Damascus stand as one possible answer to the brief. The
(particularly in the surreal scale of trees in relation to
buildings, which tend to be markedly smaller than the trees
buildings) and the geometrical structure—but the Damascus
and to be shown simultaneously from multiple perspectives,
mosaics, with their complex rhythms, also achieve a unique
can be interpreted as contributing to the same otherworldly
compositional expression. Poetry, its memorisation, and
effect.52 The paradisiacal interpretation finds indirect support
the ability to recognise its meter, were fundamental aspects
in the late eighth-century History of Medina by Ibn Zabāla,
49
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
largely preserved through citations by al-Samhūdī (d. 911/1506).
The poet extols two great rivers under the caliph’s dominion
This work attributes the following words to the mosaicists who
as if embracing a wide landscape with his gaze: the Nile, with
worked on al-Walīd’s rebuilding of the Prophet’s Mosque in
its isles and submerged banks, and the Euphrates, likened to
Medina, which had similar mosaic decoration to Damascus:
an assailant biting at the walls of ʿĀnāt (also ʿĀna), a fortified
‘We made it according to the pictures of the trees of paradise
outpost along its northern course.55 These verses could
and its palaces.’53 Given its early date and local authorship
arguably evoke the mosaics with their rivers and buildings, but
(Ibn Zabāla was Medinan), the statement must reflect ideas
they are fundamentally a poetic trope for the praise of rulers.
prevalent in the city a generation or two after al-Walīd’s reign,
Al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī, the prominent sixth-century poet,
which lends them relative weight.
famously compared his Lakhmid patron to the Euphrates, a
A different interpretation was posited by Richard
metaphor echoed by al-Akhṭal in his praise of ʿAbd al-Malik.56
Ettinghausen, who saw the landscapes as a representation of
Al-Farazdaq himself frequently used the Euphrates, and in a
lands under Umayyad rule. As one steps back to view the
few instances the Nile, as metaphors for his patron’s might
whole panel on the western arcade, and back again to imagine
and generosity.57 In an unrelated eulogy to Yazīd ibn ʿAbd
the entire courtyard adorned with similar decoration, this
al-Malik (r. 101–5/720‒24), al-Walīd’s younger half-brother,
vision emerges as an almost instinctive reaction to these vast
also proclaimed:
54
horizons. This was the impression conveyed by virtually every medieval visitor to the mosque, starting with the well-known
And if you are not with him [the Prophet], you will be
statement by al-Muqaddasī that ‘there is no tree or land that has
his Companion with the two martyrs and the truthful
not been represented on these walls’. But testimonies recorded
one (al-ṣiddīq) at the pinnacle of the wall (ʿalā al-sūr)
two centuries or more after the foundation of the mosque
In the soaring lofty chambers of paradise (ghuraf al-janna
cannot inform us about Umayyad intentions.
al-ʿulyā) built for them—rewarding their deeds.58
Echoes of an Umayyad discourse on the meaning of the mosaics may be sought in the three panegyrics about the
Yazīd is portrayed as destined to join the Prophet and
mosque, but without much success. Jarīr did not venture into a
his foremost Companions, the first three caliphs Abū Bakr,
description of the building, perhaps because he composed his
ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, in paradise.59 There he will enter ‘lofty
poem before the construction work was sufficiently advanced.
chambers’ (ghuraf), the Qurʾanic term also used by modern
Al-Farazdaq, having poignantly evoked the seizure of the
scholars to back a paradisiacal reading of the mosaics,
church in the temenos, shifts his viewpoint to say:
amplified here through the adjective ‘soaring’ (al-ʿulyā). Had
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such connotations been meaningful to his patrons, al-Farazdaq 24. Perhaps the void in my pails will meet surplus from the fulsome rivers that flow from you;
could easily have crafted a similar image in his praise of the mosque; but he did not.60
25. Waters of Nile, when it swamps its isles,
Al-Nābigha, in his turn, proclaimed that the mosque was
and floods its boundaries to the hills,
surrounded by ‘rivers and fertile lands’ (al-anhār wa’l-rīf, v. 23).
26. Or of the Euphrates of Abū al-ʿĀṣ when its waves clap high in a broad-lipped deep. 27. Nobles of ʿĀna fight still from behind her wall; a cleft-hump stallion lusts to engage.
This hemistich is inserted in a sequence of verses about its wall ornaments, between evocations of marble panelling and the inscription, leaving little doubt that it is an allusion to the mosaic landscapes.61 Etymologically, the term al-rīf, which does not occur in the Qurʾan, refers to agricultural landscapes and
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205
the countryside.62 Al-Nābigha’s choice was partly dictated by the
Christians and Justinian II, which marked the foundation of
f-rhyme of his poem, but he could have used another turn of
the Umayyad Mosque—events vindicated in panegyrics and
phrase had the image seemed inapposite. Bold assertions about
commemorated in the historical part of the same inscription.
the divinely guided nature of Umayyad rule were commonly
The passage also exudes an unfathomable quality generated
uttered in court poetry, whereas they rarely found their way
by its polysemic vocabulary, the understated and near-spectral
into public inscriptions. The three poems, being responses
presence of its horses and riders, and its oath form (‘By …’)
to expectations in these circles about praise of al-Walīd and
—an oath of which the object remains untold.
63
his project, were the ideal forum in which to voice inflated
The next verses are marked by a change of rhyme. They
proclamations about its meaning. Yet none of them sought to
evoke Judgement, ‘the day when the first blast shivers and the
connect the mosque with paradise.
second blast follows it, hearts upon that day shall be athrob and their eyes shall be humbled’ (Q. 79:6‒9). This prompted later
The Horizon of Judgement
commentators to interpret the opening sequence as referring
The mosaic inscription was, along with the poems, another
to angels or heavenly bodies rather than soldiers.66 In the
major contemporary declaration about the mosque. Although
context of 715, however, both dimensions—the battle and its
lost at an early date, its contents were recorded in written
cosmic reverberations—were prone to magnify the resonance
sources. This was an artefact fixed in space, whereas a
of al-Walīd’s actions against local Christians and Byzantium.
poet’s verses could travel far and wide, but it derived public
After evoking men’s interrogations about their fate after
prominence from its form—words in gold mosaic spread out
Judgement (Q. 79:10–14), the sura turns to a story about
over several hundred metres—and its position in the prayer hall
Moses ‘when his Lord called him to the holy valley, Towa’, and
of the mosque, at the heart of Damascus. The inscription began
ordained that he should proclaim His signs. Pharaoh, who
with the famous Throne Verse (Q. 2:255) followed by suras
refused to recognise them, was chastised for it (Q. 79:15–26).
79, 80 and 81, then a brief historical section stating al-Walīd’s
God is then lauded as Creator of heaven and earth before
patronage and the date.
a sudden shift (in bold below) to an awe-inspiring vision of
64
The Throne Verse glorified God, ‘the Living, the Everlasting’,
Judgement as the gateway to paradise or hell:
‘His Throne comprises the heavens and the earth’, possibly the first instance of a long tradition whereby this verse was placed
What, are you stronger in constitution or the heaven He
at the heart of mosque architecture. The next sequence, from
built? He lifted up its vault, and levelled it, and darkened
Al-Nāziʿāt (Q. 79), began with these verses:
its night, and brought forth its forenoon; and the earth—
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after that He spread it out, therefrom brought forth its By those pulling [at the reins] to plunge [into the fray]!
waters and its pastures, and the mountains He set firm,
And those moving briskly and energetically! And those
an enjoyment for you and your flocks. Then, when the
swimming along, then forging ahead, then regulating the
Great Catastrophe comes upon the day when man shall
affair! (Q. 79:1‒5, trans. Robinson).
remember what he has striven, and Hell is advanced
65
for whoever sees, then as for him who was insolent and
This striking passage gave rise to exegetical debate in later
preferred the present life, surely Hell shall be the refuge.
times, but at a primary level, it conjures up the image of riders
But as for him who feared the station of his Lord and
in the heat of battle. The choice may not appear significant
forbade the soul its caprice, surely Paradise shall be the
until one remembers the armed confrontations with local
refuge (Q. 79:27–41)
206
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
The sura finally returns to human questions about the timing of the Hour, which are to remain unanswered (Q. 79:42–46). The next sura, ʿAbasa (‘He Frowned’, Q. 80), opens with a scene of
what it has produced’. It ends with an assertion of the truth of Muhammad’s message. Judgement emerges as the primary theme of an inscription
almost palpable physicality: a blind man comes to an unnamed
in which earthly abundance also features prominently, with
person (the Prophet, for most exegetes) who turns away
more distant echoes of paradise and hell. The Last Day was also
from him, towards the ‘self-sufficient’ (Q. 80:1–10). A divine
given special pre-eminence in the mosaic inscriptions at the
injunction ensues: this is ‘a reminder (and whoso wills, shall
Dome of the Rock.68 At this fateful moment, according to other
remember it) upon pages high-honoured, uplifted, purified,
Qurʾanic passages, the world will be emptied of its inhabitants
by the hands of scribes noble, pious’ (Q. 80:11–16).
(‘We shall muster them all together’, Q. 6:22, 10:28; ‘the earth
The mysterious leaves and scribes in these lines seem to
shall shine with the light of its Lord, and the Book shall be set
belong to the divine realm. They were often interpreted as
in place’, Q. 39:69). The image resonates with the Damascus
referring to the Qurʾan itself, the prophetic revelations, or the
mosaics, their still landscapes and golden skies, as well as the
Preserved Tablet (lawḥ maḥfūẓ), the heavenly archetype of the
physical context of the prayer hall where, in all likelihood, a
Qurʾan (Q. 85:22). After reproving man for his arrogance (Q.
Qurʾan manuscript was displayed at set times of the week.69
80:17–23), the sura continues:
Judgement could, in other words, be read into the mosaics—
67
but was this their overarching meaning, rather than paradise, Let Man consider his nourishment. We poured out the
or indeed empire? The question itself, as it turns out, may be
rains abundantly, then We split the earth in fissures and
anachronistic.
therein made the grains to grow and vines, and reeds, and olives, and palms, and dense-tree’d gardens, and
The Art of Polysemy
fruits, and pastures, an enjoyment for you and your
Early Arabic culture, like the broader Mediterranean cultures
flocks. And when the Blast shall sound, upon the day
of late antiquity, placed a core emphasis on ambiguity and
when a man shall flee from his brother, his mother, his
polysemy. A brief look at a verse from al-Nābigha’s poem will
father, his consort, his sons, every man that day shall
serve to illustrate the point. In the opening sequence about
have business to suffice him. Some faces on that day
al-Walīd’s military campaigns, the poet declares that the caliph
shall shine laughing, joyous; some faces on that day shall
‘gathers captives, gifts them, shares them; gives of chiselled,
be dusty o’erspread with darkness—those—they are the
short-haired mares’ (v. 4). Upon first hearing the verse, the
unbelievers, the libertines (Q. 80:24–42).
mind’s eye might see war prisoners and fine horses, the booty
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that sustains Umayyad armies. The use of the feminine for As in the previous sura, an enumeration of the earth’s
‘captives’ implies that these are women, reflecting historical
bounties abruptly gives way, at the point highlighted above,
trends at a time when a growing proportion of the Umayyad
to the thundering blast of Judgement. The last sura that
élite were being born to concubines.70 Caliph Yazīd III (r. 126/744)
featured in the inscription (Al-Takwīr, Q. 81) contains a
epitomised this trend, as the son of al-Walīd and Shāh-i Āfrīd,
further admonition about the time ‘when the sun shall be
a Sasanian princess who was captured in Qutayba ibn Muslim’s
darkened, when the mountains shall be thrown down’, and in
Central Asian campaigns.71
subsequent verses, ‘when the scrolls shall be unrolled, when
Understood on this level, al-Nābigha’s verse already stands
heaven shall be stripped off, when Hell shall be set blazing,
as a powerful piece of rhetoric. But the phrase al-jurd al-sarāʿīf,
when Paradise shall be brought nigh—then shall a soul know
translated above as ‘short-haired mares’, generates a further
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
207
image since sarʿaf (the singular of sarāʿīf) also means ‘praying
from our Lord’; yet none remembers, but men possessed
mantis’, and jurd is the word for ‘locusts’. These two words
of minds (Q. 3:7).
from the same lexical field are unlikely to have been combined accidentally: they create the chilling image of an army of
The interpretation of this verse has itself been debated by
‘locust-praying mantises’ swarming over fields, eating the
commentators toiling to uncover its true meaning, not unlike
grain (a core resource in military campaigns) and biting off
modern scholars seeking to understand Umayyad mosaics.
the heads of their prey (ironically, in the natural world, it is
But such ambiguity was perceived by classical scholars as the
the female mantis that reserves this fate for the male after
source of inexhaustible depths of meaning, and similar values
copulation). Al-Walīd’s half-brother Maslama, the military
may have applied to the mosaics.75 To paraphrase Michael
commander lauded by al-Nābigha in the same poem (v. 6),
Sells’ remarks on the Qurʾan:
was himself called al-jarāda: ‘the locust’, the singular of al-jurd.72 Later sources explain this as a derogatory nickname coined
While the two possibilities can seem to offer an ‘either/
by his opponent Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab in 102/720, but it may
or’ to the [beholder] seeking a single meaning, they carry
instead have emerged earlier as a warrior image.
a ‘both/and’ force, a plurisignification or multivalence
The mind of the listener will not instinctively construe more than one meaning at once. The first cognitive response will
essential to the [visual] effect of the [mosaic panel] in which they occur.76
involve one image, but by dwelling further on the verse, new impressions will accrue. Polysemy, in this context, enriches
mosaics seems confirmed by the lack of captions. These
sensitivity is also central to the reception history of the
were used almost universally to identify figures, buildings,
Qurʾan. Just as classical poets scoured the depths of Arabic
and other features in Christian floor and wall mosaics, with
lexicography to give their work texture, so the Qurʾan features
the Great Palace at Constantinople a rare exception. They
terms that were puzzling to contemporaries, as asserted
must have therefore have been presented as an option to
by the text in its own voice. Habitual schemes of sentence
the patrons of the Umayyad Mosque. Arabic script, having
construction are also stretched to the point of disruption.
recently received a geometrical codification, would have
Clear admonitions rhythmically alternate, often in the same
lent itself particularly well to their inclusion.77 A deliberate
verse, with words or clauses that have a wide flexibility of
decision must have been taken to forgo them. This, together
meaning. Far from being accidental or from solely reflecting
with the lack of identifiable geographical markers in the
semantic complexity, this was a self-proclaimed value of
extant sections of the programme,78 served to open up the
the text:
range of possible reactions to these mosaics, rather than
73
74
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The intentionality of this approach in the Damascus
the meaning while taking away its immutability. This nuanced
pinning down a specific message. It is He who sent down upon thee the Book, wherein are
208
The Qurʾan does not assert a marked spatial or temporal
verses clear (muḥkamāt) that are the Essence of the Book,
divide between earth and the ‘otherworld’ (Ar. al-ākhira, a term
and others ambiguous (mutashābihāt). As for those in
commonly rendered by the less suitable ‘hereafter’).79 Likewise,
whose hearts is swerving, they follow the ambiguous part,
for later Muslims, paradise and hell could touch this world,
desiring dissension, and desiring its interpretation; and
particularly in sacred locales, such the Kaʿba in Mecca, the
none knows its interpretation, save only God. And those
Rock on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and tombs of holy men.80
firmly rooted in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it; all is
With this perspective, the mosaics could represent earthly
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
dominion, Judgement and paradise, not only because of a
but rather a laudatory expression of grandeur addressed
cultural predilection for polysemy, but also because all three
to the caliph. The exercise was to some extent contrived,
realities were consubstantial and could thus be embodied by
which may paradoxically increase its historical value, for
the same landscapes.
the poet was crafting a response to prevalent norms and
81
expectations. His verse sequence also obeys a fundamental principle of ekphrasis as formulated by Ruth Webb: ‘any
The Craft of Perception
ekphrasis rivals the visual arts in that it seeks to imitate their visual impact’.83 Words are crafted to trigger the same emotions
In seeking to understand the Mosque of Damascus, the attention
as an encounter with the object, thereby bridging the gap
of modern scholars has been naturally drawn towards its most
between image and imagination.
distinctive feature, the mosaics—a path followed in this chapter
Al-Nābigha begins by evoking the mosque as a corrective
thus far. But their singularity is only evident with the hindsight
to the shared worship that had prevailed on this site until the
of later Islamic art. At the time of their creation, mosaics were
destruction of the church and declares: ‘Now prayer of Holy
simply the most lavish ornament that was available for religious
Truth holds sway; discerned is God’s authentic Word.’ (v. 15).
architecture, whereas earlier mosques had been more frugal. The
Ritual (Muslim prayer) and scripture (the Qurʾan) are placed at
first generation to encounter the building—al-Walīd and his circle,
the heart of this redefinition of the site. Drawing his audience
the Muslim ruling minority, Jews, and the Christian majority—
into the building, the poet emphasizes the wealth and diversity
perceived it through a cultural lens and with expectations
of its ornament: ‘You see there chrysolite (zabarjad), glittering
different from ours. It is necessary to step back from our inherent
sapphire (yāqūt); limestone (kils) with purest gold inlaid’ (v. 16).84
interest in figural and naturalistic themes in order to probe their,
The precious stones must have been those of the vine, the
rather than our own, intents and perceptions.
famous inlaid frieze in the prayer hall, and perhaps the mihrab. Gold was also used in the frieze and for the capitals, not to
Al-Nābigha and the Intensity of Sacred Space
mention its ubiquitous presence in the mosaics. As the poem
What might a contemporary have derived from the vast
shifts towards other themes, the list continues with passing
expanse of architectural forms and ornament presented by
mentions of silver (v. 19), teak (v. 20), marble (v. 22), and mosaic
the mosque? We are fortunate to possess one testimony that
(vv. 23–24).
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may shed light on this question: the descriptive sequence in
These verses generate for the listener a perception of
al-Nābigha’s poem (vv. 16–24), composed from the perspective
multiple colours—again, with echoes in ekphrasis.85 The
of a panegyrist passing superlative judgement on his patron’s
chromatic range is rich: light green, sometimes verging on
work. Byzantine writers commonly engaged in the comparable
brown for chrysolite; deep blue for sapphire; buff white for
exercise of ekphrasis, the detailed literary description of works
limestone; bright yellow and metallic grey for gold and silver;
of art, whether as dedicated compositions or as part of longer
shiny white with dark accents for marble; brown and painted
texts. Equivalent approaches are rare in Arabic, and even
colours for teak. The multiple hues of the mosaics are summed
more so during the first century after the hijra. Al-Nābigha’s
up through a reference to their (green) countryside and (blue)
verses are an exceptional document about the history of the
rivers. Textures also abound: while precious stones are smooth,
mosque, but also about aesthetic sensitivities in early Islam.
limestone is rough to the touch and wood is warm, while silver
Like ekphrasis, al-Nābigha’s utterances were not—or at
and gold have a metallic sheen and glass mosaics reflect light.
82
least not primarily—an intimate reaction to architecture,
The sapphire, likewise, is ‘glittering’ (v. 16).
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
209
The poet’s perception intensifies over the next two verses,
naturally in the Umayyad Mosque, which had no doors between
starting with the impact of the juxtaposed colours: ‘Such figures
the prayer hall and courtyard, so that the four temenos walls
on the qibla-line emerge, of varied hue and shade!’ (v. 17). The
could be seen from any vantage point. He starts by extolling
movement of the beholder in space brings new elements into
the marble dado and its wavy lines visible at eye level as a work
focus and stimulates vision. The qibla is identified through
of the Creator: ‘And its each approach—adorned by God—with
the possessive pronoun ‘our’, as if to underline its recent
Syrian marble lined and robed’ (v. 22). ‘To Earth’s Navel are its
appropriation from the Christians. Its wall was made up of
parts secured’, continues al-Nābigha (v. 23), thereby placing
marble panels above which ran the vine with its inlaid jewels,
the building at the centre of the world. It is encompassed by
then four lines of mosaic inscription in gold over dark blue (or
‘rivers and fertile lands’: strikingly, the mosaics only emerge
possibly dark green), and mosaic landscapes with dominant
through this brief allusion in the poem, a mere hemistich out
gold and green hues up to ceiling level. Al-Nābigha continues in
of eighteen in the descriptive sequence. What al-Nābigha found
this vein, proclaiming:
extraordinary was not the individual ornament or its themes, but rather the overall impact of the building on the beholder.
18. Jewelled embellishments dazzle till the blacks of the eyes are set aquiver; 19. While precious silver curves up high, resplendent on the awed beholder;
Through these nine verses, al-Nābigha is sequentially drawing us into the mosque. He first builds up broad impressions dominated by colour and glittering light before leading us towards the transept. There, the poet sets our eyes on the qibla wall with a growing sense of luminosity. Having looked up
So intense is this vision that it dazzles the beholder,
towards the dome and ceiling from the same vantage point,
physically overwhelming the black of his eye. The first
he embraces the mosque at eye level, taking in the marble and
hemistich (v. 18) reads, on a literal level: ‘Its ornament nearly
mosaics of the four enclosure walls. He then returns to the
blinds the clearsighted of the nation (baṣīr al-qawm).’ By
prayer hall (v. 24): ‘With iterations [of the Word], inscribed—
contrast with the ‘beholder’ of the next verse (called al-rāʾīn,
clear Signs (āyāt)—of threat and promise from our Lord!’ The
in the plural), the baṣīr in this verse is a ‘seer’ or ‘clairvoyant’
inscription brings closure to the sequence by launching into
who can glimpse the unseen (the word is a divine attribute in the
the vastly expanded temporal, spatial and emotional horizon of
Qurʾan). His standing is underlined by the qualificative ‘of the
Judgement. The mosque as he conveys it creates, for the viewer,
nation’.86 Faced with the experience of the mosque, al-Nābigha
a fabric of light and colour, textures and forms that triggers a
seems to imply, one is struck with a flash of supernatural
sensorial experience verging on spiritual insight.
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insight, blurring the boundary between physical light and spiritual illumination, between sight and bodily contact.
The Mosque as a Foil for the Qurʾan
Al-Nābigha then praises the height of the building with its
The aesthetic values expressed by al-Nābigha are those of his
dome ‘that birds can scarcely reach’ and its teak ceiling (v. 20),
time. The Qurʾan, in addition to being dogmatic and rational,
as if he were now looking up from the qibla. Light returns to the
was received on aesthetic, spiritual, and sensory levels in
fore through an evocation of lamps: their oil ‘is gold’ and their
the classical era. It was through these entry points that the
light ‘glows on from Lebanon and the Sīf’ (v. 21), projecting its
ordinary worshipper primarily experienced the text, if with
rays outwards and turning the dome into a beacon. The poet
an awareness of its fundamental injunctions and admonitions.
goes on to cast a panoramic glance at the surface ornament.
The Qurʾan itself emphasizes its visceral, emotional impact on
Such an all-encompassing perspective would have come
the listener:
210
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George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
God has sent down the fairest discourse as a Book,
what lies before them and what is after them, and they
consimilar in its Oft-Repeated (al-mathānī), whereat
comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as
shiver the skins of those who fear their Lord; then their
He wills. His Throne comprises the heavens and earth;
skins and their hearts soften to the remembrance of God
the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-
(Q. 39:23).
high, the All-glorious (Q. 2:255).
The text designates itself here through the enigmatic term
and earth, united by the all-encompassing presence of God.
may not be coincidental that al-Nābigha chose this unusual
This image would have resonated with the architectural setting
term (v. 24) to describe the mosaic inscription at the mosque,
of the transept with its sheer height that culminated, as one
since its contents largely invited the type of sentiment evoked
looked upwards, with the dome, a symbol of the heavenly
in Q. 39:23. After the Throne Verse, exalting God’s majesty and
spheres. The verse also states that the grace of intercession
glory, it consisted, at its core, of three early Meccan suras with
is granted only by God’s leave. The Prophet’s intercession
a rhythmic and sonic structure provoking aesthetic and sensory
on Judgement Day had been publicly proclaimed a few
responses that reinforced their semantic impact, but also the
years earlier under ʿAbd al-Malik, in the Dome of the Rock
openness of their meaning.
inscriptions. The Muslim community’s path to this promised
88
Thus, a two-pronged correspondence can be drawn
salvation now went through the leadership of the Umayyad
between the reception of the Qurʾan and of the mosque. Both
caliphs.89 The idea found a further echo along the qibla wall at
can be approached on the epistemological level, respectively
Damascus, this time looking down towards the jewel-studded
embodied in Qurʾanic commentaries and interpretations of the
mihrab and the minbar, symbols of the authority of both
mosaics. Both also invite more innate sensory reactions—to the
caliph and Prophet. The connection between the space of the
sound of the sacred text and the ornament of the building, as
transept, the person of the caliph, and the Prophet would thus
felt through the body, but eventually leading into the spiritual
have been reinforced for those who could read the inscription.
level. In this sense, the mosque with its mosaic trees and rivers,
Even with minimal literacy, one could take the cue from the
and the sheer splendour of its marble, gold, and precious
first few words of a verse to identify it from memory.
stones, stood as a visual counterpart to the auditory experience of the Qurʾan. The mosaic inscription invited a focus on the transept, where Copyright © 2021. Gingko Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
The verse evokes the boundless expanses between heaven
al-mathānī, which occurs only one other time, at Q. 15:87. It 87
In order to read the fourth and final line, one had to walk back towards the northwest corner of the prayer hall. From there, a long sequence of verses (Q. 79, 80, 81) ran across the
it was deployed over four lines. While the fourth line ran across
west, south, and east walls. As they evoked, in the rhythmic
the whole prayer hall, the first three were contained entirely
language of the Qurʾan, images of Judgement, earthly
in this space. They emphasized al-Walīd’s patronage and his
abundance, and to a lesser extent paradise and hell, mosaic
destruction of the church—but mostly, through the Throne
landscapes unfolded above as a canvas onto which each of these
Verse, the majesty of God’s realm:
major themes could be projected. Similar plays on the combined effect of inscription, space, and image were common in
God there is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting.
Christian buildings of the period.90 Few visitors will have given
Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs
this aspect of the mosque their full attention, but even reading
all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that
a small part of the inscription, or being told about its contents,
shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows
would have added to the overall impact of the ornament.
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
211
A codex is likely to have completed the scheme. The
hall, unified the vast space between the four temenos walls. An
Umayyads commissioned monumental Qurʾans in vertical
experience of sight, sound, and smell was set in motion, again
format, of which a small corpus survives, and sent them to
with echoes in the Byzantine world.97
major mosques of the empire, where they would be used for recitation, particularly on Friday.91 In the prayer hall at
pppp
Damascus, the pages of Kufic calligraphy would have resonated with the mosaic inscription, and not just on a formal level
Al-Walīd’s new monument at Damascus fused the openness
since its fourth line contained a reference to ‘pages (ṣuḥuf)
of the early mosque with the airiness of the church. Soaring
high-honoured, uplifted, purified by the hands of scribes
above the prayer hall, its transept reflected the caliph’s stature
noble, pious’ (Q. 80:13–16). These verses lend themselves
in Umayyad ideology, at the heart of the body of believers,
to otherworldly associations, a trend already reflected in
leading them in prayer, and linking them to the cosmos along
the earliest Qurʾanic commentaries. In the context of the
the vertical axis of the dome. Here, his presence was embodied
mosque, they may also have evoked the Qurʾan manuscript
in stone, ornament, and furnishings, and staged to proclaim
presented to the gaze at the foot of its wall. Both layers of
him as the victorious Deputy of God on earth—khalīfat Allāh.
meaning could, once again, reinforce each other. Like the
All around this central space, a vast vision of abundance was
mosaics at Damascus, the form and illumination of Qurʾans in
deployed in marble, glass tesserae, gold, paint, and precious
this period were experimental and, like them, some featured
stones of varied colours and forms. The mosaics in particular
finely executed trees, plants, buildings, and architectural
uprooted Christian conventions by doing away with figuration
motifs combined with calligraphy, making this resonance
and captions—and just as importantly, energising the whole
more complete (Figure 3).
composition through poetic rhythms.
92
93
The mosque, from this perspective, becomes a foil for the Qurʾan, which is embodied in its space simultaneously as a
were not intended to convey a single message: rather they
book, a mosaic inscription and, perhaps most importantly, as
drew the beholder into a polysemic field made only richer by
sound. The ‘Readers who do not sleep’ officiated there, says
the gaps and uncertainties between different ‘readings’. But
al-Farazdaq (v. 20), which implies continuous recitation, a
its intended impact was not confined to meaning; for it is a
practice also observed in the fourteenth century by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa,
sensorial response verging on the spiritual that emerges from
although we do not know whether it continued uninterrupted
al-Nābigha’s poem, in a convergence of sensibilities with the
throughout these centuries. The mosque, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa also
aural reception of the Qurʾan. Day and night, the ‘fragrant
states, had seventy muezzins in his day, and according to
words’ of reciters (al-Farazdaq, v. 23) reverberated through
al-Badrī (d. 894/1489), upon founding the mosque, al-Walīd
the space, making vision and sound work in concert. The
‘established three companies of forty muezzins, and these
stimulation of smell likely completed this artful construct.
94
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Like poetry and the Qurʾan, the mosque and its ornament
remain to the present day’. This late anecdote is unreferenced 95
Meanwhile in the Christian sphere, a change of attitude
and of uncertain authenticity, but whatever their number, a
was underway. Since time immemorial, the spiritual realm
company of muezzins would have been needed for a mosque
had been felt as a palpable presence in this world, glowing
of this scale. Their shared utterance reverberated across the
with particular intensity in sacred sites. Then gradually, from
city and was repeated as a faint whisper by the faithful in their
around the seventh century, paradise came to be conceived
houses and shops. Looking inwards, the sound of Qurʾanic
as a world ‘out there’, a ‘hereafter’ in heaven, infinitely distant
recitation, like the seamless transition from courtyard to prayer
from our earthly lives.98 The iconoclast crisis that broke out in
96
212
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
726 with the edict of Leo III resonated with this background. Its controversies revolved around the attribution to a man-made object—the icon—of otherworldly powers. John of Damascus, whose life was affected, one way or another, by the genesis of the Umayyad Mosque, reacted vigorously to these developments in Constantinople, seeking to shield icon worship from such attacks: ‘I do not venerate matter’, he said, ‘I venerate the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked for my salvation.’99 John was thereby signalling a subtle shift towards the icon as a ‘window’ opening onto the unseen, rather than as the very embodiment of divine presence in matter. Instead of trying to change the gaze of the worshipper, as this implied, Muslims opted to remove the figural image from sacred space, and to fill this numinous void with the living sound of the Qurʾan. The Umayyad Mosque expanded the scope of this nascent aesthetics. Its breathtaking ornament resonated with the aural impact of the Qurʾan, making matter not only glitter, but also vibrate in unison with the beholder. As we stand at the threshold of these fleeting perceptions, the vertical layering of palimpsestic histories and horizontal complexities of sociocultural interactions give way to a dazzling experience: seeing through the eyes of others, and faintly reviving lost worlds. Such travel through time can only enrich
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our own fields of vision.
chapter 6 • ‘Jewelled Embellishments Dazzle’
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:03:10.
213
Appendix 1 Jar r
Three Umayyad Poems about the Mosque of Damascus and the Destruction of the Church
Greet the dwellings at ʿĀqil and Anʿum—
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though inured to travel, once stout of girth. his banners flaunt victory and spoils. kingship is given; ascend to the pulpits, secure! a house of deeds that is high to scale.
I see buildings devoid of their folk, brought down;
214
unmarked barrens on starless nights,
He inherits the reins and lances of power;
Yours are the brimming valley-basins.
The Lord of the Throne ordained that the Caliph be you;
has built on the greatest edifice!
Truly, al-Walīd is the Chosen Imam;
fragment like shards of glazed clay.
The swift camels of Mahra exhausted, dragging,
10
What distances to you have I travelled —
brackish waters tinged brazil-wood red,
Your heritage now dwarfs the one you had raised;
on the wrist, and guard yourself from them!
Al-Walīd the Caliph, son of a Caliph,
unlike those of the loved one, honoured!
Quarters where shells, when ring-doves lay,
degraded is the beguiled hostage to passion.
Wayless deserts I’ve passed, and drinking holes,
nor speared in their dens by the hunter at noon.
Come the day when you lift the hem of your cloak
5
Truly the odious have, among us, abodes
The lovers they tried, they left in thrall,
Arabic Text with Translation by Nadia Jamil
when desire went with the parting litters, yoked?
Sweet does, not taken unawares by the archer,
have wreaked their havoc on these abodes.
Did you stifle the need to weep as you did
and pouring clouds blazoned by Arcturus.
A legion of black rain-bearers, sling-stone tempests,
pointed Revelation on a parchment of the Book;
Remains whereon winds drive twilight cumuli
but the site of your throne will not be razed.
the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus
George, Alain. The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus : Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, edited by Melanie Gibson, Gingko Press, Incorporated, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nottingham/detail.action?docID=30611051. Created from nottingham on 2023-11-15 12:06:24.
15
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