Damascus, Great Mosque of

Damascus, Great Mosque of

also called  Umayyad Mosque,  
 the earliest surviving stone mosque, built between AD 705 and 715 by the Umayyad Caliph al-Walīd I. The mosque stands on the site of a 1st-century Hellenic temple to Jupiter and of a later church of St. John the Baptist (John the Baptist, Saint). Some Syrio-Roman fragments remain in the structure, as does a shrine supposedly enclosing a relic honoured by Muslims as well as Christians, the head of St. John the Baptist.

      The mosque occupies a huge quadrangle 515 by 330 feet (157 by 100 m) and contains a large open courtyard surrounded by an arcade of arches supported by slender columns. The liwan, or hall of worship, running the length of the south side of the mosque, is divided into three long aisles by rows of columns and arches. A transept with a central octagonal dome, originally wooden, cuts across the aisles at their midpoint. The marble grilles that cover the windows in the south wall are the earliest example of geometric interlace in Islāmic architecture. The walls of the mosque were once covered with more than an acre of mosaics depicting a fanciful landscape thought to be the Quʾrānic paradise, but only fragments survive. The mosque was destroyed by Timur in 1401, rebuilt by the Arabs, and damaged by fire in 1893. Although it could not be restored to its original splendour, the mosque is still an impressive architectural monument.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mansouri Great Mosque — Courtyard and minaret of the Mansouri Great Mosque Basic information Location …   Wikipedia

  • Damascus — /deuh mas keuhs/, n. a city in and the capital of Syria, in the SW part: reputed to be the oldest continuously existing city in the world. 936,567. French, Damas. * * * Arabic Dimashq City (pop., 1994: 1,549,932), capital of Syria. Located at an… …   Universalium

  • DAMASCUS — DAMASCUS, capital of Syria; in olden times a caravan center at an oasis in Southern Syria, on the principal crossroads between Mesopotamia Syria and Palestine Transjordan. In the Bible The name appears as דַּמֶּשֶׂק Dammesek (but once as… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Mosque of Uqba — Great Mosque of Kairouan Overview of the mosque s courtyard which is surrounded by colonnaded arches Basic information Location …   Wikipedia

  • Damascus — For other uses, see Damascus (disambiguation). Damascus دِمَشق Dimashq Damascus City landmarks Damascus Skyline Damascus University • Damascus Opera House …   Wikipedia

  • Mosque — A modern style mosque built on water in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia …   Wikipedia

  • Damascus — Da|mas|cus 1.) the capital of Syria. It is one of the most ancient cities in the world and is famous for its Great Mosque 2.) road to Damascus a situation in which someone experiences a sudden and complete change in their opinions or beliefs. The …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Damascus —    Capital of the Umayyads (q.v.) from 661 750, situated between the eastern and western parts of this first Islamic caliphate (q.v.). The city, located in southwest Syria (q.v.) on the eastern edge of the Anti Lebanon Mountains, was in Byzantine …   Historical dictionary of Byzantium

  • Damascus — • It is mentioned in the Bible at the time of Abraham (Gen., xiv, 15; xv, 2); also on the pylons of Karnak, among the Syrian cities captured by the Pharaoh Touthmes III Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Damascus     Damascus …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Mosque lamp — from Egypt, c. 1360 Mosque lamps of glass, enamelled and often with gilding, survive in considerable numbers from the Islamic art of the Middle Ages, especially the 13th and 14th centuries, with Cairo in Egypt and Aleppo and Damascus in Syria the …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”