In addition, there are more than a few works also on Islamic jurisprudence written by some famous jurists but which are dedicated solely to the issues pertinent one way or another to building. The two among most famous titles of this type of works are: “Explaining the Rules of Building” by Abu Abdullah Ibn al-Rami (d. 1334), and “The Book of Walls” by Husamuddin ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Bukhari (d. 1141). Both books are on Islamic jurisprudence exclusively focusing on legal rulings which are directly or indirectly related to building and public services and facilities.
The referred to encyclopaedic works on Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh islami) discuss virtually everything that Muslims might do, including matters about building, thus giving them a clear life orientation and guidance. This way a powerful message is given, that is, neither from the Islamic spirituality nor from the people’s actual life challenges and problems can Islamic architecture be separated one side existing in a world and the other side existing in another completely different world. What’s more, Islamic architecture is to be alive, real and dynamic playing an active role in overcoming the people’s challenges and solving their problems. Architecture is not to be for society’s elite only serving a limited spectrum of interests. It must belong to all the strata of society attending to their vast and diverse interests and needs. Architects and structural engineers, it goes without saying, are the humble servants of society. They must be completely and exclusively answerable to their people. The people, in turn, are to function as the best judges on weather their architecture is good or bad, effective and conducive to their life activities or not, functional and friendly or otherwise. And architects must listen if they were to hang on to their professional credibility and social standing. Doing otherwise will be tantamount to betraying the profession of architecture as well as people’s trust placed on architects. It follows that a very close and responsible relationship is to exist between architects and the people due to the close relationship between them. This entitles people to play an active and participative, rather than a passive or indifferent or acquiescent, role when it comes to their architecture for they are its immediate customers and clients.
For all these reasons, surely, some vital issues concerning several dimensions of Islamic architecture are often discussed within the compass of the hisbah institution as well.[1] This institution is both religious and social in nature aiming to protect the interests of the members of society regardless of weather such interests are connected to pure religious matters or to some other worldly concerns. The hisbah is an institution “under the authority of the state that appoints people to carry out the responsibility of enjoining what is right, whenever people start to neglect it, and forbidding what is wrong, whenever people start to engage in it. The purpose of this is to safeguard society from deviance, protect the faith, and ensure the welfare of the people in both religious and worldly manners according to the Law of Allah. Allah has made it obligatory upon all Muslims to enjoin good and forbid wrongdoing to the extent of their knowledge and abilities.”[2]
Islamic architecture accepts no rigidity, formalism and literal symbolism, especially in relation to its structural domains. If the religion of Islam presents Muslims with a conceptual framework for architecture, which encompasses the Islamic worldview and Islamic fundamental teachings and principles, such in no way implies that the creativity and design freedom of Muslims are thus killed off, at worst, or stifled, at best. On the contrary, they are very much stirred and encouraged to thrive through the same means, with the only difference that certain divine precepts now preside over their development and use lest some people’s imagination and enthusiasm, at some point, become disoriented and misleading, hence perilous to man’s well-being.
What makes an architecture Islamic are some invisible aspects of buildings, which may or may not completely translate themselves onto the physical plane of built environment. The substance of Islamic architecture is always the same, due to the permanence of the philosophy and cosmic values that gave rise to it. What changes are the ways and means with which people internalize and put into operation such philosophy and values to their own natural and man-generated circumstances. Such changes or developments could simply be regarded as most practical “solutions” to the challenges people face. For example, the mosques that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) built carried the same meaning and essence as the mosques that were built in history and that we build today, despite the major differences in form. The spirit of the housing schemes that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) carried out was likewise the spirit of any other Islamic housing scheme that was implemented at any point of history and in any part of the world, despite their vast differences in terms of sophistication and building technology and engineering. The same can be said about any other aspect of Islamic built environment.
Stefano Bianca remarked on the extent to which the Islamic spirituality influences Islamic architecture: “Compared with other religious traditions, the distinctive feature of Islam is that it has given birth to a comprehensive and integrated cultural system by totally embedding the religious practice in the daily life of the individual and the society. While Islam did not prescribe formal architectural concepts, it molded the whole way of life by providing a matrix of behavioral archetypes which, by necessity, generated correlated physical patterns. Therefore, the religious and social universe of Islam must be addressed before engaging in the analysis of architectural structures.”[3]
Islamic architecture thus promotes unity in diversity, that is, the unity of message and purpose, and the diversity of styles, methods and solutions. Certainly, this renders Islamic architecture so relevant and dynamic, and so consistent and adaptable. It is such a fascinating subject to study, for doing so is not about sheer art and architecture. It is more than that: it is about beholding the Islamic ideology and creed at work. It is about witnessing a microcosm of Islamic society, civilization and culture. Islamic architecture is about Islam taking up a manifest form.
The identity and vocabulary of Islamic architecture evolved as a means for the fulfilment of the concerns of Muslim societies. Islamic architecture was never an end in itself. It was the container of Islamic culture and civilization reflecting the cultural identity and the level of the creative and aesthetic consciousness of Muslims. Architecture, in general, should always be in service to people. It is never to be the other way round, that is to say that architecture should evolve into a hobby or an adventure in the process imposing itself on society while forsaking, or taking lightly, people’s identities, cultures and the demands of their daily struggles. Architecture, first and foremost, should remain associated with functionality. It should not deviate from its authentic character and stray into the world of excessive invention and abstraction.[4]
Finally, when asked what architecture is, Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most famous American architects during the first half of the 20th century, while replying, echoed somewhat the Islamic notion of architecture, i.e., to be relevant, pragmatic and both people and environment friendly. Architecture is life; it is life taking up a form. Frank Lloyd Wright’s perception of architecture was epitomized in his words: “What is architecture anyway? Is it the vast collection of the various buildings which have been built to please the varying taste of the various lords of mankind? I think not. No, I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. So architecture I know to be a Great Spirit…. Architecture is that great living creative spirit which from generation to generation, from age to age, proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man, and his circumstances as they change. That is really architecture.”[5]
Two examples: the Islamic house and the mosque
To clarify further the previous points, we shall briefly discuss the examples of the Islamic house and the mosque.
The house
Islam did not instruct Muslims how to build houses, but it did instruct them how to carry out a number of tasks directly or indirectly associated with the house and housing phenomena. Some of such tasks are: privacy protection against the outside world, among the family members, and between the family members and visitors, respect for the rights of guests and visitors, respect for the rights of neighbours, the relationship between men and women, the implications of carrying out religious obligations, cleanliness, peaceful coexistence with the natural environment, safety, security, recreation, modesty, Islam’s aim to preserve the life, religion, mental and psychological strength, descendants and wealth of its people.
The net result of this strategy is that there are many types of the Islamic house, such as those in the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, the Islamic West (al-maghrib al-Islami), etc., but the soul and fundamental nature of all those housing types are always the same and are easily recognizable by those familiar with the character of Islam and the character of its civilization. What those different-yet-same, or same-yet-different, houses represent are, in fact, people’s solutions to the challenges of living their family lives in line with their religious guidelines while, at the same time, complying with the requirements of the climate, geography, traditions, economy and building technology of the places where they live. While creating Islamic architecture, Muslims betray neither their religion nor their living conditions. This challenge Muslims see as a source of motivation, ingenuity and strength. They do not see it as a problem, hindrance or an impediment. They see it as a service to Islam, society and mankind as a whole.
Eventually, what became to be known as the language of Islamic residential architecture, such as the courtyard, partly or fully screened windows, raising windows above the eye level, bent entrances, double circulations inside houses, inward looking designs, guest rooms near main entrances and away from houses’ core, certain decorative systems, etc., such must be seen as sets of best solutions that people have evolved over centuries for themselves. They are to be seen as no more than that. Such structural solutions must not be seen as the prescribed language of Islamic residential architecture that cannot be revised, enriched, improved, altered and even abandoned, to a certain extent or completely, if necessary and in favour of some other equally or more viable solutions presented by advances made by science and technology, and generally by the implications of the time and space factors. Likewise, such structural solutions are not to be held as religious symbols with some ontological significance.
However, there is only one thing that must be honoured at all times and that cannot be compromised under any circumstances in housing, that is, the sanctified functions of the house which render it a place to rest, relax the body and mind, enjoy legitimate worldly delights, worship, teach, learn and propagate the message of Islam, and which makes the house a restricted sanctuary where privacy, protection, safety and security are ensured. In other words, the house is to function as an institution with a potential to take up the role of an educational and training center able to produce, in concert with other societal establishments, individuals capable of transforming the whole communities they belong to. If the family is the basic and most important societal unit, then the same can be said about the house which is the physical locus of the former. Indeed, without the two, the total realization of the divine purpose on earth becomes impossible.
The mosque
Another example is concerning the mosque institution, by far the most easily identifiable element of Islamic architecture. Islam did not instruct the Muslims how to build mosques, but it did instruct them to build mosques and to make them function as places of collective worship and community development centres. The Prophet (pbuh) built quite a number of mosques in Madinah, which was the prototype Islamic city and played the role firstly as the city-state and later as the capital of the ever-expanding Muslim state. The functions performed by mosques built by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), particularly his mosque in Madinah, were so powerful that they epitomized the multifaceted societal dimensions of Islam. The primary aim of all the mosques built afterwards was to emulate the Prophet’s example in this regard.
Nevertheless, the form of the mosques built during the Prophet’s era was very simple. His mosque in Madinah, for example, when firstly built consisted of an enclosure with walls made of mud bricks and an arcade on the qiblah side (towards Makkah) made of palm-trunks used as columns to support a roof of palm-leaves and mud. There were initially three entrances in the east, west and southern walls. The fourth, i.e., the northern wall, was the qiblah side facing the al-Masjid al-Aqsa, the first qiblah which lasted about one year and a few months. However, as the qiblah was changed to face south towards Makkah, the southern entrance was subsequently bricked up and a new one on the northern side constructed. Before the qiblah changed, there was, in all likelihood, no roofed area in the mosque, but after it, an arcade on the southern side facing Makkah was created.
The Prophet’s mosque had a few rudimentary facilities. However, before the Prophet’s death and as the Madinah community and its needs considerably grew, the shape of the mosque underwent more than a few notable structural modifications, such as its enlargement, the introduction of he pulpit (minbar) and illuminating the mosque by oil lamps. Thus, the impact that changes in human living conditions can have on the form of architecture has duly been recognized. This causal relationship between the evolution of the language of mosque architecture and Islamic architecture, in general, and the improvement of the living standards of Muslims went on till Islamic civilization attained its apogee and with it the language of Islamic architecture achieved its conspicuous sophistication and excellence.
However, when the rich and versatile language of mosque architecture evolved, the new developments signified people’s answers and solutions to the challenge of maintaining mosques to function as the centres of Islamic collective worship and as the centres for community development, while, at the same time, conforming to the requirements of the climate, geography, traditions, economy and building technology of the places where they lived. The net result of this approach is that there are many ways of building mosques, such as those in the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, Morocco, Malaysia, China, etc., but the soul and fundamental nature of all those mosque types are always the same and are easily recognizable by those familiar with the character of Islamic worship and the character of Islamic cultures and civilization.
Eventually, what became to be known as the language of mosque architecture, such as the minaret, courtyards, the minbar (pulpit), the mihrab (praying niche), domes, arches, iwans, certain decorative styles, etc., must be seen as the best solutions and facilities that people have evolved over centuries for themselves so that the projected roles of mosques are ensured. Such solutions and facilities must not be seen as religious symbols containing some ontological bearing. Nor are they to be held as the prescribed language of mosque architecture that cannot be revised, enriched, improved and adjusted, thus accommodating the provisions presented by the advances made by science and technology, and generally by the implications of the time and space factors. After all, what matters most is making the mosque institution with its demanding civilizational mission as effective, dynamic, relevant and attractive as possible through various means and methods. This is exactly what Muslims were up to while evolving the rich and colourful language of mosque architecture, in particular, and Islamic art and architecture, in general.
Pragmatism and Islamic architecture
Islam is a complete way of life. Its values and teachings, together with the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), whose primary task was to explain to mankind and put into practice the precepts of Islam, are universal and timeless. The significance of Islamic architecture is universal and permanent too, in that the philosophy that it embodies is the Islamic one. However, such is the nature of Islamic architecture that it is receptive to both advances in science and technology and the dictates of people’s living conditions.
It is an imperative that Muslim architects always remember this verity while trying to revive and sustain the concept of Islamic architecture. In so doing Muslim architects are bidden to, firstly, identify the general Islamic guidelines and principles pertaining to the enterprise of building. Next, they must be fully aware of the implications of the dilemmas and challenges their time and the diverse regions in which they live entail. They cannot be trapped in a historical episode, overly romanticizing it and attempting to emulate the architectural solutions the Muslims of that particular period successfully evolved. If something was the norm during a period and in a particular ecological setting, such by no means can be the same in every subsequent period and in different ecological settings. Technological advancements rapidly change; demands of different eras fluctuate, even under the same ecological conditions; climate exigencies must be painstakingly heeded; and, lastly, human psychology also changes with the change of time and space posing a number of exigencies of its own. No architectural plan and design which served as a solution for an age and place can be simply “parachuted” to another age and place without properly modulating it to its rigorous environmental and socio-cultural requirements. To do that is to betray the dynamic spirit of both the common sense and the perpetual message of Islam. Blind and ignorant imitations and following, even in sheer religious matters, are categorically rebuked by Islam.
While taking hold of the general Islamic guidelines and principles with reference to creating an Islamic architecture, on the one hand, and while studying the needs of different times and situations so that the former can be accurately understood and applied, on the other, Muslim architects in reality perform a degree of ijtihad, i.e., forming an independent opinion or judgment within the framework of an available text. In doing so, if one excels one receives two rewards from God, but if one for whatever reason fails to deliver, after he had tried his best, one is bound to receive one reward from God, as propounded by the Prophet (pbuh) in one of his traditions.[6] Based on this tradition, in no way can a serious, enlightened, accountable and willing person be a loser as far as the execution of matters ordained by God is concerned. Verily, this divine assurance should serve to the Muslim architects and designers as a starting point to look carefully and critically at the state of architecture and how buildings in the Muslim world are planned and designed, as well as to start contemplating the prospects of finding much better solutions which will be inspired by and infused with the values of Islam, and will be responsive to the exigencies of different times and regions.
At the start, Muslim architects ought not to be bound by a single historical structural model, device or solution. The past is to be viewed all the time as such, i.e., the past. It is to be neither excessively venerated or idealized nor completely disregarded. The past must be put in its true perspective with such notions as wisdom, pragmatism and practicality leading the way. In their daunting search for contemporary Islamic architecture, Muslim architects and designers must be driven by a clear principled vision, a free spirit and an insatiable thirst for ingenuity, which must be shrouded in strong determination, self-belief and quest for excellence. However, should some modern structural devices or solutions appear to bear a resemblance, partly or totally, to the ones used in the past, one is not to shy away from reviving them within the existing contexts. The history of Islamic architecture is not to be looked down at as entirely outmoded and worthless. As we are against blind and ignorant imitation of the past, we are likewise against disengaging ourselves from it and completely ignoring the numerous lessons that we can learn therefrom. Indeed, much can be learned from history because the protagonists of any historical episode while solving their problems possessed the same vision and objectives as we do today while solving the problems of our own. On the other hand, however, we have to be extremely mindful and selective as to what exactly to benefit from history, in which areas and how far we are to emulate our predecessors, because most of their problems were the product of the circumstances under which they operated, whereas our problems are the product of the circumstances under which we operate. Hence, seldom can their solutions be utterly ours.
[1] Walid Abdullah al-Munis, Al-Hisbah ‘ala al-Mudun wa al-‘Umran, (Kuwait University, Kuwait: 1995), p. 65-108.
[2] Hisbah Institution, http://islamic-world.net/economics/hisbah.htm.
[3] Stefano Bianca, Urban Form in the Arab World, p. 22-23.
[4] Ibid.
[5] What is Architecture?, http://architecture.about.com/library/blarchitecture.htm.
[6] Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-I’tisam bi al-Kitab wa al-Sunnah, HAdith No. 6805.