Art omeyyade

The art umayyade , or omeyyade , gathers the artistic production of this dynasty of Caliph S, which reigned on the Islamic world between 661 and 750.

Structure and town planning

Town planning

There coarsely exist three types of cities at the umayyades:

the amsar ,
hellenistic cities and Roman transforms,
new cities.

Amsar is the plural of misr , which means “city of the conquest”. These urban centres, with the number of which one counts Fostat (old the Cairo), Basra, Kufa and Kairouan, were created like and place winter quarters of fold for the army of the Moslem conquerors. They follow a simple diagram: large the Mosque and the dar Al-imara , the palate, occupy the center, and are surrounded by districts of dwellings. So some amsar completely have periclity little time after their creation, others developed considerably.

The the Middle East, under Byzantine domination until the conquest, was already strongly urbanized. This is why less cities were built in these areas, the new arrivals settling in the already built cities, like Damas, Alep, Hims, Laodicée, Apamée or Jerusalem. A large mosque is built there, either in the place of the church, as in Damas and Jerusalem, or on a place left vacuum (Alep, for example). The church can also sometimes be crossed into two, a part being reserved for the Christian worship, the other with that of the Moslems.

Other cities are more or less created ex-nihilo, without being for all that the amsar , but simlement of new civil urban centres. It is for example the case with Wasit (Iraq) or with Shiraz, in Iran, where, unfortunately, it is impossible to distinguish acuellement from the elements umayyades. That of Ramla, in the Middle East, is only known by the texts. Capital of Palestine under Al-Walid Ier, this city extended on 2,5 km ², opened by twelve doors, including four axial, and included/understood a large mosque, a palate, buildings for the craft industry, of the cisterns, the markets, the workshops and the districts of dwelling.
With Anjar, with the Lebanon, the umayyade city is from now on an archeological site, unfortunately little explored, put aside by the emir Shebab, in 1950. An inscription in Syriaque makes it possible to go back construction to 846 of the Christian era. It could be a question of an important commercial counter. Girded of a wall stressed by half-turns full, the city measures 370 X 310 m and opens by four doors in beautiful limestone equipment on hardcore. Two axes perpendicular to arcades, corresponding to the cardo and the decumanus Roman, cut out urban fabric in four parts of equal size. They are bordered of shops, and their center is marked of a tetrapylon, a “gantry monumental of square plan, with four supports, placed at the central crossroads of certain Roman big cities of The close East”. The city contains a palate and a mosque in the south-eastern zone, another palate in the North-East and of the baths in north. A large basilica, located close to the central crossroads, was also excavated. Its assembly with squares and headers and its strong set of mouldings are rather typical elements of the first Islamic art.

Religious architecture

It is under the Omeyyades, that is born really the Islamic religious architecture, starting from the Dôme of the Rock. This very particular monument, built, if one believes the legend of it, on the site of the Temple of Solomon is, according to Oleg Grabar, “the first monument which wanted to be a major esthetic creation of Islam”. The building is organized around a central cupola resting on four pillars and twelve columns of coloured marble. A first made octagone of alternate pillars and columns encloses the central ring. It is doubled by the second octagone that the walls of the building form, and thus creates a double déambulatoire. Mosaics at gold bottom covered most of the building, of which only those located remain inside. Their iconography is rather enigmatic: completely aniconic they represent, at certain places, of the jewels of which it is difficle to determine the direction. Some see there trophies, others of the offerings this which is not incompatible, moreover. One notices the strong influence of the Mediterranean traditions of late antiquity, in particular in the technique of the mosaic at bottom of gold and the rermploi of columns and ancient capitals, as well as influences of Iran sassanide, in the crowns in particular. But the long Koranic inscription it first of all the Islamic Architecture - and the absence of living beings in the decoration show that this building, though employing again older elements, adapted them to a new use, a new thought, properly Islamic.

It is as under Umayyades as the type of the Arab mosque of plan is set up. The prototype and the chief of work are the Grande mosque of Omeyyades of Damas, carried out under the reign of Al-Walid Ier, between 705 and 715. It is about a building comprising a court surrounded by a gantry and a hypostyle room of prayer, with three spans parallel with the wall of Qibla. The nave leading to the Mihrab is raised and magnifiée by a cupola, and three minarets mark the angles. Here still, one finds mosaics at gold bottom of Byzantine influence, perhaps even realized by Byzantine craftsmen.

Civil architecture

The civil architecture also develops it, through the Châteaux of the desert. They are numerous to rise in plains Syriennes sorry, but before extremely green and fertile: let us quote Qasr Al-Hayr, the Khirbat Al-Mafjar, Qusair Amra, Mshatta… Filling of the different functions (caravanserais, princely residences or governors…), they present varied plans, but of the common characteristics. Thus, they all are built out of brick, and are surrounded by quadrangular enclosures rythmées by half-turns full and notched.

Architectural decoration

The architectural decoration depends still much on antiquity and Byzantine art, as testifies some the frequent re-employment to ancient columns or the mosaics at bottom of gold sometimes carried out by Byzantine artists, sometimes by local craftsmen who imitate them. The mural also is very developed, as with Qusair Amra, and one knows sculptures in Stuc, almost only the round bumps of all art Islamique.

Objects

The first Islamic objects are very difficult to distinguish from the objects former to the period: indeed, it use the same techniques and same the reasons.

Ceramics

One knows in particular an abundant production of not glaçurée ceramics, as famous a small bowl preserved at the Louvre testifies some, whose inscription ensures its dating during the Islamic time. The vegetable reasons are then undoubtedly most important.

There exist also parts covered with Glaçure S monochromic green or yellow. A glaze is a vitreous coating, coloured or not, sometimes transparency, sometimes opaque, which recovers a ceramics and makes it shine; it is a very important element as of the art of the countries of Islam.

Metals

The craftsmen work already metal as virtuosos, creating all kinds of crockery. The ewer of Marwan II, of the Islamique museum of Cairo is one of the most impressive examples. Composed of a globular paunch, of a high collar finely openwork, a mouth in the shape of cock, it is one of the chiefs of work of the period umayyade. It was created besides for one of the sovereigns of this dynasty.

Appendices

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