2011/02/01 by JALE NEJDET ERZEN, Jale Erzen · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Archaeology #Architecture #Architecture and Cultural Influences #Art #Byzantine Studies and History #Epistemology #Historical and Architectural Studies #History #Islam #Islamic architecture #Linguistics #Meaning (existential) #Philosophy #Reading (process) #Visual arts
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6245.2010.01453.x
openalex publication_date 2011/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The expression ‘reading architecture’ should not seem too odd, as one of the best known examples of architecture, the church, has often been likened to a book, and in entering, for example, the little Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, one feels as if one were leafing through the pages of a miniature novel that narrates a story one should not forget. This article applies the notion of reading architecture to mosques by offering a reading of this type of architecture that pays particular attention to the symbols and metaphors embodied in most mosques. Although users of mosques may not be conscious of these architectural symbols, I believe that the buildings they experience have significance and unique aesthetic value for them largely because of these elements. The mosque is one of the most common types of building, and its presence in the diversity of cultures that participated in the complex historical developments of the Islamic world makes it difficult to produce a general account. Nevertheless, this article will try to analyze certain symbolic features that have been—and still continue to be—common in most kinds of mosques. The use of metaphors and other symbols in architectural design and interpretation is not peculiar to Islam. Western architecture and architectural discourse are full of examples of buildings whose meaning is partially determined by symbols. In relation to architecture, the terms ‘representation’ or ‘symbol’ have been more commonly used by philosophers, as in the case of Nelson Goodman's provocatively titled essay “How Buildings Mean.”1 On the other hand, many architects and architectural critics have couched their analyses of the meanings of buildings in terms of “metaphors.” For example, Denis Hollier has demonstrated how George Bataille uses the notion of metaphor to show the political nature of architecture.2 Hugh Pearman, in his book Contemporary World Architecture, has stressed the metaphoric qualities of religious architecture in various cultures.3 Christian Norberg‐Schulz, who treats the history of architecture as a search for meaning, has also highlighted the use of symbols in Western architecture, noting that Le Corbusier's use of mechanical metaphors in his architectural and urban designs and the cosmic implications of Claude‐Nicolas Ledoux's projects are well known.4 Postmodern architects have used symbols and metaphors to render architecture socially and historically significant, and discussion of these elements has constituted the main subject of postmodern architectural discourse and criticism. Charles Jencks's writings, for example, have focused mainly on such issues.5 Charles Moore's Piazza d’Italia, Aldo Rossi's architecture employing the concept of the “analogical city,” and Hans Hollein's projects that try to create “architectural landscapes” can be cited as examples of projects that make use of symbols and metaphors. Even a more structurally oriented architect like Norman Foster has used metaphors to describe his work, as in the case of the Millau Viaduct, which he likens to a butterfly.6 Interestingly, contemporary Western architects who have built mosques have made use of common Islamic metaphors. The postmodern architect Paolo Portoghesi's mosque in Rome is a well‐known example. Symbols and metaphors have been particularly attractive to Muslim scholars and writers, who have traditionally avoided precise literal expressions in any realm, believing that the human mind could not fathom the infinite meanings of the world.7 This idea was based on a religious understanding of the world that held that God cannot be defined. This “medieval” disposition, seeing constant changes and multidimensionality in what is observed, had a strong aesthetic aspect because it kept Islamic thinkers attentive to perceptual qualities. Moreover, the Islamic view of the world, within which the architecture of the mosque developed, is influenced by a sense of adoration for the creations of God. Such adoration renders everything with the emotion of love, leading to empathy and giving rise to an aesthetic relation to the world. Consequently, all Islamic artworks, including Islamic architecture and specifically the architecture of mosques, need to be understood and appraised in terms of the symbols that are embodied therein. This has long been understood in the Muslim world. Indeed, some of the ideas I employ to explain the architecture of mosques were drawn from the dictated architectural records of the greatest of Ottoman architects, Sinan, who was active in the Ottoman court during the sixteenth century. In these records, written mostly in poetic form, Sinan describes mosques using numerous metaphors and similes: “In every corner is a rose garden of Paradise. … Those who its marbles see would think (themselves) in a sea of elegance. … Each of those variegated arches resembles a rainbow.”8 Islam, which appeared in the seventh century, took its initial artistic forms from existing Christian architecture and decorations.9 The first Islamic religious monument, The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, in spite of its original form, is nevertheless decorated with mosaics inspired by Byzantine patterns.10 However, within a short period, several factors, such as social norms, structural exigencies, religious practices, and climate, created the possibility for various original mosque configurations around the Mediterranean, where Islam had spread with great speed. Islamic prayer does not require a specific edifice, as prayer can be observed anywhere as long as one faces Mecca. Although the Prophet had warned against the futile show of riches and materiality in this world, prayer in communion is important, since Islam claims to be a religion of equality and communality. Moreover, in Arabic, the word for beauty has the same root with the words ‘wholeness’ or ‘community.’ Thus, large intensively decorated mosques were built in all Islamic lands. The first mosques are in the form of multicolumned (hypostyle) structures where the space in front of the Mihrab (a kind of altar pointing toward Mecca) was covered with a dome whose interior surface would usually be decorated with plaster stalactites that created a play of light, symbolizing the heavens.11 The mosque was not only a place for prayer, but, in its early phase, it also served as the communal meeting place and as a place for judiciary court meetings under the supervision of the imam. The hypostyle hall, which was usually a rectangle with the short axis toward the mihrab, was entered from an open courtyard surrounded by arcades. This courtyard would also be used for prayer when the congregation was large. This type of mosque is called “Great Mosque,” from which different varieties were to evolve in the sundry lands where Islam spread. I discuss four types of symbols in my analysis of mosques. The most common, found in all types of mosques throughout history, refers to “paradise.” The second, what I refer to as “the heavenly theater,” is related to the unique function of the mosque as the place for communal prayer. Except for the imam who performs the prayer with the community, there are no actors or rituals for the faithful to watch. Thus, the interior of a mosque is an empty space, a stage for prayer which is performed through bodily movements of prostration. This turns the interior into a space of performance. Third, mosques are often understood as “urban sculptures” that guide visitors through cities. “The cosmic spiral” is the final symbol that is common to many structures, forms, and decorations in the Islamic world and relates to a medieval understanding of time and space. The image for the ideal place has usually been “paradise.” Although the notion of paradise is common to most religions, the sacred book of Islam, the Koran, and popular Muslim culture stress the idea of paradise almost beyond any other. All mosques have tried to create an atmosphere that refers by analogy to a conception of paradise. Moreover, the Islamic world is considered by the faithful to be the land of peace, “Dar‐el‐Islam,” as opposed to lands where anarchy and war reign, “Dar‐el‐Harp.” Consequently, the mosque should be an ideal place where all tensions are brought to equilibrium and harmonized. An attempt is made to reference this quality in mosques through the apparent equilibrium of structural forces. Ideally, in a mosque, all tensile forces are integrated to create an atmosphere of harmony. As Augusto Romano Burelli states in relation to the mosques of Sinan, “the purpose of decoration is not the making‐explicit of chosen constructive details, but rather [by] masking and blurring of the constructive procedure followed, … decoration tends to function as a reconciler of opposites.”12 One can understand this better by comparing the structure of a mosque with that of a Christian monument or church, where the dynamism and the constant movement of contrary forces are singled out as an aesthetic quality. In the Western world, humans create their own destiny by opposing contrary forces with will and power. In the Islamic world, however, it is believed that humans are born into a perfect world and that the mosque should represent this perfect world, while also referring to the afterlife that is promised to the faithful. A statement from Burelli perfectly illustrates this for the mosques of Sinan: The space of the mosques of Sinan is [a] metaphor for Islamic paradise. In the 97 verses of the Koran in which paradise is described, there is one which describes the enchantment of the paradisiacal space more strikingly than the others. “But for those who follow their duty to their God, for them there are lofty rooms with lofty halls above them … beneath which rivers flow. …[There they rest,] sojourning in gardens where they will.” (Sura XXXIX, 20‐73‐74)13 According to Islam, humanity has destroyed the perfect world initially given by God. In mosques, an attempt is made to recreate this perfection or make people remember it primarily through symbols and expressions such as calligraphy, decoration, and the structure of mosques, as well as through certain other aesthetic designs that refer to the promised paradise. Besides the structural harmony attained by solving and concealing tensions to create an atmosphere of peacefulness, the use of light has been an extremely important physical and spiritual reference to heaven. Although, throughout history, different mosque designs employed light differently because of the restrictions of their structures, light has always—and in all cultures—referred to a sacred and spiritual force, often to God. It could be that the most perfect and generous use of light in mosques belong to Ottoman mosques of the sixteenth century, which, like Gothic cathedrals, do not have load‐bearing walls. The baldachin structure of sixteenth‐century Ottoman mosques allows for windows to be opened in its walls at all elevations. This is because the structure depends on columns and arches. There are also windows around the drum of the dome, allowing light to enter the interior from all sides and levels. In spite of this profusion of light coming from all directions, any directionality of light is avoided. At all times of day the quality of light is such that one never knows where the sun is. The overall light effect is provided by double windows, by grates on the outside, and by stained glass. As Burelli states, “the internal space given over to prayers must be perfectly visible in all its points, unsecret and revealed … [while] conceal[ing] from the worshipers the position of the sun in the heavens.”14 Other features that are related to paradise are the decorations on the mihrab and on the exterior wall of the portico (the arcaded entrance section also used by latecomers for prayer). As the faithful look toward the mihrab niche, they often face decorations that symbolize the opening to the paradise garden. In the portico of the Rüstem Paşa Mosque in Istanbul (c. 1560), tiles that depict a garden of flowers symbolize paradise. The Green Mosque in Bursa has a mihrab that is decorated with blue tiles on which yellow and gold flowers have been painted. We can extend these examples indefinitely, from the early mosques in northern Africa all the way to those in Andalusia in southern Spain. Two other types of symbols found in mosques that refer to paradise are the presence of water and images of forests. In the Seljukid medreses, which also served for religious rituals and meetings, there used to be a small pool under the oculus of the dome, collecting rainwater and reflecting the sky; often a spiral incision into the pavement near the pool would symbolize the universe. In the early Ottoman mosques in Bursa, the first hall under the dome would also contain a little fountain with running water. The Great Mosque in Bursa dating from 1300 has in its very center a large pool with sprinkling water, used also for ablution. The famous mosque of Sinan in Edirne (Adrianopolis) also has a small fountain right in the middle of the of the Mosque in Istanbul built by Sinan for the are in the exterior walls of the building, a physical with the and referring to the rivers of paradise. It has often been that the Great Mosque with a hypostyle hall many such as the mosques built in by the (c. or the Great Mosque of with its of columns and or the For a culture that first in the lands of water and have This is the is almost a sacred for Islam and the presence of water in the mosques is of Thus, by the of many and to the mosque is as a metaphor for it in every The of prayer observed in congregation is a of adoration and to God, the The of prayer in a mosque, of a or of a will make it that the interior space, to be visible and in all of its is as a stage for the of a performance. 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In this the bodily with architecture and the mosque, a is observed at the The the and the are the mosque, the are the prayer, the is and This the for active and One feels the under and during the prayer to the several In this interior the of the imam and the of water there are are made to be and in the best In many of the mosques of Sinan, water have been in the to that the to prayer and the of the prayers are in the and most way the prayer is observed in the bodily presence and more In to the the of movements of the and the of Great architects throughout the world have been to the that architecture can certain physical and on the For example, and as in the case of or a certain bodily position to to this while not only certain of and but to with are examples of this changes in the of the often when an interior from an open space. This can be The very architect made users conscious of this by light at the of his this in the of from exterior to interior and the many different implications it can have often have been through specific designs on and In mosques, are and covered with to people for the experience of the heavenly that The who over the Islamic world for created an architecture which was open to the exterior and a type of mosque that out in the urban space as a were to Ottoman mosques in that the form was to be from all four The most famous of these are the the of in and that of near can be understood as urban On the other hand, sixteenth‐century Ottoman mosques were with a specific urban in were in the to be from specific and and related to other in the urban For example, the great mosque of the right above the in as a to the above the the one is with the view of the which above the It is believed that the monument was at and would as a to the on the The religious monument from the as a form that could almost be held in is a perfect a perfect which the for the sixteenth‐century Ottoman mosques have a form that their Thus, architecture of this understood as urban to bodily and sense in the as it to sense of and in the spiritual and the mosque that is and as an urban an important to the offering and and social As the Ottoman mosque is into an urban it to the sense of with the and a sense of human giving the the of The as a form that is and that has no and no is the on which the understanding of space and time and the related are based in In to the of and the understanding related to which are in the in Islam, and forms their from the to Islamic and analyses of space in mosques and in religious architectural show that structural elements as well as are in form, and other like water around a This of the structure and the of architectural in a of such as architectural are most apparent in sixteenth‐century Ottoman As this when are to an Ottoman mosque in the A the to the great mosque of in Istanbul and the to a Christian such as in is in this In the see the in all its from a as are through and to the entrance of the mosque only toward In a certain a a will to the front of The above of around a mosque is to the structural elements that many in structures where the dome a there are several of structural that make it to the interior space as well as to the In an architectural complex different such as the mosque, the the the the the the the and several in these elements are in A perfect of this is the Mosque in This spiral used in architecture and the of buildings in an architectural has several that to and to the aesthetic The first would be that sacred or religious are not entered but only around more meaning in relation to the use of spiral forms would be how the movement of the and its experience could refer to cosmic and spiritual As one turns in in space, to the movements of the and the of the one has a very different sense of space, and the in with the claims that the of movement in the in and which is to as can have an aesthetic Thus, by the architecture of mosques, as the around in one of the important aesthetic of Islamic architecture and urban which Besides the which is understood and as a cosmic and spiritual form, the the the and the also a forms metaphor in the structure and decoration in Islamic religious The the perfect form and relates to the and to God, while the with its four directions, relates to human and to the world. Islamic decoration of and is from the of the within the This can also be observed in the forms of the mosque, in the mosques where the structures have through several such as Ottoman mosques. In the of the dome and the of the are symbolic of the within the The Ottoman mosque and its decorations are perfect expressions of the of the world of and the of God. However, this can also be understood as and as mind and or as and world, to the way these had been by The use of symbols in mosques is related to a more of Islamic architecture and other Islamic In certain forms of a certain called would be chosen for of this would be in to the very like in Islamic architecture, no how a to a its final form will to the of and Moreover, buildings will be to be as they which and produce changes of and According to the of the book on the architect of the the value of this mosque in the way it to the as its elements could be differently from different the of mosques through symbols this as symbol can be differently to the experience and of Thus, because of their symbols, the meaning of a mosque is to a and by to of these symbols. The use of metaphors and other symbols to Islamic architecture has been common throughout the Muslim world. In Islam, as in many certain ideas the form of historically symbols. This article has tried to show that many of Islamic architecture are in meanings of which an may not be and that to be mosques must be architectural metaphors are and other times they are Thus, while for all cultures certain types of such as or may have a meaning, other because they contain specific symbols with specific can be understood only within that For example, as opposed to the idea of paradise for mosques, the use of the of can be as the for a mosque and understand how it from a church, it is to understand the specific metaphors found in its As in the of this for a symbols, such as those paradise and the heavenly that are to the idea of the mosque, not every mosque makes use of the same of symbols. However, I have tried to show how mosque architecture is to symbols and to some specific and to a mosque, it must be with them in In any it is to understand the Islamic to the world and how that a of ideas and images that should experience of