Islamic Archi Flashcards
The building was unfinished when Timur died, to be buried in the tomb which dominates the funerary complex. The group includes a tomb, a madrassa, and a caravanserai. An abnormally high drum is surmounted by a high-rising, bulbous dome said to have been rebuilt to satisfy an emperor with a passion for impressive height. The wall surfaces faced in ceramics and marbles and the vault itself in gold and blue patterned inlay are magical and complete.
Gur-i Amir, Samarkand
Refers to floral motifs created by combining lines and vegetal elements, which can be flowers, leaves, or tree branches. Decorative patterns can be found covering surfaces on buildings like mosques, as well as items like ceramic tiles and glassware. The Islamic emphasis on repetition, balance, symmetry, and pattern formation is exemplified by these designs. Combined with optical effects such as balancing positive and negative areas, as well as sophisticated use of color and tonal values.
Arabesque
The successor to the prophet military, judicial, or spiritual leader of Islam.
Caliph
Box or wooden screen near the mihrab, which was originally designed to shield a worshipping ruler from assassins.
Maqsura
A complex of buildings that centers on the 11th-century domed sanctuary and includes a second smaller domed chamber, built-in 1088, known for its beauty of proportion and design. The central sanctuary was built under the direction ofNiẓām al-Mulk, vizier to the Seljuq ruler Malik-Shāh, probably between 1070 and 1075. It stands at the south end of the courtyard. Its large brick dome is supported by 12 heavy piers.
Great Mosque of Esfahan
A large building - its dome has a diameter of 26 m (85 ft) and a height of 52 m (170 ft) The lead-faced domes, softly contoured but of powerful shape, are terminated in outward-surging eaves which contrast markedly with the lean elegance of the minarets. Internally, the ceramic panels are sparse but perfect. White calligraphic inscriptions on blue grounds are surrounded by intricate borders, and the great, glowing windows of colored glass are carried in grilles of carved stucco typical of Ottoman work.
Suleymaniye Mosque
The courtyard of the Muhammad in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, was the model for later Islamic architecture. The home of Muhammad and his family was a simple structure, made of raw brick, which opened on an enclosed courtyard where people gathered to hear him. In 624 Muhammad decreed that prayer be directed toward Mecca.
The Mosque of the Prophet
Tower from which a call to prayer is made.
Minaret
The last surviving fragment of the Kara-khanid era mosque was built by Mohammad Arslan Khan in 1127, predating the Mongol conquests. Standing tall at 45.6 meters, this unlikely survivor of the city’s early days—which so astonished Genghis Khan that he refused to order its destruction—continues to serve as the centerpiece of the city
Kalyan Minaret
The prayer hall in a typical mosque.
Liwan
It resembles stalactites or honeycombs and becomes the 3D sculptural ornamentations that often appear as a part of vaults. The underside of domes, pendentives, arches, vaults, squinches etcetera usually host these architectural elements.
Muqarnas
It is a 104.1 meters (341.5 feet) tall minaret of a mosque that stood on the site of today’s cathedral during the period of the Almohad rule.
Giralda Tower
Any house or open area of prayer in Islam. It could also be used as a school, a place for transactions, storage for treasures, place for hearing official notices.
Mosque
The complex is huge and measures 190 x130 meters and is composed of a mosque, two symmetrical square madrasas, and there was a row of shops and a school for learning the recitation of the Quran located to the west and added during the reign of Sultan Murad III. The mosque’s nearly square prayer hall is approached through a porticoed courtyard, making the central block of the complex rectangular. The approach to the northfaçade of the mosque is dramatic: the aligned gates of the outer precinct wall and forecourt focus the eye upwards toward the dome, which could also be seen from a distance.
Mosque of Selim II
Open-fronted porch facing a court.
Iwan
The Islamic emphasis on repetition, balance, symmetry, and pattern formation is exemplified by these designs. Combined with optical effects such as balancing positive and negative areas, as well as sophisticated use of color and tonal values.
Geometric pattern
The man who leads the congregation in prayer.
Imam
The mosque retains its original character despite several restorations. It is built in brick but is faced with stucco in which friezes are incised. The mixture of several forms of ornamental detailing found separately at Samara suggests not only that the mosque wasessentially an Iraqi building, but that it was built by craftsmen from theAbbasid capital who had arrived in Egypt only a relatively short time before.
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun
It is usually put in the center of the mosque’s courtyard for the worshipers to perform their ritual washing before prayer.
Fawwara
Islamic mosque in Spain, which was converted into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century. The original structure was built by the Umayyad ruler ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān I in 784–786 with extensions in the 9th and 10th centuries that doubled its size, ultimately making it one of the largest sacred buildings in the Islamic world. The ground plan of the completed building forms a vast rectangle measuring 590 by425 feet (180 by 130 meters), or little less than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Great Mosque of Córdoba
