Download The Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, built 60 years after the

The Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, built 60 years after the Mohammed's death
in 632, "shelters" the ancient rock from Mohammad 'ascendance' into heaven. It
is an Islamic shrine and a major landmark located on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem. It was completed in 691 making it the oldest extant Islamic building in
the world.
Sources:
http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/%7Ematc/eBookshelf/index.html
Titus Burckhardt, "The foundations of Islamic Art," In, Sacred Art in East and West: Its Principles and Methods. London , 1967
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock
Saudi Arabia, a nation populated largely by nomads, gave birth to Islam during the
seventh century AD. The Prophet Mohammad was born in Mecca. He claimed to
have received the word of God.
In 622 Mohammad and a group of merchants fled from severe persecution to
Medina and founded the first Islamic state.
Ten years later, Mohammad returned to Mecca and triumphantly overturned the
pagan idols surrounding the sacred shrine of the Ka'ba. Then he forgave his
enemies, and securely established his birthplace in Mecca as the spiritual center of
Islam.
100 years later Arab Muslim armies conquered so much territory that that their land
stretched from the Western borders of India, across Persia and Northern Africa, to
Spain and Southern France. Mosques were erected for prayer in order to
"strengthen political and social ties and bind the faithful." Islam remained in the
West for 800 years until 1492.
The rapid success and durability of the Islamic Empire rests in part on the swift
development of a monumental Islamic art.
The Muslims took over large urbanized societies and a rich legacy of intact artistic
traditions. The first conquests, Byzantium and Persia, vied for territory in Saudi Arabia,
but instead, were defeated by the Arabs and formed the core of their Empire. Alexander
the Great conquered these regions 800 years earlier. Subjugation to Greece unified
them under the artistic traditions of Classical Greece. The Roman Empire created yet
another cultural layer. This collective inheritance did much to unify the early Islamic
kingdom.
The success of Islamification was due to several facts:
- Islam did not impose their religion, but allowed conversion to take place gradually,
trusting in the persuasive power of their message (such enlightened attitudes enabled
Islam to translate and preserve much of Classical culture for the Western world)
- Islam adopted the artistic traditions of their subjects, interpreting them in fresh and
vigorous ways. For example, the first great mosques were modeled on the Byzantine
basilica and central plan, and crafted by Byzantine builders and artisans. Classical
decoration, provided the inspiration from abstract and linear or decorative modes that
co-existed with representations of man and nature.
Core themes in Islamic culture / art
monotheism (no other deity except the one God); Mohammad as the
last messenger of God in the teachings of the Qu'ran
al-twahid (unity in multiplicity)
aniconism (no representation of human or animal forms)
geometric art which constructs, squares, hexagons, octogons, etc. from
the circle.
Along with the merging of Graeco Roman and Arabic elements, the faith of Islam
itself contributed essential principles to the new art:
Arabic language and Aniconism emanate both the content and form of Islamic
expression. Aniconism defines figurative art as a challenge to the omnipotence
of God. In Islamic art the ban against illusion served two functions:
- it produced universal forms that omitted specific imagery and thus, included in
its audience all of Islam's diverse subjects.
- it unleashed a passion for abstraction in symmetrical, meditative geometry. This
geometry organized the foundations of their architecture and ornament. Abstract
pattern also expressed a basic tenet of Islam: "Instead of ensnaring the mind and
leading it into some imaginary world it dissolve[d] mental fixations and detache[d]
consciousness from its inward idols." This infinite symmetry expressed yet
another of Islam's ideals: al-twahid, the doctrine of unity, or multiplicity in unity.
Ka'ba
A small 10'x12'x15' building, with a flat roof resting on 6 wooden pillars. It was
constructed in Mecca centuries before the birth of Islam, and has been ravaged and
rebuilt more than once. It is believed that the Prophet, Abraham, father of Ishmael, and
apostle of "pure and universal monotheism" was its first architect.
Muslims, consequently, perceive it as the first and holiest sanctuary to the one God in
Arabia. The Ka'ba also marks the site of the Prophet's triumpant return from Medina. In
addition to its religious record, the cube of the Ka'ba concretely represents God's
centrality in Moslem life. The cube connotes the "idea of the center" in the geometry of
space, and the crystalline shape of earthly existence. Muslims face the direction of the
Ka'ba when performing salat (prayer), symbolizing their vast, unified community of
worship.
Hajj pilgrims praying towards the Ka'ba at the Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca
source: www.islamicity.org
The Dome of the Rock is located at the visual centre of an ancient man-made platform
known as the Temple Mount. The platform, greatly enlarged under the rule of Herod the
Great, was the former site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the
Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In 637 AD Jerusalem was conquered by the
Rashidun Caliphate army during the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire.
The Dome of the Rock was erected between 685 and 691 AD. The inscriptions
decorating the interior clearly display a spirit of polemic against Christianity, while
stressing at the same time the Qur'anic doctrine that Jesus Christ was a true prophet.
Some believe this shows that rivalry with Christendom, together with the spirit of Islamic
mission to the Christians, was at the work at the creation of the famous Dome.
The Dome of the Rock is considered the second holiest site in Islam after the Kaaba at
Mecca. It's significance stems from the religious beliefs regarding the rock at it heart.
According to Islamic tradition, the rock is the spot from where Muhammad ascended to
Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. In Judaism the stone is venerated as the
holiest spot on Earth, the site of the Holy of Holies during the Temple Period. In
Christianity it is believed that during the time of the Byzantine Empire, the spot where the
Dome was later constructed was where Constantine's mother built a small church,
calling it the Church of St. Cyrus and St. John, later on enlarged and called the Church
of the Holy Wisdom.
The Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church, and the
Al-Aqsa Mosque became the royal palace of Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. The Knights
Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock was the site of the Temple of Solomon, set
up their headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th
century.
Jerusalem was recaptured by Salah al-Din in 1187 and the Haram was reconsecrated as a
Muslim sanctuary. The cross on top of the Dome of the Rock was replaced by a golden
crescent.
Under Jordanian rule of Jerusalem, Jews were forbidden from entering the Old City. Israel
took control of the Dome of Rock during its victory in the Six-Day War in 1967. According
to a posthumously-published interview with Haaretz, General Uzi Narkiss reported that on
June 7, 1967, a few hours after East Jerusalem fell into Israeli hands, Rabbi Shlomo Goren
had told him "Now is the time to put 100 kilograms of explosives into the Mosque of Omar
so that we may rid ourselves of it once and for all." A few hours after the Israeli flag was
hoisted over the Dome of the Rock in 1967, at the conclusion of the Six-Day War, Israelis
lowered it on the orders of General Moshe Dayan, and invested the Muslim Waqf (religious
trust) with the authority to manage the Temple Mount-Haram al-Sharif in order to "keep the
peace".
Most religious Jews feel that the Temple should only be rebuilt in the messianic era, and it
is their belief that it would be presumptuous of people to force God's hand. However, many
Evangelical Christians consider this a prerequisite to Armageddon and the Second
Coming, and actively encourage the rebuilding of the Temple in place of the Dome of the
Rock.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site for Judaism. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem stood
there: the First Temple (built c. 967 BCE, destroyed c. 586 BCE by the Babylonians), and the
Second Temple (rebuilt c. 516 BCE, destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in
70 CE). Contained in its confines is the location of the Jewish Temple's Holy of Holies – the
foundation stone of Mount Moriah where Abraham is said to have prepared to sacrifice his
son Isaac.
Under the Jordanian rule of East Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967, Jews and other nonArab people were forbidden from entering the Old City. After the Israeli forces gained control
of the Old City in the 1967 Six Day War, Jewish and non-Arab visits to the site resumed. Both
Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim sovereignty over the site, which remains a key
issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Israeli government has granted management of the site
to a Muslim Council (Waqf).
As Jewish prayer is not permitted at the holiest site in Judaism, Jews must stand behind a
wall of the mount while praying toward the rock located under the 'Dome of the Rock' and
Muslims stand on the mount facing away from the rock and toward Mecca.
According to an Aggada in the Talmud, the world was created from the Foundation Stone
on the Temple Mount. According to the Bible, the place where Abraham fulfilled God's test
to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac was Mount Moriah, which the Talmud
says was another name for the Temple Mount.
The Bible recounts that Jacob dreamed about angels ascending and descending a ladder
while sleeping on a stone. The Talmud says that this took place on the Temple Mount.
Rashi also identifies the site as the place where Isaac and Rebekah prayed, asking God to
grant them children.
The Western Wall, also known as The Kotel, is a part of the Temple Mount that survived
the destruction of the Second Temple and remains standing. The Western Wall is holy due
to its proximity to the location on the Temple Mount of the Holy of Holies of the Temple, the
Most Holy Place in Judaism. Due to Jewish religious restrictions on entering the most
sacred areas of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall has become, for practical purposes,
the holiest generally accessible site for Jews to pray. Many Jews often leave written
prayers addressed to God in the cracks of the wall.
According to a commonly held belief in Judaism, the Temple Mount is to be the site of the
final Third Temple, to be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah.
The dome is a meeting place between Byzantine and nascent Islamic art. The
interior of the dome is decorated with mosaics that display vine arabesques
embellished with jewels and diadems of Byzantine style, yet there is no
representation of animate beings.
The drum of the dome housing the rock is held up by four pillars and 12 columns.
The bases of these pillars form the intersecting points of a star-shaped polygon and
create two squares traced in the center circle. These rectangular areas display
proportions between the sides of a square and its diagonal, a relationship that
corresponds to the irrational number of the square root of two. This system of
proportion creates an "organic", harmony in the building. It expresses the
mathematical fusion of a circle and square, because the "celestial" sphere or circle
joins with the "earthly crystal of the lower octagon.
A important influence on Islamic
art is the writing of Arabic
language. The Qu'ran is viewed
as the true and final revelation
of God through the Prophet.
Muslim life vibrates with it's
sacred formulae, and the arrival
of literacy designates a huge
shift in Arabic culture. As a key
element in Islamic art, writing in
particular, influenced decoration
and pattern. The sacred word of
the Qu'ran evolved into both the
content and form of Islamic
patterns, issuing arabesques
and
complex,
repeating
crystalline forms.
Arabic calligraphy occurs in two
styles: Kufic and Cursive scripts.
Kufic script: plain brick-like
rectangles
with
calligraphic
patterns of Arabic script.
Cursive script: a fluid undulating
script related to decorative
vegetation
and
geometric
interlacing.
.
Cursive script can flow back and forth between the three types of Islamic patterns:
“arabesque”
“interlacing”
“complex polygons”
(a) Penrose tile,
(b) 3-d structure based on this tile give a theoretical diffraction pattern.
(c) Diffraction pattern of Manganese-aluminum alloy.
(d) Scanning tunnelling microscope image of Aluminum-copper-cobalt alloy.
(e) Corresponding tiling. Aluminum is open centers, copper and cobalt are closed centers.
Penrose Tilings
A Penrose tiling is a non-periodic tiling generated by an aperiodic set of prototiles named after Roger
Penrose.
* it is non-periodic which means that it lacks any translational symmetry. More informally, a shifted
copy will never match the original exactly.
* any finite region in a tiling appears infinitely many times in that tiling and, in fact, in any other tiling.
* Only at their infinite limits are the different patterns distinguishable. A finite patch of an Infinite Star
pattern might only be a local piece of some other pattern, but there is also an Infinite Star pattern
that has five-fold symmetry to infinity.
http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/symmetry/penrose.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling