Mosaics, Umayyad Grand Mosque Gallery, Damascus, Syria
Islamic architecture used mosaic technique to decorate religious buildings and palaces after the Muslim conquests of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. In Syria and Egypt the Arabs were influenced by the great tradition of Roman and Early Christian mosaic art. During the Umayyad Dynasty, mosaic making remained a flourishing art form in Islamic culture.
The most important early Islamic mosaic work is the decoration of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, then capital of the Arab Caliphate. The mosque was built between 706 and 715. The caliph obtained 200 skilled workers from the Byzantine Emperor to decorate the building. This is evidenced by the partly Byzantine style of the decoration. The mosaics of the inner courtyard depict Paradise with beautiful trees, flowers and small hill towns and villages in the background.
Literal representations of the Garden of Paradise are rare. The astonishing mosaic cycle applied around the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, dating to the AH 2nd / AD 8th century, shows an idealised landscape with a sinuous river and an array of palaces and sophisticated buildings. That this pictorial cycle is based on Qur'anic descriptions is confirmed by the survival of a statement by one of the mosaicists involved: 'In the mosaics we represented what we found in the Qur'an with regard to trees and palaces of Paradise. And when a worker had executed a tree in a particularly fine manner the Caliph 'Umar would give him 30 dirhams as a reward.'
The mosaics include no human figures, which makes them different from the otherwise similar contemporary Byzantine works. The biggest continuous section survives under the western arcade of the courtyard, called the "Barada Panel" after the river Barada. It is thought that the mosque used to have the largest gold mosaic in the world, at over 4 m2. In 1893 a fire damaged the mosque extensively, and many mosaics were lost, although some have been restored since.
The mosaics of the Umayyad Mosque gave inspiration to later Damascene mosaic works. The Dome of the Treasury, which stands in the mosque courtyard, is covered with fine mosaics, probably dating from 13th- or 14th-century restoration work. The style of them are strikingly
Mosaics, Umayyad Grand Mosque Gallery, Damascus, Syria
Islamic architecture used mosaic technique to decorate religious buildings and palaces after the Muslim conquests of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. In Syria and Egypt the Arabs were influenced by the great tradition of Roman and Early Christian mosaic art. During the Umayyad Dynasty, mosaic making remained a flourishing art form in Islamic culture.
The most important early Islamic mosaic work is the decoration of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, then capital of the Arab Caliphate. The mosque was built between 706 and 715. The caliph obtained 200 skilled workers from the Byzantine Emperor to decorate the building. This is evidenced by the partly Byzantine style of the decoration. The mosaics of the inner courtyard depict Paradise with beautiful trees, flowers and small hill towns and villages in the background.
Literal representations of the Garden of Paradise are rare. The astonishing mosaic cycle applied around the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, dating to the AH 2nd / AD 8th century, shows an idealised landscape with a sinuous river and an array of palaces and sophisticated buildings. That this pictorial cycle is based on Qur'anic descriptions is confirmed by the survival of a statement by one of the mosaicists involved: 'In the mosaics we represented what we found in the Qur'an with regard to trees and palaces of Paradise. And when a worker had executed a tree in a particularly fine manner the Caliph 'Umar would give him 30 dirhams as a reward.'
The mosaics include no human figures, which makes them different from the otherwise similar contemporary Byzantine works. The biggest continuous section survives under the western arcade of the courtyard, called the "Barada Panel" after the river Barada. It is thought that the mosque used to have the largest gold mosaic in the world, at over 4 m2. In 1893 a fire damaged the mosque extensively, and many mosaics were lost, although some have been restored since.
The mosaics of the Umayyad Mosque gave inspiration to later Damascene mosaic works. The Dome of the Treasury, which stands in the mosque courtyard, is covered with fine mosaics, probably dating from 13th- or 14th-century restoration work. The style of them are strikingly