The Umayyad Mosque (Arabic: ٱلْجَامِع ٱلْأُمَوِي, romanized: al-Jāmiʿ al-Umawī), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus (Arabic: جَامِع بَنِي أُمَيَّة ٱلْكَبِيْر, romanized: Jāmiʿ Banī Umayyah al-Kabīr), located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. It is considered to be the oldest mosque still in use in its original form. It innovated and influenced nascent Islamic architecture by introducing a more organized and monumental design compared to earlier mosques. It enjoyed great prestige throughout its history and was regarded as a "wonder of the world" by many medieval Muslim writers. Although the original structure has been altered several times due to fire, war damage, and repairs, it is one of the few mosques to maintain the same form and architectural features of its 8th-century construction, as well as its Umayyad character. The plan of the mosque with its courtyard surrounded by riwaqs and a covered praying area is based on the original plan of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, which was itself reconstructed and expanded under the Umayyads in 707 AD.
The site has been used as a house of worship since the Iron Age, when the Arameans built on it a temple dedicated to their god of rain, Hadad. It was later associated with the Greek god Zeus during the Hellenistic period. Under Roman rule after 64 CE, it was converted into the center of the imperial cult of Jupiter, the Roman god of rain, becoming one of the largest temples in Syria. The current walls of the mosque were the inner walls of the Temple of Jupiter (built in the 1st century BC to 4th century AD).
When the empire in Syria transitioned to Christian Byzantine rule, Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–395) transformed it into a cathedral, and the seat of the second-highest-ranking bishop in the Patriarchate of Antioch. After the Muslim conquest of Damascus in 634, part of the cathedral was designated as a small prayer house (musalla) for the Muslim conquerors, with the partition being divided into east and west sides. As the Muslim community grew, the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715) confiscated the rest of the cathedral for Muslim use, returning to the Christians other properties in the city as compensation.
The chapel structure was demolished and a grand congregational mosque complex was built in its place. The new structure was built over nine years by thousands of laborers and artisans from across the Islamic and Byzantine empires at considerable expense and was funded by the war booty of Umayyad conquests and taxes on the Arab troops of Damascus. Unlike the simpler mosques of the time, the Umayyad Mosque had a large basilical plan with three parallel aisles and a perpendicular central nave leading from the mosque's entrance to the world's second concave mihrab (prayer niche). The mosque was noted for its rich compositions of marble paneling and its extensive gold mosaics of vegetal motifs, covering some 4,000 square metres (43,000 ft2), likely the largest in the world. Under Abbasid rule (750–860), new structures were added, including the Dome of the Treasury and the Minaret of the Bride, while the Mamluks (1260–1516) undertook major restoration efforts and added the Minaret of Qaitbay.
Its religious importance stems from the eschatological reports concerning the mosque and historic events associated with it. Christian and Muslim tradition alike consider it the burial place of John the Baptist's head, a tradition originating in the 6th century. Two shrines inside the premises commemorate the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali, whose martyrdom is frequently compared to that of John the Baptist. Its eastern Minaret of Isa is traditionally identified as the place from which Isa (Jesus) will descend from heaven, based on interpretations of the Islamic Hadith.
History
Pre-Islamic period
The site of the Umayyad Mosque is attested as a place of worship since the Iron Age. Damascus was the capital of the Aramaean state Aram-Damascus and a large temple was dedicated to Hadad-Ramman, the god of thunderstorms and rain, and was erected at the site of the present-day mosque. One stone remains from the Aramaean temple, dated to the rule of King Hazael, and is currently on display in the National Museum of Damascus.
The Temple of Hadad-Ramman continued to serve a central role in the city afterwards. Under the rule of the Seleucids in the Hellenistic period, probably in the 2nd century BC, the temple was formally dedicated to the Greek god Zeus, who was assimilated with Haddad-Ramman. After the Roman Empire conquered Damascus in 64 BC, they introduced worship of the equivalent Roman god, Jupiter. Thus, they engaged in a project to reconfigure and expand the temple, probably beginning in the reign of Augustus (r. 27 BC – 14 AD). The later Damascus-born architect Apollodorus may have been involved in the design.
The new Temple of Jupiter became the center of the imperial cult of Jupiter and was served as a response to the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple of Jupiter would attain further additions during the early Roman period, some funded by contributions from individuals. The temple was further renovated and embellished during the reign of Septimius Severus (r. 193–211). The remains of the western propylaeum visible today most likely date from his time. By the 4th century, the temple was especially renowned for its size and beauty. It was separated from the city by two sets of walls. The first, outer wall spanned a wide area that included a market, and the second inner wall surrounded the actual sanctuary of Jupiter. It was the largest temple in Roman Syria.
In 391, the Temple of Jupiter was converted into a cathedral by the Christian emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–395). The church was likely one of the largest of the time. It served as the seat of the Bishop of Damascus, who ranked second within the Patriarchate of Antioch after the patriarch himself.
Umayyad construction
Foundation and construction
Damascus was captured by Muslim Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid in 634. In 661, the Islamic Caliphate came under the rule of the Umayyad dynasty, which chose Damascus to be the administrative capital of the Muslim world. The Byzantine cathedral had remained in use by the local Christians, but a prayer room (musalla) for Muslims was constructed on the southeastern part of the building. The musalla did not have the capacity to house the rapidly growing number of Muslim worshippers in Damascus. The city otherwise lacked sufficient free space for a large congregational mosque. The sixth Umayyad caliph, al-Walid I (r. 705–715), resolved to construct such a mosque on the site of the cathedral in 706. Proclaiming:
Inhabitants of Damascus, four things give you marked superiority over the rest of the world: your climate, your water, your fruits, and your baths. To these I wanted to add a fifth: this mosque.”
Al-Walid personally supervised the project and had most of the cathedral, including the musalla, demolished. The construction of the mosque completely altered the layout of the building, though it preserved the outer walls of the temenos (sanctuary or inner enclosure) of the Roman-era temple. While the church (and the temples before it) had the main building located at the centre of the rectangular enclosure, the mosque's prayer hall is placed against its south wall. The architect recycled the columns and arcades of the church, dismantling and repositioning them in the new structure. Besides its use as a large congregational mosque for the Damascenes, the new house of worship was meant as a tribute to the city.
In response to Christian protest at the move, al-Walid ordered all the other confiscated churches in the city to be returned to the Christians as compensation. The mosque was completed in 711, or in 715, shortly after al-Walid's death, by his successor, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 715–717). According to 10th-century Persian historian Ibn al-Faqih, somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 gold dinars were spent on the project. The historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship notes that the field army of Damascus, numbering some 45,000 soldiers, were taxed a quarter of their salaries for nine years to pay for its construction. Coptic (Egyptian) craftsmen as well as Persian, Indian, Greek, and Maghrebi laborers provided the bulk of the labour force which consisted of 12,000 people. The extravagant costs also attracted initial resentment among the population and criticism from some Muslim writers.
The mosque subsequently held major religious and cultural significance throughout its history, while also having a strong influence on later Islamic architecture. It was commonly regarded as one of the "wonders of the world" by medieval Muslim authors, who praised its architecture and decoration. Some medieval authors even claim that of the five wonders the mosque ranks fourth for its superlative beauty and extraordinary cost while its decoration ranks fifth.
Layout design
The plan of the new mosque was innovative and highly influential in the history of early Islamic architecture. The earliest mosques before this had been relatively plain hypostyle structures (a flat-roof hall supported by columns), of which the Prophet's Mosque in Medina was an important model. The new mosque in Damascus introduced a more basilical plan to this model, with three parallel aisles and a perpendicular central nave. The central nave, which leads from the main entrance to the mihrab (niche in the qibla wall) and features a central dome, provided a new aesthetic focus which may have been designed to emphasize the area originally reserved for the caliph during prayers, near the mihrab. There is some uncertainty as to whether the dome was originally directly in front of the mihrab (as in many later mosques) or in its current position mid-way along the central nave. Scholars have attributed the design of the mosque's plan to the influences of Byzantine Christian basilicas in the region. Rafi Grafman and Myriam Rosen-Ayalon have argued that the first Umayyad Al-Aqsa Mosque built in Jerusalem, begun by Abd al-Malik (al-Walid's father) and now replaced by later constructions, had a layout very similar to the current Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and that it probably served as a model for the latter.
The mosque initially had no minaret towers, as this feature of mosque architecture was not established until later. However, at least two of the corners of the mosque's outer wall had short towers, platforms, or roof shelters which were used by the muezzin to issue the call to prayer (adhān), constituting a type of proto-minaret. These features were referred to as a mi'd͟hana ("place of the adhān") or as a ṣawma῾a ("monk's cell", due to their small size) in historical Arabic sources. Arabic sources indicated that they were former Roman towers which already stood at the corners of the temenos before the mosque's construction and were simply left intact and reused after construction.
Decoration
The mosque was richly decorated. A rich composition of marble paneling covered the lower walls, though only minor examples of the original marbles have survived today near the east gate. The walls of the prayer hall were raised above the level of the old temenos walls, which allowed for new windows to be inserted in the upper walls. The windows had ornately carved grilles that foreshadowed the styles of windows in later Islamic architecture.
The most celebrated decorative element of all was the revetment of mosaics, which originally covered much of the courtyard and the interior hall. The best-preserved remains are still visible in the courtyard today.
By some estimates, the original mosque had the largest area of gold mosaics in the world, covering approximately 4,000 square metres (43,000 ft2). The mosaics depict landscapes and buildings in a characteristic late Roman style. They reflected a wide variety of artistic styles used by mosaicists and painters since the 1st century CE, but the combined use of all these different styles in the same place was innovative at the time. Similar to the Dome of the Rock, built earlier by Abd al-Malik, vegetation and plants were the most common motif, but those of the Damascus mosque are more naturalistic. In addition to the large landscape depictions, a mosaic frieze with an intricate vine motif (referred to as the karma in Arabic historical sources) once ran around the walls of the prayer hall, above the level of the mihrab. The only notable omission is the absence of human and animal figures, which was likely a new restriction imposed by the Muslim patron.
Historical Arabic sources, often written in later centuries, suggest that both the craftsmen and the materials employed to create the mosque's mosaics were imported from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. The 12th-century historian Ibn Asakir claimed that al-Walid pressured the Byzantine emperor into sending him 200 craftsmen by threatening to destroy all churches inside Umayyad territory if he refused. Many scholars, based on such evidence from Arabic sources, have accepted a Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) origin for the mosaics, while some, such as Creswell, have interpreted the story as a later embellishment of Muslim historians with a symbolic political significance.
Art historian Finbarr Barry Flood notes that historical sources report many other apparent gifts of artisans and materials from the Byzantine emperors to the Umayyad caliphs and other rulers, probably reflecting a widespread admiration for Byzantine craftsmanship that continued in the early Islamic period. He notes that while Byzantine influence is indeed apparent in the mosque's mosaic imagery, there are multiple ways in which Byzantine mosaicists could have contributed to its production, including a collaboration with local craftsmen. Some scholars argue that the mosaic techniques in both the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Mosque, including their distinctive colour scheme, are more clearly consistent with the craftsmanship of Syro-Palestinian or Egyptian mosaicists. Archeologist Judith McKenzie suggests that the mosaics could have been designed by local artisans who oversaw their production, while any mosaicists sent from Constantinople could have been working under their supervision. A recent 2022 study of the chemical composition of mosaic tesserae in the Umayyad Mosque concluded that the majority were produced in Egypt around the time of the mosque's construction, matching other recent studies of samples from the Dome of the Rock and Khirbat al-Majfar that came to the same conclusion.