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Every
culture builds in its own way, borrowing
from the past, developing a distinctive
style, then passing on to a new age those
special achievements which are proven
most worthy. The foundation of all great
buildings in Islam was Faith. The
earliest major work of Islamic
architecture was undertaken during the
lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad: the
rebuilding of the sanctuary of the Ka'abaat
Mecca. Since, Islamic architecture
has created a unique design concept,
style and form which have survived to
this day. The principal architectural
types of Islamic buildings are the
mosque, with its minaret, the madrassa
(school), the tomb (mausoleum), the khan
(rest house), the fort, and the
palace.
At first, the Arabs adopted Greek methods
of design and architectural forms to suit
their own purposes. The Byzantine rotunda
dome, for example, was used in the
seventh century Mosque of 'Umar, or Dome
of the Rock, in Jerusalem (685), the
earliest existing monument of Islamic
architecture. This mosque, built on the
site from which the Prophet Muhammad
ascended to heaven, is the work of
craftsmen from all corners of the
Arab/Islamic Empire.
The method of constructing domes-a
recurrent feature of Islamic mosques-is
another architectural theme that was
passed on to the West. The Arabs
introduced a transitional structural
support, known as corner stalactites or muqarnasaat,
between the dome and the cube which
shaped the plan of a mosque.This
technique was successfully applied in the
Capella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily
(1132).
The
minaret, a Muslim innovation, was
inspired by earlier forms. The earliest
known minaret at Kairouan, Tunisia (670),
is a vast, battlemented tower. The most
striking was constructed in Samarra, a
Muslim capital of Iraq. It recalled the
lofty, spiraling structure, called ziggurats,
which the Arabs found in the ancient
cities of Babylonia. The minaret, in
turn, was adopted by western architects.
The Giralda of Seville, which had been
built
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