The great mosque in Damascus – a work of symbiosis of islam and the culture of the orient

Abstract

The emergence of Islamic art as a cultural and historical reality of Islam is linked to the Ummayads. The crowning work of Islamic culture of the Ummayad Period is one of the most interesting works of Islamic architecture in general - the Great Mosque in Damascus. This work marks the coming out of Islamic art from the phase of vacillation and a wavering search for a more authentic artistic expression into a phase of a more confident relationship with its own spiritual origins and more certain aesthetic and artistic self-defining. The Great Mosque in Damascus is a work of synthesis of the spirit of Islam and the most diversified and indigenous elements of the cultures of the Near East. It is considered the first total accomplishment of Islamic sacral architecture. Finally, it contains all the basic features of a mosque (minaret, mihrab, maksura and, within its courtyard, a shadarwan – a water fountain for performing ablution). In this respect, it can be considered a model for all the future mosques of the classical period of Islamic history, especially congregational ones.