Constructed at the beginning of the 8th century CE, the Omayyad Mosque was arguably the wonder of the nascent Islamic World then and has been one of the finest and most influential monuments of early Islamic architecture ever since.
Particularly impressive are the mosque's magnificent mosaics, bearing an unmistakable Byzantine influence. The edifice has suffered numerous disaster throughout its long history and had to be reconstructed almost right from the scratch on multiple occasions, the last calamity being the fire of 1893. We do not have the luxury of early paintings let alone photography to convey the mosque's splendor in the middle ages but fortunately we do have the narratives of quite few medieval travelers and geographers, one of them was the testimony of the illustrious Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Deen al-Muqaddasi (945-991 CE) whose 10th century description antedates the great fire of 1069 under the Fatimid and the disaster that befell Damascus at the hand of Tamerlane and his thugs. Here is some of what al-Muqaddasi had to say:
"The floor is in its entirety paved with white marble. The walls are twice the height of a man and are covered with a marquetry of marble surmounted, all the way to the roof, with multicolored gilded mosaics representing finely executed inscriptions or figures of trees and cities of great beauty and workmanship. Hardly a known tree or country is not represented on those walls. The columns capitals are painted with gold and the arches of the galleries are encrusted with mosaics. The columns surrounding the courtyard are all of white marble; the walls surrounding that courtyard, along with the arches and upper arcades are covered with mosaics with figures and inscriptions. The roof is uniformly coated with layers of lead and the crenelations with mosaics on both sides."
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| Details from the west portico |
"The floor is in its entirety paved with white marble. The walls are twice the height of a man and are covered with a marquetry of marble surmounted, all the way to the roof, with multicolored gilded mosaics representing finely executed inscriptions or figures of trees and cities of great beauty and workmanship. Hardly a known tree or country is not represented on those walls. The columns capitals are painted with gold and the arches of the galleries are encrusted with mosaics. The columns surrounding the courtyard are all of white marble; the walls surrounding that courtyard, along with the arches and upper arcades are covered with mosaics with figures and inscriptions. The roof is uniformly coated with layers of lead and the crenelations with mosaics on both sides."
Gérard Degeorge
Syrie
Art, Histoire, Architecture
Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts
1983
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