Major differences undoubtedly exist between the architecture of the Omayyad Mosque and that of its Christian predecessors. Striking similarities however, are also present and readily detectable to keen observers. Let's look at the case of the Transpet, towering over the adjoining aisles right in the middle of the Prayer Hall.
The focus point of a Christian church is its Apse, where the Altar is located. The transition between the entrance to the Altar through the Nave is a gradual one, culminating with the majestic scene of the ensemble Choir-Altar-Apse where the cult rituals are concentrated. The Transept cuts across between the Apse and the Nave (in other words giving the plan the shape of the cross) and the Narthex (also known as vestibule) is located parallel to the transept and separated from it by the nave and aisles.
By contrast, the awesome view of the mosque's center of attention, its Mihrab (prayer niche oriented towards Mecca) and Minbar (pulpit) is delivered to the faithful immediately and wholesale, right after he or she enters the sanctuary.
Transept as a purpose may therefore differ between church and mosque but its conception shares common roots and so does its configuration. In a classical study published in 2001, Dr. Flood pointedly compared the Omayyad Mosque's façade as seen from the central court with that of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, itself a replica of a monumental gate in Constantinople called Chalke that no longer exists. He astutely concluded that Caliph Walid and his builders had drawn on Byzantine precedents, at least as far as the façade of the transept is concerned.
Access to the prayer hall from the court is therefore provided through the transept, the façade of which consists of a triple arch resting on two marble columns. Those lower arches are surmounted by three arched windows and the whole structure is framed by a great arch flanked by two giant buttresses. The gabled roof is topped by the Dome of the Eagle, a replacement of an older one destroyed by the great 1893 fire.
Talal Aqili. The Great Mosque of Damascus. From Roman Temple To Monument of Islam. Municipal Administration Modernisation Program, Damascus, 2009.
Ross Burns. Damascus: A History. Routledge 2005.
K.A.C. Creswell. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. Pelican Book 1958.
Gérard Degeorge. La Grande Mosquée des Omeyyades. Actes Sud 2010.
Finbarr Barry Flood. The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies in the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture. Brill 2001.
Dorothée Sack. Damaskus. Entwicklung und Struktur einer orientalisch-islamischen Stadt. von Zabern, Mainz 1989.
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