Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Indonesia, Java
Further reading:
E.M.Loeb, S
umatra its History and People,
Oxford 1935.
D.Lombard, 
Le Sultunat d’atjéh au temps d’iskandar Muda
1607–1636,
Publications de l’École Française
d’extrêmeOrient, 51, Paris 1967.
G.Serjeant, ‘House form and decoration in Sumatra’, 
Art
and Archaeology Research Papers
no. 12, 1977.
Susa
Tunisian coastal city noted for its ninth-century Aghlabid
buildings.
Under the Byzantines the city was known as
Justinianopolis in honour of Justinian who rebuilt it
after the Vandal destruction. In 689 CE it was
captured by the Arabs and became one of the
principal ports for the Aghlabid conquest of Sicily.
In 827 the city was refortified with ramparts and
walls built in the Byzantine style. Important
Aghlabid buildings within the city include the ribat
built or restored by Ziyadat Allah in 821, the Bu
Fatata Mosque built in 840 and the Great Mosque
established in 859.
See also:
Aghlabids, Tunisia
Syria (Arabic: al-Sham)
Geographically Syria may be defined as the northern
part of Arabia between the Mediterranean and the
Euphrates river. This area includes Lebanon,
Palestine and Jordan as well as the modern state of
Syria. Politically Syria refers to the modern state of
Syria which roughly corresponds to the northern part
of the geographical area of Syria excluding the
mountains of Lebanon and including parts of the
Jazira between the Euphrates and the Tigris. (Here
the term Syria will be used to identify the area of the
modern Arab Republic.) The majority of Syria’s
population lives within 100 km of the Mediterranean
whilst there is lesser concentration of people along
Ribat at Susa, Tunisia (after Creswell)
Syria (Arabic: al-Sham)

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the Euphrates river valley. The area between the
coastal strip and the Euphrates is sparsely populated
semi-desert.
Syria was relatively densely populated in Roman
and Byzantine times, with large cities such as
Palmyra, Rusafa and Sergiopolis developing in the
eastern part of the country. Traditionally it has been
thought that the Arab conquest of the seventh
century bought an end to this wealthy urbani-zation.
Recent studies, however, have shown that there was
a more complex sequence of events, which led to
the growth of different parts of the country and
different areas of cities. What is certain is that the
eastern part of the country, in particular Damascus
and Raqqa were developed in the Umayyad and
early Abbasid periods. Damascus flourished under
the Umayyads who established it as the capital of
their vast empire. The topography of Damascus
changed very little from late Byzantine times and
the only major addition was the construction of the
Great Mosque. Elsewhere cities such as Palmyra,
Bostra and Raqqa continued to be inhabited with few
changes from the Byzantine plan. However, a major
change in the Umayyad period was the
development of desert settlements such as Qasr al-
Hayr (East and West). These settlements relied on
the increased trade and mobil-ity offered by a
situation where both eastern and western parts of
the desert were united under Islamic rule. The
Abbasid revolution in the mid-eighth century
brought about a radical change in the orientation
of the Islamic world, where the lands of the former
Sassanian Empire became central and the west
declined in importance. The result in Syria was a
decline in wealth and urbaniza-tion exacerbated by
the growth of a rival caliphate (the Fatimids) in
Egypt. During the ninth and tenth centuries Syria
was in the middle of a three-way conflict between
the Abbasids and their successors, the Fatimids and
the Byzantines.
During the eleventh century the Seljuk Turks
established themselves in the north of the country.
By the end of the eleventh century the Great Seljuk
Empire had divided into a number of independent
principalities, or Atabegs. The arrival of the
Crusaders in the early twelfth century imposed a
sense of unity on the Muslim principalities which
made itself felt under Salah al-Din and his Ayyubid
successors. During the thirteenth century Syria was
subjected to a series of Mongol invasions which
were repulsed by the Mamluks who had replaced
the Ayyubids as rulers of Syria. There were further
Mongol raids in the fifteenth century led by the
Central Asian ruler Timur. Despite the successive
waves of invaders Syria seems to have been
prosperous in the Middle Ages and some of the
finest artistic and architectural works were carried
out during this period.
In 1516 the Mamluks were defeated and Syria was
incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The country
thrived during the first century of Ottoman rule with
many khans established in the major cities as well in
the countryside. The Ottoman Hajj (pilgrimage)
route to Mecca was of great importance during this
period with Damascus established as the starting-
point. During the eighteenth century Europeans
seem to have become increasingly involved in the
commerce of the region. Cotton was of particular
importance and many Europeans established
consulates in the coastal cities in order to control this
trade. In the nineteenth century there seems to have
been an economic decline with less European trade
and increasing interference from Egypt, culminating
Muqarnas dome, Hospital of Nur al-Din, Damascus, Syria, ©
Rebecca Foote
Syria (Arabic: al-Sham)

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in the invasion of 1831. Administrative reforms were
introduced in the latter part of the nineteenth century
which led to Syria being regarded as one of the most
advanced parts of the Ottoman Empire. The collapse
of Turkish rule in 1918 led to the creation of a French
protectorate which formed the basis of the modern
independent republic.
The building materials used in Syria vary
depending on the area and type of settlement. On
the Mediterranean coast houses are generally stone
built, often of ashlar masonry; their general
appearance is that of Lebanese houses. In the
mountains buildings are made out of rubble stone
with mud mortar, their roofs made of wooden beams
covered with matting and an exterior coating of
earth. The region of the Hauran in the south-east is
predominantly basalt desert with no trees. Basalt has
been the main material of construction since ancient
times and many traditional houses re-use ancient
material because of its indestructibility and the
difficulty of carving new basalt blocks. One of the
principal forms of house construction is to have
transverse arches carrying short basalt beams which
form the roof. Houses in the Aleppo region are built
of mud brick with conical mud domes resembling
beehives. Several buildings joined together within a
courtyard form a single house. In central Syria the
traditional house is a rectangular mud-brick building
with a flat roof. These houses are usually surrounded
by a courtyard wall which may also include animal
pens. In addition to permanent settlements many
people are traditionally nomadic or semi-nomadic.
Black goat-hair tents are the principal form of
bedouin tent used in the region. The main cities also
have their own methods of construction which differ
from those of the countryside.