Dictionary of islamic architecture

parts of houses have thick walls made out of mud
brick which are strengthened at the corners with
wooden stakes laid horizontally. The upper parts of
the houses are often cantilevered over the street on
wooden beams. The walls of the upper part are made
out of a wooden framework with bricks laid in
between often in a herringbone pattern. The more
important monuments are made of stone with baked
brick or stone rubble used for domes and vaulting.
A characteristic of the monumental masonry of
Damascus is the use of ablaq (alternating courses of
dark and light masonry) made out of white limestone
and black basalt.
There are few standing remains from the
Umayyad period with the exception of the Great
Mosque which is the oldest major mosque still
preserved in its original form. Little was done to alter
the pre-Islamic plan of the city and many of the
Byzantine buildings were simply converted; thus the
caliph’s palace, behind the Great Mosque, was
formerly the residence of the Byzantine governors.
The plan of the city at this time formed a roughly
rectangular shape along the banks of the Barada river,
a shape which was retained until the expansion
during the sixteenth century.
In the three centuries following the fall of the
Umayyads Damascus suffered a state of near
anarchy. In 1076 strong rule was restored by the
Turkoman chief Atsiz ibn Uvak and for the next
eighty years the city was ruled by Turkish chiefs or
Taabegs. During this period a hospital was built and
seven madrassas were established.
With Nur al-Din’s capture of Damascus in 1154
the city became the centre of activity directed
against the Crusaders who had seized Palestine.
During this period there was a great deal of military
and religious building. The walls of the city were
strengthened with new gateways such as the Bab
al-Seghir whilst the older gateways were reinforced.
The citadel was also remodelled with a new gate
and a large mosque. The number of mosques and
madrassas were increased in order to promote
orthodox Sunni Islam against both Shi
is and the
Christianity of the Crusaders. Other important
buildings included the maristan, or hospital, of Nur
al-Din and the madrassa and tomb of Nur al-Din.
The hospital, which also functioned as a medical
school, has a magnificent portal which is a mixture
of Roman, Iranian and Mesopotamian styles.
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Directly above the door is a classic Roman pediment
above which there is an arch with a muqarnas archway.
The top of the structure is crowned with an Iraqi-style
conical dome. Inside the hospital is built like a madrassa
with four iwans opening on to a central courtyard with
a fountain in the centre. One of the iwans is a prayer
hall whilst the other is a consultation room. The tomb
of Nur al-Din is located on the corner of his madrassa
and comprises a square chamber covered with a
muqarnas dome resembling that of the hospital and
ultimately the conical domes of Iraq.
Under the Ayyubids the madrassa became the
main form of religious building with more than
twenty examples recorded by Ibn Jubayr in 1184.
Most of these tombs were commemorative structures
which usually had the tomb of the founder attached.
The standard form of Ayyubid tomb was a square
room covered with an octagonal zone of transition
made up of squinches and blind arches; above this
there was usually a sixteen-sided drum which was
pierced with windows and arches. The domes are
usually tall, slightly pointed structures with broad
fluting. The interior of the tombs was usually
decorated with painted stucco designs. Important
examples include the tomb of Badr al-Din Hassan
and the mausoleum of Saladin in the Madrassa
Aziziya. The cenotaph of Saladin is made of carved
wooden panels whilst the walls were covered with
polychrome tiles by the Ottomans in the sixteenth
century. Another feature of Ayyubid architecture was
the introduction of ablaq masonry.
The Mongol invasion of 1260 put an end to the
most brilliant period of Damascus’s post-Umayyad
history. Although the Mamluks continued to develop
the city it was no longer the foremost capital in the
region. Baybars, the first Mamluk sultan, was