Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Aleppo, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Syria
Further reading:
R.S.Humphreys, ‘Politics and architectural patronage in
Ayyubid Damascus’, 
Essays in Honour of Bernard Lewis:
The Islamic World from Classical to Modern Times
, ed. C.
E.Bosworth, C.Issawi, R.Savory and A.L.Udovitch,
Princeton, NJ 1989.
J.G.De Maussion, 
Damas, Bagdad, capitales et terres des
califes,
Beirut 1971.
J.Sauvaget and M.Ecochard, 
Les Monuments Ayyubides de
Damas,
Damascus 1938–50.
Damascus Great Mosque
Principal mosque of Damascus founded by the Umayyad
caliph al-Walid in 706
CE.
The Great Mosque stands in the centre of the old
city of Damascus on the site of the Roman temple
platform, or 
temenos.
The outer walls of the 
temenos
still survive and are distinguished as large blocks
of dressed masonry with pilasters set at intervals
into the side. At the four corners of the 
temenos
there
are large square towers and around the edge there
were arcades which opened into a large rectangular
courtyard. There were four axial doorways to the
temenos,
that on the east being the principal
entrance. At the time of the Islamic conquest the
Byzantine church of St John stood in the middle of
this platform. Immediately after the conquest the
Muslims shared this space with the Christians with
the Christians retaining possession of their church
and the Muslims using the southern arcades of the
temenos
as a prayer area.
In 706 al-Walid destroyed the church and built a
mosque along the southern wall of the 
temenos.
The
layout of the mosque comprised three aisles
running parallel to the south (qibla) wall cut in the
centre by a raised perpendicular aisle or transept.
At the south end of this transept there was a mihrab
set into one of the blocked doors of the south façade.
Walls were inserted on the west and east sides
between the corner towers, and new two-storey
arcades were built around the east, north and west
sides of the courtyard. The arcades and prayer hall
were covered with pitched wooden roofs covered
with tiles except for the centre of the transept which
had a wooden dome. In the north-west of the
courtyard there is an octagonal chamber raised up
on eight columns with a pool beneath. This
structure functioned as the bayt al-mal or treasury
and is found in other early mosques such as Harran
and Hamma.
Since the Umayyad period the mosque has been
rebuilt several times because of fires (1069, 1401 and
1893) although its basic plan has remained the same.
Originally the arcade of the sanctuary façade
comprised one pier alternating with two columns
but this was subsequently changed to piers only. A
range of different arch forms is used in the arcades
including round, semi-circular horseshoe and
slightly pointed arches. The walls of the mosque are
decorated with glass mosaics similar to those in the
Dome of the Rock, with depictions of palaces and
houses next to a river (possibly the Barada river in
Damascus). The long rooms in the east and west sides
were lit by marble grilles with geometric interlace
patterns based on octagons and circles.
Damascus Great Mosque

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The form of the mosque, particularly the
sanctuary façade, was probably derived from
Byzantine palatial architecture, possibly the Chalci
palace in Constantinople. Later mosques in Syria
such as the Great Mosques of Aleppo, Hamma,
Harran and Córdoba. The Great Mosque of
Diyarbakir built in the Seljuk period is also of this
form.