By Spahic Omer
Islamic architecture – that is, Muslim ways of conceiving, planning, designing, constructing and using buildings (built environment) – was born with the advent of Islam as the revealed worldview, legislature, belief and value system, which in turn led to the creation of cultures and civilisation. Islam is the total way of life, subtly integrating the spiritual and material, and the constant and changing, realms of creation. If the role of architecture is to function as an expression of values, an embodiment of ideas, and a framework for life, Islamic architecture, expectedly, signifies the means, physical locus and face of Islam.
Islamic architecture is synonymous with life (Islamic ways and standards of living). It is total, and its totality is but a reflection of the totality both of life and Islam. Thus, the whole of Islamic civilisation is based on, and is infused with the soul of, a triad comprising Islam, life and built environment. Its strength is determined by the strength and harmony of reciprocal relationships between the triad’s primary and secondary elements.
Islamic architecture as an effect; Islam and life as causes
As an effect, Islamic architecture declined whenever either life or Islam – the harmonious correlation between which spells the cause of Islamic architecture – was mishandled and misapplied. The causality was proportionate. The more life and Islam were mismanaged, the more authentic Islamic architecture degenerated, and vice versa.
For instance, Islamic architecture cannot thrive in environments where approaches to life are not governed by pragmatism, rationality, dynamism and propriety, nor where the vitality and vision of Islam are impeded by narrow-mindedness, impracticality and deadening formalism of any kind. In other words, Islamic architecture is incompatible with the constriction and misapprehension of the truth validated as much by life as by the message of Islam.
More specifically, there cannot be Islamic architecture as a receptacle of life if Islam as a lifestyle is neither promoted nor lived. Islamic architecture cannot frame, facilitate and advocate alien ideas, values and life models. Conforming to certain fundamental architectural and life codes, such can be done only by dint of correspondingly alien architectural styles.
In the world of architecture, there is no material, or spiritual and emotional, dissonance that could be tolerated. Aesthetic and functional inconsistencies, as well as conflicts, are as much upsetting as they are obnoxious. Thoughtless architectural hybrids are least desirable. Every so often, they appear as though freaks of nature.
That is why Islamic architecture – as a philosophy and physical reality, together with experience – is often derided. Calls for its revival and for carving its niche in modern times, usually, fall on deaf ears. Most people are simply not up to the task. Calling in such milieus for Islamic architecture proves to be in vain. Most of the time, discussions in the end turn into dull and barren polemics, oscillating between “empty” and “bottomless” standpoints.
One certainly cannot expect fruits without trees and without due cultivation procedures. Islamic architecture is so real and true that it cannot be faked, nor improvised. There are no shortcuts to Islamic architecture, just as there are no shortcuts to optimising and enjoying life, and to actualising and living Islam as the all-embracing system of life.
The role of ideas, education and ethics
It follows that before speaking about Islamic architecture per se, we must speak first about the Islamic architectural worldview that inspires and saturates architectural permutations, and about Islamic architectural ethics that guides architectural thought and behavioural patterns.
That is to say, before having the net result of Islamic architecture, there must be an appropriate and comprehensive Islamic architectural education, and as appropriate and as comprehensive Islamic architectural code of ethics.
And finally, there must be a continuous supply of generations of architects who will stand for the products and also the embodiments of Islamic values and standards. Various dimensions of Islamic architecture will then start materialising spontaneously, effortlessly issuing from the above prerequisites. Forcing Islamic architecture into existence is as much objectionable as trying to downgrade or counterfeit it.
Needless to say that the Islamic architectural worldview ought to be nothing but a segment of the general Islamic worldview, Islamic architectural education nothing but a segment of general and comprehensive Islamic education, and Islamic architectural ethics nothing but a segment of general Islamic ethics.
All this will ensure sound relationships between Muslim architects and the rest of Muslim societies, and between people and their built environment accounts. It will then be also easy to evoke and encourage such critical notions as accountability (including all stakeholders: professionals as built environment creators and ordinary people as users), conservation, participation, excellence, sustainability and sustainable development.
Everybody will be on the same wavelength and will speak the same language. All will be able to connect to and identify themselves with the interests and wellbeing of their built environment. The latter will be the mirror of the former. It will be akin to a frozen pulse and flow of life, and a memorialisation of one of life’s infinite narratives and moments. It will be testimony to a legacy.
Islamic architecture as a civilisational programme
The phenomenon of Islamic architecture is a civilisational program, rather than a mere professional pursuit. It results from holistic and painstaking processes. It is not an isolated and a spur-of-the-moment thing, nor is it the prerogative of certain romantics and mavericks. On the contrary, the Islamic architecture universe is a shared privilege and responsibility with built environment professionals and policy makers leading the way and shouldering biggest responsibilities.
Those involved most directly in nurturing Islamic architecture should see themselves as the people of an honourable mission and purpose. They likewise should be visionary, calling for and effecting change. Not only in the domain of architecture, but also in that of civilisation as a whole, are built environment professionals true activists. In many ways, they are front-liners, too.
Much depends on what and how they do, consistent with the architectural tenets that people shape their buildings and afterwards, their buildings shape them, and that people should forge spiritual and emotional relationships with their buildings, so, whenever those relationships end, that spells the end of all architecture and all beauty.
Accordingly, Islamic architecture cannot entertain elitism, excessive intellectual abstraction, impracticality and snobbery. It intrinsically harbours nothing either against or in favour of any of tradition or modernity, function or form, minimalism or intricacy, the East or the West. So multidimensional, fluid and “factual” is Islamic architecture that it easily can overcome all challenges and absorb all blows. Its dimension of timelessness and even spacelessness spirituality-wise permits it to do so.
What is needed – as highlighted above – are proper educational systems, proper professional codes of conduct, competent and visionary human resources (in addition to some other auxiliary systems and circumstances). What is needed, moreover, is an iron will and comprehensive blueprints, for if there is a will there is a way, and if there is an action plan there is a result.
A need for intellectual and spiritual freedom
Positively, people need to be liberated spiritually and intellectually to find solutions to their architectural problems. Freedom is the mother of all creativity. Blind following, graceless imitation and conformism are bent on exterminating all architectural flair – and all splendour.
Since there is always Islam, it is in no way impossible to generate a physical (architectural and aesthetic) framework for its actualisation and implementation. It has been done many times in history, why can’t it be possible again?
Since there are Muslims and Islamic values, it is by no means impossible to create architectural and artistic ways (models and styles) as will reflect the ways people live their daily lives. That has been accomplished many times in history, why can’t it be done again?
Since there are Muslims, Muslim societies, Muslim cultures and the diverse aspirations of people, it is by no means impossible to affirm and manifest all that through the tiers of the physical world of built environment, to thus fulfil the needs of people and make their lives better and more meaningful, to facilitate ambitions and dreams, and to perpetuate identities. All that has been repeatedly done in history, why can’t it be done again?
Indeed, people just need to be true to themselves, to the heavenly truth which they are supposed to serve, to their overall existential mission, and of course to their Creator. In short, they need to be better Muslims. They need to be free.
People should not be obsessed with completely ready-made and one-size-fits-all Islamic architectural solutions and answers, firstly because there is no such a thing, secondly because there is an extremely serious shortage as regards the contemporary vocabulary of Islamic architecture thanks to the devastating impact of protracted modernisation and westernisation processes in the Muslim world, and thirdly because such obsession may deflect attention away from the remarkable emphasis of Islam in general and Islamic architecture in particular on dynamism, creative thinking, problem-solving, practicality and intellectualism.
Instead, people should be obsessed with thought, paradigms, resources and strategies – in all the socio-political, economic, intellectual, educational and religious provinces – which inevitably lead to and guarantee finding appropriate architectural answers and solutions. The former is the source and foundation, the latter the outcome. The former is a pricey and enduring asset which should be pursued most, the latter, without underestimating its huge importance whatsoever, is secondary and connotes the ebb and flow of architecture.
This book tried to demonstrate the actual meaning of Islamic architecture and some of the main causes of its decline in modern times. It did so through the prisms of the perpetuity and prevalence of mosque architecture, Orientalism as the source of a great many misconceptions about Islamic architecture, and modernisation as well as westernisation as a necropolis where Islamic architecture was formally buried and forsaken. It is hoped that through the contents of the book, a better understanding of Islamic architecture has been given, and a road to its potential rebirth – to a certain extent – paved.***
(This article is the “Conclusion” of the author’s forthcoming book titled “Orientalism, Modernisation and Islamic Architecture”)