3- Early Umayyad Architecture: (Click on images to enlarge)

The Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (ca. 706-15): Built on order of the caliph al-Walid I (705-15), the son of 'Abd al-Malik.

Mosaics of the Great Mosque: Representations of ideal-types residences.

The Barada Sequence: villas, excedrae (or porticoes), tholoi, bridges over rivers.

"The Barada Scene" mosaic panel at the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus

 

Umayyad Desert Palaces, Architecture and Decoration: How can we explain them? The new economic, geographic and social orders:

• Villa Rustica: Pleasure and hunting (the notion of the Hayr, the game park).
• Estates in agricultural development projects.
• Fortified small towns.

The Palaces of al-Walid I (705-15):

Qasr Kharana, Jordan (ca. 705-10):

• Small fortified square enclosure with arrow slits and round corner towers
• Single monumental gate with a shallow arch
• Rough stone and brick construction
• Different vaulting techniques
• Mosaic floors

General view of the Qasr Kharana

Gate of the Qasr Kharana

The Courtyard of the Qasr Kharana

Qusayr ‘Amra, Jordan (between 711 and 715):

• Part of a larger complex being excavated
• Small hall with a magnificent bath
• Complex vaulting systems, with the appearance of the first pointed arches
• Hypocausts under the floor for hot air in the bath
• Famous fresco murals, and dome's zodiac representation

Plan of Qusayr 'Amra

Back view of Qusayr 'Amra

Section in palace showing the hypocausts under the floor

Frescos of the left vault showing craftsmen

Detail of a fresco

The Town of ‘Anjar, Lebanon (714-15):

• Large enclosure (1100 ft. to the side) with half-round towers and round corner towers
• Cross-axial colonnaded, commercial streets dividing the enclosure into four quarters
• Two palaces, a bath, and one mosque excavated

Site Plan of Anjar

General view of the central axis

Remains of the Palace of Anjar

Mihrab

 

The Architectural Characteristics of Umayyad Palaces:

• Square enclosure (castrum type) with four round towers in the corners
• Monumental portals
• Two-storied, porticoed courtyard structure
• Bayt Type units
• Confluence of Byzantine and Sasanian construction details and decorative techniques
• Figural representations of rulers, courtiers and court scenes (music, dance, drinking, hunting): The survival of pre-Islamic images of the ruler.