British Society for Middle Eastern Studies

The Historical Mosques of Saudi Arabia by G.R.D. King

Review by: George T. Scanlon
Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 17, No. 1 (1990), pp. 87-88
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/194856 .
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
centre of the
book, safely segregated
from the text which referred to
them,
this feature of the book
under review will be a
major advantage.
The line
drawings
have
nearly
all been redone
specially
for
this book in a
single style,
no doubt an
expensive undertaking
but in
my opinion
well worth it
because of the resultant
unity
of
appearance
which it lends the book.
They
have also been
reproduced
on a
consistently larger
scale than was
perhaps
feasible for the Pelican edition.
Similarly,
the half-tone
plates
have been made from
original prints,
most of them Creswell's own
photographs
and thus
axiomatically
of
very high quality.
A
special
word of
praise
must
go
to Dr Allan for the
self-effacing way
in which he has
incorporated
new
material,
whether this consists of new data or of a reversal or modification of
Creswell's text. He has on the whole left his additions to the end of the relevant text so that there is
no
danger
of
mistaking
his words for
Creswell's,
and also no brief
distracting interpolations
on his
part
into the
body
of Creswell's text. 'I' in the main
body
of the book thus
always
refers to
Creswell
himself,
and where it has
proved
unavoidable to insert substantial material into
Creswell's
text,
as distinct from
appending
such material to
it,
the context makes this
process
clear:
references to
any
work
published
after 1969 are due to the editor. Often such extra information is
given
in notes or in a
sub-heading
such as 'Recent Discoveries' or 'Further
Observations',
while
longer passages
are identified
by
subtitles
giving
the names of the monuments in
question.
The labour of
filling
these
gaps
in Creswell's text must have been
very
substantial
indeed,
and
Dr Allan deserves the warmest
congratulations
for
carrying
it out. It called above all for the
formidable
range
of
expertise extending
over the entire Islamic world-the 'new' monuments come
from as far afield as
Pakistan, Afghanistan
and the Yemen as well as the heartlands of
early
mediaeval
Islam,
and the literature on them is scattered
throughout
all manner of obscure
publications.
To
provide
a readable and reliable
precis
of each
building
on the basis of such diverse
sources is a
major
contribution to the
field,
and Dr Allan has
thereby
saved his
colleagues,
and
future
generations
of
students, many
hours of labour. Yet the revision was not limited to the
addition of new
buildings:
it also embraced familiar
ones,
and in
particular
involved a selective
expansion
of the
bibliography-no
small task
given
the volume of new studies
being produced
every year.
More than 80% of the titles in the
bibliography
are not to be found in the Pelican
edition.
As for the
tally
of 'new'
buildings-i.e.
those not to be found even in the much
enlarged reprint
of EMA
I-particular
attention should be drawn to the
following:
the
Friday Mosques
at
'Amman, Banbhore, Fahraj, Isfahan, San'a',
Shibam and Siraf:
Qasr Burqu';
the
palatial complex
at
Jerusalem;
the
mosques
at Susa
(Khuzistan)
and
Qasr Muqatil;
the
palace
at Tulul
al-Sha'Tba;
the
buildings
of the Darb
Zubayda; Qasr al-Jiss;
the
palace
of
al-Istabulat;
the
Masjid-i
Ta'rikh
at
Balkh;
and the small
mosques
at Siraf and
Zibliyat,
to which
might
be added other
mosques
found
in the last few
years
in
Iran,
as at Istakhr and
Nishapur.
Besides
this,
recent work on several.
previously
known sites has
significantly changed
the information available to Creswell. Such sites
include
al-Hallabat,
Hammam al-Sarakh with its carved stucco
finds,
the
Aqsa mosque, Qastal,
the
Raqqa Gate,
the 3-door
mosque
at
Qayrawan,
and
Heraqla.
It will be clear from these remarks
that the new Short Account is a
major
book in its own
right.
Those who are
disposed
to
complain
that the Short Account has risen in
price
from
eight
shillings
and six
pence
to
nearly
?50
might
console themselves with the
thought
that at least
they
now have available a work which includes
(as
the Pelican edition did
not) practically
all the known
monuments of the
period
in
question,
and
certainly
all the
significant ones,
while
yet costing
a
fraction of the
price
of the
reprinted original volumes;
and that it includes well over a score of
buildings
which Creswell never knew. It is thus
peculiarly
well fitted to serve as the vade mecum for
a new
generation
of Islamic art historians.
DEPARTMENT OF FINE
ART,
ROBERT HILLENBRAND
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
THE HISTORICAL
MOSQUES
OF SAUDI ARABIA.
By
G.R.D. KING. London and New
York,
1986.
208pp.
This most
beautifully produced book, replete
with excellent
type
and evocative colour
plates,
surveys
some
sixty
loci and describes
just
under a hundred
separate buildings.
The
majority
of
centre of the
book, safely segregated
from the text which referred to
them,
this feature of the book
under review will be a
major advantage.
The line
drawings
have
nearly
all been redone
specially
for
this book in a
single style,
no doubt an
expensive undertaking
but in
my opinion
well worth it
because of the resultant
unity
of
appearance
which it lends the book.
They
have also been
reproduced
on a
consistently larger
scale than was
perhaps
feasible for the Pelican edition.
Similarly,
the half-tone
plates
have been made from
original prints,
most of them Creswell's own
photographs
and thus
axiomatically
of
very high quality.
A
special
word of
praise
must
go
to Dr Allan for the
self-effacing way
in which he has
incorporated
new
material,
whether this consists of new data or of a reversal or modification of
Creswell's text. He has on the whole left his additions to the end of the relevant text so that there is
no
danger
of
mistaking
his words for
Creswell's,
and also no brief
distracting interpolations
on his
part
into the
body
of Creswell's text. 'I' in the main
body
of the book thus
always
refers to
Creswell
himself,
and where it has
proved
unavoidable to insert substantial material into
Creswell's
text,
as distinct from
appending
such material to
it,
the context makes this
process
clear:
references to
any
work
published
after 1969 are due to the editor. Often such extra information is
given
in notes or in a
sub-heading
such as 'Recent Discoveries' or 'Further
Observations',
while
longer passages
are identified
by
subtitles
giving
the names of the monuments in
question.
The labour of
filling
these
gaps
in Creswell's text must have been
very
substantial
indeed,
and
Dr Allan deserves the warmest
congratulations
for
carrying
it out. It called above all for the
formidable
range
of
expertise extending
over the entire Islamic world-the 'new' monuments come
from as far afield as
Pakistan, Afghanistan
and the Yemen as well as the heartlands of
early
mediaeval
Islam,
and the literature on them is scattered
throughout
all manner of obscure
publications.
To
provide
a readable and reliable
precis
of each
building
on the basis of such diverse
sources is a
major
contribution to the
field,
and Dr Allan has
thereby
saved his
colleagues,
and
future
generations
of
students, many
hours of labour. Yet the revision was not limited to the
addition of new
buildings:
it also embraced familiar
ones,
and in
particular
involved a selective
expansion
of the
bibliography-no
small task
given
the volume of new studies
being produced
every year.
More than 80% of the titles in the
bibliography
are not to be found in the Pelican
edition.
As for the
tally
of 'new'
buildings-i.e.
those not to be found even in the much
enlarged reprint
of EMA
I-particular
attention should be drawn to the
following:
the
Friday Mosques
at
'Amman, Banbhore, Fahraj, Isfahan, San'a',
Shibam and Siraf:
Qasr Burqu';
the
palatial complex
at
Jerusalem;
the
mosques
at Susa
(Khuzistan)
and
Qasr Muqatil;
the
palace
at Tulul
al-Sha'Tba;
the
buildings
of the Darb
Zubayda; Qasr al-Jiss;
the
palace
of
al-Istabulat;
the
Masjid-i
Ta'rikh
at
Balkh;
and the small
mosques
at Siraf and
Zibliyat,
to which
might
be added other
mosques
found
in the last few
years
in
Iran,
as at Istakhr and
Nishapur.
Besides
this,
recent work on several.
previously
known sites has
significantly changed
the information available to Creswell. Such sites
include
al-Hallabat,
Hammam al-Sarakh with its carved stucco
finds,
the
Aqsa mosque, Qastal,
the
Raqqa Gate,
the 3-door
mosque
at
Qayrawan,
and
Heraqla.
It will be clear from these remarks
that the new Short Account is a
major
book in its own
right.
Those who are
disposed
to
complain
that the Short Account has risen in
price
from
eight
shillings
and six
pence
to
nearly
?50
might
console themselves with the
thought
that at least
they
now have available a work which includes
(as
the Pelican edition did
not) practically
all the known
monuments of the
period
in
question,
and
certainly
all the
significant ones,
while
yet costing
a
fraction of the
price
of the
reprinted original volumes;
and that it includes well over a score of
buildings
which Creswell never knew. It is thus
peculiarly
well fitted to serve as the vade mecum for
a new
generation
of Islamic art historians.
DEPARTMENT OF FINE
ART,
ROBERT HILLENBRAND
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
THE HISTORICAL
MOSQUES
OF SAUDI ARABIA.
By
G.R.D. KING. London and New
York,
1986.
208pp.
This most
beautifully produced book, replete
with excellent
type
and evocative colour
plates,
surveys
some
sixty
loci and describes
just
under a hundred
separate buildings.
The
majority
of
87 87
This content downloaded from 188.48.65.30 on Thu, 5 Jun 2014 10:01:20 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
these have never been available for discussion and are
precious
for reasons
given
below. Under
conditions which would tax the
intrepidity
of most architectural
historians,
the author has
managed
to 'save' a number of
mosques important
for the recent
history
of Saudi Arabia before
they 'go
under' to
satisfy
the clamour for urban
growth
and an understandable desire for a more
modern
expression
in modern materials. Of
course,
one
regrets
the absence of
plans
and
elevations;
but there are valid reasons for this
impasse; and, generally,
due to the smallness of the
mosque
and
the
repetition
of the modular
type,
the narrative
explanations
almost fulfill the function of the
architectural
drawing.
In
addition,
the attention
paid
to
materials,
local
building practices
and
present complexion
of the
building
adds extra dimensions to the
photographs.
If one sets aside the
purely
narrative
exegesis
on the
Haramayn,
one
wonders, however,
at the
term 'historical' for most of these
buildings,
other than those which
betray
in their minarets a
purely
Ottoman influence. In the absence of foundation
stelae,
it would seem that there is no
verifiable
building
between the end of the
eighth
and the onset of the
eighteenth century
which has
survived within the
present
boundaries of Saudi Arabia. This is of
sovereign importance
if one
insists on
palpable points
of evolution
whereby style
is achieved
through historicity;
here we are
served with 'echoes' of what must have been obtained
during
the blank
period.
Yet even these
survivals break down into limited
tropes
of contracted
development; they
are sometimes little but
poignant repetition
of vernacular modules.
Hence,
it is most
deplorable
that even this
meagre
portion
of soi-disant national
stylistics
is under threat of surrender to the concrete mixers.
But Dr.
King
is under no delusion that reinforced concrete is the
enemy per
se. He demonstrates
how it can sustain the local tradition as in the newer
mosques
in
Shaqran,
which are
acutely
attractive in their
geometrical simplicity (p. 133);
and we can see when it denies that attractiveness
by supplanting
the local tradition with
something malapropos,
as at the
mosque
of the
Prophet
in
Tabuk
(pp.48-9)
or at the
mosque
of al-'Awda
(p. 142).
In these latter instances a visual charm has been removed
(as has
recently
been the case with the
renovations at the
Mosque
of 'Amr b. al-'As in
Cairo).
It is charm and a rude
strength
which
give
distinction to local
vernacular,
which is
really
what this book is
really
about and
why
one would
not now be without it. This is 'architecture without
architects',
of milieux where
indigenous
builders satisfied local taste
by confirming tradition;
where materials and
lay-out
were allied to
terrain and
memory.
One thinks of the mission
compounds
of
Spanish America,
the
plain
but
dignified
wooden churches of the American colonies or the mud
buildings rising
as
though
from
the dirt
plains
of Central Africa
(which
are
uncannily
recalled here
by
the
mosques
of the
Tihama,
pp.75-82).
Even where decoration calls for
attention, e.g.
the
Najdi mosque
in Umm
Farasan,
(pp.65-73);
the
pyramidal
crenellations of
Najran (pp.99-114);
or the
scalloped arching
in
al-Jubayl
(pp. 184-8),
one feels it is somehow an
outgrowth
of the structure rather than a dictated additive.
The non-Ottoman minarets
are,
in their
variety
and truth to
form, absolutely
sui
generis
to the
general
locales.
Two truths seem to derive from this
concept
of local
satisfying
vernacular: these
buildings
in
their
primal purity negate
the efforts of the author to connect them with the more
truly
evolutionary
architectural traditions of
great
centres like Cairo and
Cordova, Baghdad
and
Samarra.
And,
it
just may be, they truly
are echoes of the
original building concepts
of
very early
Islam,
ones which
conveyed
a
rigorous
utilitarian
simplicity.
As a
corollary,
one senses in the
differentials so
smartly portrayed
in this volume
yet
another
example
of
early
Islam
positing
conduct but never
dictating style.
One
may imagine
that the minaret at Dumat al-Jandal
(p. 119)
in
its
superb tapering height might
have offended the stern
humility
of both 'Umar b. al-Khattab and
'Umar II b. 'Abd al-'Aziz
(if
either did order its
construction),
but neither would have embarrassed
the believers of the town
by ordering
its
dismantling.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO GEORGE T. SCANLON
YEMEN: 3000 YEARS OF ART AND CIVILISATION IN ARABIA FELIX. Edited
by
WERNER DAUM.
Innsbruck, Pinguin-Verlag
and
Frankfurt/Main, Umschau-Verlag,
1987.
483pp.
This
beautifully produced
book was
published
in
conjunction
with an exhibition in Munich
during
the
year
to
April
1988. The contributions from
forty-three
authors are
supported by superb
these have never been available for discussion and are
precious
for reasons
given
below. Under
conditions which would tax the
intrepidity
of most architectural
historians,
the author has
managed
to 'save' a number of
mosques important
for the recent
history
of Saudi Arabia before
they 'go
under' to
satisfy
the clamour for urban
growth
and an understandable desire for a more
modern
expression
in modern materials. Of
course,
one
regrets
the absence of
plans
and
elevations;
but there are valid reasons for this
impasse; and, generally,
due to the smallness of the
mosque
and
the
repetition
of the modular
type,
the narrative
explanations
almost fulfill the function of the
architectural
drawing.
In
addition,
the attention
paid
to
materials,
local
building practices
and
present complexion
of the
building
adds extra dimensions to the
photographs.
If one sets aside the
purely
narrative
exegesis
on the
Haramayn,
one
wonders, however,
at the
term 'historical' for most of these
buildings,
other than those which
betray
in their minarets a
purely
Ottoman influence. In the absence of foundation
stelae,
it would seem that there is no
verifiable
building
between the end of the
eighth
and the onset of the
eighteenth century
which has
survived within the
present
boundaries of Saudi Arabia. This is of
sovereign importance
if one
insists on
palpable points
of evolution
whereby style
is achieved
through historicity;
here we are
served with 'echoes' of what must have been obtained
during
the blank
period.
Yet even these
survivals break down into limited
tropes
of contracted
development; they
are sometimes little but
poignant repetition
of vernacular modules.
Hence,
it is most
deplorable
that even this
meagre
portion
of soi-disant national
stylistics
is under threat of surrender to the concrete mixers.
But Dr.
King
is under no delusion that reinforced concrete is the
enemy per
se. He demonstrates
how it can sustain the local tradition as in the newer
mosques
in
Shaqran,
which are
acutely
attractive in their
geometrical simplicity (p. 133);
and we can see when it denies that attractiveness
by supplanting
the local tradition with
something malapropos,
as at the
mosque
of the
Prophet
in
Tabuk
(pp.48-9)
or at the
mosque
of al-'Awda
(p. 142).
In these latter instances a visual charm has been removed
(as has
recently
been the case with the
renovations at the
Mosque
of 'Amr b. al-'As in
Cairo).
It is charm and a rude
strength
which
give
distinction to local
vernacular,
which is
really
what this book is
really
about and
why
one would
not now be without it. This is 'architecture without
architects',
of milieux where
indigenous
builders satisfied local taste
by confirming tradition;
where materials and
lay-out
were allied to
terrain and
memory.
One thinks of the mission
compounds
of
Spanish America,
the
plain
but
dignified
wooden churches of the American colonies or the mud
buildings rising
as
though
from
the dirt
plains
of Central Africa
(which
are
uncannily
recalled here
by
the
mosques
of the
Tihama,
pp.75-82).
Even where decoration calls for
attention, e.g.
the
Najdi mosque
in Umm
Farasan,
(pp.65-73);
the
pyramidal
crenellations of
Najran (pp.99-114);
or the
scalloped arching
in
al-Jubayl
(pp. 184-8),
one feels it is somehow an
outgrowth
of the structure rather than a dictated additive.
The non-Ottoman minarets
are,
in their
variety
and truth to
form, absolutely
sui
generis
to the
general
locales.
Two truths seem to derive from this
concept
of local
satisfying
vernacular: these
buildings
in
their
primal purity negate
the efforts of the author to connect them with the more
truly
evolutionary
architectural traditions of
great
centres like Cairo and
Cordova, Baghdad
and
Samarra.
And,
it
just may be, they truly
are echoes of the
original building concepts
of
very early
Islam,
ones which
conveyed
a
rigorous
utilitarian
simplicity.
As a
corollary,
one senses in the
differentials so
smartly portrayed
in this volume
yet
another
example
of
early
Islam
positing
conduct but never
dictating style.
One
may imagine
that the minaret at Dumat al-Jandal
(p. 119)
in
its
superb tapering height might
have offended the stern
humility
of both 'Umar b. al-Khattab and
'Umar II b. 'Abd al-'Aziz
(if
either did order its
construction),
but neither would have embarrassed
the believers of the town
by ordering
its
dismantling.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO GEORGE T. SCANLON
YEMEN: 3000 YEARS OF ART AND CIVILISATION IN ARABIA FELIX. Edited
by
WERNER DAUM.
Innsbruck, Pinguin-Verlag
and
Frankfurt/Main, Umschau-Verlag,
1987.
483pp.
This
beautifully produced
book was
published
in
conjunction
with an exhibition in Munich
during
the
year
to
April
1988. The contributions from
forty-three
authors are
supported by superb
88 88
This content downloaded from 188.48.65.30 on Thu, 5 Jun 2014 10:01:20 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions