How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe | Diana Darke

behind me is canterbury cathedral sometimes called england in stone it's one of europe's finest examples of the style we call gothic but what if i told you that pretty much every architectural feature in this cathedral built incidentally by the norman french with stone brought in especially from normandy had its origins in the middle east and the islamic world it's the same with notre dame in paris when it caught fire in 2019 the world was transfixed and the french suffered a nationwide outpouring of grief our identities going up in flames they cried without any notion of their cathedral's backstory that's when i decided to write a book about how islamic architecture shaped europe so let's take a quick architectural journey to see how cultures and religions interact and interweave in all kinds of ways that challenge assumptions we may make about our national history and heritage we can trace ideas and styles as they passed from vibrant middle eastern centres like damascus and cairo to enter europe via gateways like muslim spain sicily and venice through the movement of pilgrims bishops merchants and medieval crusaders it's a rich tale of cultural exchange that will help you see some of europe's and even america's iconic landmarks with new eyes we'll start with the twin tower cathedral style so familiar to us from canterbury and notre dame in paris the first church in that style dates from the 5th century and still stands on a remote hilltop in war-torn syria it's called kalb laozi meaning heart of the almond and it's just one among thousands of churches scattered over the wild and magical hills west of aleppo these churches were built to serve the byzantine settlements known today as the dead cities syria in stone you could say and collectively they represent the transition from roman paganism to the zeal of early christianity when the first muslims arrived in syria adopting damascus as their capital they absorbed and learnt from the earlier byzantine hellenistic and persian civilizations gradually synthesizing their architectural styles into something new and distinct among these early muslim innovations were trifoil arches triple arches first seen inside the muslim shrine of the dome of the rock in jerusalem then developed further in muslim spain at the cordova mesquita where they were elaborated into decorative sanctual arches that's with five arches instead of three and multifoil arches they covered every surface with great energy and flare the early muslims loved arches the arch never sleeps runs the proverb as for the pointed arch that first entered europe thanks to amalfi merchants in italy trading with cairo inspired by the pointed arcades of the iban tulun mosque they funded the same style in their new cathedral when a visiting benedictine abbott saw the style he liked it so much that he ordered the same for his monastery at monte casino as did the abbot of clooney in france even importing the same craftsmen and materials to make sure they got it right once clooney the most powerful church in all europe had them the fashion was set soon europe's medieval gothic cathedrals like canterbury and notre dame were covered in pointed and trifoil arches inside and out just like london's big ben and the houses of parliament were covered with them centuries later after the fashion came back in the gothic revival early muslims pioneered the use of ribbed vaulting in the ceilings of mosques and palaces using their deep understanding of complex geometry they discovered how to cleverly disguise the structural elements the ribs by covering them in decoration their technique was brought to europe by muslim masons via muslims spain and norman sicily and was then further refined over the centuries by christian craftsmen till it reached the peak of perfection in the fan vaulted ceiling of king's college chapel in cambridge medieval stained glass in cathedrals like chartres and canterbury was shipped into europe from syria the world leader in glass production venetian glass recipes specified cinders of syria to give the best quality and luster while venetian craftsmen learnt from syrian techniques the concept of heraldry originated on the plains of syria where crusaders first saw saracen knights on horseback holding jousting tournaments and the fleur-de-lis now universally recognized as the national symbol of france appeared for the first time as a blazon for the muslim ruler noura dean christopher wren england's best known architect wrote that what we call the gothic style should rightly be called the saracen style he even explains how he used saracen vaulting in the dome of saint paul's cathedral and why it was the best that's why the cover of my book shows the interior dome of saint paul's it's also the reason behind the title stealing from the saracens a deliberate double irony a play on words based on the derivation of saracens sarakin meaning thieves in arabic in other words isn't it crazy that we in europe called arab muslims thieves when actually we took a lot of ideas from them the bottom line is that no one has a monopoly on ideas everyone's contribution needs to be acknowledged no matter where it comes from no one owns science just as no one owns architecture cultures are intertwined and everything builds on everything else i'm diana dark in collaboration with the emir stein center [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Emir-Stein Center

Views: 545,367

Keywords: Gothic, Islamic architecture, saracens, Europe, Canterbury Cathedral, Notre-Dame, Qalb Lozeh, Dead Cities, Christianity, Islam, Byzantine, Hellenistic, Persian, Cordoba Mosque, Damascus, Syria, Baghdad, Spain, Amalfi, Monte Cassino, Cluny, France, Gothic Revival, King’s College Chapel, Chartres, stained glass, Medieval, Venetian glass, heraldry, fleur-de-lys, Christopher Wren, Saracen vaulting, St. Paul’s Cathedral, ribbed vaulting, Ibn Tulun Mosque

Id: 4LrSU7-bDK4

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/montgomerydoc]

Kind of sad how many premodern mosques in Spain are out of commission

[u/rrerjhkawefhwk]

I keep sending this to lots of friends and family. A fascinating video; thank you quark for sharing!