Evaluating the Dominant Theories on the Genesis of the Mosque Type

The Western interest in studying the artistic patrimony of the Muslim world began as early as
the late-nineteenth century. Since then, huge efforts have been made to document, analyse
and conserve the gems of Islamic architecture. Nonetheless, mainly drawing on Arabia’s
slender architectural heritage in pre- and early Islamic times, a majority of Western scholars
have tended to credit the mosque type to non-Islamic origins. Although most of these
theories were put forward about a century ago, they still largely shape the dominant wisdom
in Western scholarship. This article tries to look closely into the earliest mosques, particularly
those built in the first/seventh century, with the aim of investigating whether and how these
mosques were influenced by the local pre-Islamic types. To do so, we will consider the early
Arabic sources as well as the findings of the relevant excavation works. It is of interest to
note that all hypotheses on the non-Islamic origins of the mosque were too weak to withstand
the scrutiny of subsequent research. A typical case in the literature is that a group of scholars
adopt a theory which is soon demolished by another group who themselves propose their
own that is disproved by a third group and so on. All these views failed to provide convincing
answers for such central questions as when, where and how a certain architectural type, or
types, inspired the mosque. The stark simplicity of the earliest mosques, and which derived
from the simplicity of the Islamic rituals themselves, does not seem to have required,
particularly in the earliest phase, the borrowing of any foreign architectural type. Later, the
mosque layout, while greatly retaining its distinctive Islamic character, was influenced by
some architectural types in the conquered territories. A noted example is the use of transept
in the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. The presence of such influences is natural and could
well have been dictated by variant climatic conditions, but should not be taken to attribute the
mosque type to non-Islamic origins—especially that it was only at a later date when such
influences found their way to mosque architecture.