Lines and Curves and Sacred Spaces: Two Muscat Mosques, Oman

Mosques – masjed or masjid – are a prominent feature in any Islamic landscape (eg.: Jama Mosque). With their beautiful domes, their graceful arches, and their soaring minarets, these houses of Muslim worship draw attention upwards and engender admiration, reverence and calm.

During a short stay in Muscat, capital city of the Sultanate of Oman – a Muslim country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula – I spent the morning in two of the cities largest and most beautiful mosques: the Sultan Qaboos Mosque or Grand Mosque, and the Mohammed Al Ameen Mosque.

Non-Muslim visitors (in modest dress, of course) are only welcomed into these holy places during restricted hours, but I had a local guide to maximise my time and to explain what I was seeing.

Traditionally, Islam doesn’t allow the depictions of human or animal figures in religious art, in part because of the prohibition against idolatry and the fear that people will respect or worship the creation whilst forgetting the Creator, and in part from the belief that the creation of living things is God’s prerogative as the divine musawwir (maker of forms, artist).

So, the beauty of mosques is in their architectural structures, and in the richly complex and intricate patterns that decorate them.

The typical mosque form includes ten elements (see: Rethinking the Future), comprising: domes, usually as a part the roofs and often with an oculus to let in light; arches, generally marking the entrances to buildings and rooms; muqarnas, a type of honey-combed ornamental vaulting on the underside of domes or arches, from the Arabic word ‘qarnasi ’meaning ‘intricate work’; tall minarets, often with balconies; a mihrab, a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque which faces Mecca and marks the direction for prayers; Arabesque art; a rectangular or square hypostyle hall; courtyards; gardens; and an iwan, a rectangular hall with walls on three sides and one open side.

The decoration of mosques relies on three principle motifs: complex tessellations of geometric patterns; arabesques inspired by the curving and branching of plants; and stylised calligraphy of religious texts in Arabic.

Exploring the beautiful Indian sandstone Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the third largest mosque in the world, and the newer marble-clad Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, we can see all of these elements in situ.

These two mosques are truly beautiful examples of Islamic architecture – and were quite a delicate contrast to the many Omani forts I later visited.

Until then,

Happy Wandering!

 

Pictures: 20October2019