The Dark Ages: Islamic Empire

The largest covered space in the mosque was the prayer hall, which was basically the prophets own house at the end of the courtyard. Every prayer hall today is a continuation of this marvellous Islamic sense. Underneath all this mighty religious architecture you can still feel the humble presence of the prophet’s own dwelling.

These prayer halls are so welcoming, they have a sense of the living room about them. A home from home.

Most mosques are square or rectangular in plan and that’s because they’re all arranged in relation to this wall here, which is called the Qibla Wall. The Qibla Wall indicates the direction of Mecca. In Arabic the word Qibla means direction. And in Mohammad’s house a simple spear stuck in the ground would mark the way to pray.

The centre of the Qibla Wall is marked by the Mihrab which is always the most ornate part of the wall. Usually a niche. These niches were probably inspired by the culminating niches of Byzantine churches, Christian architecture.

To the right of the Mihrab is the Minbar or pulpit and this is based, once again, on the prophet’s own house.

They say that when Mohammad had gathered so many followers he could no longer be heard by everyone he stepped up onto some blocks of wood and those are the origins of the Minbar.

How fascinating that all the great mosques of Islam inherited their wonderful clarity, their simplicity and their underlying sacred geometry from the humble house of the prophet.

Look at all that wonderful stucco work around the arches, all that repetition and variety, this is art used in a different way, not to illustrate something but to create a visual rhythm.

Christian churches are full of pictures that tell you stories but there are no pictures in these great Islamic interiors. The decoration here communicates in other ways.

There is a sense of endlessness to it. It develops in all directions. And it makes you feel part of something that’s bigger than you. So there are no pictures. Instead, all the way round runs this Quranic inscription, carved into wood. You know I said this mosque was built on the site when Noah’s Ark was said to have come to rest, another story they tell here is that this Quranic inscription is carved on the actual wood from Noah’s Ark.

At the mosque of ibn Tulun the Quranic inscription runs for 2 kilometres around the building, that’s 1/15th of the entire Koran written up on these walls. This is the Word of God in its most sacred and purest form. The power of the word is one of the great creative obsessions of the Dark Ages. And in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the most beguiling of the first Korans, the so-called Blue Koran, turns the words of God into such glorious art.