Morgan- Comparing Islamic and Byzantine Architecture

Islamic and Byzantine Architecture

The Islamic and Byzantine architecture was very important to the history and the way both cultures grew. In the Islamic culture built many great buildings like The Dome of the Rock, The Taj Mahal, and the Alhambra. The Byzantine also had built many great structures for their culture including The Hagia Sophia,  The Hagia Irene, and The Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo. These are just some of the great structure build by each cultures.

The Islamic culture created many crate architectural buildings that are still standing today like The Dome of the Rock was built by the Umayyad Caliph during the late 7th century. The jewish tradition says that this is where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. The “rock” on top of the Dome was built to help connect the Muslims and Jews with God. The Taj Mahal was built after Mughals favorite 3rd wife was giving birth to her 14th child and died. After that he told people to build the Taj Mahal. It took more than 20 years to build and is 240 feet tall. It also contains designs from “indian, islamic, and Persian” cultures. They also built The Alhambra that sits on a hill overlooking the city of Granada. It was built by princes of the Muslim Nasrid dynasty during the 14th century. The inside and out are very detailed with: “colored tiles, cared stucco, carved wood, and calligraphy”. These are some of the major islamic architectural structures.(Islamic architecture)

The Byzantine also had very important to architecture like The Hagia Sophia was a cathedral built in the 6th century. It was built in Constantinople. The building “director” was Justinian I and was built in just 6 years. In 558 parts of the structure collapsed due to a earthquake. After that in the middle of the 14 century it was rebuilt smaller. (Hagia Sophia)

Hagia Irene is one of the first built churches for the Byzantine. It was built under the orders of Constantine the Great. This was destroyed in 532 by the Nika riots. Then Justinian I during the 6th century got it rebuilt. The Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo was built by Theodoric the great before Byzantines conquered Italy during the Gothic War. Justinian I turned it into a Orthodox church. It got its name in the middle of the 9th century and had a Byzantine mosaics on it. (Byzantine Architecture) These are some of the byzantine architectural structure that are in importance to the byzantine.

Both Byzantine and Islamic have very different and very similar architecture. They both were very precise about how they build each part of their structure. The Islamic structures had more specific reasons for each parts of their structures like on The Dome of the Rock.

The Byzantine built more structure with calligraphy and art inside and outside of their buildings like the Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo with its mosaics.

The islamic and Byzantine architecture were both very significant to each of their beliefs. Some were built to worship their God and other were build for rulers. They all were at importance to the people using them and the people who told others to build them. The Byzantine had built many great structures including The Hagia Sophia That was a cathedral , The Hagia Irene which was one of the first built churches, and The  Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo that had a beautiful mosaic on it. Also the Islamic culture built many great buildings like The Dome of the Rock where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, The Taj Mahal that took more than 20 years to build, and the Alhambra that sits on a hill so it can overlook the city.