Ars Longa Vita Brevis

As the Parthenon is to Athens, and as the Colisseum is to Rome, so too is the Great Mosque of the 'Umayyads to Damascus.

Having lived for four years in Syria, and having visited many times in over four decades of work as a journalist and diplomat, I knew the Great Mosque was a place I had to paint one day. The problem was, there are so many possible paintings it was hard to know where to start.

Many photos and paintings of the mosque focus on its monumental central façade and the entry to the main prayer hall. Others capture the impressive, square-capped Minaret of the Bride on the north wall, or perhaps the Western Tower in the southwest corner, capped by the 15th-century minaret of Mamluke Sultan Qait Bey. Attention also goes to what remains of the glorious original mosaic work, e.g. along the western portico and on the 8th-century Bayt al-Mal (Treasury) in the northwest quadrant of the sahn (main courtyard).

Minaret of 'Issa (Jesus)

I settled on a lesser-known area - the eastern portico and southeastern corner of the compound. Here the Minaret of 'Issa (Jesus) rises 258 feet over the white marble pavement of the sahn, highest of the Great Mosque's three minarets. (I would note one of the challenges in this painting was capturing the reflections on that smooth white marble paving.)

The minaret we now see was built in 1247 on the site of an 'Umayyad structure; the cylindrical upper portion is Ottoman. The original 'Umayyad minarets on the two southern corner towers of the compound (where the Minaret of 'Issa now stands in the SE and where the 15th-century Minaret of Mamluke Sultan Qait Bey anchors the SW) were, according to historian Ross Burns, "probably the earliest versions of the minaret in Syria and proclaimed the presence of the Islamic community in a city which was still largely Christian."

The Minaret of Jesus also has a unique role in Islamic eschatology. Muslim tradition relates that just before the Day of Judgement "'Issa bin Maryam" (Jesus the son of Mary) will come down at this very spot to confront al-mesih al-dajjal -- the false messiah, the Deceiver, an evil figure comparable to the Anti-Christ in Christian eschatology. Al-mesih al-dajjal is predicted to appear before the end of the world and reign for 40 days before he is destroyed.

Dome of the Clocks and Mashad Hussayn

A second feature of this eastern half of the courtyard is a small domed structure sitting on eight recycled Roman columns. It dates from the Ottoman-era and is known locally as the Dome of the Clocks because it used to house the mosque's clock collection.

The eastern wall of the compound, on the left side of my painting, has a two-tiered colonnade of arches, and is a major point of pilgrimage for Shi'a Muslims. Roman-era rooms behind this eastern wall are believed to be the place where 'Umayyad Caliph Yezid I (reigned 680-683 AD/AH 60-64) reportedly brought the head of Hussayn ibn 'Ali, grandson of the prophet Muhammad, whom he defeated and decapitated at the battle of Kerbala in 680 AD. As a result this spot, the Mashad Hussayn, draws many Shi'a devotees from Iran and elsewhere. I have shown some of the pilgrims under the east wall colonnade where one enters the shrine to Hussayn and also resting under the Dome of the Clocks.

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The watercolor illustrated above is 8 x 11 inches. The original has been sold but fine art prints in various sizes are available here. The painting's perspective is from a location fairly close to the Dome of Clocks looking up to the Minaret of 'Issa. I chose this composition to spotlight not only these two architectural features but also the pilgrims to the shrine of Hussayn. The graphite drawing below provides a more conventional perspective on this same southeast quadrant of the courtyard.

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Sacred Site 4,000 Years - First Hadad, then Jupiter

Since the second millennium BC this location has been sacred to the inhabitants of Damascus, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

In pre-Roman times, the area was devoted to Hadad, the West Semitic god of storm, thunder and rain. The Romans, in turn, associated Hadad with their god Jupiter, and in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, an immense Temple of Jupiter-Hadad arose here.

The Roman design featured a 150 x 100 meters inner enclosure, or temenos, that was in turn enclosed by a rectangular outer peribolos that measured 305 meters on its East and West sides and 385 meters on the north and south. Commerce thrived in the great space between these two enclosures, and shops filled shady colonnades along the inner wall of the peribolos. While architectural traces of this outer enclosure can still be found in Damascus, notably where the monumental gateways to the temple precinct formerly stood on both east and west, the current mosque compound occupies only the space that had been the inner sanctuary of the Roman temple complex.

From Pagan Shrine to Church of St. John the Baptist

In the 4th century Christianity became the state religion and in 379 the Emperor Theodosius ordered the tearing down of the shrine to the old gods and converted the space to a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist. After the Arab conquest of the city in 636, the Christian population continued to worship there but Muslim worshippers also began to pray, toward the south wall, which faced Mecca.

The sixth 'Umayyad Caliph, Walid I (reigned 705-715 AD/AH 86-96) saw the need for a large assembly area that could hold the burgeoning Muslim population. He negotiated the confiscation of the Church of St. John with the Christian community, ceding in exchange permanent rights for churches on several other properties in the old city. One was the current site of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

Walid I Commissions Great Mosque

Walid I commissioned the Great Mosque in 708 but construction was not completed until 714-715, the year of his death. It reportedly cost seven years of state land tax revenue. The workforce hailed from all over the known world - not only local Syrian craftsmen, but also Greeks, Persians, and Indians. Artisans embellished the structure with mosaics of such splendor that it came to be considered one of the wonders of the world. Australian diplomat and author Ross Burns, who wrote the indispensable Monuments of Syria, cites 12th-century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi: "In Damascus, there is a mosque that has no equal in the world".

The Great Mosque of the 'Umayyads is the oldest extant monumental mosque. Its rectangular plan, distinct from previous mosques that had square layouts, was likely dictated by the shape of the old temenos. The Great Mosque is important in the development of Islamic architecture because it set the broad pattern for subsequent mosque design: prayer hall; colonnaded courtyard, minaret towers, mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca), and minbar (pulpit).

For more detail on the history and architecture of the Great Mosque I recommend Burns' Monuments of Syria . There is also an excellent discussion in The Mosque, edited by Martin Frishman and Hasan-Uddin Khan, on pp 89-92.

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FEATURED PRINT: Corner of Garden, San Clemente -- 6 x 9 inches, 1/2 border, Hahnemuhle Hemp paper, $29. See below, order it here.

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Stay safe out there, everyone. Hope you all are either vaccinated or will be soon.

David