Abstract

Together with calligraphy and arabesque architecture is considered the most authentic artistic form of Islam. It takes the central place in the hierarchy of its art. Islamic architecture as a special art of constructing and organizing area in a particular way conveys the spirit of “new” religion. It represents the development and numerous complexities of historic structuring of Islamic civilization. In addition to being considered one of the most appropriate forms of manifesting Islam in an artistic medium, architecture is in a certain sense considered to be the marrow of all Islamic civilization. In a most characteristic way it expresses its spiritual and cultural-historic essence. Architecture, especially its works that emerging in the horizons of traditional Islamic civilization, most evidently expresses the idea of Unity (at-Tawhid) and manifests the sense of Transcedence that imbues and powerfully determines the whole world of Islam. Although its styles, materials, techniques and means of expression – developed and defined during long the history in the vast and culturally heterogeneous space from Indonesia and Malaysia to Spain and Bosnia – were versatile and sometimes incomparably different, its spirit originated in the Supreme thought of Revelation, remains the same everywhere. In the mosques of Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, Isfahan, Samarcande, Fezz or Sarajevo a Muslim feels himself inside the same artistic and spiritual universe despite local differences regarding material, building techniques and architectural styles.

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