Architecture, Islamic—West Asia
To understand Islamic architecture in the region comprising present-day Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, one must first understand its roots. The builders of Islamic cities that arose in the desert where no city existed before used architectural styles that they knew from other places. Nevertheless, they adapted these older styles to express new ideas about the meaning of Islam, its values, and its power. Older cities enveloped into Islam contained older structures that were reused and readapted to suit the new rulers.
Symbolism in Islamic architecture is often conveyed by the use of simple everyday geometrical forms in special ways. The dome placed over a cubic space is sometimes simply a convenient means of roofing and sometimes an awe-inspiring symbol of the heavens above the earth, which carries the further message of the all-powerful oneness of God. The arch may be used to indicate the direction in which one is to pray, but it may also be used in colonnades at a palace or as windows in a city house. Vernacular architecture (the architecture of the common people as opposed to sacred or civic architecture) shared many of the architectural elements found in sacred buildings such as mosques and madrasahs (religious schools).
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