A typological Study of the Historical Mosques in Erbil City

Abstract

A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. Erbil city contains a collection of historical mosques built in different eras dating back to 900 years ago. This paper highlights the plan typology of mosques and compares them with the known Islamic architectural typologies in an attempt to fill this gap of knowledge on such topics, especially with regard to the built environment of historic mosques in the city of Erbil. The central question of the research was: is the type of plans of the historical mosques in Erbil city related to a specific style in Islamic architecture? The aim of the research is to study the plan layout typology of mosques and to identify to which extent these typologies connected with Islamic known styles. The methodology is offering the known Islamic styles around the world with examples, selecting 5 historical mosques for analyzing their plan morphologies graphically according to (shape of the prayer hall, corridor, and courtyard) then comparing these plans with the plans of Islamic styles. From the analysis, a typological tendency in the historical mosques of Erbil city was recognized. The discussion in this paper emphasizes the correlation between the typology of historical mosques in Erbil city with the known Islamic architectural typologies of mosques. As a result, the architectural typologies of the floor plan of historical mosques in Erbil city were identified. The study concluded several types of plans, such as Ottoman style, Umayyad style, and irregular plan style. The current research revealed that the typology of plans in historical mosques in Erbil city related to the plan typology of Islamic known styles.

Using the golden ratio in detecting the aesthetics of Mosque facades: The case of contemporary Mosques in Erbil city

“…Most mosques in Muslim countries have common architectural elements as a sign of a place of prayer [26,27] Geometry constitutes an essential and fundamental element in art and architectural engineering. Within the authorized framework of geometry, all aspects of a structure, including its components and mass, can be established, and given identity [28,29] The analysis of the mosque geometrically was first conducted at the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, where it was discovered that the principle of the Golden Section could potentially be employed as a reconstruction guide for a mosque dating back to around 670 AD [30,31,32].…”