Dome Of The Rock And Hagia Sophia Essay

The Comparison of Dome of the Rock and Hagia Sophia

The Byzantine Empire’s interplay with the Islamic culture had a really intimate impact on its art. Byzantine Empire basically indicates the art from the Eastern Roman Empire, while Islamic Art is a term used to describes the art that were created by Muslims artists, dedicated for the Muslims patron, or made in the Muslims’ territory. In fact, Byzantine’s mosaics stroke the Islamic leaders that they asked for the mosaicists to work on the Dome of the Rock, one of the oldest architecture created by Muslims. Yet, there are a lot of differences between the Dome of the Rock made with the help of the Byzantine people, with their own architecture, Hagia Sophia, that was considered as the epitome of their architecture, as well as mentioned as the building that changed architecture’s history. These differences were affected by the influence of the religion that can be clearly seen through the interior designs of both buildings with

different structures. Still, the Byzantine architecture is one of the models for the Islamic that helped them developed their style.
The Dome of the Rock, located in Jerusalem, was built in 689-691 CE under the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik. It was built on the site of a Second Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. During the Byzantine era, most of the Jerusalem was Christian. The architecture and mosaics were made after the Byzantine churches and palaces was constructed. Raja ibn Haywah who was a theologian and Yazid Ibn Salam were the two engineers that was put in charge for the project. Shelomo DOv Goitein, an enthnographer and historian, said that it was first intended to have many fine buildings that will be used for the worship of other religions. He said, “The very form of a rotunda, given to the Qubbat as-Sakhra, although it was foreign to Islam, attempted to rival the many Christian domes of its time”.
On the other hand, Hagia Sophia is a church constructed under the command of Emperor Justinian in Constantinople (Istanbul) that was completed in 537. It was built after the first church, Basilica by Constantine, destroyed during the riots in 404, and the second church that was dedicated and built by Emperor Theodosius II in 415, burned down during the Nika revolt of 532. To build the third, Justinian decided to go on a different direction of the basilica. He wanted it to be bigger and more glorious than the precursors. Justinian chose Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus as the architects for the project, and as Anthemius of Tralles was a mathematician, the mathematical thories of Archimedes was seen influencing the construction.
Both Dome of the Rock and Hagia Sophia have a dome each, but interestingly different.

The Dome of the Rock owns an egg shaped dome covered with a gold colored material. It is an octagonal building with details designs all around the entire exterior of the building. It seems like the building focuses more on symmetry and repetition because we see the shapes and details similarly, yet beautifully made. Hagia Sophia’s dome, on the other hand, is a rounded shape with 4 towers on 4 sides with the same gray colored points. Unlike the Dome of the Rock, the building’s details focuses more on the interior. It has many windows and openings that allow the light to come through them, giving really natural feelings inside, while Dome of the Rock use more color on their designs such as yellow, blue, as well as green. Moreover, the building seems like having a lot of layers that grows wider for Hagia Sophia. The arches are either having more arches inside them or they are somewhere around another

arches.
A belief is something that affects not only the culture of a community, but also everything that is happening. As for Islam, they have a belief that living beings and God are not allowed to be defined. Due to that, the Dome of the Rock has a more of geometric shape because the Qur’an stated the restriction of displaying the God and form of any creatures at any type of decorations. Meanwhile, Hagia Sophia is surrounded with mosaics of people that were added after Iconoclasm, as well as other figurative decorations. The architects of the Byzantine Empire concentrate more of bringing the Christianity to the building. The Hagia Sophia was a holy place for long before now turned to a museum.
Roman Empire was dispart to three architectural troops. In 476 AD, Roman had Western empire that fell not long, and Eastern Empire that maintain the culture and continued the success of their architectural. Then in the capital of the empire, built the Hagia Sophia as the example of a religious building. Hereinafter, the idea of the dome was being passed and used to Islam, as can be seen in the Dome of the Rock, also called the Onion Dome. Since the Byzantine consumed Grecian-style columns, the Dome of the Rock is seen using taking it as the part of their element too.
Hereafter, their architects started building mosques and other type of places used to assist better their religion. Built after the Great Mosque in Damascus, these mosques have a court in the center and can be accessed from three sides. On the fourth wall, there’s a prayer recess and could not be put anything else because of their strong belief that the Mecca is located in the east. It is based on the central plan, similar to the Byzantine churches. Hagia Sophia, on the other hand, is famous for their windows that allow the light reflecting the interior. This was accomplished by having 40 windows around the structures’ original base. Inside, all the mosaics of Virgin Mary, Jesus and other emperors or saints can be seen decorated in a decorative way with some geometric patterns. There’s no restriction of not capturing beings, even their God for Christianity, giving them more freedom to have more decorative designs as well as pieces inside it.
Until the mid-twentieth century, the Muslims were the only people having the access to Dome of the Rock. It was until 1967 that the Non-Muslims have the permission to their limited access as long as their purpose is not to pray, and carry anything connected to religious artifact. Furthermore, the rock is considered as the spot in which Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, raised to Heaven with Gabriel the angel.
The style of the Dome of the Rock is a combination of different architectures. Because of their strong beliefs, they took specific elements from other architectures, even from the Christians’. Meanwhile, Hagia Sophia today’s style was influenced by the Byzantine style clearly. Nevertheless, the cultural significance was playing a big role on both the Dome of the Rock and for Hagia Sophia. The different rulers that modify the building, the events that happened, as well as the changes on the rules affected both of the architectures.