Early Christian Art, Islamic Art

Great Mosque of Damascus

built on the site of a Christian church. the huge dome and vaulted ceiling blended Byzantine architecture with Muslim architecture, including the courtyard, shade arcades, and hypostyle congregation hall

Dome of the Rock
Jerusalem. Islamic, Umayyad. 691-629 C.E.

Place where Mohammed traveled in a Night Journey to ascend to Heaven. Built on sacred Abrahamic rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Central planned building with a dome, borrowing from and radically reinterpreting Roman architectural elements. Later decorated with tiles featuring Koran calligraphic phrases and gold leaf.

Central Plan Church

a church focused around a central on a central point, usually utilizing a square or octagonal plan

basilican-plan church

in Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman basilica, entered from one end with a nave, side aisles, and an apse opposite the entrance.

Byzantine, Christ as the Good Shepherd, mosaic

Congregational

a group of people assembled for religious worship or the building made to house them for worshop

Old St. Peter's

clerestory windows

the windows that form the nave's uppermost level below the timber ceiling or the vaults

Mihrab and Minbar, Great Mosque of Qayrawan

Folio, Blue Koran

North African Islamic or Abbasid period, Calligraphy text of Koran demonstrating the divine nature of the words of God written in gold on indigo parchment

Qibla Mihrab

A niche or marker in a wall facing the direction of the Kaaba (the sacred building at Mecca), to which Muslims turn at prayer. Often elaborately adorned with tiles and placed near the minbar or sermon pavilion

Prayer Hall, Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain

Dome of the Mihrab of the Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain

Koran page, Surah 18, "Al-Kahf" (The Cave)

Byzantine, Justinian, Maxentius, and attendants mosaic

Byzantine, Theodora and attendants mosaic

Plan of St. Vitale church

Byzantine, Hagia Sophia church