Contemporary Mosque Architecture in Turkey
تاريخ الاضافة
24/07/2019
نوع المحتوى
Dissertation
Category
Masters
الرابط للمحتوى
Subject Area
Architecture
الكاتب
Samaa Moustafa Ahmed Moustafa
الوصف
Early in the twentieth century in a quest for national identity and a need for
modernity –both are products of the west - Turkey among many other Islamic countries
embarked on a massive building project as part of its broader process of modernization.
While new forms and styles were incorporated to mirror the modern and civilized vision
of the new nation-state, the architecture of the mosque remained conservative with a few
exceptions which started to appear only in the last quarter of the same century. The
architecture of the medieval mosque has enriched our minds with knowledge about
Islamic religious values, social cultures, local architectural traditions and craftsmanship.
Today, the architecture of the contemporary mosque confronts us with stirring debates
between binary opposing perspectives such as modernity versus tradition, nationalism
versus religion and state versus society.
As a case study Turkey has a strong history of nationalism. Its westernization
began in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and its modernization in the first half of
the twentieth century. There have been two national revivals in its architectural culture.
It is perhaps Turkey more than any other country that can shed light on how
secularization brought about a profound effect on the role of religion and the mosque as
evident from the ongoing controversies regarding the design, the location and even the
number of mosques.
Other than religion, social and architectural cultures are other important areas
where change and transformation as the impact of modernization is greatly manifested.
The new architecture and city planning changed the built environment; the mosque as one
of its many other elements was affected by the change. Furthermore new institutions
emerged and took over the social and educational role of the mosque and its place in
public social life.
Were all these changes expressed in the architecture of modern mosques? What
kind of approach has been taken in the design of modern mosques? What is the role that
the strong Ottoman architectural tradition came to play in the architecture of modern
mosques? What kind of religious, social and political implications do the new examples
yield? Have the new examples expressed the spirit of Islam since the mosque’s primary
function is a place of worship? Equally important have they expressed the spirit of the
time?
It is within the inseparable political, social, and cultural contexts that this research
seeks to study and analysis the architecture of the modern mosque - “the most Islamic
building par excellence” - in Turkey.
Files
English
Samaa Moustafa Ahmed Moustafa
The American University in Cairo
2013