How Islamic Architecture Transformed Ancient Cities

As Islamic civilization spread across swaths of three continents from the seventh through the 15th centuries, it didn’t just bring new religions, health practices and trade routes. It represented a radical new way of thinking about buildings, cities and public space. From the dusty roads of Damascus to the bustling markets of Cairo, Islamic architecture transformed the way millions of people lived, worked and prayed.

This transformation wasn’t sudden or easy. When Muslim conquerors extended their rule over cities with ancient Roman, Persian or Byzantine provenances, they didn’t obliterate the past and start anew. Instead, they contributed new ideas of their own, combined old and new concepts and produced something no one had ever seen. The outcome was a world of architecture that transformed ancient towns into vibrant hubs of learning, trade, and aesthetics.

The Emergence of a New Architectural Theory

Islamic architecture did not come out of nowhere. When the Prophet Muhammad built his first Muslim community in Medina in 622 AD, early Muslims required utilitarian structures for prayer and meetings. The house of the Prophet, his courtyarded and covered building was later taken as a model for the first mosques. This small start would eventually lead to some of the most splendid structures ever built by man.

Early Islam copied a lot the civilizations confronted by Muslims. Those influences included Byzantine domes, Persian arches and Roman columns they worked into their buildings. But Muslim architects didn’t merely reproduce these traits. They imagined them anew, mingling elements in novel ways and adding emphatically Islamic accouterments like intricate geometrical patterns, flowing calligraphy and elaborate tile work.

What really set Islamic architecture apart were the concepts that guided it. Buildings had to work for the community, not just be impressive. They had to adapt for their religious practices, particularly the five daily prayers facing Mecca. And they should evoke the Islamic idea of God’s infinite and single nature through repeated patterns and designs that seemed to extend endlessly.

Mosques: Anchors of City Transformation

The mosque was central to the changing shape of every Islamic city. Mosques, unlike churches for example, were not pure houses of prayers but multi-purpose buildings. They served as prayer halls, schools, community centers, courts and even hospitals. A new mosque in an old city was a newly created center that would alter the flow of traffic, commercial activity and patterns of social life.

The Great Mosque of Damascus, constructed between 706 and 715 CE, demonstrates just how effectively a mosque could remake a city. The site of a former Roman temple that had been turned into a Christian church by the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I was selected. Rather than imagine a humble, small building he made it the size of an entire city block. The mosque’s renowned minarets towered over the city skyline, serving as new landmarks visible from miles around.

The mosque of Damascus established architectural traditions that would be followed throughout the Islamic world. Its huge courtyard, floored with marble and surrounded by arcades, able to accommodate thousands of worshippers. The prayer hall, multiple aisles aligning at right-angles to the qibla (the Mecca facing wall), had a profound effect on mosque architecture for centuries. Golden mosaics adorned the walls, depicting elaborate images of buildings, trees and rivers that survivors described as paradise on earth.

The Mosque of Córdoba in Spain pushed these concepts further. Developed from 784 as the grandest mosque in Islam, it broke the Byzantine Arch Church mold, and for two centuries turned the ancient Roman-Visigothic Córdoba to mighty Sociedad Europea. The most striking aspect of the mosque was its “ocean” of columns, more than 850 in total, holding two tiers of horseshoe arches that were painted in a candy-cane striation. Walking through that room was like walking into an unending grove where heaven and earth were one.

How Mosques Changed Urban Planning

Mosques not only transformed individual buildings; they reordered whole districts. Here’s how:

Prayer Times and City Rhythms: The announcement of the five daily prayers from mosque minarets fashioned a new temporal order for city life. Markets opened and closed with the times of prayer. Artisans broke to the call of prayer. The whole city danced to a beat of religious intention.

Educational Centers: Several big mosques had the madrasas (schools) which taught the religious subjects, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy. The Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, established in 970, is considered by many leading academics as the first university.

Public Services: What the West calls ‘governments’, mosques used to perform. They used them for the distribution of alms to the needy, as tribunals for settling disputes between neighbors and for taking decisions within a community. Certain mosques ran hospitals and clinics, providing health care to crowded urban populations.

Trade and Markets: The Rise of the New Economy

If mosques were the soul of Islamic cities, the suq (market) was its financial heart. Islamic architecture transformed the way that ancient cities engaged in trade, by constructing dedicated market districts and stationary shop premises instead of street markets and temporary stalls.

The Islamic suq, a fixture of the traditional city, was not only a place of buying and selling goods. It was an intricately arranged system of streets and buildings that maximized trade and held order. There were different crafts and products in each section of the market. You’d have all the goldsmiths on one street, spice merchants on another, and vendors of textiles in a third neighborhood. This was a system that made it easy for customers to find what they wanted while blurring edges and enabling connected craft guilds to enforce those quality standards.

Caravanserais (known also as khans) were possibly the most vital of the commercial buildings found in Islamic cities. These were large caravanserais, or fortified accommodations for merchants and their animals on the go. They were often built with square or rectangular plans, the latter being more common, and a large central courtyard contained within arcaded walls; it was usually room for travelers to sleep alongside their animals. Store rooms and stables had occupied the ground floor, whilst sleepers had lived above.

Caravan cities such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Istanbul clearly illustrate this geographical network of caravanserais. Cairo’s Khan al-Khalili, founded in 1382, became one of the most renowned market districts in the Middle East, a labyrinth of narrow streets lined with shops that still operates to this day.

Covered Markets provided another element of the Islamic innovation in urban trade. Islamic architects introduced covered markets with vaulted roofs to replace the open-air bazaars, which were subjected to sun, rain and dust. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, which was constructed after the era we’re looking at, would develop this idea into 61 covered streets and over 4,000 stores.

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Water Management: Engineering the Modern Age

It is possible that in all of Islamic architecture, few elements had been so beneficial for early cities as those related to the management of water. Life and water were one and the same in the hot, arid environments where Islamic civilization flourished. Islamic engineers and architects devised complex techniques for supplying water to cities, distributing it equitably and sustaining public health.

Aqueducts and Qanats: Muslim engineers inherited Roman aqueducts but took the technology further. They also borrowed and improved upon the Persian qanat, an underground channel that brought water from mountain sources to cities without it evaporating along the way. Cities such as Marrakech, Fez and Damascus relied on these systems, which could extend for dozens of miles.

Street Fountains: Instead of making people travel to rivers or wells, Islamic cities established a series of public fountains called sabils. These weren’t simple water spouts. Many of them were beautiful buildings adorned with tiles, carved stone and calligraphy. The best sabils included an attendant to keep the cups clean and take care of the fountain. Some offered water for free as charity through wealthy sponsors.

Hammams (Public Baths): Islamic architecture revolutionized bathing from the ancient Roman baths by making public bathrooms at homes and in some 1000 throughout Islamic cities. Unlike Roman bathing, which could occasionally take a debauched (if fun) turn, hammams were practical places of ritual cleanliness that also served as community centers. A traditional hammam was a series of interconnected rooms with varying temperatures, much like contemporary saunas — albeit not quite as advanced in heating and plumbing.

The architect of hammams was genius. In winter, they visited their friends in “subterranean houses” with gravity-fed water systems and underground furnaces that simultaneously heated water and floors. Light shines in through small glass openings called “elephant eyes” set into the domed ceiling, maintaining some sense of privacy. Numerous hammams were associated with mosques, thus facilitating ablutions for those who entered in order to pray.

The Social Life of Water Architecture

But these water management systems did more than wet the whistle. They revolutionized public health in prehistoric cities beleaguered by waterborne diseases. Clean, running water reduced illness. Public baths promoted hygiene. And the equitable sharing of water via communal fountains in neighborhoods helped establish a more thoughtful society where even the most destitute had access to this life-giving resource.

Housing: A House Built in an Urban Space

Islamic architecture transformed life for common people in cramped ancient cities. The Islamic house was historically developed in response to urban density, and cultural preferences for privacy, family life and hospitality.

The Courtyard House

The defining characteristic of Islamic domestic architecture was the central courtyard. Islamic homes, as opposed to the European houses that looked on the street, were inward looking around a courtyard. This design had multiple advantages:

Climate Control: The courtyard provided microclimate. It offered shade and was a receiver of cooling breezes during hot weather. Fountains or pools in the courtyard evaporated and moistened dry air.

Privacy: High walls around the courtyard shielded family members from public view, particularly important in societies that divided public and private life. Windows on the street side were tiny and up high in walls; rooms laid generously open onto the private courtyard.

Light and Air: The courtyard allowed light and air circulation to every room without losing privacy. In cities where buildings not uncommonly joined long walls with neighbors, this was critical.

Multi-generational Living: Families could live together with plenty of space. Middle generations of other families would inhabit other parts of the house, sharing a central courtyard for gatherings.

Mashrabiya (Wooden Screens)

One of the most delightful features in Islamic domestic architecture was the mashrabiya, a wooden lattice screen set into a wall. These ornate wooden affairs reached out from the upper floors and catered to several needs! They had let people look out on their street without being seen. They captured breezes and cooled jars of water set in them. And they also contributed brilliant ornamentation to street facades.

Defensive Architecture: Protecting Urban Populations

Islamic military architecture changed the way ancient cities protected themselves. Muslim architects inherited forms of fortification from earlier empires — the Byzantine and the Persian, among others — but applied new calculations that made cities much more difficult to penetrate.

The Citadel of Aleppo (in Syria), raised on its huge earthwork, is an example. Its formidable gateway with a curved entrance to obstruct attackers illustrated the brilliance of Islamic engineering.

City Walls and Gates

Islamic architects constructed huge defensive walls around the cities but not just simple barriers. They included advanced defensive elements such as multiple gates with right-angle turns, killing zones where defenders could shower attackers with arrows and the positioning of towers for maximum visibility.

The gates themselves became architectural extravagances. Built in 1092, the Bab Zuweila in Cairo was not merely a defensive structure. Its stupendous stone walls towered several stories, and two circular towers stood on either side. The gate developed into a landmark and social center, showing how military architecture could elevate urban life — not just protect it.

Parks and Green Spaces: Paradise on Earth

Islamic civilization introduced a revolution in urban green areas. The Persian and Islamic garden tradition turned arid old cities into verdant oases that allowed for escape from overcrowded squares and stifling temperatures.

The Paradise Garden

A unique four-part plan was developed for Islamic gardens following the Qur’anic reference of paradise. The garden was divided into four quarters by a central water channel, symbolizing the four rivers of paradise. Between the modello and dampers, springs and rivulets produced cooling air and musical tones. Fruit trees, flowers and shade trees transformed gardens into both productive and ornamental places.

These gardens weren’t just decorative. They provided:

Food production: Fruit trees and kitchen herbs in the urban garden supplemented fruit supply.

Climate Modification: Trees and bodies of water cooled the air in once-hot cities.

The Gardens as Social Spaces: The gardens were used as locations for poetry recitals, natural philosophy discussions and family congregations.

Reflection: Landscape was designed to inspire meditation on paradise and divine creation.

Stands the Alhambra at Granada in Spain and there does shown the needed perfection of Islamic garden combined with architecture. Its many gardens, which included the renowned Court of the Lions, offered nature within a palace compound. Water gates piercing buildings helped establish novel connections between indoor and outdoor.

For more insights into Islamic garden design principles, visit ArchNet’s collection on Islamic gardens.

Educational Buildings: Centers of Knowledge

New building types that were developed just for the purposes of education can be identified in Islamic architecture, with ancient cities becoming places of study respectively of three continents.

Madrasas

These schools were not merely schools, but entire residential colleges. A traditional madrasa had a central courtyard flanked by cells of study and prayer. Students resided in cramped cells around the upper galleries. Lectures and debates took place in large halls. The physical design mirrored the educational philosophy, including areas for learning communally and privately.

The world’s oldest continuously operating university was in Fez, Morocco. It was founded in AD 859. Its structure developed over centuries, with prayer halls, libraries and lecture rooms being added while still keeping its basic courtyard pattern.

Libraries

Books were held as precious gemstones in the Muslim world, and beautiful libraries were built. The House of Wisdom, in Baghdad, which sprung up around 800 C.E. would have been a library, not a building at all, but rather a complex of libraries and translation centers finished off with an observatory for good measure. Razed by the Mongols in 1258, it embodied a novel way of cataloging and sharing knowledge.

The Legacy for Modern Cities

The architectural progress that Islamic civilization made in ancient cities is still seen in urban designs today. Today, Western architects designing for sustainability are turning to the principles of Islamic architecture.

Passive Cooling: The temperature in and around the buildings is reduced by means of the courtyard form, wind towers (badgirs), and water channels more than 1000 years before air conditioning. And now, modern architects who work in hot climates are starting to rediscover these practices.

The Quality of Private and Public Life: Muslim Residential Architecture: How to make family privacy in a densely populated city but with an active life on the public street, community interaction and communal life.

Mixed-Use Development: Islamic cities were built as mixed-use communities at a time when it wasn’t very common to mix housing, commercial and religious uses, today we are striving to walk back these designs that fragmented our cities into different uses and created long commute distances from where we live, work worship & socialize.

Decorative Integration: The Islamic tradition of decoration – where beauty serves spiritual and cultural motives, rather than merely displaying wealth — provides a foil to the sterile monotony of modernist design.

Frequently Asked Questions

What materials did Islamic architects use to rebuild ancient cities?

Islamic design worked with what was at hand regionally. In the Middle East, they worked with stone, brick and stucco. Persian architects preferred brick, and created some of the world’s most beautiful tilework. Islamic architects in Spain used stone and elaborate stucco decoration. The common element for these regions was how creatively the authors used the materials at their disposal to make beautiful and useful objects.

How long did it take Islamic architecture to transform a city?

This process occurred slowly, over decades or centuries. A new mosque could be built in a few years, but its effect on the surrounding neighborhoods was developed over generations. Water systems took years of engineering to design. It took, on average, 50 to 100 years for anything like total urban turnover to occur, new structures replacing old and infill taking up any slack.

Were there ancient buildings which Islamic architecture destroyed?

Sometimes; sometimes not. Islamic builders were frequently modifying older buildings, such as in the case of the Damascus mosque, which was erected atop a Roman temple. Columns, stones and other materials from previous buildings were often recycled. Yet a few buildings of earlier times had been destroyed to clear the ground for new Islamic buildings. The method depended on the attitude of the conqueror and logistical considerations.

What was the greatest architectural wonder of Islam?

This is open to debate, but could it be the pointed arch? Unlike Roman round arches, which could only cover one width ratio at a time for a given height, pointed arches could span different ratios to develop greater freedom to the architect. This invention eventually spread to Europe and was engineered into Gothic cathedrals.

How did Islamic architecture become so widespread as to be represented in all those areas?

Islamic architectural effects found their way along a number of channels: military invasions, trade routes, religious pilgrimages and movements of craftsmen and architects. When Muslims took the road to Mecca, making the Hajj pilgrimage, they witnessed regional architectural styles from throughout the Islamic world and returned home with ideas. The ambitious projects of kings also involved importing architects and craftsmen from other distant parts of the continent.

Is there any city currently being built based on conventional principles of Islamic architecture?

Yes, there are many cities in the Muslim world which retain their original Islamic architectural character. Much of the medieval Islamic urban fabric is extant in Fez, Morocco. Shreds of Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul linger and continue to exert Islamic architectural influence. Also, recent construction in the Gulf states such as UAE can occasionally feature traditional Islamic-style architectural motifs in new buildings.

In what way did Islamic architecture impact European architecture?

Islamic architecture had a strong influence on European architecture; also, Spain and Sicily were under Arab rule at various times, during which many Christian buildings and institutions in the two regions were converted into Islamic ones. The pointed arch, tiled decoration, and garden plan all transferred to European architecture. Mudéjar architecture in Spain made a conscious blending of Islamic and Christian design. Trade and the Crusades also brought Europeans into contact with Islamic architectural ideas.

What pertinence does Islamic architecture have for us beyond the medieval?

Islamic architecture saw additional development under the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), Safavid Persia (1501-1736) and Mughal India (1526-1857). Those later empires produced wonders such as the Taj Mahal, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and Shah Mosque in Isfahan. Islamic architecture mingled more in the presence of European colonies. Current architects, today are re-discovering and re-engineering traditional Islamic design principles.

The Enduring Legacy

For a taste of the aesthetic, walk through the old quarters in cities like Cairo or Damascus or Córdoba today, and you can still see how it transformed space. Shady, narrow streets designed to alleviate harsh sun. The fountains that had brought life-giving water to thickly settled quarters. The minarets poking above city skylines. The interior courtyards that offered peaceful retreats from bustling streets.

Islamic architecture was not only new buildings in ancient cities. It reimagined the possibilities of cities. It demonstrated how architecture could be in the service of practical uses and spiritual aspirations at once. It made a case for beauty and function not as opposites but as partners in making urban places livable.

The former cities were given a new spatial order and appearance by Muslim architects, and would serve as the main model for urban settlements across the Mediterranean regions of three continents for the next one thousand years. From the water management of Damascus to the market organization in Cairo, from the residential courtyards in Baghdad to the defensive walls of Fez, Islamic architectural inventions were solving real problems while making beautiful things people still love today.

These transformations are a reminder that architecture amounts to more than buildings. It is about how people live together, how communities work, and how societies write their deepest values in stone, tile and wood. The ancient cities converted by Islamic architecture became a living testament to the belief that conscientious design could enhance everyday life for all, from the richest merchant to the poorest craftsman.

That legacy continues. Contemporary architects learning about sustainability, urban density, and community design are relearning themes that have been perfected by Islamic architects for a thousand years. The remaking of pre-modern cities by Islamic architecture isn’t just history. It’s a conversation that goes on, how we build cities that work for the people who inhabit them; combining beauty and function in ways that invest human life with meaning.