THE UMAYYAD MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS:
Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam
By Alain George
Gingko. 264 pages. £60
ISBN 978 1 909 942 455
Christians are often surprised to learn that Muslims believe in Christ’s second coming.
Muslims say they know to where Jesus will return – Damascus, specifically, the Minaret of Jesus on the Umayyad Mosque, as Alain George observes in his excellent book A tradition… in the compilation by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 261/875). George, however, notes that ‘the Arabic phrasing points to the east gate of Damascus rather than that of the mosque…’
Another surprise is that the mosque is associated with John the Baptist to the extent that there is a special enclosure with his ‘head’. Contrary to what many have thought, there seems to have been no prior association of the site with John by Christians, who focused on the history of Paul in the city.
This superlative book is to be highly recommended. George is a gifted writer, his book being very readable and informative, with multiple illustrations, such as old watercolours and photographs.
Aesthetically, the mosque is attractive, and thankfully, Islamic State never managed to destroy it, as they did Sufi shrines, Assyrian temples and Palmyra’s Temple of Bel. George gives us a detailed, but never tedious history and study of the mosque and, ironically, we learn how Byzantine designs influenced it both positively and negatively. A darker side to the mosque is also highlighted – it was built on the site of a seized, and then destroyed, church.
Previously, mosques were built near to churches, and in Damascus, the Christians were unsuccessfully urged to sell. So, Caliph al-Walid in 705 forcefully expropriated the site, demolishing the church to make way for the mosque’s construction. This was celebrated by three triumphalist poems (presented in the Appendix). The pattern was set, and in places like Constantinople after 1453 churches were seized. In Britain, former church buildings have been transformed into mosques, and disturbing reports sometimes emerge of triumphalist expressions by Muslims about existing churches that ‘we’ll get it one day’. The experience of the Umayyad Mosque shows how this began.
