Thread by @AliaGvR

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#NotreDame is famed as the grandest Gothic architectural example.

Embodiment of Catholicism and the Crusades, did you know it stems from the Arab world, specifically #Islamic?

It’s an interesting story that goes back to 7th c Jerusalem.

In 621 Prophet Muhammad was said to have flown from Mecca to Jerusalem to heaven and back in 1 night.

One of the most pivotal events in Islam, Al Isra' wal Miraj (Night Journey & Ascension to Heaven) is observed on the 27th of the 7th month (Islamic calendar).

To mark the spot, the 2nd Caliph (Omar) built a small mosque on the Ḥaram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) aka Temple Mount, 7th c. It’s the 3rd holiest site in Islam.

5th Caliph Abdul Malak then built the Dome of the Rock 688–691, a shrine also on the Haram al-Sharif.

Why is this important?

The Caliph wanted something new. See the pointed arches? Roman arches were semicircular (1 arc), so he made 2 arcs at al-Aqsa to create a *literal point*.

Elegant and different, they allowed for greater height as the weight pushed down not outwards.

In 1898, Prof Alois Musil — a Moravian (Czech) theologian, priest, ethnographer, cartographer, and polyglot, set off determined to find the legendary Syrian desert Qasr ‘Amra, a castle with definitive qus maksur (lit. 'broken arch) pointed arches (w 2 arcs).

And he found it!

European scholars denied such a place existed. Islamic artwork and naked frescoes in ~715? That’s not what Arabs did, argued the West!

So Musil went back in 1900, and took 120 photographs, plans, and sketches back.

It doesn’t look like much outside…

But look at the inside! Take that Orientalists.

And to get Qasr 'Amra, Musil was shot at multiple times, poisoned, almost died twice by fever, and joined the Arab tribes (Beni Sakr; Ruala) in their battles.

In 789, Abbasid Caliph Harun (who ruled from Baghdad) built the underground Pool of Arches in Ramla outside of Tel Aviv.

You can row through the vaulted arches, which support 3x the weight of a round Roman arch. The higher the arch the thinner the walls can be.

Who else was mocked? Sir Christopher Wren (17-18th c) who said, "This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture…should with more reason be called the Saracen (ie Arab) style”.

His Paul's Cathedral, London:

No European examples of the Gothic arch exist prior to the 12th century.

Whereas mosques were lower courtyard-centred structures, Christianity emphasised the dense long basilica shape.

Ibn Tulan’s mosque, Cairo, 9th c👇

Most believed the Crusaders brought pointed (ie Gothic) arches to Europe. Not so. They were found much earlier, from the above examples.

So how did they enter Europe?

It started with a shopping trip.

Desiderius was abbot of the Monte Cassino Benedictine abbey near Rome. It was *the* centre for Benedictine manuscript production in the 11th c, thus super wealthy.

He got his design idea on a 1065 shopping trip to Amalfi, Italy. Because of its locale Amalfi had traded for centuries with the Middle East. Perfumes, spices, gold, jewels and art from the Arab/Byzantine world could be bought.

As could illegal purple silk.

Only royals in Europe could wear purple but Desiderius wanted to really impress King Henry IV, future Holy Roman Emperor, to secure money for his renovation.

Whilst there he of course paid a visit to the Benedictine Cathedral of St Andrew in Amalfi, and was shocked …

St Andrew’s looked like a mosque—a copy of Islamic architecture by then well-established throughout the Middle East, from Persia to Egypt, Morocco to Andalusia.

Desiderius needed to renovate, and wanted to copy the arches, vaulting, floors, and doors of Amalfi’s Cathedral.

Upon his return, the purple silk worked! He got the money!

Now Cardinal, Desiderius brought the top masons from Constantinople to lay floors of multicoloured Byzantium squares, diamonds, and hexagons, modelled on mosaics in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

And pointed arches.

His incredible rebuilding programme also got Desiderius the Papacy as Pope Victor III.

And a sainthood (beatified 1987).

In 1083, Hugh of Semur—needing to renovate his own Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, France—visited Monte Cassino.

Adapting the style, he pushed roof limits to 100’ high by 200 pointed arches.

The work took from 1088 to after his death in 1130, but was the first true French Gothic architecture.

Hugh also got to be a saint, canonised in 1120 by Pope Callixtus II.

Renovation with Muslim pointed arches seemed a ticket to beatification.

Notre Dame then broke ground in 1163, completed 183 years later.

From Jerusalem and the Syrian desert, incorporating Persian and Mesopotamian design…via Constantinople to Italy, Catholic Notre Dame is the finest example of Gothic architecture.

Ironically, via Islam.

Fin.