|
If the art of Achemenide Persia left only traces (potteries in particular) in this part of the Near East, Hellenistic
art on the other hand, in particular that of Rome and Byzantium, left a fabulous heritage of dead cities (Palmyra,
Aphamea, Bosra, Shaqqa, Shahba, Doura Europos, etc.), monasteries, and Byzantine churches (Northern Syria, west
of Aleppo), often in a perfect state of conservation, and filled the museums of Damascus, Aleppo, Sweida, etc.,
with sculptures, bronzes, glass artifacts, ceramics, sumptuous jewels, mosaics, etc.
If we compare these works with those of former ages as well as with later Islamic ones, they allow us to assess
the extraordinary flexibility of the Syrian spirit which was subjected to many upheavals of civilization and great
cultural influences, to an extent that any other people would undoubtedly have suffered personality troubles.
The fact that Syria and Damascus became in the space of one century, the center of the Islamic world, that is to
say the largest empire ever constituted up to that time and this shortly after emerging from the desert, allows
us to grasp the privileged role played by this country in the elaboration of Islamic art. When the faith fighters
arrived in Syria, they met with populations of an old civilization with a Christian majority to whom they were
to propose an extraordinary challenge: that of building a society on an entirely renewed basis, where everything,
or almost everything, was to be rested.
In architecture for example the new religion had to be given the proper liturgical frame. The second, in time of
Islamic monuments still in existence, the Great Damascus Mosque, called the Omayyad Mosque, appears as the first
mosque really adapted to the rituals of Islam. By its design, this mosque may be considered as a purely Arab prototype
of a prayer house when compared with other types of mosques, such as the Persian or Ottoman type. Decorations,
in particular colored marble panels and mosaics on gold background, are sumptuous and really worthy of the imperial
status of Damascus, and can compare to those of Constantinople, and are still Byzantine. This is the case in mosaics
with the technique, composition, architectural ornaments (imaginary cities, bridges, monuments, villas with parks,
etc.). This persistence of Byzantine art, eighty years after the conquest of Syria, shows us that this country
did not repudiate at once its ancient traditions, but it also shows us that a population perhaps, still largely
Christian, put its know-how at the disposal of the Omayyad Caliphs. A little later, especially after the advent
of the Abbassids (750), a specifically Islamic decorative art came to light, based on arabesque, on calligraphy
(Arabic writing provides marvelous design possibilities), carved plaster with floral motifs, etc. Actually, the
metamorphosis of architecture was not limited to religious edifices only. Civil monumental architecture was also
renovated, as evidenced by the famous Arab castles of the desert in Jordan, Iraq and Syria, and in particular the
palaces of Kasr-EI-Heir EI-Gharbi and Kasr-EI-Heir EI-Sharqi in the Pal-myranian desert. It would not be sufficient
to go to the site to appreciate the beauty and elegance of the decoration, as a visit would be disappointing. It
would be necessary to visit the national museum of Damascus, where the monumental gate and various architectural
fragments have been reconstituted with original elements.
The departure of the Caliphate to Iraq in 750 caused Syria to lose its political and cultural preeminence in the
Arab world.
It was never to recover its original status, and consequently it was no more at the top in the definition of new
aesthetic ideals. There was simultaneously Baghdad and Moslem Spain, then Ifriqiya, Cairo, Seldjoukid (Turkish
dynasty), pure Persian, Timouride Central Asia, Ottoman Asia Minor, etc. But Damascus and Aleppo still continued
to build beautiful monuments with religious connotations in particular. They are still the pride of those two cities.
The war of strategic positions at the time of the Crusades, with the Latin intervention along the coast and with
the occupation of ports (in particular Tortose or Tartous) left Syria with wonderful monuments, especially fortresses.
The Krak Des Chevaliers and the castles of Marqab and Saladdin (Saone) are among the most remarkable with the fantastic
Arabic citadel of Aleppo. On the occasion of the building of these monuments, architects, whether they were from
the West or from Syria, as well as stone hews, obviously recruited locally, revealed their prodigious skills.
|
|
