Islamic Design

The first thing to know about Islamic Design is that it is based of the Islamic religion. The Islamic religion is the foundation for the design during this period.

The main purpose for the mosques were to be a place of worship and praying. Some of the features that these mosques had were perimeter walls, and covered halls of columns (hypostyle), and have a big courtyard.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in North Africa and is the most ancient mosque.
This mosque really shows the horseshoe arch which was a big motif of this period.
 

Mosque of Sultan Ahmed (aka the "Blue Mosque") is located in Turkey and has one main dome and eight secondary domes. In this mosque there are over 20,000 handmade tiles, and the walls were painted to look like carpeting.
 

The Taj Mahal is obviously well known and is a stunning building with breath-taking architecture.
It was built by the emperor as a place of burial for his late wife. The whole building is made of brick with a marble veneer. The main dome is massive and stands over 10 stories tall.



Some current applications of Islamic design include the horseshow arch and the beautifully ornamented patterns.
  

I reviewed Melanie's blog and from her blog I learned about muqarnas. Muqarnas are Islamic honeycomb-like ornamentation and can be found in Alhambra (a large palace and fortress) in Spain.

I also reviewed Rachael's blog, and from her blog I learned more about the Taj Mahal. I learned that the Taj Mahal displayed intricate details indoors and outdoors. It also shows "the use of outdoors was also a great part of the overall design".