An “Exceptional Moment” of Cooperation
By: Simon Bialobroda
Syria, as a center of the Islamic Golden Age, has long been unacknowledged for its significant contributions to human culture and civilization.
Damascus, Idlib, and Aleppo were once vibrant centers of scientific, religious, and philosophical learning in Syria.
The creative force that issued out of the Islamic Golden Age began in the 7th Century resulting in such architectural forms as mosques, palaces, madrasas (schools) and shrines like the Dome of the Rock.
This creative impulse, largely unnoticed, contributed to the creation of the unique style of Gothic architecture.
Next, it made its influence felt in India contributing to the distinctive Mughal style of architecture like the Taj Mahal (1648) and continued influencing figures like Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), the brilliant architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral (1710).
Diana Darke’s books, Stealing From the Saracens and Islamesque is rewriting architectural history and bringing attention to European architecture’s deep roots in Islamic design.
This essay focuses on the nearly forgotten transfer of Islam’s advanced architectonic knowledge to Europe in the 12th century and how an exceptional moment of cooperation lead to a transformational re-shaping of European architecture.
Architectonic contributions of Islamic building science
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Architectural historians have always been fascinated by the sudden birth and rapid emergence of what became known in Western Europe as the Gothic style of architecture and which lasted from the 12th to the 16th century.
According to historians, the Gothic period began with the remodeling (1137-1144) of the abbey church in St. Denis, a few miles north of Paris, home to a monastic Christian community of monks and cemetery of the Kings of France.
The head of the St. Denis order was Abbot Suger (1081-1151). The abbey church had a dense and dark interior due it being built (7th Century) in the Romanesque style of thick heavy walls, low ceilings and small windows.
Suger totally transformed St. Denis due to St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s prompting. What made this transformation possible and who was this personage: St. Bernard of Clairvaux?
Left/Right: Remodelled St. Denis, looking up at the eastern end.
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was good friends with Suger and the exiled Pope Eugene III, the first Cistercian to become Pope.
As the French abbott of the Cistercians and founder of the order in 1098, St. Bernard of Clairvaux became the spiritual and political patron of the Knights Templar, a Catholic military order founded around 1118 to protect pilgrims during pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
One of the most influential men of his day, St. Bernard’s deep humility, inward life of seeking, mystical experiences and devotion permeated his sermons, letters and treatises, spreading his name far and wide. St. Bernard had a close relationship with Chartres, a town 75 miles south of France, which was home to an active group of Cistercian monks, neo-platonist teachers and scholars.
The Chartres school of architects or master-builders whose names have remained anonymous to this day, designed and built the most influential church of its time: Chartres Cathedral (1140). It was built on holy Druid ground quickly becoming an intellectual center and home-base for the cathedral building guilds.
The Cistercians were healers, not only of the body but also of the earth. They were given many lands upon which to build their abbeys. Approximately 100 exist throughout Europe.
The Qu’ran also echoes this respect for the Earth. The Qu’ran states that humans are stewards (khalifa) of the Earth, responsible for taking care of it through cooperation and not causing corruption or waste, recognizing the interconnectedness of all creation.
The Cistercians were given marshy lands of little value, but were able to restore them to health. Word of this also spread far and wide. The Cistercians felt their task to be theurgy or divine work, to make earth worthy of Christ and God.
The Qu’ran and Islamic tradition contain concepts akin to theurgy, often called ruhaniyya (spirituality/white magic) or linked to Simiyya, which involves divine invocation and spiritual connection.
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love,”
-St. Bernard of Clairvaux, (12th Century)
The Qu’ran sees the earth as God’s creation, to be respected and protected. The Cistercians believed that “God Geometrizes” and their Islamic brethren of the Qu’ran believe that God is the creator of a perfectly ordered, lawful, and geometrically structured universe.
Here we can see a strong affinity between the Cistercians and Muslims. The above quote by St. Bernard of Clairvaux echoes the Qu’ran which presents knowledge as a tool to serve God and humanity, emphasizing its importance for spiritual, moral, and societal betterment.
It is known that Christians and Muslims were aware of these commonalities and of their religious differences, often creating tensions, but St. Bernard was a man of rare humility and intelligence, and putting prejudices aside, had deep respect for Islam.
St. Bernard came to learn, through stories of travelers to the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Syria, about architectural marvels. St. Bernard’s progressive views about architecture may have confirmed his thinking that Islamic builders shared his concepts about simplicity, proportion and light.
There are many accounts of St. Bernard prompting and directly influenced Abbot Suger who sought to incorporate a sense of light and spiritual truth into the rebuilding of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, which was heralded as the first cathedral of Gothic style.
St. Bernard and the recruits he sent to the Levant kingdoms had everything to do with the rebuilding the Church of St. Denis and Chartres Cathedral’s construction, but how?
It was 1119. Twenty years had passed since the First Crusade captured the city of Jerusalem. St. Bernard saw the possibility for cooperation and unification.
He selected a group of individuals made up of Templar Knights, who were also Cistercians, to go on a non-military secret mission (secret for safety reasons), a mission of cultural exchange to the aforementioned kingdoms and Syria.
According to his book The New Knighthood, Malcolm Barber tells of written accounts of St. Bernard envisioning his recruits benefitting from their spiritual encounter with the symbols of the Holy land. And, In his scholarly book, The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral, Louis Charpentier draws from personal experience and investigations of the cathedral’s architecture to draw the conclusion that Chartres was built by individuals who understood a lost science of building.
This is a part of Masonic lore and an accepted belief amongst modern era interfaith organizations such as Freemasonry, which grew out of the medieval stonemason guilds and exists now in nearly every country worldwide.
A positive result of the recruited knights’ mission was the understanding these individuals brought back to Europe of Islamic sacred geometry and building science.
The Knights arrived in Jerusalem and stayed for ten exceptional years in surrounding territories.
It is believed they studied with descendants of the master builder-craftsmen of King Solomon’s Temple, built 1,000 years earlier.
There is documentation of Christian Knights that travelled to ancient sites in various parts of Jerusalem and Syria, such as the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Citadel of Aleppo, the Idlib province, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Hisham’s Palace in ancient Syria, Jericho.
It is documented that crusader Knights Templar and Islamic builders built the basilica, Our Lady in Tartus (1123), Syria, later becoming a Templar outpost.
It incorporated the pointed arch, ribbed vaulting, buttress, thin walls, high ceilings and tall pointed windows, structural elements that we see in the perfectly proportioned Cistercian abbeys and the transcendent Gothic Cathedrals that sprang up soon after the order of Knights returned (1129) from the Arabian lands.
Our Lady Basilica in Tartus, built by Knights Templars and Islamic master craftsmen
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
The Knights learned that architectural design depends on good proportion and the relationship of part to the whole, resulting in forms that express the principles of harmony and beauty.
They were taught that constructiveness was the supreme expression of the soul. They returned to France as master builders, venerating Deity and God’s Creation as sacred.
For them, gouging rough ashlars to be stones fit for the temple was akin to self-development.
For them, the building of a temple was a metaphor for making the body and soul, a spiritual house for God; that each human being has a purpose and integral part to play in making the world a reflection of God’s love.
They returned with several Syrian brethren to France, transformed, transforming the architecture of Europe, resulting in one of the greatest ages of building the world had ever seen.
Article by: Simon Bialobroda
Simon Bialobroda is a retired architect and student of philosophy with a particular interest in systems of thought that explore the relationship between life, form, number symbolism and the major role geometry has played in architectural design.
He has written articles on the transformational power of architecture that have been published in the Beacon Magazine and Kosmos Journal.
He received the Masonic initiations in San Diego, California from the fraternal order of Blackmer Lodge No.442, F.&A.M. on 14/11/83, 14/2/83 and 14/6/84, and presented on March 31, 2011 from Montezuma Lodge No.1 in Santa Fe, N.M. with a certificate for twenty five years of service as a Master Mason.
He graduated from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1976 with a Bachelors Degree in Architecture. He now lives in Colorado with his wife Linda and fellow traveller.
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