Text: Nikolai Gudalov At first glance, the architectural appearance of the United Arab Emirates almost does not distinguish them from the world's largest megalopolises built up with glass and concrete skyscrapers. However, the attentive tourist in the UAE will not leave the feeling that he, even without seeing the local old buildings (which, unfortunately, very few have survived), is still located in the Arab east. Characteristic bends, details, elements of Islamic architecture are increasingly woven into the design of ultra-modern emirate buildings, organically and unobtrusively giving them a unique flavor. Nothing can rhyme better with the endless desert sands and the equally endless clear sky.
It seems that the technologies of the 21st century make it possible to restore historical justice and finally embody, in this corner of Arabia, where neither climate nor lifestyle allowed to erect monumental structures for a long time, such projects that would adequately withstand comparison with the famous monuments of Cairo, Baghdad or Bukhara. The canons of not only Islamic architecture, but also those non-Muslim peoples, whom history connected with this cosmopolitan crossroads of trade routes and political interests, influenced the architectural traditions of the Emirates.
The Arabic word "imara" ("architecture") is associated with the root, denoting not only construction, but also the population, habitability of a place, cultivation, culture, civilization and, finally, life or age. It refers to the truly cultural features of the human community. The name of one of the largest construction and investment companies in the UAE, Dubai Emaar, is also formed from the same root.
Ancient traditions
You can learn about the grandiose construction projects of the modern Emirates from countless articles and books, they also attract most tourists, but only a few know about the history of the architecture of this country. The first settlements in these territories belong to the so-called Umm al-Nar culture (2500-2000 BC), which the earliest "fortress towers" can tell about today. They, which is noteworthy, were erected above the wells. The towers were 8 meters high and were very difficult to build: inside, numerous walls crossed each other, and the cavities were filled with gravel. The tower was surrounded by a wall. The largest discovered tower, which is located in Till Abrac, is 40 meters in diameter!
Excavations make it possible to examine the buildings found on the territory of future UAE in the classical period of the Iron Age (1000-600 BC). So, in the areas of Al Ain, Al-Suqeyba, Umm Safah and Muwale, you can find traces of buildings made of adobe brick.
On June 27, 2011, the only object from the UAE, the district in Al Ain (Abu Dhabi), where traces of many ancient sedentary cultures were found, was finally included in the UNESCO cultural heritage list. The oldest belong to the Neolithic; here you can find round stone tombstones, wells, adobe residential buildings, towers, palaces, "administrative" buildings. UNESCO appreciated not only the antiquity of the objects, but also the fact that they testify to the "sustainable and positive relations of ancient people with the desert environment", their ability to manage water resources, reviving lifeless sands.
In the first centuries of the Christian era, Ad-Dur (in the modern emirate of Umm al-Quwain) became the most important settlement on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. Most of the buildings here were constructed from a special calcareous rock - “Farush”, which was formed in shallow tidal zones. People could easily break it into building slabs. It was here that for the first time in Arabia they used alabaster for the manufacture of windows. In Ad-Dur there were one-room houses and multi-room houses with round towers in the corners.
The graves were individual and collective, the most complex of which speak of the influence of the Parthian kingdom. The focus of political power was a fortress with walls 20 meters long and towers of four meters in diameter, also reflecting the Parthian style of fortification. The spiritual center was located in the temple of Farush, lined with exquisite gypsum plaster imitating masonry. Here incense was burned with the ancient Semitic deity of the sun - Shams. In areas remote from the coast, the main center was Mleya, where an even larger fort with square towers was discovered.
At the excavation sites find objects scattered far from the "capital" buildings. Apparently, they point to places where there were so lightweight, but passed through the entire history of these places huts - "arish", or "barast" in the local dialect. They can be seen even in old photographs from the sheikhs of future Emirates. The carcass and barasti ceilings were made of trunks, and the roof and walls were made entirely of date palm branches. The barastas of real nomadic Bedouins were completely unsophisticated, and of more settled people among settled people.
Now in the Dubai ethnographic village, you can see next to the barasti also the "gurfu" (in Arabic, the "room") - a two-story dwelling. They were preferred by the inhabitants of the desert: the second floor, built on the barast, was well-blown and isolated from hot sand. In winter, the huts were covered with dense woolen cloth, and in summer - burlap.
Islamic architecture and not only The interesting plot from the history of the emirate lands is evidenced by the excavations in Al-Khaur on the island of Sir Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi. Here are the remains of a Nestorian monastery, the walls of which were covered with beautiful stucco with images of crosses, vines and leaves. The Nestorians, whom the official Christian church declared heretics in the 5th century, massively migrated to the East. The Christians were the Bedouins of several Arabian tribes, as well as the Arabs - the rulers of Al-Khira in southern Iraq. Most of the territory of the future UAE belonged, obviously, to the bishopric of Bet Mazuniye. Since the 7th century, Islam has taken a dominant position here, but note that no one destroyed the church in Al-Khaur - it "died" from time ...
Medieval Islamic architecture has given the world a huge number of masterpieces that amaze, among other things, the fact that the unified religious and cultural incentive connecting them did not lead to uniformity. Islam does not allow images of people and animals, which stimulated the development of all the wealth of other expressive means - calligraphy, arabesques, plant motifs reflected in mosaics, murals and carpet patterns. Religious needs dictated the presence of several elements in the mosque, including minarets, mihrabs - niches facing Mecca, minbar - departments for preaching, bathing places, etc. The architect was, in principle, free.
In secular architecture, even less conventions are observed. Islam spread to the territories of the great ancient civilizations with rich architectural traditions. All this predetermined the palette of styles of Islamic architecture - Persian and Ottoman, Turkestan and Azerbaijani, Andalusian, not to mention the amazing forms that it acquired in Africa and thousands of kilometers from there - in the Far East.
For example, the architecture of the palaces of the Abbasid caliphate with its capital in Baghdad was genetically influenced by the Persian tradition, which can be recognized by the so-called "Ivan". It was, as a rule, a huge vaulted hall, opening on one side with a magnificent curved arch. The Ivans were used for royal receptions.
Salvation from enemies and heat
Since the XIV century, the leading center on the coast of future Emirates has become Julfar - the city-predecessor of modern Ras Al-Kheima. In the XVI-XVII centuries, he underwent a major restructuring, having transformed from a handful of fragile arish into a regular grid of streets framed by silicate brick houses, and went beyond the walled center. From the 14th to the 17th centuries, 5 mosques were built in the same place in the city, one more than the other to accommodate the faithful. In general, the local mosques were very simple buildings, among which there is an unusual four-domed mosque in Bidiya (Emirate of Fujairah), somewhat reminiscent of the Yemeni ones.
From the 18th century, Ras al-Kheimah seized the palm, and in the place of the former Julfar, arishas appeared again. In the same period, fortresses were actively built on all lands of the future UAE. Most of the stone and adobe buildings that have come down to us were built about three centuries ago, but the fort of Fujairah boasts more than five hundred years of age. The fortification system around Ras Al Khaimah, the stronghold of the formidable tribe Al Kassimi, is characteristic. The tradition of building towers and fortresses, as we have seen, has deep roots here. From the 15th century, it was enriched by regular foreigners - the Portuguese, who built their fortifications taking into account the invention of powerful artillery, but sometimes from the stones of those fortresses that were four thousand years old at the time of their arrival ... Watch towers were also erected here at the beginning of the 20th century, like for example, the preserved square tower of Shindag in Dubai.
The construction of Qasr Al Hosn Palace (Qasr Al Hosn) in Abu Dhabi was of great importance in the second half of the 18th century. Sheikhs from the Al Nahayyan clan, which still rules the emirate and the country, moved their residence from the oases of Al Ain and Buraimi to the strategically advantageous island of Abu Dhabi in the 1790s. The embodiment of their power over the territory, the protective structure and the palace for receptions was Kasr Al Hosn. It was built in a typical way for that time - a watchtower and a pair of two-story buildings, one room on each floor. Three more towers were later added. The whole structure was surrounded by a wall. The truly ascetic "palace" was built of stones and sand mined at sea, with a small addition of clay.
Until the 1960s, the entire government, headed by a sheikh, was placed in these tiny rooms. If the palace were not subsequently constantly reconstructed, adding some "elegance" of the Islamic style of different countries, images of flowers and even animals, and novelties such as illumination, it would suffer the fate of other similar buildings, most of which were destroyed. The sands of Arabia seem to seek to return to their shapeless sea any structure of sand grains and stones ...
Under the current ruler of Abu Dhabi and the President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa, the palace of Qasr Al Hosn is carefully preserved as a museum.
Al Fahidi Fort was built in the 18th century, around which the historical center of Dubai was formed.
In the 19th century, the Dubai Bastakia quarter (recently renamed Al Fahidi) was formed in the Bar Dubai area. Many wealthy merchants from Persia built their houses there, and the quarter was named after one of the Iranian provinces. 57 restored houses give an idea of the old emirate city. Particularly noteworthy is perhaps the most characteristic element of local architecture - wind towers, called the "bargil". With a height of up to 6 meters, they towered over the roofs of houses and caught the winds of all four directions. Air passed through wet cloth hanging in their spans, descended through thin channels and cooled the rooms. They especially liked to have a bedroom or a relaxation room under the barge. The bargil was used by the Persians, and then spread throughout Arabia.
Curiously, this very comfortable ancient conditioning was not present in most other Arab countries. Bargil could be decorated with various decorative elements, beams, ornament.
In a hot climate, Arabs learned to use every opportunity to achieve coolness. When this was possible, houses were often built with thick walls protecting them from the scorching sun.
Oriented in the courtyard, they were connected by narrow streets, going from north to south or along the lines of the prevailing winds - so the pedestrian could move with relative comfort.
Bargil: from past to future
The rapid development of modern Emirates, the desire of their few indigenous people to emphasize their own identity, not blurred by mass immigration and globalization, attractiveness for tourists and investments, all this predetermined the rise of interest of architects in Islamic architectural traditions. Upon arrival in Dubai, the guest is "greeted" by the characteristic mosaic and arches in the airport halls and even its parking lots, and it is likely that palm trees and twinkling stars on the ceiling (I would like to say "in the sky") Duty Free of the old Sheikh’s terminal Rashida. Newer facilities, for example, the Third terminal of Dubai International Airport or the future Midfield terminal in Abu Dhabi, are distinguished by the emphasized ease and clarity of the architectural solution, smooth lines. But even in these huge "cities under the roof" you can feel the light touch of the Arab East thanks to the characteristic arches of ceilings resembling domes of mosques, mosaic surfaces, which are very modern, unobtrusively presented in the interiors, weightless and flexible columns, and finally, white color, which recalls dishdashas - the main men's clothing of this very clean country.
Numerous styles of Islamic architecture manifest everywhere. So, the Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai, built in 1979, with the shape of its domes, finely designed, complex minarets and yellow-gray color resembles the best examples of medieval mosques in Cairo. A guest from the Emirates will see a characteristic arch reminiscent of ivans in the building of Atlantis Hotel, the Palm; invariable barges - in the working residence of the ruler of Dubai and the buildings of the Central Market in Sharjah, amazing paintings, mosaics and gilded arches - in the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. The best of all Muslim styles has been absorbed by the amazingly beautiful and harmonious Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. White marble decoration and 85 domes of different sizes give the huge complex amazing lightness and restrained grace, and inside the visitor is amazed by the multi-color of Iranian carpets and unique chandeliers. If the Bab Al Shams hotel, located in the desert, glorifies with its design the local architecture with its modest constructions of burnt bricks, then the Ibn Battuta shopping complex, on the contrary, is the culmination of traditional Emirate cosmopolitanism. This shopping center consists of six zones decorated in the traditions of those countries visited by the legendary Arab traveler Ibn Battut - China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia, Andalusia.
Preservation of local architectural heritage is not only facilitated by the authorities. The residents themselves, nostalgic for the old days, during the holidays and in Ramadan build traditional tents right next to the skyscrapers. The same tents are sometimes put up by wealthy Emirates near their villas for the Mejlis, gatherings when men gather to discuss various important issues.
The Shihu tribe of Iranian origin still lives in the mountains of the Ruus Al Jibal Peninsula, which is distinguished, among other things, by its traditional dwellings. Their typical "dwelling" Shihu (as well as the goats that they raise) is a hole dug in the ground, covered with a stone or wooden "roof" with a door less than 1 square meter. It is called "byte al-kufl", which roughly means "vaulted house."
Finally, local architectural traditions found another, unexpected, application. The rapidly growing emirate cities consume too much energy - and there was no better way to save it than using age-old building cooling technologies.So, an entire block of houses with a barge was built at the Masdar Institute (Abu Dhabi), and this experience is likely to find wider application in the UAE. So the Emirates combine tradition and innovation, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, beauty and functionality.
