Length: 3 pages, double spaced
Include: footnotes, where appropriate, and a list of sources consulted (including websites). You
may use MLA or Chicago Style for footnote and bibliography formatting.
Serving religion and the state in Christianity and Islam
We have had the opportunity to look at a number of great edifices, both religious and secular, of
the early Middle Ages. For example:
–the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome built by the first Christian emperor Constantine the
Great in the early fourth century (remember that St. Peter’s does not survive in its
medieval form (it was rebuilt in the Renaissance), but can be studied through
reconstructions and drawings made of it when it was still standing)
–the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople built by the emperor Justinian I in the
sixth century
–The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem
–the Great Mosque of Damascus, which took shape under the Umayyad Caliph Al-
Walid in the early eighth century
–The Desert Castles of the Umayyad Caliphs
What I would like you to do in this paper is to write about one of the buildings that we have
discussed. The above listed are suggestions. Please include a good, concise description of the
building, its form and plan and any elements of decoration that it contains, and use the following
questions and points to stimulate your thinking about the building:
–What are the most important features of the building?
–Is the building associated with an important site? The grave of a saint, for example,
or an earlier religious building or temple?
–For religious buildings, where did the congregation stand? What direction did they
face? What feature(s) in the building indicated this direction?
–Where were images placed in the overall decorative scheme and what does their
placement say about their meaning and function?
–The case of the Mosque would involve thinking about the word of God and how it is
visualized in the building
–Why was the ritualization of water, i.e., bathing, so important in the Umayyad Castles
(think desert)?
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