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K U L L I Y Y A H O F A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T A L D E S I G N

D E P A R T M E N T O F A P P L I E D A R T S A N D D E S I G N

AAD 1230

HISTORY OF ISLAMIC ARTS

REBUILDING THE MINBAR OF SALADIN

NAME: NUR SYAZADIYANAH BINTI SURAINI

MATRIC NUMBER: 1211096

LECTURER: MADAM HARLINA BINTI MD SHARIF

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TABLE OF CONTENT

NO. ITEM PAGE

1. INTRODUCTION

Minbar in general

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2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The minbar of Saladin Before and after the fire

- The glory

- The gloom

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3. DEVELOPMENTS

Chronological overview on the reconstruction:

- Searching for the solution

- Unexpected hope from London

- The search continues

- Secrets of the minbar design unlocked

- Historic rebuilding begins

- The completion and installation

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4. TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

In making the new minbar

- Techniques and skills

- Basic materials

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5. CONCLUSION 20

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 21

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INTRODUCTION

MINBAR IN GENERAL

According to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the whole

world we are stepping our feet on is a mosque, as the whole world is sacred. Since a mosque

itself is already a distinguished sacred place, it can be assumed that a mosque is regarded as the

sacred heart of the sacred.

As most architects and designers of the mosque seem to be focusing on the outward forms of a

mosque, they forget the importance of retaining the social dimension of a mosque where people

from all walks of life should feel welcomed to pray, eat, sleep and talk there. Mosques do have

social and cultural significance in the Muslim society.

Minbar had long served as an aid for speakers to reach the audience who came to pray and listen

to sermons. The minbar which often seems standing next to a mihrab marks the direction of

qiblah and is usually carved out of wood, stone or brick. It is common to see staircases leading to

the top platform where the speaker will walk up the steps and stays on the minbar addressing the

congregation.

Looking back to the Prophets time, there is one interesting and heart-warming narration on the

first minbar ever raised to assist the Prophet himself when giving speeches on Fridays.

Rasulullah (s.a.w) used to stand next to a tree as he gives sermon until an Ansari suggested a

minbar where he can actually see everyone from where he stands, and everyone else could

actually see him.

When the minbar is ready, it is said that people in the mosque heard a weeping sound, some said

it sounds like a little child or a camel, according different narrations. The crying actually comes

from the tree where Rasulullah used to lean against the tree if he feels tired of standing for a long

time. The Prophet (s.a.w) comes down the minbar, walks towards the crying tree and calmed it

down.1

1 Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to go and stand next to a tree or palm-tree on Fridays. A woman or a man of the Ansar said: O Messenger of Allah, should we not make for you a Minbar (pulpit)? He said, If you wish. So they made a

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Islam continues to spread and minbar had been one of the traditional signatures of a mosque,

standing next to a mihrab. The minbar is said to develop its canonical form during the Fatimid

period as represented in the minbar of Saladin.2 It is seen therein to appear with the door way an

canopy.

Minbar of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi stood in the al-Aqsa Mosque which preserved its stunning

workmanship of the minbar for about eight centuries, before a historic fire tragedy came into the

picture.

Minbar for him, and when the next Friday came, he was shown to the Minbar. The tree cried like a small child, then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came down and hugged the crying tree until it calmed down. Jabir said: It was crying because of the Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) that it used to hear. *Sahih al-Bukhari, # 3319] 2 E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, chapter Minbar, page 500

The minbar was made up of three sections: the entrance, which

faced muqarnas tiers, a staircase and a podium, which was

covered by a kiosk. The door was composed of two leafs,

important sections of which remain. The entrance opened onto

the staircase with a wooden enclosure on both sides, crafted

in the mashrabiyya technique. The staircase leads to the

podium where the khatib would deliver the sermon.

The minbar is rich in vegetal and geometric decorations as

well as an arrangement of star-shaped medallions, each of

which forms a complete decorative unit which, with the

surrounding units, forms beautiful latticework (mashrabiyya).

The minbar is considered to be one of the most beautiful of

the Islamic wooden minbars.

Pieces from the Nur al-Din Zangi minbar

at http://www.museumwnf.org/islamicart/

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

THE MINBAR OF SALADIN - BEFORE AND AFTER THE FIRE

Figure 1 Original minbar of Saladin

The minbar of Saladin is popular because of two reasons it is a fine example of Islamic art and

it has a remarkable history to be told.

THE GLORY

This minbar had received spectacular comments from Ibn Jubir on its stunning and magnificent

design. The whole minbar was studded with ivory and heavy blackish or very dark brown timber

called ebony; it captured all eyes to be amazed seeing it rise like a great crown touching the

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ceiling.3 This al-Aqsa minbar attracted attentions of experts and academicians from all over the

world.

It was a priceless religious symbol in the Muslim world as well as a definition of splendid yet

functional work of art as it stood next to a mihrab (prayer niche) in the al-Aqsa mosque from the

12th

to the 20th

century. During those 800 years, the imams of al-Aqsa preached the words of

Allah from the very same spot, the minbar of Saladin.

The two most important figures in the early history of the

minbar were Nur al-Din and a young nephew of Shirkukh4,

Salah ud-Din. The former was the one responsible for the

making of the minbar and it is later installed within the

Jerusalem mosque by the latter.

It was made by the finest craftsmen that could not be found

just anywhere5. With regards to the Crusade war, the

optimistic and powerful leader as well as general, Nur al-Din

commissioned the minbar making as a preparation to celebrate

a triumphal recapture of Jerusalem. Although it was finished

in 1168, the minbar was to remain in the Great Mosque of

Aleppo as the Muslims waited for a victory in Jerusalem. One

of the inscriptions on the minbar proved the celebratory

purpose of it, it sounded as a personal prayer requesting God

to grant Nur al-Din the conquest of Jerusalem.6

It was only until 1187, after his death, Nur al-Dins successor, a great Kurdish warrior, Salah ud-

Din ibn Ayyub (commonly known as Saladin) finally triumph over the Christian crusaders. He

succeeded in taking back Jerusalem for Islam. One of the first acts he did after the victory was to

rededicate the al-Aqsa mosque and install within it the celebratory minbar Nur al-Din had built.

3 IBN JUBAIR, TRAVELS OF IBN JUBAIR, 12TH CENTURY 4 Kurdish general 5 It took decades to finally find a team of craftsmen to work on the reconstruction, what more when it comes to the original minbar building. 6 From the book The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives page 152

Figure 2 The doors of the Saladin Minbar, early 1900s. The minbar was built on Nur al-Din's orders, but installed by Saladin

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From that day onwards, it became known as the minbar of Saladin symbol of the Muslim

triumph in Jerusalem.

THE GLOOM

In August 21st, 1969, a fire broke out in al-Aqsa mosque. Its roof and ceiling were destroyed and

so does the minbar which lay in ashes. It was a devastating loss to the Muslims. It was suspected

to be a Zionist plot for the fire was said to have started by a fire bomb.

There was a story behind this

tragedy7. On that day, at 7 a.m, a

young Australian (Michael

Dennis Rohan, later diagnosed to

have psychological problems)

who was carrying a rucksack and

camera approached the guards of

al-Aqsa mosque. He asked if he

could get inside the mosque

slightly earlier before the mosque

is open to the public so that he

could take some photographs of the infamous interior of al-Aqsa mosque.

He chatted with the guards and asked questions showing interest in the mosque. All guards

actually knew him and he was granted the permission to get inside. He got out of the mosque

looking uneasy and seemed to be in a hurry. Little did the guards know, a fire was already

engulfing the minbar. Alarms and fire-fighting efforts were made but it was of no use.

7 As read from the chapter, The Destruction of the Minbar and the Aftermath in the book, the Minbar of Saladin.

Figure 3 The damaged mosque

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Holding a powerful symbol for the

Muslims, restoring the mosque,

especially the minbar was considered as

an urgent priority. King Hussein of

Jordan made a quick move on this

matter. Soon, the roof was restored and

the ceiling glowed once again in its

glory. The reconstruction of these parts

of the mosque was rather

uncomplicated. It is the minbar, however, that remained a complex problem that demanded for a

solution. While waiting for the puzzle to be solved, a temporary substitute metal staircase was

placed at the spot of the Saladin minbar.

There was a suggestion to just simply replicate the original one. It sounded easy at first, but to

replicate the minbar of Saladin which stood at a majestic 6-meter high and 4-meter deep was far

beyond an easy task. The making of the minbar itself was remarkable no nails or glues were

used, the design used sacred proportions which involved certain sacred geometrical and

numerical systems8. To make things worse, due to its ancient existence, no records of designs,

plans and working drawings were left to serve as a guide for the reconstruction.

It was believed that even if they found any drawings of the construction of the minbar, everyone

had to admit that the skills were nowhere to be found. According to todays historians and

academicians, no modern craftsmanship could outstand and emulate that of the original minbar

to implement the design found. King Hussein and his successor King Abdullah II had this

problems floating in the air for 30 years.

8 Sir Christopher John Frayling, a British educationalist and writer in Youtube video, the documentary of Minbar of Saladin

Figure 4 The fire stirred hate amongst the people of Jerusalem, especially the Muslims and the Jews

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DEVELOPMENTS:

CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW ON THE RECONSTRUCTION

SEARCHING FOR THE SOLUTION

The responsibility to recreate this masterpiece fell on the Hashemite royal family.

However, the first problem the reconstruction team had was, there was very little records of the

original design. All that remained after the blaze were a few fragments from the minbar, 19th

century engravings and some photographs. They could not find any close-up shots, and the

available photographs were of decent quality. No clues of the accurate measurements and ratios

were found.

Reconstructing seemed easy and one thing the designers were in need was the blueprint of the

entire design. This however, was not possible. The lack of reference made the reconstruction a

hassle. Images of the original minbar were unclear making it extremely difficult to simply create

a replication of it.

They needed to start everything from scratch. They tried to look at surviving minbars of the

period but none was comparable to the Saladin minbar. Later, the team found another minbar of

intricate carving in the Hebron Holy Place in Palestine. However, this minbar is still lacking

compared to the Saladin minbar in terms of overall complexity.

The tomb of Imam al-Shafii which was commissioned by Saladin in 1176 bore almost similar

design and craftsmanship to the al-Aqsa minbar, but it still was a limited resource to guide the

reconstruction team.

King Hussein sought for designers to draw up new plans based on the collected information.

However, one after another designer failed as no one could understand the geometry of the

designs as well as their execution like how the master craftsmen of the minbar of Saladin could.

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The Hashemite royal family in Jordan was devastated to find the fact that reproducing the minbar

of Saladin is almost impossible. This is due to the disappearing of traditional skills and

knowledge of the previous centuries craftsmen.

Back then there used to be

guilds or association of

special artisans that would

govern the craftsmen who

focused on the excellence

of Muslim arts and craft.

As the time went by, this

association disappeared and

is no longer a practice in

the modern world.

Figure 5 Some of the pieces from the original minbar left after the fire

UNEXPECTED HOPE FROM LONDON

Few years back in 1984, Keith Critchlow who had interest in elaborate Islamic geometric pattern

began teaching postgraduates Islamic Art course at the Royal College of Art in London.

Critcthlow wrote a book called Islamic Patterns where he recorded his ideas completed with

images. He firmly believed that Islamic patterns were not just any ornamental art form; instead

the patterns held a strong philosophical, practical and cosmological meaning.9

In 1993, Critchlow transferred from the Royal College of Art to The Prince of Wales Institute of

Architecture. Later in 2004, the Prince of Wales School of Traditional Arts, a graduate school

based in Shoreditch, East London, was founded and the knowledge and skills of traditional

Islamic as well as Eastern arts were fostered. The main thread at the school was the legacy of

Professor Emiritus Critchlow, geometry.

9 Islamic geometric art is not merely decorative or ornamental as the Western art historians viewed it, but that it was far, far deeper, philosophically, practically and most importantly, cosmologically. Keith Critchlow

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The Hashemite royal family who was aware of the decline of traditional skill as they still could

not find a designer to recreate the minbar of Saladin were impressed by the effort the Westerners

are showing. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad invited a team from Shoreditch to Amman and set up

al-Balqa, a school modeled on the one in London. Similar to the Princes school, al-Balqa focus

on the practical and applied aspects of the arts but the latter showed significant and exclusive

interest on the Islamic arts.

More than a couple of decades had passed since the fire break-out in the al-Aqsa mosque and

there seems to be no progression on the rebuilding of the minbar. The unpleasant green metal

staircase that had been standing in substitute of the glorious minbar was a constant reminder that

something must be done pronto.

In 1994, an international competition was launched by King Hussein as the final resort in search

of designs for the new minbar. The winner will get the chance to design and oversee the minbar

being reconstructed.

Back in Jordan, a devout Muslim structural engineer, Minwer al-Meheid came across

Critchlows book, Islamic Pattern. He had long been interested in Islamic arts and architecture

but cant seem to find satisfying explanation on the principles of Islamic arts until he found the

book. He began studying and practicing geometric patterns and before long, he had become an

expert where he could develop not only the physical patterns but the understanding of the nature

of Islamic art as well.

Just at the right time, Minwer saw the advertisement of the competition to design the new minbar

of Saladin. Having mastered the new knowledge he gained, Minwer entered the competition and

surprisingly, he won. The competition was held once again as there seems to be not enough

qualified designers participating for the competition. Minwer entered and again, he won. The

competition was held for the third time, it was clear that they were reluctant to award a civil

engineer with no formal background on Islamic geometrical studies the colossial project. This

time, the task was to redraw a panel from the original minbar to ensure that the applicants really

understood what they were doing. Minwer, an engineer-turned-architect managed to convince

the judges and was finally awarded the project.

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THE SEARCH CONTINUES

According to Minwer, he found that recreating the patterns and motif of the original minbar was

possible, but it was the technical matter of the design which allows the original minbar to be

standing tall for 800 years without any screw, nails or glue joining that required thorough study.

Minwer went to Aleppo10

, the birthplace of the minbar.

He first visited the mosque where the minbar once stood in preparation as a celebratory piece as

the Muslims waited for victory over the crusaders. Minwer was very disappointed to find that no

craftsmen are still practicing the traditional way in making the minbar.

The identity of the makers of the craftmen was another task. The ones that were given the

responsibility by Nur al-Din to make the minbar were only known as al-Akhtareeni as found on

the remaining pieces, but it was not an individual or family name. Instead, it is just the name of

Nur al-Dins village. Apart from that, with reference to the minbar fragments, it was found that

among the carpenters that were involved in the making of the minbar of Saladin was the Maali

family who were famous throughout the 11th

to 12th

century as Muslim geometricians,

carpenters, carvers and inlayers. Like any other historical information acquired, this information

was of not much help to Minwer.

Minwer later visited Madrasa Halawiya, the building where the original minbar had been made.

He could not find any minbar that are comparable to the minbar of Saladin, but there was a

mihrab of similar fine quality and bears the design style of the al-Aqsa minbar. The mihrab was

made by a master craftman, Abu al-Hassan Muhammed al-Harrari, whose name too was on the

minbar. It was a breath-taking moment for Minwer as he indulged in the intricate carving of the

minbar, feeling the passion of the maker. Minwer continued his journey from Aleppo to

Morocco, Turkey and Egypt.

SECRETS OF THE MINBAR DESIGN UNLOCKED

Later along his journey he found a number of minbar along the way, but it was in Cairo, Minwer

found what he had been searching for, he found minbar in the Qijmas al-Ishaqi Mosque, Cairo 10 Now known as Syria

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a minbar of fine workmanship made in the same period of the Saladin minbar. He went inside the

minbar to examine for himself the wooden support and structural systems, the secret to the long-

lastingness of the minbar. He finally found the key that the previous designers failed to discover.

The support of the minbar itself is a part of the geometry of the whole art piece that makes it

possible to stand tall for centuries after centuries. Both motifs and structure were said to be

harmoniously integrated. 11

He then learnt tasheeq, a special joinery method (will be explained in the next chapter) since the

original minbar did not use any screws or nails to join. For Minwer, he said he wanted to follow

the construction of the original minbar as much as possible including the traditional methods

used, not only to produce a new minbar of the same quality of visual attributes but it may end up

being another long-lasting work of art that could stand still up to another 800 years or even more.

Following the process, 600 detailed drawings were produced, describing the 16 000 three-

dimensional jigsaw-like pieces with precise angles and measurements. The pain-staking design

stage is finally over the sacred geometrical secret revealed, the drawings produced, the

measurements obtained. But that was not the end of the process. How to construct on the wood

panels is another question.

HISTORICAL REBUILDING BEGINS

In order to carry out this ambitious project, Minwer needed three crucial things a proper

workshop to hold the reconstruction activity that is big enough and could be used for however

long the process is going to take, a supply of the finest quality of wood to be carved, and a team

of skillful yet dedicated craftsmen.

The first requirement resolved rather smoothly. The whole rebuilding project is commissioned

by the Jordanian royal family, thus Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad allocated a workshop in the

Institute of Traditional Islamic Art and Architecture just outside Amman. The place was

strategic, it was Minwers home and the students of the institute had the opportunity to witness

11 This was the key, the support was not a framework upon which the parts were hung, it was an integral part of the geometry of the whole. Page 152, Minbar of Saladin.

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the rebuilding therefore giving the construction team a supportive atmosphere from a community

that shares the same interest in arts.

As for the second requirement, the minbar was to be ornamented in ivory and ebony just like the

original one and as for the main body; it was decided to be made from walnut which will be

lightly oiled during the final construction. The searching team found the trees they needed

somewhere near Turkeys border with Iraq and Iran. Since it came from a remote area without

any main road, it had caused problems in transporting the timber. The team had to wait for

winter before transporting and dry the wood for four-months before they can finally deliver it to

the workshop to be measured and cut.

The third requirement to start the reconstruction was a real challenge. Minwer needed to locate

not only people with traditional hand skills but also different specialists for each are of the

minbars construction. The minbar is said to incorporate three major elements of Islamic art

geometry, biomorphic design and calligraphy12

all this requires special skills from not just

anybody. He couldnt even find a single craftsman from the birthplace of the minbar and the

schools of art mentioned earlier were still in an early stage where they were not yet producing

skillful and experienced craftsmen.

After months of searching, a team of twenty was finally brought together, consisting of wood

technicians from Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Indonesia and Egypt together with some Jordanian

assistants who wanted to learn from the masters. One interesting fact about the team is that not

only they were brought into a new country to perform an enormous task, they could not speak the

language of the country and even more, there was not a common language that could bridge their

conversation in the team!13

All they had in common was the same skills and passion to relive this

Islamic symbol of glory.

The chosen craftsmen check each piece of timber that were measured and cut by the wood

technicians. They were given diagrams of each panel along with detailed drawing of the pieces.

The turners need to carefully produce identical pieces of spindles using their own hands. The

carvers started carving the details given the exact scale drawing and at the same time worked on

12 Page 163-171 Minbar of Saladin explain each and every major element of the Islamic art 13 they could not speak the language. In fact, there was no common language in which all of the team could converse page 174, Minbar of Saladin.

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the muqarnas. The joiners needed to be extra precise as they are responsible in producing the

frameworks of the small pieces as later inaccuracy would lead to a disastrous outcome.

THE COMPLETION AND INSTALLATION

It took them two-and-a-half month to complete the first panel. Soon, the panels, doors and

canopy as well as the stairs began to take their shapes. After three to four years of hard work in

the workshops, the minbar finally completed in summer 2006. The minbar was officially

declared to have been fully completed on 25th

July, 2006 which totals up to 37 years after King

Hussein, the father of King Abdullah II of Jordan, announced his decision to rebuild the minbar

and 12 years after the launch of the competition.

The 16 000 individually hand-crafted pieces were slotted into their appointed places in the panels

and all was left was to assemble the pieces to form one unit of minbar. The finished minbar was

truly exceptional the level of details is mesmerizing, interwoven shapes are outlined with

geometric lines, not forgetting the inlays of ebony and ivory that embellished the wood panels.

The top of the minbar is enclosed with a complex beehive-like vaulting called muqarnas.

The pulpit was transported overnight Tuesday from Jordan, where it

was constructed over a period of four years. It was transported

under security, with several streets around the Old City of

Jerusalem closed and a helicopter hovering overhead, Israeli

police said. The burnt pulpit was destroyed into pieces, Adnan Husseini, a senior official in the Waqf, which oversees Muslim

religious sites, told AFP. The new one was constructed on the model of the original. Once the plans were drawn up, it took four

years to construct it, Husseini said. The cost of the new pulpit stood at 1.5 million dollars, donated by Jordans King Abdullah II, said Luay Dabbur, a deputy dean at Jordans Balqa Applied Sciences University where the pulpit was built.

Al-Aqsa Mosque Gets New Saladins Pulpit at

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

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Now that the minbar was finally completed, there was only one finishing touch to go installing

the minbar at its rightful place, the al-Aqsa mosque. It sounded pretty simple but in that very

summer of 2006, there was a rising conflict between Israel and its neighbouring countries. After

the toils and turn the team really wanted to see the minbar of Saladin returns to its place in al-

Aqsa but they had to wait for the right moment. Staying optimistic, they disassembled the minbar

and securely packed the pieces into boxes where six months later the situation in the Middle East

calmed down. The journey into the mosque was not entirely smooth but nevertheless, the

installation took place successfully, almost forty years after the historical fire tragedy.

Adding to its already historic and prestigious installation event, the son of the last Imam ever to

speak from the original minbar of Saladin is said to be the first to give speech on this newly

reconstructed minbar.

Figure 6 The newly reconstructed Minbar of Saladin

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TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

IN MAKING THE NEW MINBAR

TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS

The construction of the new minbar of Saladin was fully hand-crafted. As it plays around panels

of wood, main technique would be around the impression of motifs as well as the joining of the

wood panels to form one unit of minbar.

Constructing meaningful and practical Islamic geometric patterns.

There are a few special techniques or skills required to execute the rebuilding of the minbar. The

number one fundamental knowledge the designers need to first have is the thorough

understanding on the Islamic geometric patterns. It was because the lack of designers that have

this ability made the reconstruction seems

impossible.14

No one could understand how the design

motifs and pattern work that allows it to attract

attention from all parts of the world.

Only with intensive studying an artist could give

depth and meaning into their art. Otherwise, their art

may not even work mathematically. Islamic geometry

has a strong connection with the nature and

surrounding. The rules are all derived from flowers,

water ripples and even from the atomic structures. A

good Muslim artist is one who would spend his time

pondering upon the Creators and His creation and

implement it in his work of art.

14 One of the reasons that so many early attempts failed was that Islamic art relies heavily on organizing elements that do not appear in the final work. Photo caption, page 72, Minbar of Saladin

Figure 7 Even a simple flower is studied to the core finding its geometrical essence

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Carving

The construction of the

minbar requires delicate

yet skillful hand of

woodworkers. A single slip

of the chisel is said to

actually mean starting one

whole panel all over again.

Since the whole minbar is

made of wood, the whole

part of it was in need of the

golden touch of the chosen

dexterous woodcarvers

from all parts of the world.

Not only they needed to

carve the geometric pattern

produced, there are calligraphic writing of Quranic verses to be carved as well as the muqarnas

structure which requires the woodcarver to have exact and precise measurement on how deep

would the beehive-like structure be. The minbar of Saladin's main decorative motive is star. The

original minbar are found to have 8-pointed star motives and star-shaped subsidiary panels

carved in relief, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl.15

Besides the typical although not ordinary wood carving, there is a challenge of producing the art

of khirata16

which requires the skill of wood-turning into identical sets of spindles using only a

lathe and a chisel.

Tasheeq

At first, the attempt to reconstruct the minbar just like the original one, that is, without any nails

or glue seems to be unnecessary. However, Minwer found out that this joining technique is

15 16 The joining of various shaped spindles in a crisscross pattern to form a kind of wide-mesh screen.

Figure 8 Stunning woodwork on the minbar

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practical and logical in the long run. If the parts of the minbar fit perfectly into one another,

without any rigid joining, there would not be any problems of wood warping and crackings. This

in turn will save a whole lot of cost when it comes to maintenance of the wooden pulpit. As to

how the mechanism works, refer the following passage:

(pg. 155, Minbar of Saladin)

MATERIALS

The material needed for the minbar of Saladin was basically wood and no joiners at all. No paint

or stain required as the wood was oiled at the final process of the reconstruction. The original

minbar was made up of cedar and walnut. As for the reconstruction of the minbar, only the

harder wood, walnut was decided to be used as the main body, together with ivory and ebony

that serve as ornamentations.

Because the pieces are not rigidly fixed, they can

contract and expand as weather, humidity and the

process of ageing affect them; differences in the

response of the different parts balance each other

out the structure can breathe. Using tasheeq

method it becomes possible to create large panels of

many differently sized pieces without fear of

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CONCLUSION

To actually read and watch a documentary about the minbar of Saladin from its creation,

destruction to the recreation of this wooden pulpit was an eye-opener. The minbar of Saladin is

exclusively majestic to the world of art if we were to read comments from art lovers all over the

world. The fact that it had a strong symbol of triumph of the Muslim army over the Crusaders

made it extra special to the heart of the Muslims.

The August 21st fire surely did cause a loss in the Islamic art history but it also served as an

alarming reminder to preserve traditional skills and craftsmanship throughout the modern era.

The reconstruction process is said to take up to 40 years to finish completely but in the real fact,

the reconstructing activity actually took less than four years before it can finally be installed at its

rightful spot at the al-Aqsa mosque in 2006. The time spent was mostly on finding the right

person with the right skill to perform this heavy task.

The reconstruction of the minbar conveyed a promising future of the Islamic arts especially in

the Islamic geometric motifs and fine workmanship. Looking from a social dimension, we could

see craftsmen from different parts of the world work together regardless of the different

language, sharing the same devoted spirit of wanting to see the minbar stand tall at the holy

mosque of al-Aqsa as its original form once did.

Every work of art is a beauty and each of them deserves to be paid high attention in order not to

lose the precious jewels especially those art forms in the Muslim community, ever again.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Singer, Lynette., ed. The Minbar of Saladin: Reconstructing a Jewel of Islamic Art. High

Holborn, London: Thames & Hudson, 2008

Houtsma, M.T., E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. New York, E.J. Brill, 1987.

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