Syria, a center of the early Islamic Golden Age, has long been unacknowledged for its contributions to the development of Western culture and civilization. Damascus, Idlib, and Aleppo were once vibrant centers of scientific, religious, and philosophical learning whose influence spread well beyond the borders of Syria. The creative force that issued from this country began to find expression in the 7th century, in such architectural forms as mosques, palaces, madrasas (schools for Islamic instruction) and shrines like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Largely unnoticed in the West until recently, Syria played an important role in shaping European architecture through a remarkable 12thcentury cultural exchange between Islamic builders and Knights Templar. The Islamic impulse contributed significantly to the Gothic architecture of Western Europe, starting in the 12th century. It later made its influence felt in India through the distinctive Mughal style of architecture displayed in the Taj Mahal (1648) and also influenced figures like Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
(Video still, Gunther Klein, DW)
The recent scholarly works of Diana Darke, an expert in Islamic art and Middle East culture, have been rewriting architectural history. Her books Stealing From the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe (2020) and Islamesq (2024) bring 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 on an exceptional moment of cultural cooperation that led to a transformation of European architecture.
Architectural historians have long been fascinated by the sudden birth and rapid emergence of what became known as Gothic architecture…
Architectural historians have long been fascinated by the sudden birth and rapid emergence of what became known as Gothic architecture, the style that dominated Western Europe from the 12th to the 16th century. A central figure in this story is Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), the Cistercian monk, mystic, and theologian who founded the Clairvaux Abbey in France and became one of Europe’s most influential religious leaders.
St. Bernard also became the spiritual and political patron of the Knights Templar, a Catholic military order founded around the year 1118 to protect pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Through the accounts of travelers returning from the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Syria, he learned of the architectural marvels they discovered and came to recognize that Islamic builders shared his own concepts of simplicity, right proportion, and light. There are many accounts of his influence on Abbot Suger, who was rebuilding the Abbey of Saint-Denis in the 1130s, encouraging him to incorporate a sense of light and spiritual clarity into the structure later heralded as the first cathedral of the Gothic style. St. Bernard’s design principles also influenced the later construction of Chartres Cathedral.
The blending of Islamic and European design ideas began in 1119, twenty years after the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, which had been a prominent Muslim city for centuries. Seeing the possibility for cooperation and unification, St. Bernard selected a group of Templar Knights, who were also of the Cistercian monastic order, for a discreet mission of cultural exchange to Jerusalem and Syria.
The Knights remained in the Levant region for ten years. It is believed they studied with descendants of the master builder-craftsmen of King Solomon’s Temple, constructed a millennium earlier. They travelled to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Citadel of Aleppo, Idlib province, plus the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Hisham’s Palace near Jericho.
They are also said to have influenced the building of Our Lady of Tortosa (1123), a Catholic cathedral in the city of Tartus that later became a Templar outpost in Syria and has been described as “the best-preserved religious structure of the Crusades.” Built over a mosque, the structure incorporated pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, buttresses, thin walls, high ceilings, and tall pointed windows—elements that soon appeared in perfectly proportioned Cistercian abbeys and in the Gothic abbeys and in the Gothic cathedrals that rose across Europe after the Knights Templar returned from the Arabian lands in 1129.
Building a temple became a metaphor for making body and soul a spiritual house for God.
The Knights learned that for architectural design to express harmony and beauty, it had to be based on just proportions and on the relationships of the parts to the whole. They learned that constructiveness was the supreme expression of the soul, viewing the act of shaping rough rubble stones into ashlars (smooth stones fit for a temple) as akin to self-development. Building a temple became a metaphor for making body and soul a spiritual house for God. They learned to regard creation as sacred, believing that each human being had an integral part to play in making the world a reflection of God’s love. Having been transformed, they returned to France—accompanied by several Syrian brethren–– as master builders and became catalysts for the transformation of Europe’s architecture. Their cultural mission resulted in one of the greatest ages of building the world had ever seen.
The initiator of the mission, Bernard of Clairvaux, was one of the most prominent figures of his day. He was known for his deep humility, his inward life of seeking, his mystical experiences, and the devotion that permeated his sermons, letters and treatises, through which his name spread far and wide. He also had a close relationship with Chartres, some 275 kilometers south of Clairvaux, home to an active group of Cistercian monks and scholars. The Chartres school of architects or master-builders designed the most significant church of its time—the Chartres Cathedral (1194)—which quickly became an intellectual center and a base for cathedral-building guilds.
The Cistercians were healers, not only of the human body but also of the earth. They were given many lands on which to build their abbeys, often marshy lands of little value, but were able to restore them, eventually establishing approximately 100 priories across Europe. They viewed their labors as theurgy, a divine practice of making the earth worthy of Christ and God. Similarly, the Qu’ran and Islamic tradition contain concepts akin to theurgy, often called ruhaniyya (spirituality/white magic), associated with divine or exalted connection. Recognizing the interconnectedness of all creation, the Qu’ran views the Earth as God’s creation, to be respected and protected by humans, its stewards.
Further affinity between Cistercians and Muslims lies in their shared perception of God as the Geometer of the world. The Cistercians held the belief that “God Geometrizes,” while their Islamic brethren understood God as the creator of a perfectly ordered, lawful, and geometrically structured universe.
“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 above quote echoes the Qu’ran, which presents knowledge as a tool to serve God and humanity, emphasizing its importance for spiritual, moral, and societal development. Christians and Muslims of that period were aware of both their religious commonalities and their differences, which at times created tensions. St. Bernard, however, a man of great humility and intelligence, was able to set aside prejudices and held a deep respect for Islam. As a result, he helped create the conditions in which the principles of Islamic architecture could flourish in the Western world.