A comparative study of the views of Titus Burckhardt and Oleg Grabar's model in Islamic architecture

Abstract

The present study deals with the comparative study of Islamic architecture in the views of Titus Burckhardt and Oleg Grabar. Since the spiritual wisdom of Islam is manifested in the form and meaning of its arts, it seems that some scholars have neglected its various aspects in explaining the Islamic architecture’s meaning. Traditionalists with a semantic approach consider Islamic architecture to be influenced by the essence of Islam and historians consider Islamic architecture to be a continuation of Byzantine and Sassanid Art. Assuming that,despite the methodological differences in Burckhardt and Grabar's approaches,they explain Islamic architecture according to the role of religious component. The question is what influence their views have on the definition of Islamic architecture? Findings show that Burckhardt believes the formation of architecture and its elements have been derived from the Islamic traditions while Grabar refers to Islam as a cultural component along with historical and social ones.