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Marble was widely used
in Muslim architecture. It can be seen in most Islamic buildings
especially mosques,
madras as and palaces. Marble was used for paneling walls, covering
floors and making
decorative panels either carved or in a mosaic form. It was also
used in
the construction of
mihrabs and minbars, and in making columns, capitals, basins, jars
and
many other objects. This
indicates that the marble work industry was well-known and
flourishing during the
Islamic period.
The most outstanding of
all are the carved and gilded marble panels that were brought from
the Dome of the Rock.
These were removed during the last restoration, which took place
around 1960. The panels
form part of the friezes decorating the interior of the Dome of the
Rock-the rest of them
are still in situ. The major friezes are located around the outer
octagon from inside and
around those surrounding the top part of the beams supporting the
inner octagon, as well
as those on the piers supporting the Dome itself. The friezes are
formed of marble slabs
of different lengths and are 62 cm in width and 2 cm in thickness.
The technique employed
in decorating these friezes is low relief carving of decorative
patterns achieved by
clipping away at the marble. The depth of carving is about 12 mm and
the background revealed
from the manner of chipping indicates that it was coarse chipping
as the surface is not
flat. This process of carving is known as the “champlevé” technique.
To accentuate the
patterns, the technique makes use of colors, highlighting the
designs in
gold against a black or
dark blue background with the result that the color effect
dominates the plastic
effect.
It is hard to determine
exactly when this marble carving technique was first introduced
although certain
archaeological discoveries in Syria may give us a clue. A couple of
examples of these finds
are the marble pieces of the 5th century found in the
Byzantine
church of Khalda in
Lebanon and the 6th century marble found in the Byzantine
monastery of
Mount Nebo in Jordan.
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