By Dr. Spahic Omer

•  Introduction

In this paper, I shall discuss the contributions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)  to the evolution of the identity of Islamic architecture. What he did, by and large, amounts to sowing the seeds whose yield was harvested later during the Umayyad and Abbasid epochs and beyond. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) laid the foundation of Islamic architecture by introducing its invisible conceptual and ideological aspects that were later given their different outward appearances dictated by different contexts.

The aspects contributed by the Prophet (PBUH) to Islamic architecture signify both the quintessence of Islamic architecture and the vitality that is woven through its each and every facet and feature. Thus, the permanent and most consequential side of Islamic architecture is as old as the Islamic message and the Islamic community but which at the time of the Prophet (PBUH) could take no more than an austere and unsophisticated physical form.

It thus can be concluded that the first signs of Islamic architecture clearly existed during the Prophet’s time, though its physical expressions were extremely rudimentary and unrefined. Prophet Muhammad’s time represents the first and certainly most decisive phase in the evolution of the identity of Islamic architecture, as it is known today. The paper is divided into five following sections: (1) Islam and society; (2) The Qur’an and the Prophet’s sunnah (traditions) as the foundation of Islamic architecture; (3) Islam and the categorization of building activities; (4) Prophet Muhammad’s attitude towards architecture; (5) The Prophet’s mosque as an epitome of the Prophet’s contribution to the evolution of the identity of Islamic architecture.

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