Islamic Religious Architecture in Historical Context in Jordan

1 - Abstract: Jordanian people consider mosques a major architectural feature, as well as socio- religious centers, this reality return to the beginning of Islam, when Jordan became part of the Islamic world. Its importance comes from its location on pilgrimage road, and from being enclosing Al Harem Al Qudosi (Al Aqsa Mosque). Recently an obvious demand of mosque construction in Jordan was noticed, because of the great religious encouragement by The Holy Quran ]1[. In addition to the presence of different religious architecture shrines in Jordan. The major concern here is to study and analyze religious buildings; by following a historical and modern order, thus, to achieve improved understanding of Jordanian architects who are developing genuine mosque architecture; as well as adapting specific Islamic architecture. The goal of this research is to discuss development of religious architecture (mosques) in Jordan focusing on traditional. The research analyzes various examples that explain range of design and construction of mosques. This has been done for mosques built in Jordan since the spread of Islam 1400 years ago; since these designs still influence the design of mosques. Major emphasis was on Amman mosques in the 20th century: in particular, the years between 1980 and 2000. The area of the study is Amman, the capital of Jordan, of central importance among Arab capitals. In this city, different mosques are studied and analyzed, concentrating on those built during the last twenty years of the twentieth century. The paper synthesizes selected modern mosques designed by Jordanian architects (for example Masjed Dar AlEiman and Masjed al Ansari; both designed by Arch. Ayman Zoaiter, Masjed al Norein designed by arch. Bilal Hammad, Masjed Al Kaloti designed by Architects Tahan and Boshnaq. These mosques have a distinguished architectural values and design approaches. Also, this paper tries to understand how these visions can be realized and restored in the mosque building in the Jordanian cities in the future. The methods used for conducting this study are as follows: ? Reviewing literature about the historical background of mosques. ? Studying different historical mosques in Jordan. ? Tracing the impact on those recently built mosques. ? Analyzing some newly built mosques in Amman, to trace the traditional architecture.