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The Architecture of Islam in West AfricaAuthor(s): Labelle PrussinSource: African Arts, Vol. 1, No. 2, (Winter, 1968), pp. 32-74Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3334324Accessed: 11/08/2008 17:31

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Labelle Prussin

(4) Mosque at Djenne: Interior

The mosque expresses the crystallization in three dimensions of the unique synthesis between Islamic cultural features and the cultures of indigenous West African societies.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF

ISLAM

IN WEST AFRICA

L'architecture a 4et l'art le plus neglig6 de 'Afrique: elle a ete etudiee par les anthropologues et les archeologues qui ne la considerent pas sous son aspect artistique.

A cette disaffection s'ajoute la supposition superficielle que l'usage de l'argile, parce qu'elle est une matiere qui manque de permanence, rend la construction trop eph-mere pour justifier des recherches serieuses.

Les mosquees de 'Afrique occidentale, en fait, d6ploient une variete de styles et de formes dont la parfaite harmonie entre la beaute struc- turelle et la conception fonctionelle donne naissance A une forme d'art digne d'un grand interet.

Le developpement de leurs styles peut etre suivi au travers de la chronologie (par exemple, la penetration islamique) ou des conditions geographiques (par exemple, le climat). II aboutit a une monumen- talite qui est bien un caractere propre a l'architecture.

Labelle Prussin analyse la mosquee soudanaise qu'elle divise en cinq varietes: Timbouctou, Djenne, Bobo Dioulasso, Kong, et Kawara. Du point de vue socio-politico-g6ographique, les caracteres architecturaux de chaque type refletent les caracteres distinctifs de la r6gion. En depit des variations qui modifient l'aspect de la mosquee du nord au sud, on peut cependant aisement identifier son style. La mosquee est une expression concrete du symbolisme, le reflet d'une culture a un moment particulier dans le temps-bref, tout ce qui contribue a definir les canons de 'architecture.

The presence of Islam is immediately demonstrated by the mosques, simple or elaborate, set against the skylines of many West African towns. Miss Prussin, an architect who has lived in Africa for several years, here analyzes the stylistic features characterizing these buildings. She argues for their importance both as an art form and as evidence of the synthesis which results when man seeks to achieve monumentality as a testimony of his faith.

Numbers within parentheses refer to illustrations.

O f all the arts of sub-Saharan Africa, architecture has remained an orphan child. Sculpture, music, the dance, have come into their own, but architecture has remained, with rare exception, an unrecognized art, rel- egated to the realm of anthropology or archeology; even in these disci- plines, references are in the nature of fleeting glimpses, tangential to the main focus of their concern. This lack of attention to African architecture cannot be surprising when one con- siders the reasons which account for such a lacuna in the African Arts.

First, perhaps, is the almost complete absence of field studies with an archi- tectural orientation. Ethnographic field- work in Africa has been carried out on a micro-level, anthropologically oriented and geographically localized. A researcher may see and record the building activity of a particular ethnic grouping in the area of his concentra- tion, but either current disfavor to- wards studies in material culture or the researcher's own lack of architec- tural perceptiveness will prevent him from noting the subtleties which an- nounce the presence of an architectural motif. Ethnographic provincialism, the result of in-depth study, has deprived him of a spatial perspective. Not since the aerial framework of Frobenius'

32

(2) Tomb of Askia Muhamed at Gao

.(10) Mosqu?...e ,at Kawara. . - -- .

(10) Mosque at Kawara

(1) Sankore mosque at Timbucktoo

(3) Mosque at Djenne

i

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33

(7) Mosque at Bobo Dioulasso

Monumentality is achieved through a sense of verticality.

(5) Mosque at Mopti

34

Kulturkreise, albeit theoretically un- fashionable today, has consideration been given to the geographic or sty- listic extensiveness of architectural forms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Secondly, the building technology of sub-Saharan Africa is based on ma- terials of short durability: the life-span of building structures is comparatively short. Mud is not considered a respect- able architectural medium, since his- torically, in the architectural perspec- tive, monumentality is associated with permanence. Stone construction is al- most non-existent today, and what re-

I

mains of stone monuments from past centuries has scarcely been uncovered by the limited resources devoted to African archeology.

Third, and perhaps most important is the attitude, shared by architect and layman alike, that building in sub- Saharan Africa is not architecture at all, but at most, building technology: shelter is seen only in terms of the techniques which its builder com- mands, and not in terms of its aesthetic value. The most generous critic will award it the term Urarchitektur, the less generous critic, the term primitive

I.-

shelter. Such an attitude is reminiscent of early approaches to African sculp- ture. Imbued with an aesthetic sense socially conditioned by Western philos- ophy, the critic viewed the examples of African sculpture which had found their way to the ethnographic mu- seums of Europe, as immature at- tempts to represent nature. Failing to realize that the bases of reference in Africa differed greatly from those of Europe, the critic failed to place these examples in their proper perspective. As a consequence, a penetrating anal- ysis and study of African aesthetics was, until recently, impossible. Un- fortunately, such Victorian attitudes still prevail with regard to African architecture.

The savannah belt of West Africa, an area paralleling the equator, travels east to west and extends from the ancient emporia strung out along the bend of the Niger River to the pe- riphery of the rainforest. Within this belt, the Western Sudan and more specifically the boucle du Niger and the Voltaic Basin are of particular concern to us here. This area is asso- ciated with three important historical sequences: the diaspora of the Mande- speaking people, the northwestern trade routes linking the Niger emporia to Kumasi and the Guinea Coast, and the activities related to the jihad of Samori in the late nineteenth century. It is here that a particular type of mosque abounds which Frobenius, Marty, Trimingham, and others have termed Sudanese, so called simply be- cause it was found in the former French Sudan. From an historical point of view, this area is to be distinguished from its eastern counterpart where Hausa state formation, the Fulani jihads, and the consequences of the northeastern trans-Saharan trade routes gave rise to a different kind of archi- tectural expression.

In any savannah environment, and the West African savannah is no ex- ception, mud is used almost exclusively as an indigenous building material by sedentary peoples. But mud can be used in many ways, and indigenous building, diverse in both its forms and in the functions it serves, evidences a wide range of types. The circular roundhouse clusters, capped by their thatched roof bonnets and dispersed over the arid landscape, are at one end of the range. At the other end are the flat-roofed, rectangular houses replete with pierced parapet walls, crowded into tightly nucleated villages which appear in the distance as small, forti- fied medieval towns. Intermingled with this range of sedentary buildings are the various nomadic transient shelters of thatch, woven mats, or skins, whose

Continued on p. 70

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Continued from p. 35

occupants live in symbiotic relation- ship with their sedentary mud-building neighbors.

Whether this broad range of build- ing types, each with its attendent tech- nology, constitutes architecture, is still open to question. However, the Su- danese mosque, appearing as a singu- lar, unified form throughout the area, seems to evidence many of the cur- rently prescribed canons of architec- ture. It pervades the area, dominating a wealth of ethnic building diversity. Stylized and symbolic, it is immediately identifiable visually. While some degree of modification occurs in the form as it disperses across the savannah belt, the basic form remains, recognizable and distinctive.

When discussing almost any topic relating to the Western Sudan, one fact must be kept in mind: the presence of Islam-a force which pervades all as- pects of the community in which it is found. It is Islam as a force that gave rise to the mosques, palaces, and tombs found there. In recent years, what can be referred to as the Architecture of Islam has been studied in great detail by such authorities as Creswell, Ter- rasse, and others; however, their ex- tensive fieldwork was concerned with the Near East, North Africa, and southern Spain, not with sub-Saharan Africa. A scholar interested in the archi- tecture of Islam in this part of the world must comb through available material contained in Arabic sources, in accounts by eighteenth and nine- teenth century explorers and travelers, in archeological reports, and in micro- ethnographic descriptions. Further, in order to understand the Islamic archi- tecture of the Western Sudan, it is necessary to become familiar with the history of Islamic penetration into West Africa, i.e., the processes of syn- thesis which took place between the evangelists of Islam and the indigenous cultures they encountered, as well as with the nature of the cultures them- selves. Only then does it become pos- sible to comprehend architecturally not only the mosque, but the tomb and the palace. Only then is it possible to trace the impact of Islam on indige- nous building forms.

While the architecture of the Su- danese mosque derives from North Africa, Islamic architecture in West Africa is nevertheless unique. It is a corruption of neither Egyptian nor North African form but expresses in its essence the adjustments and modi- fications to the highly ritualized char- acter of Islam, which specifically pre- scribes both the floor plan of a mosque and the activities relevant to its use.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAM

Although elsewhere Islamic archi- tecture generally includes palaces and tombs as well as mosques, in West Africa it is the mosque which embodies Islam. Palaces and tombs are promi- nent only during the span of the Is- lamic empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. They appeared only when commercial development fostered the growth of urban centers and generated the emergence of class groupings. These in turn subsumed the preceding network of kinship relationships and permitted the establishment of an in- cipient state structure, at whose seats in the urban centers the sites of pal- aces and tombs were to be found. On the other hand, the mosque as an architectural feature is omnipresent, both spatially and temporally, despite the formal variations which may occur in its diaspora from north to south.

The spread of Islam into the west- ern savannah falls into a number of historical phases. These phases each represent, in turn, a new cultural pattern, varying with the process of acculturation to Islam. If an architec- tural style is a manifestation of a cul- ture as a whole, representing the crys- tallization of a number of cultural dimensions-not only those of environ- ment and technology, but those of so- cial, political, and economic spheres as well-it should be possible to relate the qualitative variables, which the mosque evidences, to the historical phases through which Islam passed. It is, in fact, this interplay between the various cultural dimensions, changing over time and space in their physical expression, that constitutes the fabric of architectural history.

Formal modifications, which take place in the mosque as it travels from north to south, pertain to size and scale, structure itself, finesse of construction and detail, definition of plane surfaces and the degree of verticality, as well as to the deviations from the prescribed plan layout which Islamic orthodoxy demands. This gradual formal trans- formation results from many factors, of which the changes in climatic con- ditions, the present and available build- ing materials, and the techniques and skills of construction are but a few. Equally important are the location of the mosque in an urban or rural milieu, the method by which it was estab- lished in the area-whether by a single marabout, by a migrant people, or the result of state-building activity-and the degree of acceptance or rejection of Islam and the related cultural at- tributes of Islam by a host group.

The architecture of the Sudanese mosque is, like its substrata of savan-

nah building technology, essentially mud architecture. While mud as a building material permits great flexi- bility and fluidity in the treatment of plane surfaces, it imposes great limita- tions upon potential structural form. Thus, within the discipline of the ma- terial, a number of basic variations emerge. These variations group them- selves into five categories: the Tim- bucktu, Djenne, Bobo Dioulasso, Kong, and Kawara types. This classification relates not only to alteration in the formal arrangement of minarets, stairs, and inner courtyards, which are the result of deviation from prescribed practice and politics of orthodox Islam, but to stylistic and qualitative dimen- sions as well. In turn, these five types find correlation with the historical pe- riods of Islam's penetration into West Africa and with the changing cultural character of each period.

The first phase in the spread of Islam into the Western Sudan began with the influx of Arabized Berber traders and clerics from Mauretania, reaching its apex in the adoption of Islam as an imperial cult. This expansion, per- sonified in the fame of Mansa Musa and Askia Muhamed I, was centered in the great urban trading capitals of first, Timbucktu (see Illustration 1) and then, Gao. Islam as an imperial cult was an urban phenomenon, limited to the immediate trading community. Here it existed side by side with a mosaic of indigenous African religions. The lack of both a rural base and con- flict with traditional rule lent a dualist character to Islam. It is to this phase of Islamic history that the Timbucktu type, exemplified in both the Djingue- reber and the Sankore mosques, as well as in the tomb of Askia Muhamed at Gao (2), corresponds.

Its appearance is limited to a few major urban centers, at that time entre- pots of trans-Saharan trade and the seats of precarious empires. The massive scale and the pyramidal minarets gen- erate an extreme feeling of heaviness, a heaviness further accentuated by the lack of plane definition. The minarets are built up solidly of mud, permitting only a shaft-like access to their roofs. The exterior surface of the minarets are pierced by projecting timbers which, while appearing haphazard, nevertheless provide permanent scaf- folding for the maintenance of mud wall surfaces-a requirement imposed by climatic conditions. They also trans- mit the stresses which are set up when a mass of mud is subjected to rapid changes in humidity and temperature. The timbers thus serve to concentrate the resultant cracking along prescribed lines.

Tradition credits the introduction of the Sudanese building style as a whole,

and the Timbucktu type in particular, to an Andalusian poet, Es-Saheli, who was brought back by Mansa Musa on his return from a grand pilgrimage to Mecca. However, the tradition has been questioned by a number of au- thorities. Architectural style is rarely set by a single designer functioning out of his milieu. The adaptation of a style requires a supporting technology and skills derivative of the cultural set- ting into which it is introduced, both of which were lacking at Timbucktu.

Timbucktu never developed as a center of Negro-Islamic learning, de- spite the existence of a university center there. It never became a true city-state, and its peoples remained heterogene- ous, never constituting a unified group. The city was kept in a continual state of insecurity by its own disunity and by the continual harassment of no- madic Tuareg tribes. Thus the architec- ture of its mosques, while massive and powerful in scale, remains heavy and crude. Nonetheless, these Great Mosques do represent the most ancient prototype of Islamic architecture in West Africa, a prototype which has persisted in time. Although the recon- struction of the Sankore mosque is of recent date, it continues to embody the earlier form.

Contrary to general impression, it was Djenne rather than Timbucktu which developed not only into a more stable center of trade, but became the intellectual seat of Negro-Islamic learn- ing. As a city-state, Djenne was sup- ported in its hinterland by a strong agricultural foundation, and its posi- tion on the Bani River protected it with an admirable network of water- ways. As a consequence, it was not subject to the same ravages which be- leaguered Timbucktu. Djenne marks a second phase in Islamic history, a phase in which Negro-Islamic culture flourished over a number of centuries. With the growth of a stable, urban milieu, there developed the skilled craftsmanship so essential for the growth of an articulate architecture. Djenne's cityscape is characterized by a distinctive, carefully articulated ar- chitectural flavor, a flavor which be- comes crystallized in its mosque. Since climatic restrictions placed upon mud construction within the Niger flood plains are no different than those fur- ther north, contrast with the Timbucktu type can only be explained culturally.

The Djenne type of mosque (3), paralleling the apical role and position of Djenne in West African history, ap- pears as a quintessence of architectural form. Formal elements are carefully and sharply defined in the interplay of wall surfaces, in parapet construction, and through the use and placement of wooden dentils obtained by cutting the

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trunks of the fan palm. The symmetry of its fagade, composed of three major minarets rhythmically interspersed with absolutely vertical buttresses, competes with the best traditions of the Beaux Arts. Above all, it achieves a sense of verticality-one of those canons of architecture-unrivalled in this part of the world. In contrast to the Timbucktu type which possesses only a feeling for mass, the Djenne mosque achieves a remarkable sense of spatial enclosure. The minarets are not built up of a mass of solid material, but rather enclose an ample set of spiral mud stairs which leads upwards to the roof from where the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer: the mina- rets are thus an expression of their true function. The incorporation of the minaret as an integral element of the facade itself marks an innovation in mosque design. The mosque interior with its rhythmic definition of space might, with a bit of imagination, easily satisfy the criterion of loftiness with which Gothic architecture endows the cathedral(4). Its setting, conforming to the classic tenets of urban design, provides a formal approach which per- mits the viewer to marvel at the mag- nitude of its scale and structure, a magnitude enhanced by the residual architecture which serves as its back- drop.

The Djenne prototype can be found in a number of large towns bordering the Niger flood plains, such as at Mopti(5) and San(6). The mosques at Mopti and San, although reputed to have been built by Djenne craftsmen, do not retain the qualitative level of the Djenne mosque. The one at Mopti, while retaining the finesse of detail and an equally sharp delineation of surfaces in its buttressing, is deprived of some of its monumentality by both the ab- sence of a plaza-type approach and the lack of a strongly defined facade sym- metry. The mosque at San, while very much a replica of Djenne in regard to symmetry and approach, suffers in the articulation of its detail, the sharpness of delineation, and in its verticality.

While the mosques at Timbucktu, dating back many centuries, have been

continuously modified as a result of annual maintenance, the mosque at Djenne and its replicas are of recent vintage, dating from the turn of this century. It would seem that the per- sistence of a constant form over such a great span of time provides one of the keys to an understanding of their unique quality. They remain a testi- mony to the early centuries of Islamic penetration into West Africa, marking a period of expansive state-building activity.

The Djenne and Timbucktu types eventually merge, giving rise centuries later to two new variations: the Bobo Dioulasso(7) and the Kong(8) types, both found in the southerly savannah reaches of the Western Sudan, in an area encompassed by the activities rel- evant to the Samori jihad. Both types relate to the dispersion of and the col- onization by Mande peoples moving down from the northwest, a diaspora initiated and led by their trading classes. Although the Mande immi- grants into the southern savannah zones were pagan, the trading classes among them were Muslims. It was the Muslim Mande traders who, extending their commercial activities over vast areas of what is now the northern Ivory Coast, northwestern Ghana, and the southern Upper Volta, created the commercial centers around which Mus- lim communities grew. However, these centers were in large measure autono- mous, their solidarity reinforced through isolation. Where their commercial ac- tivity enabled them to increase their influence over the surrounding pagan communities, they were able to gain political control and to form small village-states. Thus, Bobo Dioulasso and Kong types are an expression of a politico-religious structure vested in a village-in contrast to the earlier large mosques which were symbolic of an imperial organization. As a conse- quence, they are much smaller in scale and lack the monumentality which characterize both the Timbucktu and Djenne types. They appear as small, modified scale models of their north- ern counterparts. Distinctions between the Bobo and Kong types rest primar- ily on an adaptation to climatic condi- tions, rather than on distinctions in cultural tradition.

At Bobo Dioulasso, the vertical but- tressing so sharply delineated at Djenne is still discernible, as are the dominat- ing minarets derivative of Timbucktu. However, the flaring out and thicken- ing of the buttress elements at their base detracts from the quality of ver- tical rhythm, a quality still evident but rapidly disappearing under the on- slaught of reduced scale and climatic accommodation. Projecting timbers, particularly from the two minarets, (6) Mosque at San

72

still manage to retain a semblance of regularity, but their multiplicity, cou- pled with the introduction of horizontal bracing between the dominant but- tress forms, detracts further from ver- ticality. Both innovations are a function of the increased humidity of the south- ern savannah. Despite these modifica- tions, however, the classic mosque floor plan with its enclosed prayer hall, its mihrab, its interior courtyard, and internal stair spiraling within the mina- ret to the roof, all remain.

Kong, another one-time capital of a village-state, was an important Muslim Mande center of commerce, lying much closer to the rainforest. Timber here is both more plentiful and avail- able in greater lengths. But it is never- theless savannah timber, characterized by gnarling and distortive growth, in contrast to the straight grain of the fan palm which is available further north. The increased rains require even heavier buttressing and increased an- nual maintenance, as well as additional horizontal reinforcing. The result is an architectural form which uses and re- flects a second material: wood. How- ever, this now extensive use of timber reinforcing, while creating an interest- ing contrast of media, at the same time introduces horizontality as a major de- sign feature. There is a further decrease in buttress definition, and a more bul- bous minaret emerges. The minaret, now a solid mass of mud, no longer houses the access stair. It has lost its function, remaining only as a symbolic link to Mecca. One almost feels as if the mosque at Kong does not quite get off the ground.

The use of timber for horizontal bracing in the proximity of the rain- forest is a function of the size of the mosque. The size of the mosque is itself a function of the urban milieu. As a consequence, the use of horizontal timber bracing in the southern savan- nah prevails only in the larger mosques, those found in the centers of what were once village-states. As one moves out into the rural landscape, the scale of the mosque, such as that of Lara- banga(9), diminishes further, a result not only of size, but of the broader based buttressing which the lack of building skill demands. Islam comes to the rural scene in the person of a single marabout, and he builds from memory a replica of a mosque seen elsewhere, without benefit of either supporting skills, technology, or com- mitment to Islam by the host popula- tion. The mosque gradually loses any resemblance, in its plan, to either its northern counterparts or to the rigid prescriptions of Islamic orthodoxy. En- trances, losing their human scale, be- come diminutive, so that it becomes

Continued on p. 74

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necessary to stoop in order to enter. The minaret loses its dominant posi- tion in the design and is hardly dis- tinguishable from the bulk of buttress- ing.

Finally, as if to complete the cycle, the Kawara mosque stands as the epitomy of a rural mosque(10). Al-

though absolutely fluid in its three di- mensions, the Kawara type is totally lacking in either verticality or monu- mentality. It no longer possesses any architectural feeling for spatial enclos- ure, remaining rather with only a sculp- tural feeling for mass. Architectural form has dissolved into sculptural form. The use of the mosque interior has been abandoned-it no longer has an architectural function. Its plan bears no resemblance to the classic mosque form, and Friday activities take place in a demarcated open space adjoining the symbolic structure. It is this type of mosque, not as well executed, not as striking, not as consistent in its sculp- tural fluidity as the Kawara example, which prevails on the rural savannah

landscape. Thus, although there exists a singular

architectural style in West Africa, vari- ous factors have entered into its altera- tion and modification as it traveled from the bend of the Niger River to the

periphery of the rainforest in the wake of Islamic penetration. The modifica- tion was explained only in part by attempts to maintain a form arising out of one set of environmental con- ditions, in areas where physical condi- tions were less conducive to its mainte- nance. A major part of the explanation lies rather in the less rigid adherence to the dogma and forms prescribed by Islamic doctrine. If it is true that archi- tecture is a conscious expression of commitment, that it is a physical ex-

pression for symbolism, that it is an intellectualization of material elements

arranged in three dimensions, that it is actually a reflection of culture at a

given point in time, then any changes which take place in that particular culture are also reflected architectur-

ally. The modifications witnessed in

(9) Mosque at Larabanga

74

the mosque form support the above hypothesis, for indeed the basic revi- sions to, and the relaxations of, Islamic dogma, are reflected in the architecture of the Sudanese mosque.

Architectural expression involves a constancy of form which gives rise to a style, an accompanying emotional involvement by the viewer and the user, and a monumentality through which symbolism is achieved. Where these qualities exist, one can speak of architecture as being present.

Architecture, unlike the other fine arts, deals with the problem of use/ utility/function alongside the problem of symbolic expression. A piece of ar- chitecture, in addition to being of direct physical service to man, becomes an expression of his social and cultural aspirations. When, as in the case of an arc de triomphe, the symbolism itself is its function, the structure created moves over into the realm of sculpture.

When architectural forms become a style, they act as a vehicle of expres- sion for group identification. However, certain requisites should be fulfilled be- fore this emotional involvement can be attached to a physical manifesta- tion: an institutionalization of that expression into a system of constant elements, forms, and qualities within a society, and the visual identity of a particular structure through a unity of formal elements.

As one traces the Sudanese mosque from its northerly-most Timbucktu site to its southerly-most Kong site, the consistency of its form is striking. De- spite the modifications which occur, this constancy of symbolic form is so strong that no matter where one trav- els, no matter what the indigenous ethnically defined building patterns may be, the mosque is immediately identifiable by its distinctive architec- tural features.

The use of architectural form to achieve explicit symbolic statements of the nature of a society is not unique in history: the pyramids, the feudal castle, St. Peters, Versailles, or Brasilia, as well as the Great Mosques of Kairo- uan or Cordova are all illustrative of the cultures which created them. The Su- danese mosque is no different. It, too, is a symbolization achieved by emotional response which a visual identity evokes. The mosque embodies the role of islam in West Africa as a religious, political, and an economic force.

It is also necessary to distinguish the symbolism of an ancestral shrine from the symbolism involved in the expres- sion of a range of socio-political rela- tionships within society. The shrine has a symbolic value only for the all- inclusive role which kinship plays in a particular society; but when the so- ciety becomes more differentiated and

(8) Mosque at Kong

the ruling powers are desirous of

maintaining their position, symbolism achieves permanence through monu-

mentality. Dwellings are not monu- mental nor are the shrines within them.

Only those edifices which express the

prevailing dominant theme running through the fabric of a society can achieve monumentality. In the history of West Africa it is the mosque, and not the pagan tribal head's "palace," which has achieved architectural monu-

mentality. The mosque becomes an

expression of the multiple role which Islam played in subsuming the kinship function and in creating an incipient state structure. Indigenous cultures were, in the main, acephalous or poly- cephalous societies with little political differentiation. Hence the residences of tribal rulers, while boasting superb sculptural appendages, never achieved the level of architectural definition or distinction which might lay a base for

monumentality. Monumentality is achieved formally

through a sense of verticality-both symbolic and accessible-whether it be the Sumer ziggurat, the Gothic

spire, the U.N. Building or the Islamic minaret. One is tempted to use the

prevalence of a vertical quality in the Sudanese mosque as a measure of Islam's efficacy within a particular in-

digenous culture as one follows the basic form in its journey from Djenne to Kawara.

Architecture has been defined as a

physical expression involving a con-

stancy of form and an accompanying symbolism. Such symbolism, when all-

encompassing, is embodied in monu-

mentality as a qualitative dimension.

Verticality is one of the means by which such monumentality is achieved. All the above noted qualities are pres- ent, in varying degree, in the Islamic architecture of West Africa, as em- bodied in its mosques. Singular and distinctive, the Sudanese mosques are three-dimensional crystallizations of the unique synthesis between the kind of Islam which penetrated from across the Sahara and the indigenous cultures of West Africa-a synthesis nutured in the savannah environment. U