Global Islam and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Global Islam and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
An Architecture of Assimilation
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays an important role in the dissemination of political and religious ideology throughout the Muslim world. The Kingdom, a proponent of the Salafi Sunni doctrine, is legitimized by its guardianship of the holiest sites in Islam, the Kaʿba in Mecca and the holy mosque of the Prophet, Muhammad, in Medina. The government is an active patron of mosque building in Saudi Arabia and has contributed financially to the construction of mosques and Islamic schools around the world. One of the most interesting examples is the Faisal Mosque (Vedat Dalokay,1986), which King Faisal gifted to the Pakistani nation. The Muhammad al-Amin Mosque (2008) by Azmi Fakhouri in downtown Beirut may also be viewed as a diplomatic gift by the Kingdom; nonetheless, it is clearly responsive to the political and architectural history of Lebanon. On the domestic front, architects such as Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil designed mosques in Jeddah and Medina to make clear references to Mamluk architecture, but the Grand Mosque in the capital, Riyadh, eschews historicism in favor of a nativist aesthetic deriving from local Najdi architecture.
Keywords: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Jeddah, Salafism, Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Vedat Dalokay, Al-Amin Mosque, Beirut, Azmi Fakhouri, Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil
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