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Three of the oldest mosques in the world are about to be destroyed launches Saudi Arabia on an expansion of several billion pounds of Islam holiest site second. Work on the Masjid Nabawi one-to Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried, will start once the annual Hajj pilgrimage ends next month. Once completed, the development is the mosque in the largest building in the world, with a capacity of 1.6 million followers.
But concerns have been raised that the development will see the main historical sites bulldozer. Anger is already increasingly apparent defiance of the kingdom for the preservation of historical and archaeological heritage of the holiest city, Mecca. Most of the expansion of Masjid Nabawi-one will take place in the west of the existing mosque, which houses the tombs of the founder of Islam and two of his closest companions, Abu Bakr and Omar.
Just outside the western walls of the current compound mosques dedicated to Abu Bakr and Umar, and the Ghamama Masjid, built to mark the spot where the Prophet would have given his first prayers for Eid. The Saudis have announced no plans to preserve or move the three mosques, which have existed since the seventh century and are covered by the structures of the Ottoman period, or commission archaeological digs before being pulled down, This has caused serious concern among the few academics who are willing to speak in the deeply authoritarian kingdom.
"Nobody denies that Medina needs expansion, but it is how the authorities are going about it that is so worrying," said Dr Irfan al-Alawi of the Research Foundation of the Islamic heritage. "There are ways they could expand which would either avoid or preserve Islamic ancient sites but they want to hit that." Dr Alawi has spent much of the past 10 years trying to highlight the destruction of early Islamic sites.
With cheap air travel and booming middle classes in populous Muslim countries in the developing world, both Mecca and Medina are struggling to cope with the 12 million pilgrims who visit each year - a figure expected to rise to 17 million by 2025. The Saudi monarchy itself as the sole authority to decide what should happen to the cradle of Islam. Although it has allocated billions for an enormous expansion of both Mecca and Medina, it also sees the holy cities as lucrative for almost entirely dependent on its oil wealth over the country.
Heritage activists and residents looked on aghast as many historic sections of Mecca and Medina were razed to make way for shine malls, luxury hotels and enormous skyscrapers. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 percent of buildings 1,000 years in both cities have been destroyed over the past 20 years.
In Mecca, the Masjid al-Haram, the holiest site of Islam and a place where all Muslims are supposed to be equal, is now overshadowed by the Jabal Omar complex, a development of apartments skyscrapers hotels and a huge tower. To build it, the Saudi authorities destroyed the Ottoman era Ajyad fortress and the hill it stood on. Other historic sites lost the birthplace of the Prophet - now a library - and the house of his first wife, Khadija, who was replaced by a block of public toilets.
Neither the Saudi Embassy in London nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to requests for comment when The Independent in touch with them this week. But the government has defended its expansion plans for the two holy cities, if necessary. He insists he has also built a large number of budget hotels for poorer pilgrims, though critics point out these are routinely placed many miles away from the holy places.
Until recently, the redevelopment of Medina continued at a slightly less frenetic pace than in Mecca, although a number of ancient Islamic sites have been lost. Of the seven ancient mosques built to commemorate the Battle of the Trench - a key moment in the development of Islam - not only two. Ten years ago, a mosque belonging to the grand-son of the Prophet was dynamited. Photos of the demolition were taken secretly and smuggled out of the kingdom showed the religious police celebrating the building collapsed.
Contempt of early Islam is explained in part by the adoption of the plan of Wahhabism, an austere and uncompromising interpretation of Islam that is vehemently opposed to anything that might encourage Muslims to worship idols.
In most Muslim countries, shrines were built. Visits to graves are also commonplace. But Wahhabism considers these practices with disdain. The religious police are significant to discourage people from praying at the site visit or closely related to the Prophet's time, while powerful clerics work behind the scenes to promote the destruction of historic sites.
Dr Alawi fears that the redevelopment of the Nabawi Mosque, a part of a broader effort to divert attention from where Mohammed is buried. The point that marks the grave of the Prophet is covered by a famous green dome and forms the centerpiece of the current mosque room. But in the new plans, it will become the east wing of the building eight times its current size with a new pulpit. It is also planned to demolish the prayer niche at the center of the mosque. The area is part of the Riyadh al-Jannah (Garden of Paradise), a section of the mosque that the Prophet decreed especially holy.
"Their excuse is that they want to create more space and 20 spaces in a mosque that will eventually hold 1.6 million," says Dr. Alawi. "It makes no sense. What they really want is to move the focus of the place where the Prophet is buried."
A pamphlet published in 2007 by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs - and endorsed by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Abdulaziz al - called for the dome to be demolished and the graves of Mohammed, Abu Bakr and Umar to be flattened. Shaykh Ibn al-Uthaymeen, one of the scholars of 20th century's most prolific Wahabi, made similar requests.
"The silence of the Muslims on the destruction of Mecca and Medina is both disastrous and hypocritical," said Dr. Alawi. "The recent film on the Prophet Mohammed provoked protests across the world ... yet the destruction of the birthplace of the Prophet, where he prayed and founded Islam has been allowed to continue without any criticism. "
:
MEGA Architecture Mecca casts a shadow on the Hajj
Oliver Wainwright
Source: guardian.co.uk
Arabian heights ... the Abraj al-Bait looms over the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Fayez Nureldine / AFP / Getty
A bright green flat discs earlier in the night sky, casting an eerie glow over a forest of minarets, cranes and concrete frames that seem to stretch to infinity in the dusty distance, like a vast field of dominoes . The disc is the largest clock face in the world - and not only that adorn the highest tower in the world, he also sits atop a building with the largest floor area in the world. Visible 30km away, c is the Abraj al-Bait , who rises like Big Ben on steroids tower 600m over the Holy Mosque in Mecca in the spiritual heart of the Islamic world.
It houses pastiche pushing a range of luxury hotels and apartments perched on top of a slab of five-storey shopping mall. Completed last year at a cost of $ 15bn (£ 9bn), it is where an Ottoman fortress once stood. A stone citadel built in 1781 to repel the bandits, the demolition of the fortress Ajyad sparked an international outcry in 2002, but it was quickly rejected by the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs. "Nobody has the right to interfere in matters within the authority of the state," he said. "This development is in the interest of all Muslims around the world" The fortress was not just swept. - The hill it sat on went well.
10km shot 26 projectors in the heavens, and screams his call to prayer 7km across the valley, the Abraj al-Bait is the second largest building. Inlaid with mosaics and inlaid with gold, it is the most visible (and audible) sign of the frenzied building boom that has taken hold of the holy Saudi city over the last 10 years. "It's really indescribable," says Sami Angawi, architect and founder of the Center Jeddah-based Hajj Research, which has spent the last three decades, research and documentation of historic buildings in Mecca and Medina, some of which remain . In particular, the house of the wife of the Prophet, Khadija, was razed to make way for public lavatories, the home of his companion, Abu Bakr, now the site of a Hilton and her little house -wire was crushed by the king's palace. "They are turning the sacred shrine in a machine, a city that has no identity, no inheritance, without culture and natural environment. They even removed the mountains, "says Angawi.
Geological features have proved no match for dynamite and concrete, which are widely deployed to make way for the growing number of visitors. Three million Muslims have arrived in Mecca this week for the annual hajj pilgrimage, an event that has mutated from a simple rite of passage spartan, where pilgrims leave their property in a big-bucks business worthy of Las Vegas - with the architecture exaggeration to match.
Along the west side of the city are the first towers of Jabal Omar development, a vast complex that will eventually accommodate 100,000 people 26 luxury hotels - sitting on another huge base of shops and restaurants 4,000 500, with its own six-storey prayer hall. Line blocks, which should rise to heights of up to 200 meters and terminate in a building monumental gate, share Islamic-lite bell tower of the language: a snapshot of pointed arches and plaster filigree screens plated on generic concrete shells.
The developers have somehow transformed a type of architecture that has evolved from a dense urban grain low-rise courts and alleys in the background of meaning: a replicable model for decoration indefinitely slab slab standard after standard. Fragile lines of concrete vaults suspended above the blue expanses of glass mirror, punctuated by wooden stick on mesh screens. These are modeled on traditional mashrabiya panels, these fine mesh openings designed as ventilation sails, but here they become applicable sense. "If we imitate, why can not we imitate the best" Ask Angawi, in a tone of despair. "Why are we imitating the worst mistakes of 60 or 70 years from all over the world - only even bigger? "
Another development of repetitive slabs, echoing Jabal Omar toast rack urbanism, is planned for the north side of the Grand Mosque at al-Shamiya, while a plan to provide $ 10bn additional 400,000 square meters of prayer halls there is almost complete. Standing like a gigantic triangular slice of wedding cake, this building will accommodate 1.2m more worshipers each year, but it came at a price.
Toast rack planning ... how al-Shamiya district will look
"It was the most historic part of the old city," says Irfan al-Alawi, executive director of the British Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who worked in vain to raise the profile of the historic sites of the country. "It has now all been flattened." The inhabitants were expelled, he said, with one week's notice, and many have still not been compensated - a common history through the evolution of Mecca. "They now live in slums on the outskirts of the city without adequate sanitation. Locals who have lived here for generations, are being forced out to make way for these marble castles in the sky. "
Alawi describes the imminent arrival of seven more hotels even closer to the mosque of the clock tower al-Bait stars, as well as proposals to develop Jabal Khandama on the hills to the east, this which should erase the place where the Prophet Muhammad was born. Alawi said that intentional destruction of Islamic heritage is not a coincidence: it is managed by the state, backed Wahhabism, the extremist interpretation of Islam that perceives historical sites as encouraging idolatry sin. So everything about the prophet might be in the crosshairs of the bulldozer.
"This is the end of Mecca," says Alawi. "And for what? Most of these hotels are 50% vacant and malls are empty - the rents are too expensive for the old souk stall holders. And people who pray in the new mosque extension will not even be able to see the Kaaba. "
The Kaaba is the holy black cube in the center of the Grand Mosque around which pilgrims walk near, he became the ultimate currency, allowing suites with the best views to charge $ 7,000 per night in high season.This unique concentricity, with everything determined by its orientation to the sacred center, gave birth to a strangely diagrammatic radial urbanism. From up there, like a sea of iron filings drawn to a magnet, the whole city seems to crowd around a core, the vortex of pilgrims giving way to a swirling current as of the towers. It is the center of the prayer at large concrete.
Road to Mecca funnels traffic into two lanes: one labeled "Muslim" is the Holy City, on the other hand, the words "non-Muslims", it bypasses, since it - including me - are prohibited from entering Mecca (and Medina) under Saudi law. Shortly after the hajj, work will begin on the expansion of the gob, open around the Kaaba, to triple its capacity to 130,000 pilgrims per hour area. But to create this, the historic center of the mosque will be deleted. "They want to get rid of the brick arches and stone columns that have stood there since the 17th century," said Alawi. "This is the oldest part of the Holy Mosque, designed by the great architect Sinan. The pillars are inscribed with the names of the stories and companions of the Prophet, so that the Wahhabis want to see them bulldozed. "
The Jabal Omar project
The desperation to be, or feel as close as possible to the Kaaba has forced buildings to become ever higher, ever more ridiculously tapered, so that everyone can have a vision, too theoretical, the sacred center. This gave the sanctified "mother" villages in the most expensive real estate in the world: a square foot around the Grand Mosque now sells for $ 18,000, Mayor Osama al-Bar said last year, eclipsing the average Monaco of $ 4.400.
As the influx of pilgrims increases, land values will continue to rise: 12 million people visit the city each year, a figure expected to swell to 17 million by 2025. They will be relaxed in the way of a rail link high-speed link entrance to the city of Jeddah to Mecca and Medina. Jeddah King Abdul Aziz International Airport itself is the ongoing expansion to quadruple its capacity to 80 million passengers per year.
Fueled by petrodollars, all these large projects are now completed or underway. So it seems strange that King Abdullah must now be ordered the creation of a master plan for Mecca and its surroundings, covering buildings, transport and infrastructure - given that most sacred mountains of the city was blasted into dust, and all but a small number of ancient monuments buried under soaring buildings. As Angawi said: "There is no other place in the world where the bulldozer before development begins with planning. But it is not too late if we stop now. Otherwise, we risk the sanctity of Mecca is gone forever. "
destroyed sites..
Mosques
mosque and grave ofHamza ibn `Abd al-Muttalib, Prophèt's uncle
mosque Fatima Zahra, Prophèt's daughter
mosque d’al-Manaratain
mosque and grave of Ali al-Ouraydhi ibn Ja`far as-Sadiq
Four mosques of the Battle, Medina.
mosque Abou Rashid.
mosque Salman al-Farsi, Médina.
mosque Raj’at ash-Shams, Médina.
Cemeteries
Jannat al-Baqi t Médina
Jannat al Mu’alla, old cemetery Mecca
Hamida al-Barbariyya's shrine Imam Musa al-Kazim's mother
Amina bint Wahb's shrine, Prophèt Mohamed mother, destroyed and burnt in 1998
Banu Hashim's shrine , Mecca
Hamza's shrine and Uhud battle's martyrs graves
Eve shrine in Djeddah, sealed in concrete in 1975.
Abdullah ibn `Abd al-Muttalib grave, Prophet's father in medina.
Historical religious sites
the prophet's Mohamed (sala allaho 3aleyhim wa salem) house where he was born in 570 ad. Turned into an animal market first. A building was constructed above it at the beginning of the XXI century.
Khadija's house, his first wife where most of the Muslim believe that the , Prophet received his first revelations, after being discovered thru excavation in 1989, was covered up and public toilets were built above.
Prophet Mohamed house in Medina where he lived before his departure to Mecca
The first islamic school where the prophet taught his religion. It is now under the extension of Mecca
