GÜL DEM?R – N?K? GAMM, ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
The 350-year-old portico designed by legendary Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan for the Sacred Mosque is to be torn down now that the pilgrims have left. And with its demolition Mecca’s last traces of Ottoman architecture will be dust in the desert wind.
Now that the Kurban Bayram holiday and the time of the Hajj pilgrimage have ended, Islam’s holy city of Mecca can return to normal. But with the number of pilgrims estimated to rise to 10 million in the coming years, Saudis have been working hard non-stop for years to prepare for them.
This year approximately 2.5 million pilgrims converged on the Saudi Arabian city that for centuries has been the focal point of Muslim believers who gather to partake in the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime provided they can afford it and are in good enough health.
How the city prepares for its visitors, however, is a question that some experts say has not been addressed appropriately, especially regarding ancient Islamic architecture and Ottoman heritage.
According to reports during this year’s Hajj, now that the pilgrims have left, the portico around the Kaabah, designed by legendary Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in the late 1500s, is to be torn down.
Dr. Sami Angawi, head of the Amar Center for Architectural Heritage in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, is an expert on the region’s Islamic architecture. He said he acknowledges that the Saudis have the right to provide modern cities for their citizens, but also noted that many buildings from early Islamic history are being demolished and replaced with high-rise buildings. Angawi said he calculated that over 300 historical buildings in Mecca and Medina have already been destroyed.
Also, the Washington-based Gulf Institute has estimated that, in the past two decades, 95 percent of the millennium-old buildings in Mecca have been demolished.
Furthermore, the British-based Gensler architectural firm disclosed during the Hajj that is has plans to redevelop one square kilometer in the historic southern area known as Darb Al-Khalil. When completed, however, the area will include residences, hotels and amenities for pilgrims and will allow easy movement from the area to the Mosque Al-Haram, or Sacred Mosque.
Admittedly, the Saudis have the right to ensure that the annual pilgrimage occurs as safely as possible, so it is not surprising they are bent on making changes. For example, the ramp that leads to the area where the pilgrims “throw stones at the devil” at times was where hundreds could be killed when crowds rushed forward to complete this portion of the pilgrimage. Today, however, the ramp system has been changed and can hold 3 million people and has capacity for as many as 5 million.
They also expanded the Mosque Al-Haram in the center of the city, and where there were once hundreds of houses, they have now been replaced with wide avenues and city squares.
The Ottoman fortress that looked over the Kaabah for two centuries has already been razed to make room for the Abraj Al Bait Towers, which are supposed to be finished in 2010. This move provoked anger among Turks who viewed the fortress as part of Ottoman heritage. The towers, however, will have a prayer hall capable of holding 10,000 worshippers, a seven-star hotel, a shopping mall, residential housing and a parking lot. All told, the entire structure will be capable of housing up to 100,000 people.
Mecca has gone through many rejuvenations before. One example is in the late 1500s, when Ottoman Sultan Suleyman had Mimar Sinan design plans that included widening the courtyard and building porticoes. The plan was carried out in 1590 by Mimar Mehmed Aga. Sultan Selim II, in 1571, ordered Mimar Sinan to renovate the mosque and replaced the prayer hall’s roof with domes and reinforced it with new columns. The portico plan was deferred to a later date. In 1629, excessive rain damage led to the restoration of the mosque and the Kaabah.
But with demolition of the portico, the last traces of Ottoman architecture will be erased from Mecca.
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