Bodhi, thanks for posting the awesome images of Jain temples and for those of the Stupas.
<b>EDITED:</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->looks interesting that mosques have similar elements as the stupas!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Ramana, are you referring to the fact that many mosques were 'built' with Stupa pieces from those that the islamics demolished? (See for instance, http://voi.org/books/htemples2/ch7.htm )This is true even in former Buddhist nations and regions of Central and West Asia.
Islam never made anything original. In Iran, several 'mosques' have Zoroastrian motifs on the outsides: this is banned in islam, but these mosques were Zoroastrian temples before whilst some were constructed from demolished Zoroastrian fire temples. I am trying to find the link where I read about this, but this one briefly mentions it:
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Iran's Islamic leaders "have tried for centuries to sweep away all trace of Zoroastrianism," says Sohrab Yazdi, a community leader in Yazd, where most of Iran's 30,000 Zoroastrians live. Pointing to the brilliantly domed Jame mosque in the city's center, Yazdi says it was built over a destroyed Zoroastrian fire temple. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Zoroastrians suffered sporadic persecution, as their fire-temples and priests were destroyed, as for example, at Kariyan, Kumm and at Idhaj. In a deliberate act of provocation the caliph al Mutawakkil had a tree putatively planted by Zoroaster himself cut down. Sometimes the fire temples were converted into mosques.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
link
And this site is the '<b>Embassy of the Islamic republic of Iran, Ottawa, Canada</b>', which states:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Zoroastrians have always been populous in Yazd. Even now roughly twelve thousand of the townâs population adhere to this ancient religion, and though their fire temple was turned into a mosque when the Arabs invaded Iran, a dignified new fire temple was inaugurated thirteen hundred years later.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And in the case of the mosque in Isfahan, it was built on the *site* of a Zoroastrian fire temple. Whereas others were basically Zoroastrian temples turned into mosques:
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->November 01, 2006
Isfahan's 'Perfect Dome'
Tradition has it that Isfahan's Friday mosque sits on what was once a Zoroastrian Fire Temple. Now, <b>I have been inside mosques that used to be Fire Temples</b>, most notably the Maggak-i-Attari in Bukhara (it was also a Buddhist shrine at one point) but never had I been in a Friday Mosque built over a Fire Temple. The Attari mosque in Bukhara still vaguely resembled a Fire Temple, as all fire temples are large, almost perfect squares. But here, there was no hint, that this sprawling, added on to and architecturally heterogeneous mosque was once a Fire Temple.
(That's because the temple was mostly destroyed and built over.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Or maybe this is what Ramana was intimating?
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The inter-locking dome of the Stupa
was to be the prototype for
the domes (over Mosques and churches) that were built
later by Romans and Arabs
The Dome of the Mosques in Islamic Architecture is derived from the Stupa
The hemispherical construction of the stupas also seems to have influenced Byzantine architecture perhaps through Pre-Islamic, Sassanian Persia. The famous Sophia mosque at Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorous Straits has domes which closely resemble the Buddhist Stupa. In fact the minarets in the mosque were erected late when the Ottoman Turks captured Istanbul (then called Constantinople) from the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.
The dome over this Mosque at Istanbul
has borrowed the technique
from the Indian Stupa
The mosque, incidentally
was built as a Church but
was later converted into a mosque
by the conquering Ottoman Turks<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>EDITED:</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->looks interesting that mosques have similar elements as the stupas!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Ramana, are you referring to the fact that many mosques were 'built' with Stupa pieces from those that the islamics demolished? (See for instance, http://voi.org/books/htemples2/ch7.htm )This is true even in former Buddhist nations and regions of Central and West Asia.
Islam never made anything original. In Iran, several 'mosques' have Zoroastrian motifs on the outsides: this is banned in islam, but these mosques were Zoroastrian temples before whilst some were constructed from demolished Zoroastrian fire temples. I am trying to find the link where I read about this, but this one briefly mentions it:
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Iran's Islamic leaders "have tried for centuries to sweep away all trace of Zoroastrianism," says Sohrab Yazdi, a community leader in Yazd, where most of Iran's 30,000 Zoroastrians live. Pointing to the brilliantly domed Jame mosque in the city's center, Yazdi says it was built over a destroyed Zoroastrian fire temple. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Zoroastrians suffered sporadic persecution, as their fire-temples and priests were destroyed, as for example, at Kariyan, Kumm and at Idhaj. In a deliberate act of provocation the caliph al Mutawakkil had a tree putatively planted by Zoroaster himself cut down. Sometimes the fire temples were converted into mosques.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
link
And this site is the '<b>Embassy of the Islamic republic of Iran, Ottawa, Canada</b>', which states:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Zoroastrians have always been populous in Yazd. Even now roughly twelve thousand of the townâs population adhere to this ancient religion, and though their fire temple was turned into a mosque when the Arabs invaded Iran, a dignified new fire temple was inaugurated thirteen hundred years later.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And in the case of the mosque in Isfahan, it was built on the *site* of a Zoroastrian fire temple. Whereas others were basically Zoroastrian temples turned into mosques:
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->November 01, 2006
Isfahan's 'Perfect Dome'
Tradition has it that Isfahan's Friday mosque sits on what was once a Zoroastrian Fire Temple. Now, <b>I have been inside mosques that used to be Fire Temples</b>, most notably the Maggak-i-Attari in Bukhara (it was also a Buddhist shrine at one point) but never had I been in a Friday Mosque built over a Fire Temple. The Attari mosque in Bukhara still vaguely resembled a Fire Temple, as all fire temples are large, almost perfect squares. But here, there was no hint, that this sprawling, added on to and architecturally heterogeneous mosque was once a Fire Temple.
(That's because the temple was mostly destroyed and built over.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Or maybe this is what Ramana was intimating?
link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The inter-locking dome of the Stupa
was to be the prototype for
the domes (over Mosques and churches) that were built
later by Romans and Arabs
The Dome of the Mosques in Islamic Architecture is derived from the Stupa
The hemispherical construction of the stupas also seems to have influenced Byzantine architecture perhaps through Pre-Islamic, Sassanian Persia. The famous Sophia mosque at Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorous Straits has domes which closely resemble the Buddhist Stupa. In fact the minarets in the mosque were erected late when the Ottoman Turks captured Istanbul (then called Constantinople) from the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.
The dome over this Mosque at Istanbul
has borrowed the technique
from the Indian Stupa
The mosque, incidentally
was built as a Church but
was later converted into a mosque
by the conquering Ottoman Turks<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->