Metropolitan Museum Essay

During our trip the the Metropolitan Museum, our class explored various exhibits, including the Greeks, early Tribal works, Renaissance art, and 19th century art. One piece in particular that stood out to me, and reminded me of a text we’ve read this semester, was Prayer in the Mosque by Jean-Lèon Gèrome in 1871(87.15.130). This oil on canvas depicts the interior of a mosque in seventh century Egypt and reminded me of the readings we had done on Al Andalus from Jarbel Rodriguez, where the description of a mosque in Spain is found. Prayer in the Mosque is an oil on canvas painting created by a French artist. The history surrounding this painting is that Jean-Lèon had traveled to Egypt to visit a seventh-century mosque in Cairo, Egypt and many
The Muslim society that emerged in Spain had given religious tolerance to the other popular holy groups, the Jews and the Christians, after the Muslims had conquered Al Andalus. This religious tolerance meant the other groups, the Dhimmis, would be able to worship in peace, so long as they respected the Islamic faith. A testament to show their respect to the Islamic faith was for the Christians to give up half of their church, so the Muslims would have a house of worship. In exchange, the Christians would be allowed to build a church outside Al-Andalus’ wals and receive a cash payment to reimburse them. The half of the Church that was delegated to the Muslims had satisfied them for a while, until their population numbers grew. The mosque was described as “being so narrow, they placed hanging galleries from the roofs, right over where people sat. But it became exhausting to enter the great mosque with the roofs being so close, the doors so narrow, and the dome so low, to the point that the majority of the congregants could not easily rise due to the proximity between the ceiling and the floor.” Clearly, this mosque was not a pleasant place to worship Allah, compared to the mosque depicted by