Youtube link to hear and interact with the conference and replay : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCarvbpbaE0J93Km3AvvNh8Q Conçu et organisé par Maria Angeles UTRERO (chercheuse CSIC/EEHAR) et Simon PIERRE (doctorant Sorbonne Université, associé à l'Ifpo). Colloque international (Espagne/France), transversal(archéologie/histoire) et pluridisciplinaire (Antiquité tardive, Haut-Moyen-Âge). Initié à l'Ifpo Beyrouth en 2019 par une initiative de Pauline Koetschet, directrice des études arabes (DEAMM), avec le concours de Dominique Pieri, directeur des études archéologiques et historiques de l'Antiquité (DAHA), et avec le soutien constant de Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet (Mondes sémitiques), Vincent Déroche (Monde byzantin), et Jean-Pierre Van Staevel (Islam médiéval) de l'UMR 8167 (CNRS-Paris 1-Sorbonne Université). Le projet initial porté par l’Ifpo en 2020 a été repoussé en 2021 en raison de la pandémie. Il a alors fusionné avec une seconde entreprise parallèle impulsée par Maria Angeles Utrero, chercheuse CSIC en poste à l'Ecole espagnole d'histoire et d'archéologie de Rome (EEHAR) et avec le soutien de l'Escuela de Estudios Árabes de Grenade. Sous le nom de "Construction et Usage des édifices chrétiens pendant les débuts de l'Islam : approches croisées sur l’Église en Méditerranée et au Moyen-Orient (VIIe-IXe siècles)", il réunit 23chercheurs travaillant sur l'Antiquité tardive ou du premier Moyen-Âge dans les différentes aires de la Méditerranée et du Proche-Orient(Espagne post-wisigothique, Irak et Arménie post-sassanide, Syrie-Palestine, Egypte et Afrique post-byzantine.) autour d'un sujet commun, le développement continu des Eglises héritières du christianisme antique dans le domaine de l'Islam des premiers siècles. Nous y confrontons les dynamiques d'expansion, de conversion, de structuration communautaire comme autant de formes paradoxales et d'adaptations variées à un ordre confessionnel dont le développement fut lui-même progressif. L'objet qui permet cette démarche polycentrique n'est autre que l'église en tant que bâtiment, ainsi que ses édifices associés(monastères, baptistères, chapelles, martyria) qu'en théorie, la loi islamique aurait dû proscrire dès l'instant de la conquête. Pourtant, ils continuèrent à être construits, agrandis, remaniés, modifiés, et souvent reconstruits et réinvestis pendant les trois siècles de l'Empire omeyyade et abbasside. Ce colloque international se propose d’envisager ces questions multiples en confrontant les observations, approches et hypothèses des archéologues, historiens de l’art et des textes, antiquisants et médiévistes, occidentalistes et orientalistes, byzantinistes et islamisants travaillant au sud comme au nord de la Méditerranée et du Moyen-Orient.

This article examines the transformation of the sacred landscape in the cities of Syria and Palestine from late antiquity to early Islam. This phase of urban and architectural history, often obscured by the changes brought in during the medieval period, is investigated through a close comparison of textual and material evidence related to the main urban religious complexes. It is suggested that the new Friday mosques were frequently built contiguous to Christian great churches, creating a sort of shared sacred area within the cities. Legal issues related to the Islamic conquest and the status of minorities are considered in order to explain the rationale behind such a choice by Muslims.

What makes a mosque a mosque? The form of the mosque is varied but the form of the ritual performed in the mosque, the ritual of Islamic worship called salat, has remained fixed across historic, geographic, linguistic, cultural and gender differences. The paper examines the spatial relationship between the ritual and the mosque. It posits that all mosques have in common an underlying organization that serves the spatial requirements of the ritual. It further examines how the gestural sequence requires alignment with Mecca (qibla alignment) and how that alignment, in turn, engenders a universal space back into which the aligned body is reinserted. The mosque in this scenario is the precise location where the two scale intersect. The paper compares two very different mosques built a thousand years apart (Kufa in Iraq and Suleymaniye in Istanbul) to show the similarity in their underlying organization.

This International Conference intends to approach the constructions and uses of religious Christian buildings in most of the territories of the early Islamic empire (7th-9th c.), from Armenia and Iraq to Ifriqiya and al-Andalus. Archaeologists and historians are invited to present, compare and discuss their respective sources, methodologies and perspectives with the aim of finding possible consistent chronological and geographical trends and breaks.

Chronology and Typology of Mosques in Jund al-Urdun and Jund Falastin(638- 1917) (Ph.D. thesis). Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Department of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies- Archaeology (2020) Supervised by: Prof. Nimrod Hurvitz Dr. Yuval Yekutieli عمران وعمارة المساجد في جندي الأردن وفلسطين (638- 1917), دراسة اثرية ( أطروحة دكتوراه). جامعة بن غريون في النقب: قسم الدراسات التوراتية والاثار(2020) This research deals with The Mosque -- the most important building of Islamic religious and social life -- in the geographical region of Jund al-Urdun and Jund Falastin. The study of the structures and histories of mosques enables the research of a variety of topics pertinent to the life of Islamic society. The current study examines the main features, the diverse functions, and the various meanings of mosques in the research area, the Early Islamic (7th to 11th centuries) and the Late Islamic periods (12th to 20th centuries). Furthermore, this study investigates the typological characteristics of the building to understand its development and shape, while relating to the functional, social, economic, and political life of the residents in the region along the Islamic period and its specific phases.

Historiography and archaeological research have traditionally defined mosques mainly as religious spaces or places to pray, without further specifications. This simplification has usually dominated the analyses of mosques, while other uses or functional aspects of these buildings were put aside. The scarcity of material information available for years to approach these buildings, together with the dominance of the more monumental examples—such as the great mosque of Córdoba—provoked that analyses about other more modest mosques were scarce or almost inexistent. However, in recent decades, the proliferation of real estate building activities has led to the recovery of many new and fresh archaeological data related to other mosques different from the Friday ones. Specifically, in Córdoba, the volume of information recovered has been enormous, and concerns not only mosques as isolated buildings, but also their urban environments, construction processes, and evolution along the centuries. Therefore, in this paper, we offer a summarized overview of the state of the arts about research on mosques in al-Andalus, presenting the main problems and limitations of the topic until now, and also the case of Córdoba and the main results achieved there as a reference for further actions to be undertaken in the rest of the territory.