In the summer of 1982, the Chairman of the Council of the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq issued a decree to establish a State Grand Mosque Committee under the chairmanship of Rifat Chadirji. Twenty-two firms were invited to submit pre-qualification documents to the Directorate of Design at the Municipality of the Capital by September 1982. Seven firms, including Makiya Associates, were selected from that initial pool to participate in the competition, submitting their design plans by January 1983.

The mosque was "intended to symbolize the religious, state, and national beliefs of the people of Iraq."[1] The requirements included a prayer hall for 30,000 people, a prayer space for 3,000 women, outdoor prayer spaces, a large library, conference facilities, dining rooms, parking facilities, a teaching institute and classrooms, and accommodations for 40 visiting imams.[2] The site for the mosque was to be located along Al-Rabia Street, in an area linking the Khadimiyya neighborhood to the north and the airport road to the south. A public park was located to the north of the site; an existing canal to the south; low-density residential neighborhoods to the west; and a railway line buffering an industrial area to the east.

In their philosophy of design approach to the competition, Makiya Associates declared that "a State Mosque must reflect the dignity of Islam and the status of Iraq as a modern nation."[2] Although the chosen site was far from the modern center of Baghdad, Makiya believed that the site offered an opportunity to create a new civic center "for the new urban expansion to the west of Baghdad,"[3] and with its proximity to the western gate of the round city of Mansur and the existing canal, the opportunity to achieve a "communion of past and future" with the mosque as a focal point of development in the area.[4]

In the Makiya Associates proposal, the site would be surrounded by a "monumental" boundary wall with recessed towers and entrance gateways. The mosque itself would be built of reinforced concrete, with precast elements for riwaqs, beams, and finishing panels, and aggregates assembled from all of Iraq to use in reconstructed stone and precast finish panels. A main dome 93 m in diameter would cover the mosque, with 20 subsidiary domes 24 m in diameter and 22 smaller domes 7 m in diameter. Makiya envisioned these domes becoming a landmark in the Baghdad skyline and creating an unmistakable silhouette at dusk. An inner sahn would accommodate 4,000 for outdoor prayer, while an outer sahn would have ablution fountains and be surrounded by riwaqs. There would be cultural pavilions devoted to the arts and culture of various Islamic countries, and a "wall of cultures" that would express the heritage of Iraqi and Islamic civilization with abstract mural paintings by Iraqi artists. The mosque would be surrounded by landscaped gardens inspired by those from around the Islamic world, in oasis, Andalusian, and Mughal styles.[5, 6]

Additionally, the proposal suggested a series of public facilities in the immediate surroundings of the mosque that would "eventually reflect the status of the mosque as a true centre of the renaissance of Baghdad," including an orphanage, handicapped institute, and courts of justice. Public parks in the surrounding area would also be created or expanded.[7] The existing canal would be widened and revived to create a "Buhtury Lake" to the south of the mosque that would reflect the main dome and the mihrab, and revive the characteristics of Abbassid Baghdad as a city of rivers and domes.[8]

The competition jury met in February 1983 and recommended the project submitted by Rasem Badran as First Place, with Ricardo Bofill and Maath Alousi invited to give support to the winner. The projects and recommendations were presented to President Saddam Hussein during an international symposium in October 1983.[9] Neither Makiya's design or any of the other designs were ultimately ever built.

Notes:

1. Kanan Makiya, The monument: art, vulgarity, and responsibility in Iraq (London: Andre Deutsch, 1991), 60.

2. State mosque competition, Baghdad, Iraq (Baghdād: Amanat al-ʻAsimā, 1983), 10.

3. Makiya Associates, State Mosque - Baghdad Competition Design Report (London: [Makiya Associates], 1983), [Ch. 2 p. 5, Ch. 3 p. 1].

4. Kanan Makiya, Post-Islamic Classicism (London: Saqi Books, 1990), 112.

5. State Mosque - Baghdad Competition Design Report, Chapter 5.

6. Makiya Associates, "State Mosque Baghdad" brochure (undated).

7. State Mosque - Baghdad Competition Design Report, Chapter 6.

8. Makiya Associates, "State Mosque Baghdad" brochure.

9. Hasan-Uddin Khan, ed., "Regenerative Approaches to Mosque Design: Competition for State Mosque, Baghdad," MIMAR 11 (1984): 46-47.

Sources:

Khan, Hasan-Uddin, ed. "Regenerative Approaches to Mosque Design: Competition for State Mosque, Baghdad." MIMAR 11 (1984): 44-63.

Makiya Associates. "State Mosque Baghdad" brochure, undated. Baghdad State Mosque records, Box 53. Mohamed Makiya Archive, Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT.

Makiya Associates. State Mosque - Baghdad Competition Design Report. London: Makiya Associates, 1983.

Makiya, Kanan. The monument: art, vulgarity and responsibility in Iraq. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1991.

Makiya, Kanan. Post-Islamic Classicism. London: Saqi Books, 1990.

State mosque competition, Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdād: Amanat al-ʻAsimā, 1983.