Structural Positioning of Mosque in the Development Plan of the Federal Capital of Pakistan

Pakistan Abstract The aim of this research is to create an understanding regarding the relationship between Grand Mosques in urban structure of the Islamic Communities. For this study, Faysal Mosque, Grand Mosque of the Federal Capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, has been selected as a primary site of inquiry for investigating function and purpose of a mosque in an Islamic community. Using a conceptual framework developed using Michel Foucault’s framework for Enunciative Modalities and design analysis of key examples of major grand mosques in the Islamic history, the paper highlights that a grand mosque holds a vital position in the historic Islamic cities. Its placement at an anchoring point generally connects it with the urban fabric of the city. Historically, the vital positioning in the mosque is also associated with the diverse function that generally work as a school, a treasury, a lecture hall, a guest room, and place of worship. However, with the evolution of the Muslim societies the mosque’s function was confined to a religious place and a school as the rest of the function were shifted into more specialized buildings. Through the assessment of architectural, political, and sociological impacts, however, it has been concluded that whether modern or traditional, the Islamic city was never conceptualized without the grand mosque


Introduction
To understand the relation between the mosque building and urban structure of Islamic communities, it is utmost important to lodge an inquiry into the function and purpose of the mosque, as the function of a building corelates with its position on the urban plan. Thus, several questions become vital: What is the status of Mosque in Islamic communities? How Muslim society interacts with the Mosque? What are the traditional functions of a Mosque? and How has the function of a Mosque transformed its spatial configuration in the structure of an Islamic city? These questions help one in highlighting the relation between the Muslim communities and mosque and will help us in comprehending the politics involved in configuring the position of mosque in Islamabad, the first postcolonial planned city in the Islamic world. The paper, through analyzing the two proposals for Pakistan's federal capital, argues that structural placement of the mosque within the urban fabric is linked with the diversity of its functions. On account of the presence of several ideological state apparatuses, the newly liberated nation was forced to remove mosque from its core functionality which in result added a flexibility in its repositioning at a location other than the city Centre. However, whatever the political position might be, the new nation desperately required a prominent mosque that could be viewed from a distance for the sake of its symbolic visibility.

Methodology
 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mansoor Ahmed, Department of Architecture, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan at mansoordeahmed@gmail.com.
The research relies on the concept of discourse analysis, a framework defined by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, in particular, on "Enunciative Modalities" for the discourse analysis. 1 For this purpose, a thorough literature survey has been conducted. Seminal texts including the works of Oleg Graber and Markus brothers who laid the foundation of the discourse of Islamic architecture to the recent Muslim scholars like Nezar al Sayyed and Nasser Rabat were analyzed. Urban plans of Kufa, Futsat, Cairo, Damascus, New Delhi and Lahore were studied from a structuralist perspective. Moreover, a thorough survey of the archival material was also conducted to acquire the primary data with reference to the development of Karachi and Islamabad. In this regard, Doxiadis Archives in Athens Greece, and Capital Development Authority (CDA) archives in Islamabad were explored. In the light of the discourse analysis and literature survey, the study opens a new avenue with reference to the grand national mosque in modern urban settings.

Background
The earliest mosque in the Islamic world, Quba Mosque constructed by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) on the outskirts of Madina, was created as a multifunctional building with a humble appearance using date leaves and mud. Later when Islam grew out of Hejaz, several cultural and environmental conditions steered the form of the mosque. For example, in hot climates like Middle East and Northern Africa, the Muslims kept on imitating the hypostyle hall model, which they symbolically associated with the Prophet (SAW)'s mosque. One major reason of using the hypostyle hall style was its suitability to the local weather in these geographies. As soon as the Muslims came across different geographies and cultures, for example in Anatolia, the courtyard was drastically reduced or eliminated with a large interior area covered by Hagia Sophia inspired dome. It is pertinent to note that the cultural influences had added a diversity in terms of beautification of mosques; for example, Ummayad Mosque in Damascus (715) had floral paintings on its outer façade while Iran (789) in Iran was reduced to a bare plaster exterior.
The term "Islamic architecture" is debatable. 2 On one hand, there are contrary arguments about whether architecture can be rendered and read in connection with religion or is it appropriate to read buildings as, say, Islamic or Christian and on the other, there are scholars who support the presence of Islamic architecture. 3 However, the question still stands that whether it could be realized in material form or it only remains present in the spirit of architecture. 4 Nevertheless, the Mosque, which is considered as a house of Allah, is the only building type that is unique to Islam. It is the only building that holds a vital position in the spiritual domain of the Muslims and physical structure of places inhabited by them. It is reported in a hadith that Uthman ibn Affan, the third rightly-guided caliph quoted Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as: "Whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah, Allah will build something similar for him in Paradise." 5 Hence, throughout history, the Muslims have laid a special emphasis on its grandeur and decoration as a part of their religious duty.
Mosque has remained more than just a place of worship for the Muslims. In addition to offering prayers five times a day, it has served as a communal place a well as a place for lecturing and preaching religious knowledge. 6 From the beginning, the mosque worked as a building that serves both functional and cultural needs and therefore has remained a pivotal point for their political life. In several cantonments and established cities, it has also served as a platform to run the state affairs. The Holy Prophet (SAW) used it as a place to sign agreements, meet the foreign delegates, and run the state affair from its premises. Al Keranwi has narrated: "There are records of the mosque being used in the following capacities: a Judiciary Court, as a platform for oratory eloquence and poetry; a detention center for prisoners of war, the place where spoils of war were divided; a hospital; a home for the poor and travelers, a place where the pleasure of 'Allah' and good reputation is sought; a soup kitchen; and a place of socializing and celebrations." 7 Historically, this multifunctionality attached to the mosque ensured its central position in the urban structure of the Islamic city. The idea was initiated by William Marcais in his seminal study in French translated as ''the quintessential Islamic city' centred on the Friday Mosque. 8 LeTourneau's (1949) study of Fez also supported this idea with reference to the cities developed in the North Africa. This study elaborates that the Friday mosques hold a central overarching place in the city. Nezar AlSaayad with reference to Saggaf in his study also laid emphasis on the unique structure of the Islamic city. 9 According to him, the maidan was the focal point of these cities surrounded by central mosque and palace. This configuration can be best viewed in Isfahan, the imperial city which reached its zenith when Shah Abbass made it his capital in 16 th century.

The Grand National Mosque in Modern Islamic State
The role and function of the grand national mosque in the modern Islamic state is slightly different from the traditional community centres. Traditionally mosques were used for a diverse range of functions, like the Al-Mansoor's Mosque in Baghdad or Jamia-al-Azhar in Cairo had a strong symbolic essence while in Madina, it served as the socio-political centre for the community, In Damascus and other Umayyad period Mosques, it contained the treasury as well, while in Isfahan it stands in front of the political powerhouse unified by the maidan. In Delhi and Lahore, it was used as a place for congregation with madrassa. However, these functions gradually integrated into the building design of the mosques and might not be apparent before the conception of mosques. This was, for sure, not the case when the Government of Pakistan decided to materialise the mosque as an integral part of the first Islamic planned city. The Grand National Mosque was not a building for the city or country, but it was intended to make the new nation stand out within the Islamic countries and thus, it was primarily meant to be a national symbol. With the premature ideologies, to and fro motion between the dictatorship and democracy and secularism and islamization, the conception and its location within the city was a challenging task.

Conception and Location of Mosque in Karachi
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a new nation state that formed after the independence by partition of the British India was born without a capital city. While the British rulers had developed three capital cities in India during their occupation, however, all three of them were in the area ceded to India. At the time of independence in 1947, the Government of Pakistan decided to designate the port city of Karachi as its capital where the newly established state faced scarcity of the buildings required to the run the function of the state in addition to its financial, political and positional problems. Therefore, the government initiated working towards upgradation of the existing capital with further possibilities of relocating it to the centre of gravity of the country, a theory famous for relocation of the capital in the first half of twentieth century .The proposed capital was to be idealised as the locus of politics and power of the largest modern, Islamic and democratic republic. In this regard a Swedish company Merz Rendel Vatten (MRV) (Pakistan) was hired to develop the plan of the federal capital. The designers at MRV were very conscious regarding the development of plan according to the sentiment of the community. Thus, they set the "Islamic Tradition" and Democracy" as the guiding principle of the design. In addition, they were well aware of the complexity attached to the design of the first Islamic city from scratch as all the earlier cities remain in use of Islamic communities either evolved over a period of time and took their final shape or were designed from scratch for accommodating different functional purposes. The Pakistan's federal capital in addition to the functional requirement had to take the burden of the representing a modern, Islamic and democratic state. MRV undertook a careful analysis of the earlier Islamic cities starting from Mecca in 1790 A.D., Baghdad and Isfahan. According to their findings they concluded that in the most of Islamic cities of the contemporary era, the Mosque remained visually subordinate to its surrounding functions and could no longer be distinctly identified, for example, where it was situated in connection with a bazaar, it could not be differentiated from the rest of the buildings. These finding are quite realistic to their core that whatever the scale of the mosque on the plan in the real-time space, its spatial experience only became evident once a person reaches a nearby square or some open area attached to it. Many a times, the entrance of the mosque was flocked by the street vendors and the building is so well knitted within the bazaar that its walls and boundaries are unidentifiable and it often became impossible to walk around it. Interestingly In case of Indian subcontinent we also came across an interesting contradiction between the imperial mosques and Friday mosque. The imperial mosque like Shai Masjid, Delhi (Estd: 1656) located sideward of the main axis surrounded by the imperial gardens. Several photographs reinforced this fact that there was a bare minimum development between the Shahi Masjid and Fort in Delhi. While in case of the Badshahi Masjid, Lahore (estd. 1673). The mosque is completely isolated from the city. Both Mosques in Delhi and Lahore were built at a gigantic scale that symbolically overshadow the city. At the same time the main Friday mosques like Wazir Khan Mosque, Lahore (estd. 1642) and Fatehpuri masjid, Delhi (estd. 1650) were located right at the entrance of city surrounded by busiest bazaars. 10 It is important to note that while the later example of mosque corresponds with the Marcais Jami' Suq (mosque-market), the earlier one were not just the Friday congregational mosques. Their imperial character, and symbolic presence and less diverse functions as compared to earlier mosques in the Middle East implies the importance of their political role. 11 MRV marked in their recommendation that although the connection with the urban fabric brought the mosque in close connection with the city but the function of the mosque "always manifest seclusion from the outer world." Thus, they advised that new grand national mosque in the proposed federal capital of Pakistan should be present in the "neighbourhood centre" in order to meet the above tradition, however, owing to the burden the mosque as a monument has to bear for the new nation state, It should be "visible from afar" located within the "forum of nation." The focus of the capital will be an open square for official ceremonies, public meetings and prayers; it will be the forecourt of nation. This square will be enclosed by the house of parliaments, the principal mosque, the supreme court of justice and building for the state authorities and cultural institution. 12 In the earlier plan for the federal capital proposed by MRV in 1952 the mosque and maidan hierarchy was established. MRV from its initial report on the design of the Pakistan's federal capital were in sync with the government's objective to develop a modern, democratic and Islamic city.
The form of the mosque in the sketch also follows the hypostyle hall style tradition of the grand mosques as discussed earlier. The mosque had a large courtyard as one generally found in the mosques built in the Indian subcontinent and had two grand pillars. MRV only presented the mere schema of design thus, any further debate on the form and symbolism of mosque would be farfetched. In the perspective of the monumental axis, MRV placed an interesting anecdote. The tomb of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the supreme leader of Pakistan was given more elevation with reference to the mosque. This is the beginning of a new tradition in modern Islamic democratic state where the religious contestation is not harsh as compared to post-enlightenment Europe an interesting discourse between the ruling secular elite and conservative masses was in progress. Nevertheless, the government of Pakistan had discarded the project in the favour of the relocating the capital to the new city, Islamabad.

Conception and Location of Mosque in Islamabad
The Government of Pakistan appointed Greek Architect and Town Planner Constantinos A. Doxiadis for developing the capital city at the new site selected at Islamabad. Doxiadis, unlike MRV, had no strict intentions of creating an Islamic city. Instead, his vision whirled around the folk lore and modernization. Doxiadis viewed the city planning as a purely functional and planning exercise and did not give any importance to drawing symbols onto the plan. At the same time, he was aware of the fact that the Islamabad was going to a Muslim city and therefore, it should represent a Muslim way of life. Instead of grounding in folklore of a diversified Pakistan with amalgamation of rich cultures, Doxiadis' limited his attention to the immediate surroundings of the site, particularly the ancient Greek monuments in Taxila. His vision for a modern and secular state capital was much aligned with that of the military ruler at that time, General Ayuub Khan, who still shines as Pakistan's most prominent 'secular ruler" 13 as he even omitted the word "Islamic" used with "Republic of Pakistan" from the constitution. Lastly, Doxiadis was a harsh critique of ornamental-ization, much like his contemporaries Le Corbusier and Niemeyer who were also involved in 6. developing the capital cities, Chandigarh and Brasilia respectively, during the 1960s. Therefore, his presumed city was meant to be free from the ornamental-ization. In one of the earlier sketches for the capitol complex, Doxiadis had placed the grand national mosque at a pivotal position along with the open court. The Presidential Palace, Administrative Office, National Assembly and Grand National Mosque aligned along the main courts representing the hierarchy of the four institutions. However, the Pakistan presidential complex was placed at the highest point, just like acropolis in Athens. It is important to note that while Karachi was developed under a democratic government, Islamabad was developed under the military rule and thus, the Presidential Complex occupying the most elevated position for the station of "supreme leader" was not deemed obnoxious. The location of Mosque as compared to the Presidential Complex remained debatable, yet it rationalises with the secular ideals of the ruling elite of the country who occasionally use Islamization as a tool to dominate the masses. From the sketches by the architect, it can be clearly seen how Doxiadis was envisioning a folk modern city with noticeable tinges of Islamic elements like arches.
In the later sketch of the central maidan, the Grand National Mosque was made submissive in the form of a simple building with a humble dome, whereby the minaret had been removed from the scheme. The focus of this new scheme was brought onto the Parliament Building which was given more height as compared to the Presidential Palace which imparts the earlier a stronger significance. This could be Doxiadis' personal vision for the modern city, yet, no evidence is found on the consensus regarding this idea with the ruling regime. Nevertheless, the scheme remained unbuilt as Doxiadis wanted to keep his attention to the design of the city for the people and showed complete disinterest when the Government had approached him for designing the monumental buildings for the city. Later Government contacted several renowned architects of the time to design the Capitol Complex. Interestingly, the National Mosque remained missing from all the major schemes presented by Arne Jacobson and Prof. Louis Kahn. Only Edward Durrell Stone, and that too, in the final proposal of the Presidential Complex designed a small mosque at the back which was solely dedicated to the presidency.
The final plan of Islamabad had a Mosque and major institutional building on two different axes. Mahsud has argued that, "Doxiadis tries to provide a symbolic centrality through giving a dual focus by placing the 'Capitol complex' (symbolic of state) and the 'grand mosque (symbolic of religion) on two separate axes". Thus, the two major axis that forms the central spine of the city converges on the two main symbolic building the Presidential Estate and the grand national mosque. Mahsud argues that by these placements, Doxiadis tried to cope with the problem of the "ideological dualities" of the state. 14 This separation could be read as a physical manifestation of divide between religion and state which lies in close proximity to the political structure of post enlightenment Europe when the church was separated from the government. The Grand National Mosque was developed in the contemporary manner with a University integrated inside its campus.

Conclusion
Traditionally, an imperial mosque is placed slightly off centre (eg. Jamia Mosque New Delhi) and secluded from the main city (eg. Badhshahi Mosque). This practice has been prevalent in the Indian subcontinent for centuries; however, despite being off centred it remained connected with the bureaucratic environment of the city. Islamabad is the only example of modern city where the Grand National Mosque was placed outside the city. The inclusion of the Islamic architecture and urban elements in the development of the plan for the Islamabad provides an interesting anecdote in the evolution of the first Islamic city in the postcolonial history. As most of the earlier cities like Fez, Isfahan, Damascus, Delhi, Agra that are categorized as Islamic cities were evolved into these cities. While the other cities like Kufa, Futsat, Fatehpur Sikri and even Baghdad, constructed by the Muslim rulers from scratch were primarily meant to cater the functional aspects and never intended to be Islamic as the identity is a post-modern phenomenon which had a different connotation in the medieval world. 15 In short, we can conclude that initially the mosque buildings were made to serve more diverse functions, and need not to prove itself as symbolic objects. Although symbolism and religious architecture go hand in hand with each other from the advent of first institutionalized caliphate under Umayyad period but they were not intended to bear the burden of representing a nation.
In the very first planned capital for an Islamic modern state the mosque was intended to be made for worshipping as the other state's function were divided among several ideological state apparatuses like National Assembly, Supreme Court, Foreign Office, Presidential Complex etc. This disassociation of function with other several relatively smaller mosques had added flexibility and freedom to both the architect and the state in relocating the Grand National Mosque at a distance from the power centres at more symbolic position. Moreover, owing to the duality of Islamic architecture that could be simultaneously translated into the built environment and be kept in spirit has also helped in the formulation of the outlook for the Mosque buildings. For example, in case of Karachi, the formal inspiration, the dome, the arch, the dichotomy between maidan and power structure were integrated into the urban plan, while in case of Islamabad the straight lines were taken as the symbolic essence and integrated into the plan of the city while the mosque building has been indirectly connected to several elements rather than a straightforward direct connection.