Notre-Dame: Will Trump appreciate its Islamic history?
What will US president-elect Donald Trump be thinking as he attends the reopening of Notre-Dame this weekend? Lured to attend, partly by French President Emmanuel Macron’s pleading and partly by an irresistible desire to be centre-stage at this historic moment, will his mind be full of the global troubles he is about to inherit?
Seen by some as a saviour who will put an end to the wars now raging in the Middle East, Trump could perhaps devote a few moments to thinking about how this great cathedral embodies the many complex ways in which our cultures - specifically those of Latin Christendom and the Islamic world - have interacted and interwoven over the centuries to create this magnificent structure, one among many such Gothic cathedrals of surpassing beauty.
Using sophisticated construction skills passed down through the generations and continuously honed across Syria, Iraq and Palestine, literate and numerate craftsmen brought their advanced knowledge of geometry and algebra into Europe via Muslim Spain and Sicily, where Islamic rule reached its peak in the tenth and 11th centuries.
From the 12th century onwards, now working for new Christian masters, they astonished bishops and abbots by building vast cathedrals with ever-taller walls, deploying their revolutionary pointed-arch technology and advanced vaulting techniques to support the high stone roofs. Nothing similar had been seen in Christian Europe before, for the simple reason that local craftsmen did not possess such skills.
Giant iron tie-rods stapled the top row of stones to each other, a strengthening device that almost certainly saved Notre-Dame’s nave from collapse during the 2019 fire.
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Metalworking was, like high-end stonework and carpentry, another field dominated at that time by Islamic Spain, where iron mines, first worked by the Romans, fell idle during Visigothic rule, until the Arab conquest in the eighth century led to them being revived, achieving top efficiency through pioneering pump technology.
As the Christian Reconquista got underway, large-scale mining was amply documented from the 12th century, especially in Catalonia, where many monasteries, the only institutions wealthy enough to finance mining and smelting operations, demanded part of their dues in iron and lead. Muslim workers and craftsmen were forbidden from emigrating because their skills were considered too valuable to lose. To this day, many Spanish mines still bear their Arabic names, such as Almaden, Aljustrel and Alquife.
Hallmarks of Islamic architecture
Beyond the architectural innovations these master craftsmen brought with them, they also introduced a new decorative repertoire into France and Europe that can be seen all over cathedrals like Notre Dame - the twisting foliage framing the arches, the use of medallions and borders, the trefoils, quatrefoils and polylobes that lend their distinctive elegant shapes to windows and arches, the abstract patterns running into infinity.
Everything is underlain with a geometric structure that belies the apparent chaos of the ornamentation; all of these elements are hallmarks of Islamic art and architecture.
The pointed arch was both structural and decorative, another common characteristic of Islamic architecture, enabling walls to be built slimmer and thus with less weight and more height, while their elegant profile, shown to particular effect on Notre Dame’s west front, lends grace and lightness to the overall structure.
The renowned French architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) saw in the harmonious simplicity of Notre Dame’s facade “a pure creation of the spirit managed by the square and the circle, hence its geometric purity”. Meaning is always present behind the geometry, and it is widely accepted that the square represents the material, earthly world, while the circle symbolises the spiritual world - the divine and infinite.
Algebra, from the Arabic “al-jabr”, uses the symbol “x” for the unknown element that can be calculated, thought to be from the Spanish, where “x” has the phonetic value “sh”, representing the Arabic “shay”, meaning “thing”. Al-jabr has the root meaning of bringing parts together, like broken bones, to restore equilibrium to the whole.
Centuries of experimentation
The proportions of the slender columns that flank the three monumental pointed-arch entrances of Notre Dame’s west facade, like those of all European cathedrals of the early medieval period, mirror those of the graceful columns of the prayer halls and courtyards of the earlier Fatimid mosques, like al-Azhar and al-Hakim in Cairo.
The same goes for their delicately recessed frames and twin doorways, echoed by twin windows higher up on the facade.
One of the sculptures on the front of Notre-Dame, on the pillar of the central entrance doorway, is a personification of alchemy, another Arabic word from which our word “chemistry” derives.
Will Trump be able to train his eye to see beneath the surface of Notre-Dame's newly gleaming stones, to appreciate what it represents?
Chemistry was invented in the Middle East, where centuries of experimentation produced knowledge of how to mix diverse metals and elements to produce magical, almost mystical colours and sheens. Notre-Dame’s restored interior is full of colour, the newly cleaned stained-glass windows transfusing light in rich, deep reds and blues, while side chapels have been repainted with bright blue firmaments, gold stars and coloured zigzags flowing down their slim pillars.
Trump’s own preference for decor is known to be bright and vibrant, his favourite colour gold - so the new colour scheme should appeal.
Will Trump be able to train his eye to see beneath the surface of Notre-Dame’s newly gleaming stones, to appreciate what it represents, with its wealth of connections between Europe’s Gothic cathedrals and the Islamic world? Could such knowledge guide him in his future decisions in the region?
Who knows? Miracles can always happen, and he would certainly relish the role of Saviour.
Diana Darke’s new book Islamesque: The Forgotten Craftsmen Who Built Europe’s Medieval Monuments, was published on 21 November 2024, as a sister volume to her earlier Stealing from the Saracens (2020).
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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