ISLAM

Minarets
A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project
the Muslim call to prayer (adhan), but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They
can have a variety of forms, from thick, squat towers to soaring, pencil-thin
spires
Two Arabic words are used to denote the minaret tower. The English word
"minaret" originates from the former, via the Turkish version It is assumed
to be a derivation of an older reconstructed form, The other word, manār ),
means "a place of light". Both words derive from the Arabic root n-w-r,
which has a meaning related to "light". Both words also had other meanings
attested during the early Islamic period: manār could also mean a "sign" or
"mark" (to show one where to go)and both manār and manāra could mean
"lighthouse

Functions
An orientalist depiction of
the muezzin's call to prayer
from the balcony of a minaret, 1878. Usually only one muezzin
chants the azan from the balcony, back straight and not leaning
on the railing.
The formal function of a minaret is to provide a vantage point
from which the muezzin can issue the call to prayer,
or adhan. The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn,
noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night.[8] In most modern
mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah (prayer hall) via microphone to a speaker system on the
minaret.

Dome (qubba)
A qubba also transliterated as ḳubba, kubbet and koubba, is
a cupola or domed structure, typically a tomb or shrine in Islamic
architecture. In many regions, such as North Africa, the
term qubba commonly the tomb of a local wali (local Muslim saint)
or marabout, and usually consists of a chamber covered by a dome
or pyramidal cupola.
The Arabic word qubba was originally used to mean a tent of
hides, or generally the assembly of a material such as cloth into a
circle. It's likely that this original meaning was extended to denote
domed buildings after the latter had developed in Islamic
[3]
architecture. It is now also used generally for tomb sites if they are places of pilgrimage. In Turkish and
Persian the word kümbet, kumbad, or gunbād has a similar meaning for dome or domed tomb.
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Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara, Uzbekistan (10th century)
A well-known example of an Islamic domed shrine is the Dome of the Rock, known in Arabic as Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra although this particular
monumental example is exceptional in early Islamic architecture.

In early Islamic culture, the construction of mausoleums and ostentations tomb structures to commemorate the deceased was viewed as
unorthodox, as Muhammad himself opposed such practices. However, historical records indicate
that from the 8th century onward mausoleums became common, propagated in part by their
popularity among the Shi'a, who built tombs to commemorate the Imams which in turn became places
of religious ceremony and pilgrimage. The oldest surviving example of a domed tomb in Islamic
architecture is the Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya in Samarra, present- day Iraq, dating from the mid-9th
century. The construction of domed tombs became more common among both Shi'as and Sunnis during
the tenth century, although early Sunni mausoleums were mostly built for political rulers. An example
of the latter is the Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara, present- day Uzbekistan, built in the tenth
century.

Qibla
The qibla is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used
by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam,
the Kaaba is believed to be a sacred site built by prophets Hazrat Ibrahim AS (Abraham) and Hazrat
Ima'il AS (Ishmael) , and that its use as the qibla was ordained by Allah in several verses of
the Quran revealed to Muhammad in the second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad
and his followers in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab (a wall
niche) that indicates the direction of the qibla.
The qibla is also the direction for entering the ihram (sacred
state for the hajj pilgrimage); the direction to which animals are
turned during dhabihah (Islamic slaughter); the recommended direction to make dua (supplications); the
direction to avoid when relieving oneself or spitting; and the direction to which the deceased are aligned
when buried. The qibla may be observed facing the Kaaba accurately (ayn al-ka'bah) or facing in the general
direction (jihat al-ka'bah). Most Islamic scholars consider that jihat al-ka'bah is acceptable if the more
precise ayn al-ka'bah cannot be ascertained.
Before the development of astronomy in the Islamic world, Muslims used traditional methods to determine the
qibla. These methods included facing the direction that the companions of Muhammad had used when in the

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same place; using the setting and rising points of celestial objects; using the direction of the wind; or using due south, which was Muhammad's
qibla in Medina.

Mihrab
Mihrab is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards
which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the "qibla wall".
The minbar, which is the raised platform from which an imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation, is
located to the right of the mihrab.
The origin of the word miḥrāb is complicated and multiple explanations have been proposed by different sources
and scholars. It may come from Old South Arabian (possibly Sabaic) mḥrb meaning a certain part of a palace, as
well as "part of a temple where tḥrb (a certain type of visions) is obtained," from the root word ḥrb "to perform a
certain religious ritual (which is compared to combat or fighting and described as an overnight retreat) in
the mḥrb of the temple."[4][5] It may also possibly be related to "temple, sanctuary, whose equivalent in of the
same meaning,[4] from the root word krb "to dedicate" "to bless"either of the heavenly creatures that bound
the Ark in the inner sanctuary
Arab lexicographers traditionally derive the word from the Arabic root relating to "war, fighting or anger,"
(which, though cognate with the South Arabian root, does not however carry any relation to religious rituals) thus leading some to interpret it to
mean a "fortress", or "place of battle (with Satan), the latter due to mihrabs being private prayer chambers.
The latter interpretation though bears similarity to the nature of the ḥrb ritual.
The word mihrab originally had a non-religious meaning and simply denoted a special room in a house; a
throne room in a palace, for example. The Fath al-Bari , on the authority of others, suggests the mihrab is
"the most honorable location of kings" and "the master of locations, the front and the most honorable.
The Mosques in Islam in addition to Arabic sources, cites Theodor Nöldeke and others as having
considered a mihrab to have originally signified a throne room.
The earliest mihrabs generally consisted of a simple stripe of paint or a flat stone panel in the qibla wall.
They may have originally had functions similar to a maqsura, denoting not only the place where the imam
led prayers but also where some official functions, such as the dispensation of justice, were carried out.

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Minbar
A minbar is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons
It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and
lectures the congregation.
The word is a derivative of the Arabic root
The minbar is symbolically the seat of the imam who leads prayers in the mosque and
delivers sermons. In the early years of Islam, this seat was reserved for the Islamic
prophet Muhammad and later for the caliphs who followed him, each of whom was officially
the imam of the whole Muslim community, but it eventually became standard for all Friday
mosques and was used by the local imam. Nonetheless, the minbar retained its significance as
a symbol of authority.[2][3]
While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits,
they have a function and position more similar to that
of a church lectern, being used instead by the imam
for a wide range of readings and prayers. The minbar is located to the right of the mihrab, a niche in the
far wall of the mosque that symbolizes the direction of prayer (i.e. towards Mecca). It is usually shaped
like a small tower with a seat or kiosk-like structure at its top and a staircase leading up to it. The bottom
of the staircase often has a doorway or portal. In contrast to many Christian pulpits, the steps up to the
minbar are usually in a straight line on the same axis as the seat.[2][3]
In some mosques, there is a platform opposite the minbar where the assistant of the Imam, the muezzin,
stands during prayer. The muezzin recites the answers to the prayers of the imam where applicable.

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Prayer hall
The prayer hall, rarely has furniture; chairs and pews are generally
absent from the prayer hall so as to allow as many worshipers as
possible to line the room. Some mosques have Islamic calligraphy and
Quranic verses on the walls to assist worshippers in focusing on the
beauty of Islam and its holiest book, the Quran, as well as for
decoration.
Often, a limited part of the prayer hall is sanctified formally as a
masjid in the sharia sense (although the term masjid is also used for
the larger mosque complex as well). Once designated, there are
onerous limitations on the use of this formally designated masjid, and
it may not be used for any purpose other than worship; restrictions
that do not necessarily apply to the rest of the prayer area, and to
the rest of the mosque complex (although such uses may be
restricted by the conditions of the waqf that owns the mosque).
In many mosques, especially the
early congregational mosques, the
prayer hall is in the hypostyle form
(the roof held up by a multitude of columns). One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is
the Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) in Tunisia.
Usually opposite the entrance to the prayer hall is the qiblah wall, the visually emphasized area inside the prayer
hall. The qiblah wall should, in a properly oriented mosque, be set perpendicular to a line leading to Mecca, the
location of the Kaaba. Congregants pray in rows parallel to the qiblah wall and thus arrange themselves so they
face Mecca. In the qiblah wall, usually at its center, is the mihrab, a niche or depression indicating the direction
of Mecca. Usually the mihrab is not occupied by furniture either. A raised minbar or pulpit is located to the right
side of the mihrab for a Khaṭīb, or some other speaker, to offer a Khuṭbah sermon during Friday prayers. The
mihrab serves as the location where the imam leads the five daily prayers on a regular basis.
Left to the mihrab, in the front left corner of the mosque, sometimes there is a kursu , a small elevated plateau (rarely with a chair or other type of
seat) used for less formal preaching and speeches.

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Ablution area
As ritual purification precedes all prayers, mosques often have ablution fountains or other facilities for washing in their
entryways or courtyards. Worshippers at much smaller mosques often have to use restrooms to perform their
ablutions. In traditional mosques, this function is often elaborated into a freestanding building in the center of a
courtyard. This desire for cleanliness extends to the prayer halls where shoes are disallowed to be worn anywhere
other than the cloakroom. Thus, foyers with shelves to put shoes and racks to hold coats are commonplace among
mosques.

Individual Prayer rugs

A prayer rug or prayer mat is a piece of fabric, sometimes a pile carpet, used by Muslims, some Christians and
some Baha'i during prayer.
In Islam, a prayer mat is placed between the ground and the worshipper for cleanliness during the various positions of Islamic
prayer. These involve prostration and sitting on the ground. A Muslim must perform wudu (ablution) before prayer, and must
pray in a clean place.

Shoe shelf
A shoe rack is a furniture which is often found by the door mat in the entryway of houses, and serves a function to
keep shoes organized. Often it is placed near a hat shelf, a hatstand, wardrobe rail, or hook rack where clothes for outdoor
use can be hung. Some shoe racks also serve as a bench where persons may sit while taking on their shoes.

Caligraphy
Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, in the languages which
use Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman,
and Urdu calligraphy. It is known in Arabic as khatt Arabi, which translates into Arabic line, design, or
construction.
The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an; chapters and excerpts from the
Qur'an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Although
artistic depictions of people and animals are not explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an, pictures have

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traditionally been limited in Islamic books in order to avoid idolatry. Although some scholars dispute
this, Kufic script was supposedly developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which
it takes its name. The style later developed into several varieties, including floral, foliated, plaited or
interlaced, bordered, and square kufic. In the ancient world, though, artists would often get around
this prohibition by using strands of tiny writing to construct lines and images. Calligraphy was a valued
art form, even as a moral good. An ancient Arabic proverb illustrates this point by emphatically stating
that "Purity of writing is purity of the soul."
The traditional instrument of the Islamic calligrapher is the kalam, a pen normally made of
dried reed or bamboo. The ink is often in colour and chosen so that its intensity can vary greatly,
creating dynamism and movement in the letter forms. Some styles are often written using a metallic-tip pen.
Islamic calligraphy can be applied to a wide range of decorative mediums other than paper, such as tiles, vessels, carpets, and stone.[3] Before the
advent of paper, papyrus and parchment were used for writing. During the 9th century, an influx of paper from China revolutionized calligraphy.
While monasteries in Europe treasured a few dozen volumes, libraries in the Muslim world regularly contained hundreds and even thousands of
books.
For centuries, the art of writing has fulfilled a central iconographic function in Islamic art. Although the academic tradition of Islamic calligraphy
began in Baghdad, the centre of the Islamic empire during much of its early history, it eventually spread as far as India and Spain.

Architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It
encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present
day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western
Africa and Europe to eastern Asia. Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural
styles across all these regions, but over time different regions developed their own styles
according to local materials and techniques, local dynasties and patrons, different regional
centers of artistic production, and sometimes different religious affiliations.
Early Islamic architecture was influenced
by Roman, Byzantine, Iranian,
and Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands
which the Early Muslim conquests conquered in the
seventh and eighth centuries.[

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