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Aug 3, 2024 · Mosque, any house or open area of prayer in Islam, from the Arabic word masjid meaning ‘a place of prostration.’ The building is largely an open space that typically includes certain features such as a niche for the leader of prayer, an elevated spot for preaching, and a minaret for the call to prayer.
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- Common Features
- Sahn
- Mihrab
- Minaret
- Qubba
- Furnishings
- Mosque Patronage
The architecture of a mosque is shaped most strongly by the regional traditions of the time and place where it was built. As a result, style, layout, and decoration can vary greatly. Nevertheless, because of the common function of the mosque as a place of congregational prayer, certain architectural features appear in mosques all over the world.
The most fundamental necessity of congregational mosque architecture is that it be able to hold the entire male population of a city or town (women are welcome to attend Friday prayers, but not required to do so). To that end congregational mosques must have a large prayer hall. In many mosques this is adjoined to an open courtyard, called a sahn. ...
Another essential element of a mosque’s architecture is a mihrab—a niche in the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca, towards which all Muslims pray. Mecca is the city in which the Prophet Muhammad was born, and the home of the most important Islamic site, the Kaaba. The direction of Mecca is called the qibla, and so the wall in which the mih...
One of the most visible aspects of mosque architecture is the minaret, a tower adjacent or attached to a mosque, from which the call to prayer is announced. Minarets take many different forms—from the famous spiral minaret of Samarra, to the tall, pencil minarets of OttomanTurkey. Not solely functional in nature, the minaret serves as a powerful vi...
Most mosques also feature one or more domes, called qubba in Arabic. While not a ritual requirement like the mihrab, a dome does possess significance within the mosque—as a symbolic representation of the vault of heaven. The interior decoration of a dome often emphasizes this symbolism, using intricate geometric, stellate, or vegetal motifs to crea...
There are other decorative elements common to most mosques. For instance, a large calligraphic frieze or a cartouche with a prominent inscription often appears above the mihrab. In most cases the calligraphic inscriptions are quotations from the Qur’an, and often include the date of the building’s dedication and the name of the patron. Another impo...
Most historical mosques are not stand-alone buildings. Many incorporated charitable institutions like soup kitchens, hospitals, and schools. Some mosque patrons also chose to include their own mausoleum as part of their mosque complex. The endowment of charitable institutions is an important aspect of Islamic culture, due in part to the third pilla...
Minaret, in Islamic religious architecture, the tower from which the faithful are called to prayer five times a day by a muezzin. It is always connected to a mosque but may take on a wide variety of forms ranging from thick, squat, spiral ramps to soaring, delicate, pencil-thin spires.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 3, 2019 · A mosque (masjid in Arabic) is a place of worship in Islam. Although prayers can be said privately, either indoors or outdoors, nearly every community of Muslims dedicates a space or building for congregational prayer.
Next to the Huaishengsi Mosque in Guangzhou is the Tower of Light, also known as the Guangta minaret (1350). The mosque and the minaret merge aspects of Islamic and Chinese architecture. Its circular shaft and the double staircase arrangement inside it resembles the minarets of Iranian and Central Asian architecture, such as the Minaret of Jam ...
After heavy rains and flooding in 1626, the walls of the Kaaba collapsed and the Mosque was damaged. The same year, during the reign of Ottoman Emperor Murad IV , the Kaaba was rebuilt with granite stones from Mecca, and the Mosque was renovated.
The Prophet's Mosque (Arabic: ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلنَّبَوِي, romanized: al-Masjid al-Nabawī, lit. 'Mosque of the Prophet') is the second mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina, after that of Quba, as well as the second largest mosque and holiest site in Islam, after the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, in the Saudi ...
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