Maqsurah
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Maqsurah (Arabic مقصورة) (literally “closed-off space”), an enclosure, a box or wooden screen near the Mihrab or the center of the qibla wall, which was originally designed to shield a worshiping ruler from assassins.[1] The imam officiating inside the maqsurah typically belonged to the same school of law to which the ruler belonged.[2]
There also may have been some spiritual connotation similar to the chancel screen in churches. They were often wooden screens decorated with carvings or interlocking turned pieces of wood (mashrabiyya).[3]
Historically, it was first innovated by Muawiyah I, Umayyad caliph, in Umayyad Mosque. The Companions Mihrab belonged to the Maqsura of the Companions.[4]
References
- ↑ "Maqsurah", Encyclopædia Britannica Online
- ↑ Gibbs, H.A.R. The Travels of Ibn Battuta (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1999) p127
- ↑ Dictionary of Islamic Architecture
- ↑ "The Great Ummayad Mosque"
External links
Media related to Maqsurah at Wikimedia Commons
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