Minaret
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A minaret (Persian: menare, Turkish: minare,[2] from Arabic, manāra (منارة), meaning "lighthouse", Munnaaru in dhivehi) is a distinctive architectural feature of mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery.[3] Styles vary regionally and by period. Minarets provide a visual focal point and are used for the call to prayer (adhan).
Functions
In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the main function of the minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer, or adhan, is made. The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhan is called from the musallah, or prayer hall, via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret. Minarets also function as air conditioning mechanisms: as the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows then up and out of the minaret, thereby providing ventilation.[citation needed]
History
The earliest mosques lacked minarets, the call to prayer performed elsewhere; hadiths relay that the Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer. Around 80 years after Muhammad's death the first known minarets appeared.[4]
Minarets have been described as the "gate from heaven and earth", and as the Arabic language letter aleph (which is a straight vertical line).[5]
The massive minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest standing minaret.[1][6] Its construction began during the first third of the 8th century and was completed in 836 CE.[7] The imposing square-plan tower consists of three sections of decreasing size reaching 31.5 meters.[7] Considered as the prototype for minarets of the western Islamic world, it served as a model for many later minarets.[7]
The tallest minaret, at 210 metres (689 ft) is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco The tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India.[8]
In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, minarets originally served as illuminated watchtowers (hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning "light").[citation needed]
Construction
Minarets basic form consist of three parts: a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a hard foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation; it is unusual for the minaret to be built directly upon ground-level soil. Minarets may be conical (tapering), square, cylindrical, or polygonal (faceted). Stairs circle the shaft in a counter-clockwise fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony which encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer. It is covered by a roof-like canopy and adorned with ornamentation, such as decorative brick and tile work, cornices, arches and inscriptions, with the transition from the shaft to the gallery typically sporting muqarnas. Originally plain in style, a minaret's origin in time can be determined by its level of ostentation.[citation needed]
Local styles
Styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive:
- Tunisia
- (7th century) Quadrangular, the Mosque of Uqba of kairouan have the oldest Minaret in the Muslim world.
- Turkish (11th century)
- 1, 2, 4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque. Slim, circular minarets of equal cross-section are common.
- Egypt (7th century) / Syria (until 13th century)
- Low square towers sitting at the four corners of the mosque.
- Iraq
- For a free-standing conical minaret surrounded by a spiral staircase, see Malwiya.
- Egypt (15th century)
- Octagonal. Two balconies, the upper smaller than the lower, projecting mukarnas, surmounted by an elongated finial.
- Persia (17th century)
- Generally two pairs of slim, blue tile clad towers flanking the mosque entrance, terminating in covered balconies.
- Tatar (18th century)
- Tatar mosque:A sole minaret is used, placed at the centre of a gabled roof.
- Morocco
- Typically, a single square minaret; notable exceptions include a few octagonal minarets in northern cities -Chefchaouen, Tetouan, Rabat, Ouezzane, Asilah, and Tangier- and the round minaret of Moulay Idriss.
- South Asia
- Octagonal, generally three balconied, with the upper most roofed by an onion dome and topped by a small finial.
Examples
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Main minaret of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
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1000-year-old Qutub Minar in Delhi
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Baitul Futuh Mosque minaret in London, United Kingdom
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Islamic-Specific Architecture in a mosque with two minarets in Nishapur
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Minaret in Wangen bei Olten, Switzerland
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Faisal Mosque Minaret, Islamabad, Pakistan
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The Charminar in Hyderabad, India
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The minaret of Baitul Mukarram in Dhaka, Bangladesh
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The four minarets of Quba Mosque, the first mosque in history built by Prophet Muhammad upon arrival in Medina, Saudi Arabia
-
The six minareted Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
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Majapahit-style minaret of Menara Kudus Mosque in Java, Indonesia
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Minaret of Central Java Grand Mosque, Indonesia
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Modern style minaret of Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta in Indonesia
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Minaret of National Mosque of Malaysia
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Minaret of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, Brunei
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The minaret of the Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan
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One of the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque also in Lahore, Pakistan
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Old adobe minaret in Kharanagh, Iran
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Simple wooden pole used as minaret in Nouadhibou, Mauritania
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Wooden minaret of the Dungan Mosque in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
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Sabah State Mosque minaret in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (Borneo)
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Minaret at mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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The Minaret in the Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad in Madinah, Saudi Arabia
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The "bare tower" of Huaisheng Mosque, Guangzhou, China
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A Burmese-style mosque with an elaborately carved minaret in Amarapura
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Minaret in Kashgar, China
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Chinguetti mosque minaret, in Mauritania
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The four minarets in Mashkhur Jusup central mosque, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
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A minaret of a mosque in central Jubail, Saudi Arabia
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Minaret of Al Othman Mosque in Jebla, Kuwait; built in 1857.
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The Ghawanima Minaret, 1900; one of the four minarets of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Old City Jerusalem
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The Centro Islamico de Puerto Rico in Ponce, Puerto Rico, as it appeared in 2010
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The octagonal minaret of Hammouda Pacha Mosque in Tunis, built in the 17th century
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The onion shape dome of Mecca Masjid minaret, Hyderabad, India.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Titus Burckhardt, Art of Islam, Language and Meaning: Commemorative Edition. World Wisdom. 2009. p. 128
- ↑ "minaret." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 21 Mar. 2009.
- ↑ Dynamic response of masonry minarets strengthened with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences) p. 2012
- ↑ Paul Johnson, Civilizations of the Holy Land. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979, p. 173
- ↑ University of London, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Volume 68. The School. 2005. p. 26
- ↑ Linda Kay Davidson and David Martin Gitlitz, Pilgrimage: from the Ganges to Graceland: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. 2002. p. 302
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (Qantara Mediterranean Heritage)
- ↑ Jamal Malik, Islam in South Asia: a short history, BRILL, 2008, page 424
Further reading
- Jonathan M. Bloom (1989), Minaret, symbol of Islam, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-728013-3
External links
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