Minaret: Difference between revisions

For other uses, see Minaret (disambiguation).

Minaret of the Great Mosque of Testour

Minaret (/ˌmɪnəˈrɛt, ˈmɪnəˌrɛt/; Persian: مناره menare, Turkish: minare,), from Arabic: منارة manāra, lit. "lighthouse", also known as Goldaste (Persian: گلدسته), is a distinctive architectural structure akin to a tower and typically found adjacent to mosques. Generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, usually either free-standing or taller than associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period. Minarets provide a visual focal point and are traditionally used for the Muslim call to prayer (Adhan).

Functions

The purpose of minarets in traditional Eastern region architecture is to serve as a ventilation system for a building in very hot climates. Usually, the building would consist of a tower with large open windows that would allow for cold air to enter, and a dome in the center of the building that would (hypothetically) have an opening in the ceiling that would both accumulate and allow warm air to leave the building through a cupola. That buildings of middle eastern origins have such outstanding features is architecturally intentional. Mosques usually have a center hall room with a raised ceiling or dome to allow for heat to accumulate and rise upwards leaving the cold air on the lower floor allowing for a system of natural air conditioning.

However, in modern times, with the invention of the modern air conditioners, the purpose of minarets has changed to traditional symbol. The minaret would be equipped with a speaker that would call people to prayers in Muslim countries. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the main function at present 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 adhān is called from the musallah (prayer hall) via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret.

History

Different types of Minaret. 1. Iraq 2. Morocco 3. Turkey 4. India, 5. Egypt 6. Asia.

The oldest standing minaret is in Tunisia's Great Mosque of Kairouan.

The earliest Mosques lacked Minarets, and the call to prayer was 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.

Minaret were perceived prior to Islam utilized notably in the Middle East and Mesopotamia, called then Ziggurat, then in Syriac Churches.

The Minarets had various forms (in general round, squared, spiral or octagonal) in function of the infrastructure of each architecture.

The number of Minarets by Mosques was not fixed: at origin, one Minaret would accompany each Mosque, then the builder would reconstruct several. The reasons for that mainly revolve around esthetics, symmetry, the will to punctuate a strong architectural feature, as well as assure the stability of the design.

Since a long time ago, the Great Mosque of Mecca (Sacred Mosque) of Mecca would be the only to have six Minarets. However, when the Ottomans built the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, they included six Minarets. A seventh Minaret has to be constructed in Mecca, in order for the Sacred Mosque not to be surpassed. However calling for prayer is usually done from one Minaret.

Minarets have been described as the "gate from heaven and earth", and as the Arabic language letter aleph (which is a straight vertical line).

In the Maghreb, the oldest Minaret is that of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia. The oldest Minaret still standing of all the Muslim world and consequently the oldest in the world. The construction of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, probably commenced at the beginning of the 8th century, date of its actual state of the first half (9th century, towards 836) according to the opinion of most archeologists. Constituted by three levels of decreasing widths reaching sizes of 31.5 meters, and being distinguished by an aspect both massif and majestic, this Great Mosque is considered as the prototype of Minarets in the Western Muslim World.

History has also equally provoked the destination change of places of worship, and notably around the Mediterranean. Accordingly, when a Church was transformed into a Mosque, the Bell Tower was transformed into a Minaret, similarly when the former Cathedral, became the Almohad Mosque, in Seville, became again the Seville Cathedral, the Minaret of Giralda became a Bell Tower. This was a typical style transformation of a place of worship.

The Giralda.

The tallest minaret, at 210 metres (689 ft) is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. 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").

Construction

Great Mosque of Aleppo, minaret, Aleppo in 2006

The basic form of minarets consists 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 that 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.

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:

The temple/tower of Firouzabad, Iran, Sasanian period

Minaret (malwiya) of the Great Mosque of Samarra

In pre-Islamic Firouzabad, Iran, at the center of the circular city was a spiral structure, the architectural precedent of the Minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra, illustrating the Sassanid influence on early Islamic architecture.

Tunisia

(7th century) Quadrangular, the Mosque of Uqba of Kairouan has 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 (Iran) (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, located 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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  Square three-tiered minaret (the oldest in existence) of the Mosque of Uqba (Great Mosque of Kairouan), Tunisia (836)
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  Cairo, Egypt : Al-Azhar Mosque (970)
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  Bukhara, Uzbekistan : Minaret Kalon (1127)
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  Qutub Minar in Delhi
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  Minaret in Eger, Hungary, the most northern left from Ottoman rule
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  Baitul Futuh Mosque minaret in London, United Kingdom
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  Islamic architecture in a mosque with two minarets in Nishapur
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  Minaret in Wangen bei Olten, Switzerland
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  Minaret of the Great Mosque of Granada, Spain
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  Faisal Mosque's minarets, 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 minaret of the Al-Muhdhar Mosque in Tarim, Yemen
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  The six minareted Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
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  Ancient Indian-style minaret of Menara Kudus Mosque in Java, Indonesia
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  Minaret of Medan's Grand Mosque, Indonesia
• Minaret of Central Java Grand Mosque, Indonesia
  Minaret of Central Java Grand Mosque, Indonesia
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  Twin minarets of Bandung Grand Mosque, Indonesia
• Modern style minaret of Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta in Indonesia
  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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  A minaret in Linxia, typical of small-town mosques in Gansu, China
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  Chinese-style minaret of Tongxin Great Mosque, Ningxia, China
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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 Prophet's Mosque 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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  El-Tabia Mosque with two minarets in Aswan, Egypt
• The four minarets in Mashkhur Jusup Central Mosque, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
  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
• 
  The Centro Islámico de Puerto Rico in Ponce, Puerto Rico
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  The octagonal minaret of Hammouda Pacha Mosque in Tunis, built in the 17th century
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  The onion dome of Mecca Masjid minaret, Hyderabad, India.
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  Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople). The minarets were added during its conversion from cathedral to mosque, after the conquest of Constantinople

See also

• Tower
• Swiss minaret referendum, 2009
• Spire

Further reading

• Jonathan M. Bloom (1989), Minaret, symbol of Islam, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-728013-3

External links

• "The Minaret, Symbol of a Civilization"
• "Minaret" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.