Arabic masjid, or jāmiʿ, any house or open area of prayer in Islām. The Arabic word masjid means “a place of prostration” to God, and the same word is used in Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. Two main types of mosques can be distinguished: the masjid jāmiʿ, or “collective mosque,” a large state-controlled mosque that is the centre of community worship and the site of Friday prayer services; and smaller mosques operated privately by various groups within society.
The first mosques were modeled on the place of worship of the Prophet Muḥammad—the courtyard of his house at Medina—and were simply plots of ground marked out as sacred. Though the mosque as such has undergone many architectural changes, the building remains essentially an open space, generally roofed over, containing a miḥrāb and a minbar, with a minaret sometimes attached to it. The miḥrāb, a semicircular niche reserved for the imām to lead the prayer, points to the giblah, i.e., the direction of Mecca. The minbar, a seat at the top of steps placed at the right of the miḥrāb, is used by the preacher (khaṭīb) as a pulpit. In the early days of Islām the rulers delivered their speeches from the minbar. Occasionally there is also a maqsūrah, a box or wooden screen near the miḥrāb, which was originally designed to shield a worshiping ruler from assassins. Mats or carpets cover the floor of the mosque, where the ritual prayer (salat) is performed by rows of men who bow and prostrate themselves under the imām's guidance.
Outside the mosque stands the minaret (maʾdhanah), which was originally any elevated place but now usually a tower. It is used by the muezzin (“crier”) to proclaim the call to worship (adhān) five times each day. A place for ablution, containing running water, is usually attached to the mosque but may be separated from it.
Beginning with Muḥammad's own house, mosques came to be used for many public functions—military, political, social, and educational. Schools and libraries were often attached to medieval mosques (e.g., al-Azhar mosque in Cairo). The mosque also functioned as a court of justice until the introduction of secular law into many Islāmic countries in modern times. Whereas many of the social, educational, and political functions of the mosque have been taken over by other institutions in modern times, it remains a centre of considerable influence. In some cases a maktab (elementary school) is attached to a mosque, mainly for the teaching of the Qurʾān, and informal classes in law and doctrine are given for people of the surrounding neighbourhood.
The mosque differs from a church in many respects. Ceremonies and services connected with marriages and births are not usually performed in mosques, and the rites that are an important and integral function of many churches, such as confession, penitence, and confirmation, do not exist there. Prayer is performed by bows and prostrations, with no chairs or seats of any kind. Men stand in rows, barefooted, behind the imām and follow his movements. Rich and poor, prominent and ordinary people, all stand and bow together in the same rows. Women may participate in the prayers, but they must occupy a separate space or chamber in the mosque. No statues, ritual objects, or pictures are used in the mosque; the only decorations permitted are inscriptions of Qurʾānic verses and the names of Muḥammad and his Companions. Professional chanters (qurrāʾ) may chant the Qurʾān according to rigidly prescribed systems taught in special schools, but no music or singing is allowed.
"mosque." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite . (2009).
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Mashrabiya work, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a most sophisticated wood work and at the same time, very beautiful. It is used mainly in decorating windows from outside but it can also be used inside the house as well. It was first used in the Islamic period in Egypt and flourished during the Fatimid Period.
Today, Mashrabiya is primarily decorative, but historically it might be considered an early form of tented windows. It allowed someone from the inside to look out without being seen. Hence, the mashrabiya screens were frequently used to cover the windows of the women's quarters within homes, as well as for other similar purposes.
Mashrabiya screens were particularly suitable to Egypt, where quality wood is in short supply, but small trees could be cut up into the pieces needed for mashrabiya work.
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مدرسة السلطان الأشرف برسباي
Madrasa Al-Sultan El-Ashraf Barsbay
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also spelled qibla or kiblah the direction of the sacred shrine of the Kaʿbah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, toward which Muslims turn five times each day when performing the salat (daily ritual prayer). Soon after Muhammad's emigration (Hijrah, or Hegira) to Medina in 622, he indicated Jerusalem as the qiblah, probably influenced by Jewish tradition. When Jewish-Muslim relations no longer seemed promising, Muhammad changed the qiblah to Mecca.
The qiblah is used not only for prayer but also for burial; the dead, including slaughtered animals, are interred facing Mecca. In a mosque, the qiblah is indicated by the mihrab, a niche in the mosque's interior wall facing Mecca.
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in Islām, the pulpit from which the sermon (khuṭbah) is delivered. In its simplest form the minbar is a platform with three steps; often it is constructed as a domed box at the top of a staircase and is reached through a doorway that can be closed.
Muḥammad originally delivered his khuṭbahs while leaning against a palm-trunk pillar in the mosque at Medina. Ḥadīth (accounts of Muḥammad's life and sayings) report that Muḥammad later used a seat with two steps for receiving delegations in the mosque and also that he preached from this portable minbar, which was fashioned from tamarisk wood by a Greek or Abyssinian carpenter. His successors, the caliphs, used his minbar as a symbol of their authority.
During the first century of Islām, provincial governors also came to use the minbar, from which they made speeches and heard petitions, primarily in their capacity as rulers. When the khuṭbah lost its informative, political, and discursive character and became a purely religious sermon during the reign of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs, the minbar also became a religious object. It became more permanent in nature, the number of steps increased, and it was commonly executed in stone or brick. It was even covered with a cloth, the qaṭīfah.
"minbar." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite . (2009).
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