Anaza

'''Anaza'' or ''anaza'' (sometimes also spelled '''anza'' or ''anza'') is a term for a short spear or staff which gained ritual significance in the early years of Islam after the Islamic prophet Muhammad planted his spear in the ground to mark the direction of prayer (''qibla''). It became an architectural term to designate an outdoor ''mihrab'' in a mosque, mainly in the Maghreb.

Origins

The '''anaza'' was the spear (also known as a ''ḥarba'') of Muhammad and first appears as part of Muslim ritual in the year 624 CE (2 AH), when Muhammad celebrated the first Eid al-Fitr. When Muhammad and the other Muslims reached the ''musalla'' (outdoor prayer space), he planted the spear in the ground and used it to indicate the direction of prayers (the ''qibla''), much like a ''mihrab'' would in later mosques. The spear was used in this way again on Eid al-Adha the same year. The early caliphs expanded on this practice, making it customary to carry a staff, sword, or bow on ceremonial occasions when ascending the pulpit (''minbar''), symbolizing authority. The image of the ''anaza'' planted in front of a mihrab arch also appears on some early Umayyad coinage.

Architectural feature

Perhaps related to this symbolic use as an early qibla indicator, the term "''anaza''" later came to be applied in to an architectural feature of many mosques in the western Maghreb and Morocco. It was used to designate an "outdoor" or "summer" mihrab, usually an ornate wooden screen that stood at the border between the sahn (courtyard) of a mosque and its interior prayer hall and which was aligned with the mosque's central mihrab axis. This ''anaza'' could thus serve as a mihrab for prayers held outside in the courtyard. The wooden screen was often carved and painted with a stylized mihrab motif and other inscriptions. The ''anaza'' could also be a simple mark on the pavement or floor of the courtyard in front of the prayer hall's central entrance; e.g. a semi-circular groove or recess in the middle of the step leading to the entrance.

Wooden ''anaza''s were constructed in mosques across Morocco and the Maghreb. In Morocco they became a standard feature of "grand mosques" or Friday mosques in particular. The oldest surviving example is the ''anaza'' of the al-Andalusiyyin Mosque in Fez, which dates from 1209 (from the Almohad period). Historical sources also mention an even older ''anaza'', dating from 1129 (during the Almoravid period), at the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, but it no longer exists today and has been replaced by the current Marinid-era ''anaza'' which was fabricated between 1288 and 1290. The ''anaza'' in the Grand Mosque of Fes el-Jdid, which likely dates from the mosque's construction in 1276, is very similar and might be the oldest Marinid ''anaza''. A similar example is also found in the Grand Mosque of Meknes but was built much later in 1715 (during the reign of the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail). Some other post-Marinid examples also include the ''anaza'' of the 16th-century Mouassine Mosque in Marrakesh (from the Saadian period). The ''anaza'' of the near-contemporary Bab Doukkala Mosque in Marrakesh, on the other hand, is a modern replacement of the original one.
File:Qarawiyyin anaza detail2 IMG 2395.jpg, Details of the ''anaza'' of the Qarawiyyin Mosque
File:Qarawiyyin anaza detail IMG 2395.jpg, Details of the ''anaza'' of the Qarawiyyin Mosque (central lower panel)
File:Meknes grand mosque anaza DSCF1798.jpg, The ''anaza'' of the Grand Mosque in Meknes, dating from 1715 but copying the form of earlier Marinid examples

References

{{Islamic architecture
Architecture in Morocco
category:Islamic architectural elements
Islamic terminology
Mosque architecture