A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گلدسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of
tower typically built into or adjacent to
mosques
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...
. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim
call to prayer (''
adhan
Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer (salah) in a mos ...
''), but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence.
They can have a variety of forms, from thick, squat towers to soaring, pencil-thin spires.
Etymology
Two Arabic words are used to denote the minaret tower: ''manāra'' and ''manār''. The English word "minaret" originates from the former, via the
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
version ().
The Arabic word ''manāra'' (plural: ''manārāt'') originally meant a "lamp stand", a
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
of
Hebrew ''
menorah
Menorah may refer to:
* Jewish candelabra:
** Temple menorah, a seven-lamp candelabrum used in the ancient Tabernacle in the desert, the Temple in Jerusalem, and synagogues
** Hanukkah menorah or ''hanukkiyah'', a nine-lamp candelabrum used on the ...
''. It is assumed to be a derivation of an older
reconstructed form, ''manwara''. The other word, ''manār'' (plural: ''manā'ir'' or ''manāyir''), means "a place of light". Both words derive from the Arabic root ''n-w-r'', which has a meaning related to "light".
Both words also had other meanings attested during the early Islamic period: ''manār'' could also mean a "sign" or "mark" (to show one where to go) and both ''manār'' and ''manāra'' could mean "
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
".
Functions
The formal function of a minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the
muezzin can issue the call to prayer, or ''
adhan
Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer (salah) in a mos ...
''.
The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night.
In most modern mosques, the ' is called from the ' (prayer hall) via
microphone to a
speaker system on the minaret.
Additionally, minarets historically served a visual symbolic purpose.
In the early 9th century, the first minarets were placed opposite the
qibla wall.
Oftentimes, this placement was not beneficial in reaching the community for the call to prayer.
They served as a reminder that the region was Islamic and helped to distinguish mosques from the surrounding architecture. They also acted as symbols of the political and religious authority of the Muslim rulers who built them.
Construction and design
The region's socio-cultural context have influenced the shape, size and form of minarets. Different regions and periods developed different styles of minarets. Typically, the tower's shaft has a cylindrical, cuboid (square), or octagonal shape.
Stairs or ramps inside the tower climb to the top in a counter-clockwise fashion. Some minarets have two or three narrow staircases fitted inside one another in order to allow multiple individuals to safely descend and ascend simultaneously.
At the top of the stairs, a balcony encircles the upper sections of the tower and from here the muezzin may give the call to prayer.
Some minaret traditions featured multiple balconies along the tower's shaft.
The summit often finishes in a
lantern
A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to carry and h ...
-like structure and/or a small dome, conical roof, or curving stone cap, which is in turn topped by a decorative metal
finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
.
Different architectural traditions also placed minarets at different positions relative to the mosque. The number of minarets by mosques was also not fixed: originally only one minaret accompanied a mosque, but some later traditions constructed more, especially for larger or more prestigious mosques.
Minarets are built out of any material that is readily available, and often changes from region to region.
In the construction of the tall and slender Ottoman minarets, molten iron was poured into pre-cut cavities inside the stones, which then solidified and helped to bind the stones together. This made the structures more resistant to earthquakes and powerful winds.
File:Inside the minaret of a mosque in Mostar.jpg, alt=, Inside the stairway of a minaret in Mostar
File:Giralda IMG 7500.jpg, alt=, Inside the Giralda minaret in Seville, which has ascending ramps instead of stairs
File:Details of Qutab Minar, Delhi, India 01.jpg, alt=, An ornate balcony at the Qutb Minar in Delhi
File:Top of a minaret at Badshahi Masjid.jpg, alt=, Example of a lantern structure at the top of a minaret at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore
File:Istanbul 009 (6333859377).jpg, alt=, Example of a metal finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
in Istanbul
Origins
The earliest
mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller tower structures.
The early Muslim community of
Medina gave the call to prayer from the doorway or roof of the house of
Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer, and this continued to be the practice in mosques during the period of the four
Rashidun Caliphs (632–661).
The origin of the minaret is unclear. Many 19th-century and early 20th-century scholars traced the origin of minarets to the
Umayyad Caliphate period (661–750) and believed that they imitated the church
steeples found in Syria in those times.
Others suggested that the these towers were inspired by the
ziggurats of
Babylonian and
Assyrian shrines in
Mesopotamia.
Some scholars, such as A. J. Butler and Hermann Thiersch, agreed that the Syrian minarets were derived from church towers but also argued that the minarets of Egypt were inspired by the form of the
Pharos Lighthouse
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine ), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the re ...
in
Alexandria (which survived up until medieval times).
K. A. C. Creswell
Sir Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell (13 September 1879 – 8 April 1974) was an English architectural historian who wrote some of the seminal works on Islamic architecture in Egypt.
Early life
Creswell was born on 13 September 1879 in Lon ...
, an
orientalist and important early-20th-century scholar of
Islamic architecture, contributed a major study on the question in 1926
which then became the standard scholarly theory on the origin of minarets for roughly fifty years.
Creswell attributed the origin of minaret towers to the influence of Syrian church towers and regarded the spiral or helicoidal minarets of the
Abbasid period as deriving from local ziggurat precedents, but rejected the possible influence of the Pharos Lighthouse. He also established that the earliest mosques had no minarets and he suggested that the first purpose-built minarets were built for the
Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in
Fustat in 673.
In 1989
Jonathan Bloom published a new study which argued that the first true minaret towers did not appear until the 9th century, under Abbasid rule, and that their initial purpose was not related to the call to prayer.
References on Islamic architecture since the late 20th century often agree with Bloom's view that the mosques of the Umayyad Caliphate did not have minarets in the form of towers.
Instead of towers, some Umayyad mosques were built with platforms or shelters above their roofs that were accessed by a staircase and from which the muezzins could issue the call to prayer. These structures were referred to as a ''mi'dhana'' ("place of the ''adhān"'') or as a ''ṣawma῾a'' ("monk's cell", due to its small size).
An example of these platforms is documented during the reconstruction of the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in 673 by
Mu'awiya's local governor,
Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari, who was given orders by the caliph to add one to each of the mosque's four corners, similar to the
Great Mosque of Damascus
The Umayyad Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأموي, al-Jāmiʿ al-Umawī), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus ( ar, الجامع الدمشق, al-Jāmiʿ al-Damishq), located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the ...
which had a ''ṣawma῾a'' above each of the Roman-era towers at its four corners.
Historical sources also mention such features in mosques in other parts of
North Africa. In another example, under the
Umayyad Emirate of
al-Andalus, emir
Hisham I ordered the addition of a ''ṣawma'a'' to the
Great Mosque of Cordoba
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
in 793.
A possible exception to the absence of tower minarets is documented in Caliph
al-Walid's renovation of the
Prophet's Mosque in
Medina in the early 8th century, during which he built a tower, referred to as a ''manāra'', at each of the mosque's four corners. However, it's not clear what function these towers served. They do not appear to have been used for the call to prayer and may have been intended instead as visual symbols of the mosque's status.
Historical sources also reference an earlier stone tower, called a ''manāra'', being added to the mosque of
Basra in 665 by the Umayyad provincial governor.
The first known minarets built as towers appeared under Abbasid rule.
Four towers were added to the
Great Mosque of Mecca during its Abbasid reconstruction in the late 8th century.
In the 9th century single minaret towers were built in or near the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall of mosques.
These towers were built across the empire in a height to width ratio of around 3:1.
One of the
oldest minarets still standing is that of the
Great Mosque of Kairouan in
Tunisia, built in 836 and well-preserved today.
Other minarets that date from the same period, but less precisely dated, include the minaret of the Friday Mosque of
Siraf, now the oldest minaret in Iran, and the minaret opposite the qibla wall at the
Great Mosque of Damascus
The Umayyad Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأموي, al-Jāmiʿ al-Umawī), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus ( ar, الجامع الدمشق, al-Jāmiʿ al-Damishq), located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the ...
(known as the "Minaret of the Bride"), now the oldest minaret in the region of Syria (though its upper section was probably rebuilt multiple times).
In
Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in present-day
Iraq, the
Great Mosque of Samarra was built in the years 848–852 and featured a massive
helicoidal minaret behind its northern wall. Its design was repeated in the nearby
Abu Dulaf Mosque (861).
The earlier theory which proposed that these helicoidal minarets were inspired by ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats has been challenged and rejected by some later scholars including
Richard Ettinghausen,
Oleg Grabar, and Jonathan Bloom.
Bloom also argues that the early Abbasid minarets were not built to host the call to prayer, but were instead adopted as symbols of Islam that were suited to important
congregational mosques. Their association with the muezzin and the call to prayer only developed later.
As the first minaret towers were built by the Abbasids and had a symbolic value associated with them, some of the Islamic regimes opposed to the Abbasids, such as the
Fatimids
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
, generally refrained from building them during these early centuries.
The earliest evidence of minarets being used for hosting the call to prayer dates to the 10th century and it was only towards the 11th century that minaret towers became a near-universal feature of mosques.
Regional styles
Iraq
The oldest minarets in Iraq date from the Abbasid period. The Great Mosque of Samarra (848–852) is accompanied by one of the earliest preserved minarets, a cylindrical brick tower with a spiral staircases wrapped around it, standing outside the walls of the mosque. It is the tallest of the early minarets of the Abbasid period and remains the most massive historic minaret in the world, involving over 6000 cubic meters of brick masonry.
The Abu Dulaf Mosque, built near Samarra and finished in 861, has a smaller minaret of similar shape.
In the later
Abbasid period (11th to 13th centuries), after the
Seljuk period, minarets were typically cylindrical brick towers whose square or polygonal bases were integrated into the structure of the mosque itself. Their main cylindrical shafts were tapered and culminated in ''
muqarnas'' cornices supporting a balcony, above which is another small cylindrical turret topped by a dome. Two examples of this style are the Mosque of al-Khaffafin and the Mosque of Qumriyya.
Iran, Central Asia, and South Asia
Starting with the Seljuk period (11th and 12th centuries), minarets in
Iran had cylindrical shafts with square or octagonal bases that taper towards their summit. These minarets became the most common style in the eastern Islamic world (in Iran,
Central Asia, and
South Asia).
During the Seljuk period minarets were tall and highly decorated with geometric and calligraphic design. They were built prolifically, even at smaller mosques or mosque complexes.
The
Kalyan Minaret in
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
remains the most well known of the Seljuk minarets for its use of brick patterned decoration. The tallest minaret of this era, the
Minaret of Jam, in a remote area of present-day
Afghanistan, was built circa 1175 by the
Ghurids and features elaborate brick decoration and inscriptions.
The
Qutb Minar in
Delhi, the most monumental minaret in
India, was built in 1199 and was designed on the same model as the Minaret of Jam.
In later periods, however, minarets in this region became generally less monumental in comparison with the mosques for which they were built.
The tradition of building pairs of minarets probably began in the 12th century, but it became especially prominent under the
Ilkhanids (13th-14th centuries), who built twin minarets flanking important
iwans such as the mosque's entrance.
The rise of the
Timurid Empire, which heavily patronized art and architecture, led to what is now called the "international Timurid" style which spread from Central Asia during and after the 15th century.
It is categorized by the use of multiple minarets. Examples of this style include the monuments of
Mughal architecture in the
Indian subcontinent, such as the minarets on the roof of the south gate in
Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra (1613), the minarets on the
Tomb of Jahangir (1628-1638), and the four minarets surrounding the mausoleum of the
Taj Mahal.
Elsewhere in India, some cities and towns along the coast have small mosques with simple staircase minarets.
Egypt
The styles of minarets has varied throughout the history of
Egypt. The minaret of the 9th-century
Ibn Tulun Mosque
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun ( ar, مسجد إبن طولون, Masjid Ibn Ṭūlūn) is located in Cairo, Egypt. It is one of the oldest mosques in Egypt as well as the whole of Africa surviving in its full original form, and is the largest mosque in ...
imitated the spiral minarets of contemporary Abbasid Samarra, though the current tower was reconstructed later in 1296.
Under the Fatimids (10th-12th centuries), new mosques generally lacked minarets. One unusual exception is the
Mosque of al-Hakim
The Mosque of al-Hakim ( ar, مسجد الحاكم بأمر الله, Masjid al-Ḥākim bi Amr Allāh), nicknamed al-Anwar ( ar, الانور, lit=the Illuminated), is a historic mosque in Cairo, Egypt. It is named after Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ( ...
, built between 990 and 1010, which has two minarets at its corners. The two towers have slightly different shapes: both have square bases but one has a cylindrical shaft above this and the other an octagonal shaft. This multi-tier design was only found in the minarets of the great mosques at Mecca and Medina at that time, suggesting a possible link to those designs. Shortly after their construction, the lower sections of the minarets were encased in massive square bastions, for reasons that are not clearly known, and the tops were rebuilt in 1303 by a
Mamluk sultan.
Under the
Ayyubids (late 12th to mid-13th centuries), the details of minarets borrowed from Fatimid designs. Most distinctively, the summits of minarets had a lantern structure topped by a pointed ribbed dome, whose appearance was compared to a ''mabkhara'', or incense burner.
This design continued under the early
Bahri Mamluks (13th to early 14th century), but soon began to evolve into the shapes distinctive to
Mamluk architecture. They became very ornate and usually consisted of three tiers separated by balconies, with each tier having a different design than the others. This configuration was particularly characteristic of
Cairo.
The minaret of the
al-Maridani Mosque (circa 1340) is the first one to have an entirely octagonal shaft and the first one to end with a narrow lantern structure consisting of eight slender columns topped by a bulbous stone
finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
. This style later became the basic standard form of Cairene minarets, while the ''makhbara''-style summit disappeared.
Later minarets in the
Burji Mamluk period (late 14th to early 16th centuries) typically had an octagonal shaft for the first tier, a round shaft on the second, and a lantern structure with finial on the third level.
The stone-carved decoration of the minaret also became very extensive and varied from minaret to minaret. Minarets with completely square or rectangular shafts reappeared at the very end of the Mamluk period during the reign of Sultan
al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516). During al-Ghuri's reign the lantern summits were also doubled – as with the minaret of the
Mosque of Qanibay Qara or al-Ghuri's minaret at the al-Azhar Mosque – or even quadrupled – as with the original minaret of
al-Ghuri's madrasa.
Maghreb and al-Andalus
Minarets in the
Maghreb (region encompassing present-day Tunisia,
Algeria, and
Morocco) and historic
al-Andalus (present-day Spain and Portugal) traditionally have a square shaft and are arranged in two tiers: the main shaft, which makes up most of its height, and a much smaller secondary tower above this which is in turn topped by a
finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
of copper or brass spheres.
Some minarets in the Maghreb have octagonal shafts, though this is more characteristic of certain regions or periods; e.g. the minarets of the
Great Mosque of Chefchaouen, the Great Mosque of
Ouazzane
Ouazzane (also Ouezzane) (Berber: ⵡⴰⵣⵣⴰⵏ, ar, وزان) is a town in northern Morocco, with a population of 59,606 recorded in the 2014 Moroccan census.
The city is well known in Morocco and throughout the Islamic world as a spirit ...
, the
Kasbah Mosque of
Tangier, and the
Great Mosque of Asilah
The Grand Mosque in Asilah, Morocco, is the main mosque of the historic royal citadel (''kasbah'') in the old city (''medina'') of Asilah. It was built under Moulay Ismail in the late 17th century.
History
The Grand Mosque of Asilah is locate ...
in Morocco or the
Ottoman-era minarets of Tunisia such as the
Youssef Dey Mosque
Youssef Dey Mosque, also known as Al B'chamqiya, is a 17th-century mosque in Tunis, Tunisia, located in Medina area of the city. The mosque is considered significant as it was the first Ottoman- Turkish mosque to be built in Tunis.
An official H ...
and the
Hammouda Pacha Mosque.
Inside the main shaft a staircase, and in other cases a ramp, ascends to the top of the minaret.
The minaret at the
Great Mosque of Kairouan, built in 836 under
Aghlabid rule, is the oldest minaret in North Africa and one of the oldest minarets in the world.
It has the shape of a massive tower with a square base, three levels of decreasing widths, and a total height of 31.5 meters.
The first two levels are from the original 9th-century construction but the third level was reconstructed at a later period.
Another important minaret for the
architectural history of the region is the minaret built by
Abd ar-Rahman III
ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil () or ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (890 - 961), was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 92 ...
for the Great Mosque of Cordoba in 951–952, which became the model for later minarets in the Maghreb and al-Andalus.
Jonathan Bloom has suggested that Abd ar-Rahman III's construction of the minaret – along with his sponsoring of other minarets around the same time in
Fez – was partly intended as a visual symbol of his self-declared authority as
caliph and may have also been aimed at defying the rival Fatimid Caliphs to the east who did not endorse the construction of minarets at the time.
Other important historic minarets in the region are the
Almohad-era minarets of the
Kutubiyya Mosque and the
Kasbah Mosque in
Marrakesh
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
, the
Hassan Tower in
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
, and the
Giralda in
Seville, all from the 12th and early 13th centuries.
Turkey
The Seljuks of Rum, a successor state of the Seljuk Empire, built paired portal minarets from brick that had Iranian origins.
In general, mosques in Anatolia had only one minaret and received decorative emphasis while most of the mosque remained plain.
Seljuk minarets were built of stone or brick, usually resting on a stone base, and typically had a cylindrical or polygonal shaft that is less slender than later Ottoman minarets. They were sometimes embellished with decorative brickwork or glazed ceramic decoration up the level of their balconies.
Ottoman architecture followed earlier Seljuk models and continued the Iranian tradition of cylindrical tapering minaret forms with a square base.
Classical Ottoman minarets are described as "pencil-shaped" due to their slenderness and sharply-pointed summits, often topped with a crescent moon symbol. The presence of more than one minaret, and of larger minarets, was reserved for mosques commissioned by the Ottoman sultans themselves. Taller minarets often also had multiple balconies along their shafts instead of one.
The
Üç Şerefeli Mosque in
Edirne, finished in 1447, was the first sultanic mosque to have multiple minarets with multiple balconies. Of its four minarets, the northwestern minaret was the tallest Ottoman minaret up to that time, rising to 67 metres.
Its height was only surpassed by the minarets of the
Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1574), which are 70.89 meters tall and are the tallest minarets in Ottoman architecture.
Later Ottoman minarets also became plainer and more uniform in design. The trend of multiple minarets culminated in the six minarets of the
Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque) in
Istanbul.
China
Next to the
Huaishengsi Mosque in
Guangzhou is the Tower of Light, also known as the Guangta minaret (1350). The mosque and the minaret merge aspects of Islamic and
Chinese architecture. Its circular shaft and the double staircase arrangement inside it resembles the minarets of Iranian and Central Asian architecture, such as the Minaret of Jam.
See also
*
List of oldest minarets
*
List of tallest minarets
*
2009 Swiss minaret referendum
The federal popular initiative "against the construction of minarets" was a successful popular initiative in Switzerland to prevent the construction of minarets on mosques. In a November 2009 referendum, a constitutional amendment banning the ...
*
List of tallest mosques
Notes
References
Further reading
* Jonathan M. Bloom (1989), ''Minaret, symbol of Islam'', Oxford University Press.
External links
"The Minaret, Symbol of a Civilization"*
{{Authority control
Islamic architectural elements
Mosque architecture
Architectural elements
Arabic architecture
Islamic terminology
Architecture in Iran