Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Typically, such emphasis would be conferred by a mihrab, a niche-like structure that serves as the focal point on the qibla wall. However, in this case, the mihrab takes the form of a narrow vertical recess that extends to the wall's height, with a barely noticeable alteration in the wall's angle occurring between the mihrab and the minbar. [2]
Mihrab (Arabic: محراب, miḥrāb, pl. محاريب maḥārīb) is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the "qibla wall".
The general layout of the mosque is a traditional hypostyle building with a central courtyard. As the mosque's prayer area is aligned with the qibla (direction of Mecca) but the street outside is not, the mosque's external façade has a different alignment from the rest of the structure and the entrance involves a bending passage from the street to the mosque interior. [3]
To the right of the mihrab in the central tower is a second niche, the pulpit or minbar, from which the imam preaches his Friday sermon. [18] The towers in the qibla wall do not contain stairs linking the prayer hall with the roof. Instead there are two square towers housing stairs leading to the roof.
The mosque's mihrab, whose decor is a remarkable witness of Muslim art in the early centuries of Islam, is distinguished by its harmonious composition and the quality of its ornaments. Considered as the oldest example of concave mihrab, it dates in its present state to 862–863 AD. [77] Upper part of the mihrab Luster tiles of the mihrab
The twin mihrab and minbar niches are built into the qibla wall, which is typical of the mosques of the region. [ 3 ] Among its most distinctive characteristics are its spare, unmortared, split stone masonry, its square minaret tower, and its conscious lack of adornment, keeping with the strict Malikite beliefs of the city's founders.
The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba, a cube-like building at the centre of the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca, in the Hijaz region of Saudi Arabia. Other than its role as qibla, it is also the holiest site for Muslims, also known as the House of God (Bayt Allah) and where the tawaf (the circumambulation ritual) is performed during the Hajj and umrah pilgrimages.
The last aisle, directly in front of the qibla wall, was distinguished by being slightly wider, as was the middle nave that led to the mihrab. This formed a "T" in the plan, which was a recurring feature in other medieval mosques in this region.