Minaret - what is it? Origin, history and features of architectural forms. What is a Mosque with two minarets

Everyone knows what it is mosque, but what is minaret? The minaret is tall structure, resembling a tower, erected in the corners of mosques. As a rule, a minaret serves to ensure that the sound of the singing of imams (heads of mosques) spreads over a large area, and in some cases, to illuminate the area. You can often see these structures in movies, and especially often in Islamic countries while traveling. Today we will talk about interesting facts regarding minarets and mosques.

A little history

Translated from Arabic, the word “minaret” means “lighthouse”. The fact is that in past centuries, lights were lit on the tops of the minarets of coastal cities so that ship captains could direct their ships on the right course, hence the name.

At the very beginning of Islamic history, there were no minarets at all. To call for prayer, a person had to climb to the roof of a mosque or some other high structure.

According to some sources, the first minarets were built in the corners of the Amr-ibn-al-As mosque in Fustat (ancient Cairo) by order of the Egyptian governor Maslama ibn Muhallad (7th century).

To climb up scarf(balcony) located at the top, the caller must climb a spiral staircase inside the minaret. Different minarets have different numbers of balconies (one, two or three) - this depends on the height of the structure.

Where are the minarets?

In different Muslim countries, minarets can vary in configuration, depending on the style of architecture. For example, mosques in Iraq and Iran have a single scarf, helmet-shaped domes and a round cross-section. Turkish minarets are characterized by a narrower circular cross-section and have a cone-shaped tip. If you look at the minarets in North African countries, they have a square cross-section. In the same minarets that are in lately built in European countries, the Art Nouveau style predominates.

The mosque has two minarets, but this is not interesting, but the fact that if you push one of them, both of them begin to sway.

This was done so that the minarets would not be destroyed in the event of earthquakes, but would allow vibrations of the earth’s surface to pass through them.

The secret of the minarets could not be revealed for more than three hundred years.

Click on the picture to get a free encyclopedia!

Finally

It should also be noted that the world-famous bathhouse, which is heated by just one candle, was also developed by Sheikh Bahai, but its secret has not yet been solved, and the diagram of its heating system has sunk into oblivion.

The bathhouse was dismantled by Russian engineers during the occupation of Iran by Russian troops during the Russian-Iranian War, but they failed to understand it.

The bathhouse was reassembled, but, unfortunately, it no longer worked.

History is truly full of countless mysteries and interesting facts. It is unlikely that we will be able to present them all, but we will continue to strive for this, preparing for you only the most interesting things on the pages of our travel magazine.

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Religious architecture in the Arab-Muslim world began to develop with Qub-bat-as-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock) - the third most important shrine in Islam (after the Kaaba in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina). Its construction is associated with one of major events in the history of Islam - the night journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, where, according to legend, he ascended from a cliff to the throne of Allah - made miraj. Inside the dome is the ledge of this rock.

This monument was built in 687-691. on top of a mountain sacred to all three religions - Judaism(on this mountain Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son, and Solomon built Jerusalem Temple), Christianity(there is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) and Islam.

There is a rock ledge inside the dome

Kubbat-ac-Caxpa reigns over old Jerusalem, its huge golden dome visible from afar. The central domed part of the building is surrounded by an octagonal gallery, the height of which reaches half the height of the central part. Inside, the room is divided in two by pillars and columns, creating a double circuit around the sacred rock. This rock protrudes one and a half meters above the floor and is framed by four powerful pillars with elegant marble columns between them. In general, the number of any architectural elements here is a multiple of four, which is symbolic (in the Arabic spelling of the word “Allah” there are four letters). Under the rock there is a cave turned into a sanctuary. The interior decoration of the building is magnificent - walls lined with patterned marble panels, columns with gold capitals, beams and lintels lined with bronze plates with chasing and gilding, windows and arches decorated with mosaics, a dome covered with patterned relief and paintings.

The main religious building is mosque- a place for prayer. They did not appear immediately. Initially, prayers were performed in any place where the need arose. A square was outlined right on the ground, sometimes its contours were outlined by a ditch, and the direction to Mecca was determined by the shadow of a spear stuck into the ground. The mosques that were built appeared only in 665-670. It is believed that the prototype of the mosque was the house of Muhammad in Medina, the fenced courtyard of which had a canopy on the south side, mounted on palm trunks.

The classic type of Arabic mosque, called column, or courtyard, is a rectangular area fenced with a high wall. The main element of the composition is a courtyard surrounded by an arcade on columns or pillars. The columns are most often located in several rows, to the side qibla(direction to Mecca) they usually form a deep columned hall. The Qibla is also marked by a special niche decorated with inscriptions and ornaments - mihrab This niche can be flat, conditional or concave, covered with an arch, vault or semi-dome. The pointed end of the mihrab marks the point through which the worshiper mentally connects with the earthly Kaaba. This connection becomes a symbol of man's spiritual connection with the heavenly Kaaba. The mihrab is always illuminated - either by a window in the dome, or by a lamp hanging from the top point of the mihrab.

Over time, mosques began to differ in their purpose. There were small mosques for individual prayers and large, cathedral mosques for collective Friday prayers. These mosques must have minbar - department from which imam(the head of the Muslim community) delivers the Friday sermon. It is located to the right of the mihrab. The minbar looks like a high stone throne, to which a staircase with railings and a decorative entrance - a portal - leads.

For architects who built Muslim religious buildings, the model, naturally, was the large metropolitan mosques - in Damascus, Samarra. So, Great Mosque Umayyads in Damascus (for its construction the remains of the Roman sanctuary of Jupiter and christian church John the Baptist) was decorated inside with colored patterned marble and magnificent mosaics with paintings of a fantastic garden city. The Great Mosque of Samarra had an area of ​​156 x 240 m. Its walls with semicircular bastions and corner towers and a spiral minaret have been preserved.

However, in various areas of the caliphate, builders widely used local, traditional techniques and architectural forms familiar to the people. Therefore, the type of pillared mosque in each of the Arab countries received a unique interpretation. So, Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo (876-879) was distinguished by a compact layout, as well as proportional high pointed arches, which became a characteristic feature of Muslim architecture.

Dome of the Rock. Monument (not mosque) on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Inside the dome there is a rock ledge from which, according to legend, the Prophet Muhammad performed miraj

Mihrab of Cairo mosque

Great Mosque of Samarra (Iraq)

with a minaret in the form of a spiral 52 m high and 33 m wide.

Inner courtyard of the Ibn Tulun Mosque (Cairo)

Another great one architectural monument- metropolitan Cathedral Mosque in Cordoba. In plan it was a huge rectangle (200 x 144 m), surrounded by a stone wall with buttresses and numerous entrances. Only a small part of the huge area was allocated for open courtyard. The main space was occupied by a classical prayer hall, in which over 600 columns were located, forming 19 naves. The columns carry two-tiered arcades made of white and red stones. Arcades in even rows filled the entire interior space. This hall was compared to a dense, overgrown forest that was lost in the darkness. As if growing from the floor, low columns made of blue and pink marble, jasper, and porphyry look like palm trunks; from them, like intertwined crowns, horseshoe-shaped arches extend to the sides. All space seemed endless and gave rise to a feeling of infinity, evoking thoughts about the immensity of the Universe. The visitor who came from a sunny Cordoba street into this twilight colonnade, illuminated by the light of hundreds of low-hanging silver lamps, felt himself in a fantastic environment.

In Central Asia and Persia in the 12th century. along with the mosque column appeared four-highway ensembles, the architecture of which later began to be reproduced in secular construction. Ivan - it is a vaulted domed hall without a front wall, opening onto the courtyard of a mosque or madrasah. The entrance to the ivan is formed by powerful pylons connected by arches. Ivans were erected in mosques on the side facing Mecca. This apparently laid the foundation for the four-ais mosque (and other religious and civil buildings). It was a large structure with a square or rectangular courtyard. To the middle of each of its sides there was an ivan in the form of a deep vaulted niche. The walls of the courtyard between the ivans were designed in the form of arcades built in one or two tiers. From the outside, the entire building was enclosed by a blank wall, above which only the tops of the ivans were visible. The construction of four iwans in the mosque had a symbolic meaning, denoting the four orthodox schools of Islam. Such buildings are especially common in Iran.

Next to the mosque rose minarets, which were a tall, thin tower with a balcony. The muezzin, who announced the time of prayer, climbed there via a spiral staircase enclosed inside the tower. Perhaps the idea of ​​a minaret was suggested to Muslims by Christian bell towers. The shapes of the minarets are different, they are associated with local traditions. So, if in the east the minarets were round in plan, then in the west they were quadrangular. There were even, as already noted, spiral minarets in Samarra and Cairo. The minarets were decorated with patterned brickwork, stone carvings, stalactite cornices and openwork balconies. The minarets ended with a lantern, dome or tent.

The type of cross-domed structures was used by Arab architects in the construction of madrasahs (theological school buildings) and mausoleums, built over the graves of especially revered persons. They have the shape of a cube on which a dome rises. The transition from cube to dome is carried out not with the help of sails, as in Byzantium, but in rows "console niches" forming the shape of a stalactite. The entrance to the central façade was decorated with a pointed arch. Among the most famous mausoleums are Gur-Emir in Samarkand, built at the beginning of the 15th century.

The architecture of the mausoleum is dominated by a huge ribbed dome hanging over a tall cylindrical drum. The lower part of the building is an octagon. The proportions of the building are such that the dome and drum account for more than half of the total height of the building. The dome is covered with a pattern of blue and dark blue tiles, and the drum is no less decorated. This is consistent with the lush design of the interior, with which the austere tombstone contrasts. Tamerlane. The architecture of the mausoleum is distinguished by its originality of forms, harmony of proportions and perfection of design.

Gur-Emir - Tamerlane's mausoleum in Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

In addition to religious buildings, many libraries and hospitals were also built. All monuments of monumental architecture are characterized by clarity of architectural forms, a specific outline of horseshoe-shaped and pointed arches and domes, a wealth of carved ornaments and inscriptions, and, from a certain time, also patterned masonry made of multi-colored stone.

• The mosque contains a Treasury which is said to contain the head of John the Baptist (Yahya), who is revered as a prophet by both Christians and Muslims.
• The mosque underwent numerous subsequent changes. In 1236, after the Reconquista, the mosque was converted into a church, and some interior details (columns and arches) were stylistically replaced in a Byzantine style.

Minaret of the Islamic Center in Serbia - 77.5 m

With the financial support of Muslim believers from Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden, the USA, Australia and other parts of the world, an Islamic center - a mosque was built in the village of Delimeđe, with the two highest minarets in Eurasia - 77.5 m, and one of the highest in the world . Over 1 million euros were raised for the construction of the Islamic Center, which includes a mosque and other services.

For comparison: the minaret of the Fitja mosque in Stockholm is 32 m high; the minaret of the relatively new “Heart of Chechnya” mosque in Grozny is 62 m high and the minaret of the famous Qutub mosque in New Delhi is 72.5 m high. The tallest minaret Central Asia- in Bukhara - 47 m.

In the sky

The mosque with the tallest minarets in Eurasia was erected in the small village of Delimeje, in the Tutin community, where there are only 88 households and three hundred adult residents. The minarets, built in 2009, took the palm from the Islamic center “Heart of Chechnya” built in 2008 in Grozny, whose minarets are more modest in height - 62 meters.

The architect of the minarets in Delimije, Muharem Kruško from Maglaj, is a former builder who worked in Croatia; during his life he built 230 minarets, mainly in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, being a kind of world record holder. Krushko built the first minaret back in 1966 in Gluhaya Bukvitsa.

The absolute record holder for the height of a minaret is the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca in Morocco with a height of 210 meters, but the Iranians are planning to build a minaret in Tehran with a height of 230 meters.

Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

About minarets

There are two main types of minarets: tetrahedral (North Africa) and round-barreled (Near and Middle East). The minarets were decorated with patterned brickwork, carvings, glazed ceramics, and openwork balconies (sherefe).

Small mosques usually have one minaret (or none at all), medium ones - two; the large Sultan's mosques in Istanbul had from four to six minarets. The most large number minarets, ten, at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

Muezzin (Arabic: مؤذن‎‎) - calling Muslims to prayer.

There are several versions about the origin of the call to prayer (adhan or nida). According to one, the tradition of the call to prayer arose even before Muhammad’s migration to Medina (Hijra). According to another - after the migration, approximately in the second year of the Hijra. The first muezzin, the Abyssinian Bilyal ibn Rabah, first called people to prayer on the streets, and only after some time they began to use the highest point in the city for this. There were also regional methods of calling: in Fez (Morocco) a banner was strengthened on the minaret, and in the dark a lamp was lit.

The verb “adzana” in Arabic means “to shout in public,” says Wikipedia. The muezzin is the assistant to the imam-khatib, he must recite the adhan and tasbih. The time when the muezzin calls for prayer is strictly determined by the laws of Islam, and this has a deep meaning inherent in centuries-old traditions.

Winter days of the year are much shorter than summer days, so in winter morning prayer Muslim will be much later, and night time will be much earlier than in summer. Currently, the muezzin no longer climbs the minaret, but his voice is broadcast by speakers installed on the minaret.

Fittja Mosque minaret in Stockholm

Ancient mosques and minarets reflected the national cultural differences of Muslims. The merit of Muslims in the cultural and religious historical context is enormous. Followers of Islam built magnificent Islamic temples emanating blessed light. For centuries, an atmosphere of philanthropy was created in them.

Distant ancestors understood that mosques were built to last, and that the Islamic religion was the future. Mosques contain the spiritual and moral code of Islam and the power of the Almighty (it is no coincidence that the tradition of entering a mosque without shoes is observed).

The modern culture of mosque construction is unified; many factors influence the appearance of the building and its style. Within the city of Pyatigorsk, the court, following a lawsuit from the authorities, ordered the dismantling of the minarets of two mosques. Pyatigorsk is a resort city, part of the North Caucasian Federal District tourist cluster. And what will tourists remember when looking at the Pyatigorsk mosque without a minaret against the backdrop of the mountains?

Russia is not small Serbia, which cares about the image of the country, with a population of 7,186,862 people, of which 239,658 (3.2%) are Muslims. There are twenty million Muslims in Russia who are grateful for the minarets.

Svetlana Mamiy. Moscow

"What's in front of her now? Winter. Istanbul.

The consul's grins. An annoying hum

market at noon. Class minarets

earth-earth or earth-turban

(otherwise - cloud). Zurna, antimony.

Another race."

Joseph Brodsky. "Ritratto di donna".
(Portrait of a Woman).1993

Traveling during the non-tourist season - from November to March - has its advantages. It gets dark early, early
Museums are closing, but there are noticeably fewer tourists. Cities, even southern ones, are not decorated
flowering trees and flower beds, but through the bare branches there are views that
in summer it hides dense foliage. How beautiful in combination with the exquisite pattern of the branch domes,
spiers, and in Istanbul - minarets so thin that they can be likened to tree trunks.

"Mosque of Princes" - Shahzadeh. 1548

However, for Joseph Brodsky, who strongly disliked Istanbul, the minarets evoked others
associations: "... the mosques of Istanbul! These gigantic ones, perched on the ground, are unable to tear themselves away from it
frozen stone toads! Only the minarets, most reminiscent - prophetically, I'm afraid -
ground-to-air installations, and indicate the direction in which the soul was going to move,"
- Brodsky wrote in his essay “Travel to Istanbul” in 1985.

Minarets of the Blue Mosque of Sultanahmet. 1616

Almost 30 years later, Brodsky’s prophetic fears became almost a reality.Europe
fears the expansion of Islam, quiet Switzerland votes to ban the construction of minarets,
politically correct Germany is seriously concerned that the minarets will rise higher
Cologne Cathedral.

Suleymaniye Mosque. 1557 Fragments.

In Istanbul, as you know, Muslims, Christians and Jews once coexisted peacefully. Herself
the amazing geography of the city contributed to this - Muslims and non-Muslims lived side by side
side, but each on its own shore of the narrow and long, like a river, Golden Horn Bay. Bosphorus divides
Istanbul is divided into European and Asian parts, and the Golden Horn, in turn, is conventionally divided
the European part of the city to "Istanbul is truly Muslim" , on the south, and "Istanbul
Gentiles" - on the northern bank of the Golden Horn. In the European part of the city there is
the famous Pera (now Beyoglu) - an area where everything is just like in Europe, Christian
temples, the few remaining synagogues in the city, the Galata Tower, which offers a view
to the “Istanbul of the Faithful”, separated by a strip of water, with huge mosques on the hills and
the ancient Sultan's Palace Topkapi.

View of Istanbul from the Galata Tower. On the left is the Bosphorus and the Asian part of the city.
To the right is the Golden Horn Bay, behind it is old Istanbul with palaces and mosques.

Beautiful! Even Brodsky could not help but admit: “Against the background of the sunset, on the crest of a hill, their (mosques)
silhouettes make a strong impression; hand reaches for the camera, like a spy at the sight
military facility. There really is something menacingly otherworldly about them,alien,
absolutely hermetic, shell-like. And it's all the samedirty brown, like
most buildings in Istanbul. And all this onbackground of the turquoise Bosphorus."

View of the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn from the Galata Tower

So my hand reached out to the camera, although the sun was shining straight into my eyes and the conditions for
The photo sessions weren't the best. As for the “armor-shaped” mosques, the comparison
really spot on! Mosques huge turtles lay down by the water, climbed onto
hills. Their squat monochrome bodies (all the beauty and brightness is inside!) would be completely
awkward, if not for the minarets, but for the silhouette of the city without multiple verticals
minarets would have lost unspeakably.

Let's look at the minarets without bias - they are very slender, graceful, and up close
does not resemble a rocket at launch. The word "minaret" comes from the Arabic "manara", "lighthouse",
since in coastal cities minarets served as lighthouses. Istanbul minarets -
round, sometimes with grooved grooves, very narrow, with a pointed cone-shaped
completion. From above their trunks are surrounded by one or two or three openwork balconies -
shurfe. The balconies below are often decorated with characteristics characteristic of Muslim architecture
"muqarnas" or "stalactites" - decorative reliefs located above each other
another prism.

Dolmabahce Mini-Mosque (1855) on the shores of the Bosphorus near Dolmabahce Palace

The larger and more significant the mosque, the more minarets it has - from one to four, and the more
they are taller. The only minaret of a small quarterly mosque does not reach 50 meters,
and the minarets of the Sultan’s mosques rise almost a hundred meters, however, they cannot compete
with skyscrapers of modern Istanbul.

Minaret of the Blue Mosque (1616) with balconies decorated with “stalactites”

Inside the mineret there is a spiral staircase, along which the muezzin in former times
once a day he went up to the shurfe balcony to call the believers to prayer. Sometimes
inside the minaret there were two or three spiral staircases, so that those walking along them
haven't met each other. These days, the muezzin no longer ascends the minaret, but broadcasts
through a loudspeaker mounted on it.

Blue Mosque Sultanahmet with six minarets. 1616

It would seem, why build four minarets when one is enough? How
The more minarets, the more glorious and significant the mosque. How important this is proves
a story that is quite boring to me (all the guides happily tell it and repeat it
all guidebooks in all languages) about the six minarets of the Sultanahmet Mosque (or Ahmediye or, as
It was called the “Blue Mosque” for the incomparable beauty of its tiles). Sultan Ahmet allegedly said
to the architect that he wants to build golden ("Altyn") minarets, and the somewhat deaf architect heard
"alti" - six. Because of this misunderstanding, a mosque with six minarets was built. Muslim
the world perceived this as insolence, since only the Beytullah Mosque in
Mecca, so Sultan Ahmet had to build another - the seventh - minaret for the mosque
Beytullah, and balance was restored.

Byzantine temple HAHA SOPHIA, converted into a mosque.

There’s a separate conversation about it, so let’s look at it through the jets of the fountain .

Suleymaniye Mosque (1557) with 10 balconies on four minarets

In the evening, the minarets are especially spectacular - illuminated, they sparkle against the dark sky,
like burning pillars.

Blue Sultanahmet Mosque illuminated at night

The word “minaret” or “minara” in Arabic means “a place where something is lit”, or “emitting light”, that is, a kind of “tower of light”, “lighthouse”. In previous centuries, the minarets of coastal cities were actually used as lighthouses, which helped ships determine the correct course.

The main function of minarets is, of course, to call Muslims to the mosque for prayer. Five times a day, the muezzins climbed the stairs to the minaret platforms and announced the adhan. The higher the minaret, the farther the muezzin’s voice can be heard.

And although today there is no such need for minarets, due to the presence of sound amplification equipment, they continue to be erected, preserving the traditional appearance of mosques.

First minaret

Already in the fifty-third year of the Hijri, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan (may God be pleased with him) gave instructions for the construction of a minaret.

As to who was the first to build the minaret, the opinions of historians are divided. Some argue that the first minaret was built by the ruler of Basra, Ziyad ibn Ubaykh (may God be pleased with him) on the orders of Muawiyah.

Others are of the opinion that the first minarets were erected at the Amr ibn al-Asa mosque in Fustat (old Cairo) under the orders of the Egyptian governor Maslam ibn Muhallad (d. 682). These were four towers located at the corners of the mosque. This version is considered more reliable. Moreover, the first person to proclaim the adhan from this minaret was Shurahbil ibn Amr.

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