Dictionary:
mih·rab (mîr'əb)  |
[Arabic miḥrāb, probably from Old South Arabian mḥrb, part of a temple, from ḥrb, to fight, perform a certain ritual in a temple.]
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: mihrab |
For more information on mihrab, visit Britannica.com.
| Architecture: mihrab |
A niche in the mosque or any religious Muslim building indicating direction of prayer toward Mecca. Focal point of decoration with dome in front.
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| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Mihrab |
An indicator of the direction toward which Muslims face in prayer.
While the etymology of the word is the subject of some debate, mihrab (pl. maharib) is the Arabic term used to refer to any object, marking, or architectural feature that indicates the direction Muslims must face (that is, toward Mecca) in the performance of the five daily prayers. Since the mihrab commonly takes the form of a distinctive recess in the wall of a mosque, the word is often translated as "prayer niche." Traditionally crafted in stucco, marble, or tile and adorned with calligraphic scriptural inscriptions, the mihrab is usually the most elaborately decorated piece of architecture in a mosque and in some simpler settings may be the only ornamented part of a mosque's interior.
— SCOTT ALEXANDER
| Islamic Dictionary: mihrab |
| Wikipedia: Mihrab |
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A mihrab (Arabic: محراب pl. محاريب) is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the "qibla wall."
Mihrabs should not be confused with the minbar, which is the raised platform from which an Imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation.
The word mihrab originally had a non-religious meaning and simply denoted a special room in a house, a throne room in a palace for example. The Fath al-Bari (p. 458), on the authority of others, suggests the mihrab is "the most honorable location of kings" and "the master of locations, the front and the most honorable." The Mosques in Islam (p. 213), in addition to Arabic sources, cites Theodor Nöldeke and others as having considered a mihrab to have originally signified a throne room.
The term was subsequently used by the Prophet Muhammad to denote his own private prayer room. The room additionally provided access to the adjacent mosque, and the Prophet would enter the mosque through this room. This original meaning of mihrab - i.e. as a special room in the house - continues to be preserved in some forms of Judaism where mihrabs are rooms used for private worship. In the Koran (xix.12), the word mihrab refers to a sanctuary/place of worship.[1]
During the reign of the Uthman Ibn Affan (r. 644-656), the Caliph ordered a sign to be posted on the wall of the mosque at Medina so that pilgrims could easily identify the direction in which to address their prayers (i.e. that of Mecca). The sign was however just a sign on the wall, and the wall itself remained flat. Subsequently, during the reign of Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik (Al-Walid I, r. 705-715), the mosque of the Prophet - the Masjid al Nabawi - was renovated and the governor (wāli) of Medina, Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz, ordered that a niche be made to designate the qibla wall (which identifies the direction of Mecca), and it was in this niche that Uthman's sign was placed.
Eventually, the niche came to be universally understood to identify the qibla wall, and so came to be adopted as a feature in other mosques. A sign was no longer necessary.
The Koranic passage (xix.11) that refers to a mihrab – "... then he [i.e. Zakariya] came forth to his people from the sanctuary/place of worship ..." – is inscribed on or over some mihrabs.[1]
Today, Mihrabs vary in size, are usually ornately decorated and often designed to give the impression of an arched doorway or a passage to Mecca.
In exceptional cases, the mihrab does not follow the qibla direction. One example is the Mezquita of Córdoba, Spain that points South instead of Southeast. Among the proposed explanations, there is the localization of the ancient Roman cardo street besides the old temple the Mezquita was built upon.
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Islamic Dictionary. Copyright © 2002 yourDictionary.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mihrab". Read more |
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