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minaret

 
Dictionary: min·a·ret   (mĭn'ə-rĕt') pronunciation
n.
A tall slender tower attached to a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer.

[French, from Turkish minārat, from Arabic manāra, lamp.]


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Architecture: minaret
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A tall tower in, or contiguous to, a mosque with stairs leading up to one or more balconies from which the faithful are called to prayer.

Persian portal with dome, flanked by minarets


 
minaret (mĭnərĕt'), tower, used in Islamic architecture, from which the faithful are called to prayer by a muezzin. Most mosques have one or more small towers, which are usually placed at the corners. The earliest structures specifically built as minarets were the four low square towers at the four corners of the Mosque of Amr in Egypt (A.D. 673). The square form remained in use in Syria until the 13th cent. and in the Maghreb until modern times; the minaret of Giralda in Seville (A.D. 1195) is famous. The free-standing conical minaret surrounded by a spiral staircase, probably deriving from the ancient Babylonian ziggurat, was built at Samarra, Iraq, and in Cairo in the second half of the 9th cent. The most typical Egyptian development is seen in the octagonal minarets of the two 15th-century Cairo mosques of El-Azhar and Kait-bey; both have two balconies, the upper smaller than the lower, over projecting friezes of stalactite vaulting and are surmounted by an elongated and bulbous finial. The most distinctly Persian development (see Persian art and architecture) are the two pairs of slim, towering minarets flanking the huge entrance arches of the Isfahan Masjid-i Shah (c.1612); the conical shafts terminate in covered balconies and are entirely encased in brilliant blue tiles. See Islamic art and architecture.


Tower associated with a mosque.

The minaret has been used for centuries by muezzins (Arabic mu'adhdhinun, Muslim criers) for the call to daily prayers, but its original use is unclear. The earliest mosques in Arabia had no minaret, and the first towers in seventh-century Cairo (Egypt) and Damascus (Syria) may not have been built expressly for the call.

Minarets have been designed in many styles over time and space. Early ones were often square or octagonal, some with winding exterior staircases, while the sixteenth-century Ottomans built needle-thin, cylindrical minarets with conical peaks. Today, the muezzin does not always climb the minaret to call for prayers; minarets are often outfitted with loudspeakers.

ELIZABETH THOMPSON

Islamic Dictionary: minaret
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Tower-like architectural feature of many mosques, from which the muadhdhin/muezzin recites the call (adhan) for prayer (salat).

Wikipedia: Minaret
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For the mountain formation, see Minarets (California).
TajMahalbyAmalMongia.jpg

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Minarets (Turkish: minare,[1] from Arabic manāra (lighthouse) منارة, usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure.

Contents

Functions of minarets

Mosque in Aswan, Egypt, with minarets.

The earliest mosques were built without minarets, the adhan (call to prayer) performed elsewhere; hadiths relay that the Muslim community of Madina gave the call to prayer from the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer. Around 80 years after Muhammad's death the first known minarets appeared.[citation needed] As well as providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the main function of the minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the muezzin can call out the adhan, calling the faithful to prayer. In most modern mosques, the adhan is called not from the minaret, but from the musallah, or prayer hall, via a microphone and speaker system. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, minarets originally served as illuminated watchtowers (hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning "light").[citation needed]

Minarets also function as air conditioning mechanisms: as the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows then up and out of the minaret, thereby providing natural ventilation.[citation needed]

Minarets have been described as the "gate from heaven and earth", and as the Arabic language letter alif (which is a straight vertical line).[citation needed]

The world's tallest minaret (at 210 meters) is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco The world's tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India. There are two 230 meter tall minarets under construction in Tehran, Iran.[citation needed]

Construction

Minarets basic form consist of three parts: a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a hard foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation; it is unusual for the minaret to be built directly upon ground-level soil. Minarets may be conical (tapering), square, cylindrical, or polygonal (faceted). Stairs circle the shaft in a counter-clockwise fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony which encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer. It is covered by a roof-like canopy and adorned with ornamentation, such as decorative brick and tile work, cornices, arches and inscriptions, with the transition from the shaft to the gallery typically sporting muqarnas. Originally plain in style, a minaret's origin in time can be determined by its level of ostentation.[citation needed]

Local styles

Styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive:

Turkish (11th cen) 
1, 2, 4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque. Slim, circular minarets of equal cross-section are common.
Egypt (7th cen) / Syria (until 13th century) 
Low square towers sitting at the four corners of the mosque.
Iraq 
For a free-standing conical minaret surrounded by a spiral staircase, see Malwiya.
Egypt (15th century) 
Octagonal. Two balconies, the upper smaller than the lower, projecting mukarnas, surmounted by an elongated finial.
Persia (17th century) 
Generally two pairs of slim, blue tile clad towers flanking the mosque entrance, terminating in covered balconies.
Tatar (18th century)
A sole minaret is used, placed at the center of a gabled roof.
Morocco
Typically a single square minaret. A notable exception is the octagonal minaret located in Chefchaouen.
India
Octagonal, generally three balconied, with the upper most roofed by an onion dome and topped by a small finial.

Examples

Opposition to minarets

See also: Minaret controversy in Switzerland

As a symbolic marker of Muslim presence, minarets have occasionally elicited political and religious opposition in traditionally non-Muslim countries; in 2007, Swiss right-wing politicians of the Swiss People's Party announced the launch of a people's initiative that would amend the constitution to prohibit the building of minarets (but not of mosques themselves).[2] As of October 2009, minarets in Switzerland total four: one in Zürich, Geneva, Winterthur, and Wangen bei Olten. [3] The construction of several others is being planned.[citation needed]

References

External links


Translations: Minaret
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - minaret

Nederlands (Dutch)
minaret

Français (French)
n. - minaret

Deutsch (German)
n. - Minarett

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) μιναρές

Italiano (Italian)
minareto

Português (Portuguese)
n. - minarete (m)

Русский (Russian)
минарет

Español (Spanish)
n. - minarete, alminar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - minaret

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
尖塔

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 尖塔

한국어 (Korean)
n. - (회교 사원의) 광탑

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ミナレット, 光塔

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) منارة المسجد, مئذنه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צריח-מסגד, מינרט‬


 
 
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Muezzin
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