minaret

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For the mountain formation, see Minarets (California).

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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 crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure.

Functions of minarets

Mosque in Aswan, Egypt, with minarets.

As well as providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is traditionally given from the top of the minaret. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, minarets originally served as watchtowers illuminated by torches (hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning "light"). In more recent times, the main function of the minaret was 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 in the minaret, but in the musallah, or prayer hall, via a microphone and speaker system.

In a practical sense, these are also used for natural air conditioning. As the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows and up and out of the shaft, thereby causing a natural ventilation.

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

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.

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 section where the muezzin will 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.

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

The Charminar in Hyderabad, India	The minaret of the Al Muhdhar mosque in Tarim, Yemen	The six minareted Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.	Faisal Mosque Minaret, Islamabad, Pakistan
A typical Iraqi minaret, Baghdad	The minaret of the Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore	The minaret of the Kuzkandi Jamiah Masjid in Baghdada, Mardan	One of the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque also in Lahore
Old adobe minaret in Kharanagh, Iran	Simple wooden pole used as minaret in Nouadhibou, Mauritania

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. Notably, in 2007 Swiss right-wing politicians of 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] Switzerland has currently only two minarets, in Zürich and Geneva, but the construction of several others is being planned.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Minarets

• Minarets, at the Encyclopedia of the Orient
• Minaret Photo Gallery
• Minaret@Everything2.com
• The Minaret The weekly student newspaper of the University of Tampa
• 230 metre tall Minarets Under construction in Iran
• The minaret, Symbol of a civilization