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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS |
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MOSQUE (through Fr. mosquie; Span. mezquila, from Arab. masjid, sajada, to adore) , the house of prayer in the I, Kibleh. 5, Fountain for ablution. 2, Minbar. 6, 6, Rooms built later. 3, Tomb of `Amr. 7, Minaret. 4, Dikka. 8, Latrines. Mahommedan religion, consisting generally of a large open court (sahn) surrounded by arcades (liwan), with a fountain (mida-a) in the centre of the court, for the ablutions necessary before prayer. The principal feature in the mosque is the niche (mihrab), which is sunk in a wall
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Most mosques have endowed property, which is administered by a warden (nazir), who also appoints the imams and other officials. The larger mosques have two imams: one is called (in Arabia and Egypt) the khatib, and he preaches the sermon on Fridays (the Moslem Sabbath) ; the other, the ratib, reads the Koran, and recites the five daily prayers, standing
The earliest mosque erected was that at Mecca, which consisted of a great court, in the centre of which was the Ka'ba or Holy Stone. The court was surrounded with arcades, all of which constituted the prayer chamber, so that its plan is necessarily different to the normal type; the existing buildings date only from the first half of the 17th century, as the whole mosque was destroyed by a torrent in 1626. The normal type referred to is best represented in the mosque of `Amr (see 'AMR-IBN-EL-ASS) at Fostat, Cairo; built in A.D. 643 it still retains its original arrangement, though partly rebuilt and increased in its dimensions. The mosque (see fig. 1), now in a somewhat ruined condition, covers an area of about 130,000 sq. ft. with an open court, 240 ft. sq., and a sanctuary or prayer chamber, io6 ft. deep, there being a central avenue and ten aisles on either side. The columns and capitals were all taken from ancient buildings, Egyptian, Roman and Byzantine, and they carry arches of different forms, semicircular, pointed and horseshoe. The columns and other materials of the mosque of el-Aksa at Jerusalem were taken by Abdalmalik (A.D. 69o) from the ruins of Justinian's church of St Mary on Mount
Dome of the Rock, at Jerusalem, is only a shrine erected over the sacred rock, so that the title often ascribed to it as " the mosque of Omar " is misleading.The mosque of the Omayyads in Damascus was built by the Caliph Walid in A.D. 705 on the foundations of the basilican church of St John: its plan differs therefore from the normal type in that its arcades run east and west, and the transept in the centre becomes the prayer chamber. The Mecca niche is sunk in the doorway of a Roman temple which formerly occupied the same site, and the substructure of the minaret at the south-west angle is of still more ancient date. The great court on the north side has a lofty cloister round it, so that in many respects it follows the normal type. The mosque of Abmad Ibn Tulun, in Cairo (A.D. 879), is the first mosque erected in which the materials were not taken from ancient buildings; it has therefore a special interest
The next important mosque is that of Kairawan in Tunisia, which was founded by Sidi Okba in A.D. 675, but was partly rebuilt and added to in the following two centuries. Its court covers an area of 38,000 sq. ft., and its prayer chamber is 150 ft. deep, having a central avenue and eight aisles on each side. The chief
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aPeet portion was extended 150 ft. in the rear by Hakim II., the mihrab and Mecca wall
The mosque of el Azhar, " the splendid," was begun about A.D. 970 by Jauhar, the general of the Fatimite Caliph Moizz, who captured Fostat and founded el Kahira, the present town of Cairo. It was based, therefore, on the great mosque at Kairawan, and although more or less rebuilt, it still pre-serves its original plan. It has a special interest in being the chief
lodgings, live, eat and sleep in the mosque. Each has a large chest are piled against the walls to a height of seven or eight feet. The students pay no fees, but the richer ones give presents to the lecturers, who sit on the matting in various parts of the sanctuary or cloister, while the students sit round each lecturer in a circle. The usual course of study lasts for three years, though some students remain for much longer. The chief of the lecturers, called the Sheik el-Azhar, receives about roo a year, the others little or nothing, as regular pay. The Koran, sacred and secular law, logic, poetry, arithmetic, with some medicine and geography, are the chief subjects of study. Of other mosques in Cairo, the finest is that of Sultan Hasan (fig. 2), completed in All. 1360. It differs from the normal type in many respects, as it includes residences for various sects, so that portions of it, with the several storeys externally, resemble an immense mansion or warehouse, and this would seem to have led to an important change inside, as instead of a cloister of two or more aisles there are four immense halls all covered with pointed barrel vaults. Beyond the Mecca wall is the tomb of the founder, covered with an immense dome .The entrance doorway on the north-east side is over 8o ft. in height, its summit being decorated with stalactite vaults, one of the grandest features in Mahommedan architecture, only equalled by the magnificent portals of the mosques in India The central square court, of moderate dimensions, with halls and great recesses, is followed in other examples in Cairo, among which the Tomb Mosque of Kait-Bey (c. A.D. 1470) is the most graceful (fig. 3). In this case the central court is roofed over, and has an octagon lantern in the centre; the recesses are covered with horizontal
Although the conquest of Persia by the Arabs took place in A.D. 641 there are no remains of mosques there earlier than the 13th century, and the oldest example at Tabriz is evidently, as far as its plan is concerned, a copy of a Byzantine church, departing entirely therefore from the normal plans.' The great mosque at Isfahan, built by Shah Abbas the Great (1585-1629), has one great court (225 ft. by 170 ft.) and two smaller ones, all with fountains in them. The prayer chamber is a lofty structure, quite unlike those of Egypt and Kairawan, with a dome 75 ft. in diameter and halls on each side divided into two aisles, each compartment being covered with a dome, in this respect also not following the early normal type, in which domes were only found over tombs. The mosques of Constantinople are all copies more or less of S. Sophia
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In India as in other countries the Mahommedans took possession of the ancient buildings and adapted them to their religious requirements. The materials of the native styles of India, however, did not lend themselves to their utilization as in Syria, Egypt and North Africa, where the columns and capitals formed the substructure of the arcades which surrounded their courts. In the earliest mosque at old Delhi, they adopted the piers and bracketed capitals of the Jaina builders, whom they probably employed to build their mosque. They, however, had no confidence in the arch, which, as the Hindu says, " never sleeps but is always tending to its own destruction," so that the pointed arch, which had almost become the emblem of the Mahommedan religion, had to be dispensed with for the covered aisles which surrounded the great court, and in the triple entrance gateway the form of an arch only was retained, as it was constructed with horizontal
' It is very generally held that this " Blue Mosque " dates only from the 15th century (see TABRIZ). Hasan, Cairo. I, 2, Main entrance. 3, Court open to sky. 4, 5, Fountains. in which to keep his 6, 6, North and south vaulted transepts (the dotted lines show the curve clothes and books; these of the vault). 8, 9, Dikka. lo, Sanctuary. II, Minbar. 12, Kibleh. 13, Door to tomb. 14, Domed tomb-chamber. 15, Tomb within screen. 16, Kibleh. 17, 17, Minarets. 18, 19, 20, Various entrances to mosque. 21, Small rooms connected with service of the mosque. 22, Sultan's private entrance. 2, Lobby and cisterns for ablution. 3, Great minaret. 4, Kibleh. 5, Minbar. 6, Sultan's tomb-chamber. 7, The tomb within a screen. 8, Dikka. (For - views of interior and exterior, see ARCHITECTURE.) in the entrance gateway of the Lal Darwaza or Red Gate mosque at Jaunpur, where an arch (of two rings of ogee shape) is carried by a solid wall, built under it, which is pierced with three doorways with bracket-capitals and architraves, returning therefore to trabeated construction. The covered aisles of the court of the Jumma Musjid at Jaunpur are in three storeys with piers, bracket-capitals and architraves, bearing therefore no resemblance to the arcades of Kairawan and Cordova, and constituting a different style. There is however one feature which throughout the Mahommedan mosques in India is always found, viz. the dome. But this also in India is built in horizontal courses, so that the form only and not the construction of the Cairene domes is followed. The chief peculiarity of the mosques at Ahmedabad is that, as the style progressed, it became more Indian; in the Jumma Musjid (A.D. 1420) and the Queen's mosque at Mirzapur, the pointed arch exists only in the facades of the prayer chambers; in the mosques built 30 to 40 years later the whole is constructed without a single arch, all the pillars have bracket-capitals, and the domes, which are of very slight elevation
The climax of Mahommedan work in India is reached in that of the Mogul emperors at Agra, Delhi and Fatehpur-Sikri, in which there is a very close resemblance in design to the mosques of Syria, Egypt, and Persia; the four-centred arch, which is in the Mogul style, finds general acceptance, and was probably derived from Persian sources. The mosque at Fatehpur-Sikri possesses in its great southern gateway, built by Akbar in the second half of the 16th century, the masterpiece of Indo-Saracenci architecture. As a rule, the mosques of India followed the normal plan, with a great central court and aisles round and a prayer chamber in front of the Mecca wall, which in India is always at the west end. (R. P. S.) End of Article: MOSQUE (through Fr. mosquie; Span. mezquila, from Arab. masjid, sajada, to adore) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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