This service is provided in partnership with Expedia. Do note that each booking is limited to a maximum of 6 pax in total. Sultan Mosque. Sultan Mosque in daylight. Sultan Mosque through the arches of Kampong Gelam. You also will find the minbar , a pulpit where the leader of the prayer, the imam, stands on top. And of course in the mihrab niche itself you will find the mosque lamp. So you see that all these items are actually concentrated around the prayer, which is, in a way, materialized through these different objects.
Walter Denny: What about the carpets on the floor? What function do they serve in the ritual? Deniz Beyazit: Of course, the carpets, they are aligned in the mosque in order to reinforce, actually, the orientation to the qibla and the orientation of the whole building. Actually, most of the things we can see here in the galleries—like the lamps, parts of a wooden minbar , Qur'an holder, beautiful Iznik tiles, the carpets—we have to put them back into their original context. So one of these contexts is the mosque.
Walter Denny: So for those of us who are not Muslims, it's important for us to remember, then, that many of these beautiful things have a context that, for a Muslim, has a very deep religious meaning. Visiting The Met? Essential Architectural Elements of a Mosque The essential architectural elements include: The qibla is the direction Muslims face when praying toward the Ka'ba in Mecca.
The qibla wall is the wall in a mosque that faces Mecca. The mihrab is a niche in the qibla wall indicating the direction of Mecca; because of its importance, it is usually the most ornate part of a mosque, highly decorated and often embellished with inscriptions from the Qur'an see image 4.
The style, layout, and decoration of a mosque can tell us a lot about Islam in general, but also about the period and region in which the mosque was constructed. The home of the Prophet Muhammad is considered the first mosque. His house, in Medina in modern-day Saudi Arabia, was a typical 7th-century Arabian style house, with a large courtyard surrounded by long rooms supported by columns.
The architecture of a mosque is shaped most strongly by the regional traditions of the time and place where it was built. As a result, style, layout, and decoration can vary greatly. Nevertheless, because of the common function of the mosque as a place of congregational prayer, certain architectural features appear in mosques all over the world. The most fundamental necessity of congregational mosque architecture is that it be able to hold the entire male population of a city or town women are welcome to attend Friday prayers, but not required to do so.
To that end congregational mosques must have a large prayer hall. In many mosques this is adjoined to an open courtyard, called a sahn. Within the courtyard one often finds a fountain, its waters both a welcome respite in hot lands, and important for the ablutions ritual cleansing done before prayer. Mecca is the city in which the Prophet Muhammad was born, and the home of the most important Islamic shrine, the Kaaba. The direction of Mecca is called the qibla , and so the wall in which the mihrab is set is called the qibla wall.
No matter where a mosque is, its mihrab indicates the direction of Mecca or as near that direction as science and geography were able to place it. Therefore, a mihrab in India will be to the west, while a one in Egypt will be to the east. The main donator, and his family were in many cases legally considered the owner of the mosque. In other cases it was the Qadi kadi , the judge of Sharia, who acted as the main administrator Nazir of the mosque.
The power of the Nazir was considerable and his position have often given room for intense conflicts between individuals and groups.
The factual leader of Alat in the mosques was the ruler who held the title imam. Local rulers had a parallel position under the title Ala Salat.
The position of Khatib is a result of the imam being unable to perform the Salat of Fridays , the Khutba. The Khatib could be a Qadi, and in larger mosques several Khatibs could be appointed. Today in Turkey most of the new mosques are built by the people living in the neighborhood with donations , or in case of necessity, religious and charity organizations can build them as well.
Mosques are centers of cities or of neighborhoods in cities. This function does not always have to be structured but can be connected to mentality, and the construction of a new mosque makes a center emerge.
Very few mosques lie in open areas and does not have shops and commercial activities in the streets around it. People's houses are often lying in a second "circle" outside the mosque and the shops. Other social functions have often been connected to mosques, schools, law courts, hospitals , and lodging for travelers. This pattern is based upon the Madina mosque, but is of less importance today as city planning now often use Western models. When entering the mosque a person shall take off his shoes or sandals.
Entering the mosque shall be done with the right foot first, while one utters blessings to Muhammad and his family. Once inside the mosque, two Rak'as shall be performed. A person inside the mosque shall talk softly, not loudly, so that he or she does not disturb people praying. For the Friday prayer nice and clean dress and perfumes are recommended. Women entering mosques are not prevented through neither the Koran nor the Sunna, but there are regulations on how she shall behave in a mosque.
Mosques can be segregated either in time or in space. But in some Muslim countries women entering mosques have not been welcomed and mosques can be closed to women, either by local rules or by habit.
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