Minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets serve multiple purposes. While they provide a visual focal point, they are generally used for the Muslim call to prayer. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, a cap and head. They are generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown.
Functions
In the early 9th century, the first minarets were placed opposite the qibla wall. Oftentimes, this placement was not beneficial in reaching the community for the call to prayer. They served as a reminder that the region was Islamic and helped to distinguish mosques from the surrounding architecture. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the other function is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer, or adhan, is made. The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret.
Construction
The basic form of minarets consists of four parts: a base, a shaft, a cap and a head. Minarets may be conical, square, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a counter-clockwise fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony that 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 displaying muqarnas.
History
The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller tower structures. Hadiths relay that the early Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer. Scholarly findings trace the origin of minarets to the Umayyad Caliphate and explain that these minarets were a copy of church steeples found in Syria in those times. The first minarets were derived architecturally from the Syrian church tower. Other references suggest that the towers in Syria originated from ziggurats of Babylonian and Assyrian shrines of Mesopotamia. The first known minarets appear in the early 9th century under Abbasid rule, and were not widely used until the 11th century. These early minaret forms were originally placed in the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall. These towers were built across the empire in a height to width ratio of 3:1. The oldest minaret is the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia and it is consequently the oldest minaret still standing. The construction of the Great Mosque of Kairouan dates to the year 836. The mosque is constituted by three levels of decreasing widths that reach 31.5 meters tall. Minarets have had various forms in light of their architectural function. Minarets are built out of any material that is readily available, and often changes from region to region. The number of minarets by mosques is not fixed, originally one minaret would accompany each mosque, then the builder could construct several more.
Local styles
Central Asia ;Egypt ;East China ;Iraq ;Iran:The minarets of 12th century Iran often had cylindrical shafts with square or octagonal bases that taper towards their capitals. These minarets became the most common style across the Islamic world. These forms were also highly decorated. Pairs of minaret towers that flank the mosque entrance originate from Iran. ;Southeast Asia ;Tunisia ;Turkey ;West Africa
