HOA - Characteristic Features of A Mosque

Characteristic
features of a
Mosque
By Ar Sukriti Gopalakrishnan
ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
Features of mosques:
Features of mosques:
a) The Jami Masjid or Mosque
• It is a Friday prayer mosque. Place for prostration or namaj.

• Has a large open court (sahn) surrounded by arcades or
colonnades (Iiwan).
• To ensure protection from sever heat of the sun with a
fountain or tank in the centre for ablution.
• The Iiwan on the Mecca side is expanded & elaborated into
a pillared hall forming the sanctuary with the wall at the
back containing in elegant foliated arch shaped niche
called mihrab showing qibla or the direction for prayer.
Iiwan
Sahn-open courtyard
a) The Jami Masjid or Mosque
• At the right side of mihrab, a pulpit or mimbar is provided with a
reading desk (dikka) from which the priest or imam reads the Quran.
• A portion of the sanctuary is enclosed by a screen (maqsure) forming
a compartment for women (zenana) or for the caliph or his
representative.
• Towers or minaret are provided, from which azaan was given by the
muezzin or maula to call the faithful to prayers at fixed times.
• Also served as a visual marker for locating the mosque from a
distance.
• After dark, for orienting travelers when a lantern or other source of
light was hung on its top.
• Later the minarets increased in numbers and meant solely for their
picturesque effect.
Maqsurah-a screen
b) Madrassah
• A colligiate mosque
• Contains lecture halls, library, residences for students and teachers
• The mosque for prayer
c) Rauza
• A large mausoleum which includes a mosque as a separate building.
• Contained within a spacious square enclosure forming an attractive
garden called Rauza, after the garden ar-Rauza in the Prophet’s
Mosque at Medina.
• Tomb or kabristan consists of a single compartment or huzrah and
covered with a dome.
• Underground chamber is called maqbarah with the grave of qubr in
the centre.
d) Dargah
• Important tombs of nobles
• Dargah derived from a Persian word meaning a court palace
e) Khans
• Are inns or serais for safe storage of goods and accommodation for
merchants and drivers of camel caravans.
• Two-storied building. Ground floor for stabling camels and first floor
for residence of travelers.
f) The Pointed Arch
• Pointed arch symbolizes hands joined in prayer pointing towards
heaven to Mecca indicating all things in the Universe meet in only
One- the Allah.
• Types of arches:
✓ Two-centered pointed arch
✓ Four-centered pointed arch
✓ Ogee arch
✓ Multicentered pointed arch
• Commonly used over door and window openings with beautiful
marble tracery (quamariya) in mosques and wooden tracery
(mashrabiya) in houses.
f) The Pointed Arch
g) The Dome
• Dome symbolizes arch of heaven used invariably in mosques and
tombs.
• Dome is built in brick and stone
• Plastered surfaces are decorated with intricate geometric patterns.
• Fluted or ribbed domes are common in Persia and India.
• In important mosques, was placed on axis of the mihrab, in front of it.
g) The Dome
ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE Types of mosques:
1. A hypostyle hall type, with a flat roof and possible addition of one or
more domes (approached from an axially placed front courtyard)
2. A prayer hall, with mud-brick or rammed earth piers, arches and walls,
structurally strengthened on the outside by closely spaced buttresses.
3. A large courtyard surrounded by a prayer hall, with multiple domes on
one side and by shade galleries on the other 3 sides.
4. A prayer hall with a sloping roof or superimposed roof in a pyramidal
form, set within a walled area.
5. A four-iwan courtyard structure
6. A prayer hall with its central area covered by a large dome,
approached from an axially placed courtyard.
7. A prayer hall covered by a very large central dome supported by a
series of hall domes and often approached from an axially placed
central courtyard
8. A series of pavilions set within a walled area.
Characteristic
features of other
Islamic buildings
The Tomb
• The Prophet disapproved of any commemorative architecture on
graves. Nonetheless, a strong tradition of funerary architecture
developed.
• Tombs were designed as simple structures, but gradually became
more elaborate.
Muslim religious building types included:

✓ Khanaqah-monasteries for Sufi Dervishes
✓ Maristan-hospotals
✓ Turkish imarets-charity kitchen
✓ Sabil Kuttab-drinking water dispensaries
Military buildings
• Built along the frontiers.
• Cities were given defensive walls
• Powerful citadels were built for protection
Residential Structures
• Palace administration complexes, palaces and private residential
dwellings with or without gardens.
• Most prevalent form of dwelling in Islamic cities was interior courtyard
type of house.
• Courtyard provided both light and morning air.
• Either square or rectangular, often contained a garden with a pool or
fountain, plants and pavements.
• Symbolized a microcosmic image of the order of the universe or
paradise in its garden setting, as described in the Quran.
Residential Structures
• Decoration of the interior elements, such as courtyard façade.
• Street façade was usually left plain with a single portal as a main entrance.
• Main entrance did not give access to domestic quarters, but led into a
passage with right-angle turn so that the visitor could not look into the
courtyard of the dwelling.
• Sometime a house had a second entrance for the women.
• Houses divided into 2 zones:
1. Area exclusively for the reception of guests; but this area can be used by
women when the men of the house not around.
2. The harem, closed to visitors except close relatives and was used for
family living.
• Screened balconies allowed women to view the outside world without
being seen. Also, performed the important function of modifying the
climate in the hot areas.
Islamic Gardens
• Highly sophisticated state of landscape; combined intricate geometrical
layout with startingly contrived features.
• Important features not only to homes but also to mosques and
mausoleums throughout the Muslim world.
• The type in longest use was the chahar bagh. Rectangular garden or
garden unit quartered by 2 water channels that intersected at right
angles by 4 water channels meeting perpendicularly at a pool at the
center.
• Gardens used for recreation and pleasure.
• 3 most important elements of Islamic garden:
✓ Close association of palace or pavilion and garden
✓ Use of ornamental pool or canal
✓ Emphasis on formal geometric composition
Islamic Gardens
Islamic Gardens
Assignment-2
❖ Detailed and labelled sketches

of all the elements and planning
of a mosque and tomb.
❖ Detailed and labelled sketches
of all the elements and planning
of an Islamic Garden.

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Characteristic

• It is a Friday prayer mosque. Place for prostration or namaj.

Muslim religious building types included:

❖ Detailed and labelled sketches

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