CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Mosque

The Word ‘Masjid’ [Place of worship for Muslims] is derived from the Arabic verb ‘sa-ja-da’

meaning to prostrate or bow down to worship Allah (SWT).

Hadith

[According to one Hadith “The [whole] earth is a Masjid for you, so wherever you are at the time

of prayer, make your prostration there” [Sahih Bukhari, Vol 1, Book 7, no. 331].

Qur’an

The Qur’an makes it obligatory to build and maintain a place for worship, “The Masajid of Allah

(SWT) shall be visited and maintained [‘amara] by those who believe in Allah (SWT) and the

last day, and establish regular prayers…” [Al-Qur’an 9:18].

In another place in the Qur’an, “In houses (Masajid), which Allâh has ordered to be raised (to be

cleaned, and to be honored), in them His Name is glorified in the mornings and in the afternoons

or the evenings”

[Al-Qur’an 24:36].

First Masjid of Islam: “The messenger of Allah [Prophet Muhammad pbuh] came to

Madinah…ordered a Masjid to be built. Trees were [cut and thus] placed in rows towards qiblah

(direction toward Makkah) and stones were set forth on both sides of the door…” [Sahih-al-

Bukhari Vol I, no. 437].

Originally the Masjid was a rectangular enclosure approximately 60 x 70 cubits (distance from

elbow to middle finger about 21 inches) with door pierced in the eastern and western walls. It

contained a colonnade, a shaded porch supported by columns (zullah) consisting of palm trunk

columns along the northern wall, where Muslims would gather to worship.

Sixteen or seventeen months after Hijrah, the qiblah was changed from Jerusalem to Makkah

which altered the southern wall. A shaded portico was added along this wall from east to west

facing Makkah which served as the qiblah.

The Masjid had adjacent residential quarters for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his family

which can be entered through the sanctuary.

Northern zullah becomes the sanctuary for the poor to rest and pray. Many companions retire

from material life to spend all their times in ibadat and were known as “AHL-AL-SUFFAH”.

The courtyard was commonly used as a civic space and on one occasion a group of Abyssinian

performed a sword-and-lances dance. The Masjid was later used for Jummah (Friday Prayer), a

minbar with three steps was added to make it easier for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to be heard

during the Khutbah (Friday Sermon).

In summary, the first Masjid of Islam was simple, open to all, and a center of all activities.

TYPES OF MOSQUES

In terms of two functions, since Islam did not have a pyramidal church system, this is not a

hierarchical classification but one based on the scale and purposes of worship practiced in situ:

whether it is individual or collective, for funeral ceremonies or the two great yearly festivals. It

has already been discussed.

In terms of three compositions, this is a classification of ‘forms’ of plans and spatial constitution.

As we have already seen the difference between the ‘single room-type’ and ‘courtyard-type’, we

now pay attention to the four great typical mosque types. They are the ‘Arabic type’, ‘Persian

type’, ‘and Turkish type’.

The first, Arabic type is the architectural style widely spread throughout Islamic world,

becoming as fundamental as the Arabic language.

In response to the weakening of the Abbasid Dynasty, its subordinate local regions became

politically independent and developed their own individual architectural cultures. Three empires

especially, which were in a three-way contest over the entire Islamic world in early modern times

(16th-17th centuries), respectively established characteristic mosque forms. That is, the Safavid

Dynasty in Persia, the Ottoman Dynasty in Turkey.

Each empire constructed enormous mosques in their various territories and their influence spread

even to its neighboring countries. Therefore, the Persian type, Turkish type, along with the

Arabic type, became typical mosque types. I will explain their traits in detail below.

Arabic Type

When the sixth Khalifa, Walid I, reconstructed the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina (Medina) in

705, the Great Mosques in Basra and Kufa had already been completed, so the Madina Mosque

adopted almost the same plan.

Compared to the original Prophet’s Mosque, it became four times larger, but it was still very

simple, with hypostyle halls surrounding a courtyard, or rather as if a courtyard was hollowed

out from the central part of the great hypostyle hall.

There are almost no expressive elements outwards on its outer walls, seeming to have no

intention to make even the entrance portal imposing. Only some small entrance apertures were

provided for practical purposes on the outer walls.

As Muhammad’s inclination must have reflected on these early mosques, it is assumed that he

himself did not intend to make mosque architecture monumental.

Thus though the scale of mosques became larger, the mainstream was still pragmatic plain

mosques. On the other hand, since Walid I was the Khalifa who constructed the first

monumental mosque in Damascus (the Umayyad Mosque), he also embellished the interior of

the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina with opulent mosaics.

Since then mosque architecture has worn an antinomic attitude: one is a bid to make mosques

with simplicity and fortitude following Muhammad’s original instructions, and the other is the

tendency to make them magnificent in order not to be beaten by other religions for the

acquisition of new believers.

As these courtyard-type mosques, modeled after the Prophet’s Mosque, were erected far and

wide in the Arabic world, they are called ‘Arabic type’ mosques.

The Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo is its typical example, the worship hall of which is a

homogeneous space with numerous pillars arranged methodically. Moreover the other three side

of the courtyard are also made of the same elements such as pillars, arches and their ornaments,

although the direction of the arcades are different, and everywhere has the same flat roof at the

same height, giving no difference wherever one worships.

Only the space before the Mihrab is heightened, capped with a small dome. As the ages elapsed,

this dome was gradually enlarged in Persia and would become the major space in a mosque.
Incidentally, as opposed to wooden beams built horizontally over columns in four quarters, lined

up arcades of brick or stone naturally generate a certain definite direction. In spite of the fact that

whether the arcades are in a parallel direction or at right angles to the Qibla wall, each generating

a different impression of ‘movement’ in the interior space of a mosque, it is quite strange that

Arabic type mosques have various directions without a fundamental principle.

While in the case of Catholic churches, the arcades are always set in the direction of depth

toward the apse, the architects of the Arabic type mosques did not seem to give any attention to

the direction of space.

As result, the other three Riwaq (cloisters) surrounding the Sahn (courtyard) has also either the

same direction as the Haram (worship hall) or opposite. That might have related to the fact that

they gradually became simple cloisters with a different character from the worship hall.

While the Riwaq of the great mosque of Kairawan were formed through an extension of the

worship hall, those of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus were cloisters from the beginning,

owing to the fact hat they were converted from the existing cloisters of a Christian church. In the

case of the Mezquita of Cordoba, its Riwaq were newly constructed as cloisters from the start.

The materials used in Arabic type mosques are either wood, brick or stone. While in a wooden

mosque one can see far through slender timber columns, brick pillars are so thick that a

multitude of them divides the interior space in pieces. This character generates a strange

religious architectural space, which is quite different from that of modern architecture in which

an extensive floor must be under a large spanned structure.

The trait of Arabic type mosques, that everywhere from the courtyard to the Riwaq and Haram is

thoroughly continuous, is best incarnated by the Amr Mosque in Old Cairo. It is the oldest
mosque in Egypt, built in 641, and holds well the original structural system and spatial features,

in spite of having been enlarged and reconstructed several times. In this mosque, since its

columns are monolithic ones brought from ancient buildings, they do not especially disturb the

visibility through its entire interior space, giving an impression as if the flowing colonnaded

space spreads infinitely.

Persian Type

It was the introduction of ‘Iwan’, an architectural legacy of the pre-Islamic Sassanid Dynasty,

into the architectural composition of mosques by Persians that brought about an epochal

development in the history of mosque architecture.

In early times builders made the central span of the arcades of worship halls facing courtyards

moderately broader and higher than the others, stressing the central nave towards the Mihrab.

When an iwan is set in this place, the courtyard comes to life at once. Although the iwan during

the Sassanid era had the function of a throne or an audience hall, functions not needed in a

mosque, the form was adopted with the intention of formatively glorifying the mosques.

When the central axis was thus accentuated, a counterpart came to be desirable on the opposite

spot of the courtyard on this axis. Setting up another iwan there opposite each other generated a

‘Double-Iwan’ mosque; a simple mosque of a hypostyle hall surrounding a courtyard thus grew

into a highly modulated impressive building.

Moreover, when putting iwans on the center of the other two side of the courtyard, it becomes a

‘Four-Iwan Type’ mosque, in which four iwans face each other on two crossing axes,

augmenting its formative effect tremendously.

The Friday Mosque in Zavareh from the 12th century is said to be the first example of the Four-

Iwan type. As it was a mosque in a local town, its scale is modest; its courtyard is about 16m

square, with iwans of about a third of the width of each side facing each other, making the

courtyard completely different from those of Arabic type mosques. The centripetalism of the

courtyard surrounded by four iwans was so intense that the courtyard became a more symbolic

space than the worship hall itself.

In the case of the Friday Mosque of Isfahan, a classical hypostyle mosque (built in the Abbasid

era) was dramatically altered into a Four-Iwan type mosque in the 12th century. The insides of

the iwans formed half domes or semi-cylinder vault ceilings, often magnificently ornamented

with Muqarnas (stalactite decoration). It can be said that it was a manifestation of Persian

people’s sensibility that attaches more importance to outer appearances than do the Arabs.

There were also other changes from the Arabic to Persian types. The first was making roofs

incombustible. In contrast to the roof of Arabic type mosques that was basically flat and made of

timber in the wake of the Syria-Byzantine tradition, Persians sought a way of constructing

buildings entirely with brick due to the lack of enough quantity of wood. They built an arch over

every intercolumniation and a dome on each bay demarcated with four arches.

And then, they removed columns in front of the Mihrab, making an extensive square space

surmounted with a large dome. This lofty space formed the main place of worship,

differentiating it from homogeneous Arabic type ones, as a varied and captivating worship hall.

This architectural form was applied not only to mosques but also to buildings serving other

various functions, such as palaces, Madrasas (schools), Khanqahs (monasteries for Sufis), and

Caravanserais. Madrasas especially came to profoundly connect with this form, using the half-
exterior spaces of iwans as rooms for lectures or discussions.

The Four-Iwan form spread across the Persian area up to Egypt, Turkey, Central Asia, even to

India. Some regional transformations occurred on the way; in Egypt, neighboring iwans were

almost combined with each other at each corner of a courtyard, removing cloisters.

What remains largely unsatisfied in the Persian Four-Iwan type mosques is the external

relationship. Since this form fundamentally stuck to a concept concerned with the courtyard

only, it was indifferent to the external appearance of mosques, and found no desirable system of

approach from outside.

If the Qibla toward the Mihrab is fixed as the main axis, the iwan on the opposite side of the

courtyard should always be the main entrance to the mosque, but most mosques are not made in

this manner. As the Friday Mosque of Isfahan shows, the entrance way happens to be,

surprisingly, in only a marginal part of Riwaq.

The architects might have been afraid of weakening of the centripetal force of the courtyard, as

happened in cases when one of the four iwans was treated as an entrance way; the center of a

mosque in Persia was the courtyard rather than the worship hall.

However, when this form was introduced into Central Asia, the iwan on the opposite of Macca

transformed into the entrance and a larger iwan standing back to back is a Pishtaq, or

monumental gateway.

Turkish Type

Among the three empires that shared the Islamic world, the Ottoman Empire was the first

established and the longest to survive (1299-1922). The Asian side of Turkey is currently called

the Anatolian Peninsula or Asia Minor. In the 12th century it was ruled by the Seljuks of Rum,
who constructed Seljuk-style buildings all over Anatolia under the strong influence of Syrian and

Armenian architecture.

In the Ottoman era, they were to develop architecture of a quite different character from the

Seljuks, putting greater emphasis on domes. What determined that direction was the Ottoman

conquest of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, in the middle of the 15th

century.

This city, located at the point where Asia meets Europe, had long endured as an independent city

even after most of its territories had been occupied by the Turks. It was the center of Eastern

Christendom, holding the great church of Hagia Sophia, the magnum opus of Byzantine

architecture, constructed in the 6th century.

When Mehmed II of the Ottoman Dynasty ultimately conquered this city, he changed it into his

capital, subsequently called Istanbul, converting this huge domed cathedral into its Great

Mosque. Thus the building that had been the largest Christian church for 900 years became the

largest mosque, the Ayasofya Mosque, for 100 years from this time onward.

While deeply overwhelmed and influenced by it, Ottoman architects did their utmost to create

mosques surpassing it in grandeur and beauty. As that was the process of accomplishment of

Ottoman architecture, they developed the mosque type that was completely different from

adjacent Persia. And even more differently to Arabic type hypostyle space, it developed dome

architecture with an enormous astylar space.

As they took root in western Anatolia, namely in the sphere of Byzantine culture, even before the

conquest of Constantinople, the Ottomans had been evolving a mosque type based on the dome
architecture of the Roman Empire influenced by Oriental architecture. That means Ottoman

architecture was a relative of the great domed building, the Roman Pantheon.

There was also another cause for this Ottoman architectural evolution: in contrast to the Persian

‘Four-Iwan Type’ in focusing courtyards rather than inner worship halls, the Turks, in a colder

climate, attached more importance to worship halls isolated from outside air. They made even

interiorized courtyards during the Seljuk age.

Although courtyards later revived in the Ottoman age, they became rather forecourts of a

secondary role without needing monumental four Iwans. The Ottomans’ concern was, more than

anything else, to enrich the interior spaces under great domes.

As for its exterior, since a Turkish type mosque usually stands on an orderly plan in the center of

an extensive site, it has a much more formal external appearance than a Persian type one.

However, its main dome does not look as great as its real height, because the closer one comes to

a domed mosque, the more its highest part retreats and is lost from sight. Furthermore, their

domes are always covered with blackish lead, thus often appearing gloomy to some degree.

It can be said that Ottoman mosques did not intend to display their greatness outward, and they

have a quite similar appearance to each other, causing a little tediousness feeling. Their main

purpose was the pursuit of their splendid interior spaces, so their external appearances must have

been only a result.

As the Ottoman Empire subdued not only Turkey but also land from Egypt to Eastern Europe, it

constructed Turkish type mosques, each consisting of a grayish dome and a pencil-type Minaret,

throughout the territory. The magnum opuses are the Suleymaniye (mosque of Suleyman I) in
Istanbul and the Selimiye(mosque of Selim II) in Edirne, both of which were designed by the

greatest Ottoman architect, Mimar Sinan.

THE FUNCTION OF MOSQUE

In Islam, mosques are not just “places of prayers.” Mosques are – in modern terminology –

community centers.

The function of the mosque in Islam is one of the major things that have to be reformed before

the Muslim nation is capable of recovering from its present status.

How do Muslims judge what the role of the mosque is from what is not? The answer is clearly

by referring to the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the days of the

message. A quick survey reveals the following roles for the Prophet’s mosque during his

lifetime.

A Place for Prayers for All

The mosque of the Prophet (peace be upon him) -in Madinah- was the main place for the

believers to meet for collective prayers five times a day. This is the one and only role that the

mosque is playing today. However, there is still a major difference, which is that the mosque of

the Prophet (peace be upon him) was opened for everybody, men and women, old and small,

Arab and non-Arab.

Refer, for evidence, to numerous hadith narrated in Bukhari and Muslim, for example, under the

chapters referring to mosques. There are currently shortcomings in mosques in this area in the

following senses:

– Women are generally not allowed in the majority of mosques in the Muslim world and their

“prayer area,” if exists, is usually uncared for than the “men’s area.” The Prophet’s mosque was

different. There was only one area for everybody to pray. Women prayed behind men in their

own lines, and the rationale was clear: Islam is avoiding that non-related men and women have

such a close physical contact while – supposedly – praying to God. Praying in the Kabah is an

exception from this rule for the obvious reason of space limits.

– Banning women from the mosques happened a couple of decades after the death of the Prophet

(peace be upon him) despite the protest of some companions who narrated the Hadith:

“Do not prevent the maids of Allah from visiting the houses of Allah (the mosques).” (Ibn

Majah)

We see, especially in nowadays West, mosques for Arabs and others, in the same vicinity, for

Indians, mosques for Turks and yet others for Afros, etc. All of this is non-Islamic. The

Prophet’s companions were from all sorts of backgrounds and all walks of life and they all

prayed together.

We also see some people banning small children from entering the mosque, which is also

contrary to the tradition of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

A Place for Socialization

The praying community used to connect in the mosque. And it is reported that the Prophet (peace

be upon him) used to ask about any companion whom he missed from the mosque for a day or

two to help him/her if they needed help or visit him/her if they were sick.

A Place for Da’wah (Islamic Call)

There are several authentic hadiths that demonstrate that the mosque of the Prophet was the

normal place for those who would like to ask about Islam to come and ask. Non-Muslims were

not banned or discouraged from the mosque as we, sadly, see today.

A Place for Celebration

The Prophet (peace be upon him) advised the companions to: “announce the wedding

ceremonies, hold them in mosques, and make them known by beating the drums,” and the

mosque is the place for all that.

Eid day was also a celebration day when the “Ethiopians used to play with their arrows in the

mosque,” as Aisha – the Prophet’s wife – narrated. She also reported watching them while

standing beside the Prophet (peace be upon him) in the mosque.

A Place for Meetings and Deliberation

The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to gather his companions in the mosque to discuss serious

matters (like wars, treaties, famines, etc), and come up with decisions about them. The mosque

was also the meeting place for the soldiers of the Islamic army, from which they start their march

for wars and to which they return after they come back.
A Place for Medical Care

Before the Islamic civilization developed hospitals a couple of centuries later, the mosque of the

Prophet (peace be upon him) was a place for care for the wounded in wars and similar crises.

A Place for Education

The illiterate used to learn how to read and write in the mosque of the Prophet (peace be upon

him). Muslims developed their whole Islamic civilization based on education they got in the

mosques.

The only activity that was forbidden in the mosque – in addition to the forbidden immoral acts –

was buying and selling and related things. The Prophet (peace be upon him) made it a point that

mosques are not to be used for material gains.

Otherwise, there are numerous evidences that show that the mosque of the Prophet (peace be

upon him) was simply a “community place” that is full of all sorts of activities.

Mosque Facilities

List of facilities

→ Main Prayer Hall

→ Islamic Liberally

→ Service Room

→ Ablution Area

→ Female Prayer Room