A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Islamic prayers are performed, such as an outdoor courtyard.Longhurst, Christopher E., "Theology of a Mosque: The Sacred Inspiring Form, Function and Design in Islamic Architecture", Lonaard Journal. Mar 2012, Vol. 2 Issue 8, pp. 3–13 . "Since submission to God is the essence of divine worship, the place of worship is intrinsic to Islam's self-identity. This 'place' is not a building per se but what is evidenced by the etymology of the word mosque which derives from the Arabic masjid meaning 'a place of sujud (prostration).'Colledge, R. (1999). "The mosque". In: Mastering World Religions. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. "A mosque is a building where Muslims bow before Allah to show their submission to His will. It is not necessary to have a building to do this. Muhammad said that 'Wherever the hour of prayer overtakes you, you shall perform the prayer. That place is the mosque'. In his early days in Makkah there was no mosque, so he and his friends would pray anywhere."
Originally, mosques were simple places of prayer for the early Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than elaborate buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture (650–750 CE), early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets, from which the Islamic call to prayer was issued on a daily basis. It is typical of mosque buildings to have a special ornamental niche (a mihrab) set into the wall in the direction of the city of Mecca (the qibla), which Muslims must face during prayer, as well as a facility for ritual cleansing (wudu). The pulpit (minbar), from which public sermons (khutbah) are delivered on the event of Friday prayer, was, in earlier times, characteristic of the central city mosque, but has since become common in smaller mosques. To varying degrees, mosque buildings are designed so that there are segregated spaces for men and women. This basic pattern of organization has assumed different forms depending on the region, period, and Islamic denomination.
In addition to being places of worship in Islam, mosques also serve as locations for funeral services and funeral prayers, marriages (nikah), vigils during Ramadan, disputes, collection and distribution of alms, and homeless shelters. To this end, mosques have historically been multi-purpose buildings functioning as community centres, courts of law, and religious schools. In modern times, they have also preserved their role as places of religious instruction and debate. Special importance is accorded to, in descending order of importance: al-Masjid al-Haram in the city of Mecca, where Hajj and Umrah are performed; the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina, where Muhammad is buried; and al-Aqsa Mosque in the city of Jerusalem, where Muslims believe that Muhammad ascended to heaven to meet God around 621 CE.
During and after the early Muslim conquests, mosques were established outside of Arabia in the hundreds; many synagogues, churches, and temples were converted into mosques and thus influenced Islamic architectural styles over the centuries. While most pre-modern mosques were funded by charitable endowments (waqf), the modern-day trend of government regulation of large mosques has been countered by the rise of privately funded mosques, many of which serve as bases for different streams of Islamic revivalism and social activism.
Etymology The word mosque entered the English language from the French , probably derived from Italian (a variant of Italian ), from either Middle Armenian մզկիթ (mzkit), Medieval (masgídion), or Spanish , from ("site of prostration in prayer" and hence a place of worship), either from Nabataean masgĕdhā́ or from (meaning "to prostrate"), probably ultimately from Nabataean Arabic masgĕdhā́ or Aramaic sĕghēdh.For the word's origin from French and probable origin from Italian moscheta, see "mosque, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. . For the derivation of moscheta from Arabic sajada see "mesquita, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. . For the probable origin of "sajada" from Aramaic, and the meanings of sajada and masjid in Arabic, see "masjid, n.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. . For the inclusion of Spanish mesquita, possible derivation from Nabataean masgĕdhā́, and the Aramaic sĕghēdh, see Klein, E., A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Elsevier Publishing, 1966), p. 1007.
History Origins
Islam was established in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad in the 7th century CE. The first mosque in history could be either the sanctuary built around the Ka'bah in Mecca, known today as Al-Masjid al-Haram ('The Sacred Mosque'), or the Quba Mosque in Medina, the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622 CE, both located in the Hejaz region in present-day Saudi Arabia.
Other scholars reference Islamic traditionEsposito (2002b), pp. 4–5. and passages of the Quran, according to which Islam as a religion precedes Muhammad, and includes previous prophets such as Abraham. In Islamic tradition, Abraham is credited with having built the Ka'bah in Mecca, and consequently its sanctuary, Al-Masjid al-Haram, which is seen by Muslims as the first mosque that existed. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the sanctuary of the Ka'bah was the first mosque on Earth, with the second mosque being Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, which is also associated with Abraham. Since as early as 638 CE, the Sacred Mosque of Mecca has been expanded on several occasions to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims who either live in the area or make the annual pilgrimage known as Hajj to the city.
Either way, after the Quba Mosque, Muhammad went on to establish another mosque in Medina, which is now known as Al-Masjid an-Nabawi ('The Prophet's Mosque'). Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Prophet's Mosque is considered by some scholars of Islamic architecture to be the first mosque.: "The first mosque was the house of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. This was a simple rectangular (53 by 56 m) enclosure containing rooms for the Prophet and his wives and a shaded area on the south side of the courtyard which could be used for prayer in the direction of Mecca. This building became the model for subsequent mosques which had the same basic courtyard layout with a prayer area against the qibla wall.": "The first mosque, a building that Muhammad erected at Medina in 622, is usually described as the Prophet's house but was probably intended from the outset as a community center as well. Initially, it was a rectangular enclosure of unbaked brick, a little over fifty meters square, but a portico of palm trunks supporting a roof of palm-frond thatch was quickly erected on the north side of the court, facing Jerusalem, the first qibla, or direction in which Muslims sent their prayers... In 624 when the qibla was changed to Mecca, another such arcade was built on the south side, facing that city. Muhammad and his family lived in rooms built on to one side of the enclosure, and Muhammad was buried in one of these rooms in 632. During the 7th and early 8th centuries, Muhammad's mosque was repeatedly enlarged and rebuilt, becoming a flat-roofed hypostyle structure with a central court and a prayer-hall deeper than the three other porticos... The form of the mosque of the Prophet was closely imitated in the early congregational mosques built in the Iraqi cities of Wasit, Kufa and Basra, and in the mosque built at Daybul in Sind (now Banbhore, Pakistan)." The mosque had a roof supported by columns made of palm tree trunks and it included a large courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Rebuilt and expanded over time, it soon became a larger hypostyle structure. It probably served as a model for the construction of early mosques elsewhere. It introduced some of the features still common in today's mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab (first added in the Umayyad period) and the tiered pulpit called the minbar.
Diffusion and evolution
The Umayyad Caliphate was particularly instrumental in spreading Islam and establishing mosques within the Levant, as the Umayyads constructed among the most revered mosques in the region: the Qibli Mosque and Dome of the Rock both part of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, and also built other important mosques in the region including the Great Mosques of Aleppo and Hama. They also renovated and expanded other mosques like the Prophet's Mosque in Medina (which saw the introduction of the first mihrab) the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, the Great Mosque of Sanaa, and the mosques of Kufa, Basra and Amr ibn Al-As (in Cairo). The designs of the Dome of the Rock and the Umayyad Mosque were influenced by Byzantine architecture, a trend that was revived much later with the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan in present-day Tunisia was the first mosque built in the Maghreb (northwest Africa), with its present form (dating from the ninth century) serving as a model for other Islamic places of worship in the Maghreb. It was the first in the region to incorporate a square minaret, which was characteristic of later Maghrebi mosques, and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusi mosques, including the Great Mosque of Cordoba, as they tended to reflect the architecture of the Moors instead of their Visigoth predecessors. Still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb.
Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the seventh century, they were not commonplace across the subcontinent until the arrival of the Mughals in the 16th and 17th centuries. Reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles. The Jama Masjid in Delhi and the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, built in a similar manner in the mid-17th century, remain two of the largest mosques on the Indian subcontinent.
One of first grand mosques in East Asia was established in the eighth century in Xi'an (at the time it was called Chang'an and it was the world's largest city). The Great Mosque of Xi'an, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Minarets were initially prohibited by the state. Following traditional Chinese architecture, the Great Mosque of Xi'an, like many other mosques in eastern China, resembles a pagoda, with a green roof instead of the yellow roof common on imperial structures in China. Mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere.