minaret (Arabic: manara “beacon,” also
midhana “place for making the call to
prayer”)
Many of the world’s major civilizations have
developed distinct forms or “languages” of reli-
gious architectUre that have become emblematic
for those civilizations and their dominant reli-
gious traditions. Examples include the pyramids
of egypt and Mexico, the great Hindu temple tow-
ers of india, Buddhist stupas (large hemispherical
structures containing sacred relics of the Buddha),
as well as the towers and spires found on many
Christian churches and basilicas. For Islam, per-
haps the most distinctive architectural form is
the minaret, a tower where the adhan, or call to
prayer, is performed. It stands within the sacred
space of a mosqUe. The minaret’s antecedent is
thought to have been the rooftop of mUhammad’s
house-mosque in medina, where bilal, a former
slave and one of the first Muslims, made the daily
adhan. Later, in the wake of the early Arab con-
quests, churches seized from Christian opponents
in syria were converted into mosques and their
towers were used for making the call to prayer.
The minaret as a specialized architectural
form, however, did not develop until after the
ninth century, especially in Sunni-majority regions
of the Middle East. It became a very prominent
religious signature on the Islamicate urban land-
scape. In addition to providing a place for making
the adhan, the minaret informed people where
the mosque was located and often symbolized the
wealth and power of the individual or group who
built and maintained it. In addition to mosques, it
was also included in the architecture of medieval
madrasas, Sufi hospices, and shrines. Minarets can
be square or cylindrical in shape, or a combina-
tion of both. Most have an interior spiral staircase
that leads to one or more balconies at the top,
where the mUezzin stands to do the adhan. Many
are made of stone, but wood, adobe, and concrete
have also been used. They are often embellished
with elaborate arabesqUe designs, or bear Arabic
inscriptions, but some have little decoration if
any. Typically a mosque will have only one mina-
ret, but imperial mosques often have two or more,
indicating that their symbolic importance exceeds
the practical purpose for performing the call to
prayer. Minarets have been added to preexist-
ing buildings, as was the case for the Aya Sofia
Mosque in istanbUl, which had been the chief
basilica for the Byzantine Empire until the city
was taken by the Ottomans in 1453. The reverse
happened in andalUsia (Islamicate Spain), where
the towering minaret La Giralda of Seville’s Friday
mosque was transformed into a bell tower after
the city was captured by Christian armies in the
14th century. The same occurred at the Great
Mosque of cordoba. Today, mosques in many
Muslim countries are equipped with electronic
sound systems for broadcasting the adhan, but the
minaret has not been eliminated and continues to
possess symbolic importance.
Different minaret styles have evolved in dif-
ferent parts of Islamdom, just as different kinds
of church towers developed in lands with large
Christian populations. These include the multi-
storied sculptured Mamluk minarets of 13th- to
16th-century cairo, which are topped by one or
more bulblike decorations. North African and
Andalusian minarets are square towers. Otto-Mamluk (left) and Ottoman (center) minarets of
Cairo, Egypt(Juan E. Campo)
K 474 minaret