Sayyid qUtb (d. 1966) and Jihad movements in
Egypt condemned Jamal abd al-nasir (d. 1970)
and anWar al-sadat (d. 1981), both presidents
of Egypt, for being equivalents to the unbeliev-
ing pharaoh who opposed Moses; members of
the Jihad Group assassinated al-Sadat for being
a disbeliever. During the iranian revolUtion oF
1978–79, government troops were cautioned not
to “kill Moses [members of the Islamic opposi-
tion] for the sake of pharaoh [the Shah’s regime].”
In other words, they were not to kill the Islamic
revolutionaries and their masses of supporters.
A well-known revolutionary poster of the time
showed Ayatollah rUhollah khomeini standing
over a fallen shah, with the phrase “For every
pharaoh there is a Moses” inscribed over the
Ayatollah’s head, thus identifying the revolution’s
foremost leader with the prophet.
See also imam; islamism; JUdaism and islam;
kafir; prophets and prophecy.
Further reading: Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in
Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh. Translated by Jon
Rothschild (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1985); John Renard, All the King’s Falcons: Rumi on
Prophets and Revelation (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1994): 67–86; Ahmad ibn Muham-
mad al-Thalabi, Arais al-majalis fi qisas al-anbiya, or
“Lives of the Prophets.” Translated by William M. Brin-
ner (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002): 278–414; Robert Tottoli,
Biblical Prophets in the Quran and Muslim Literature
(Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 2002); Brannon
Wheeler, Moses in the Quran and Islamic Exegesis (Lon-
don: Routledge, 2002).
Moslem See islam.
mosque (Arabic: masjid, ritual prostration
place)
A hadith that proclaims the entire world a mosque
indicates that Muslims may pray anywhere as long
as certain rules are observed. Chief among these
is correct orientation toward mecca, the qibla.
An object placed in front of the person at prayer
insures the integrity of the qibla by acting as a
barrier (sutra) between this person and passersby.
Ritual purity is required for the person and the
prayer area. One way of insuring it is to reserve a
cloth or rug exclusively for prayer. By conforming
to these rules, Muslims can fulfill prayer obli-
gations several times a day (the number varies
among sects but is often five). These individual
acts of prayer then create a mosque every time
they take place regardless of the availability of
buildings created specifically for this purpose.
The absence of liturgical rituals in islam also
makes mosque buildings unnecessary, though
they have always existed in large numbers and
varied forms.
The phrase masjid juma (Friday mosque) or
masjid jami (“collective” or community mosque)
refers to mosques used for required group prayers
on Fridays. The historical forerunner of these
mosques is considered the mosque built by
mUhammad at medina. In the past, the jami was
distinguished by the presence of a minbar and was
always associated with cities. These were the first
mosques to acquire monumental form, a process
that began in 705–715.
Mosques quickly acquired a standard set
of forms and elements. The earliest ones were
divided into two parts, a covered prayer hall and
an open courtyard. The far wall of the prayer hall
is the qibla wall. A niche mihrab marks the center
of this wall in proximity to the minbar, with the
two defining an important area (maqsura) often
covered with a dome. ablUtion fountains (may-
daa) appear in or at the edges of the courtyard.
Tall towers (minarets) mark mosques visually and
transmit their presence audibly in as much as the
call to prayer (adhan) is sometimes transmitted
from them. This basic template was always subject
to variation according to location, population,
and sectarian divergences; and books of mosque
rules became a prominent genre in the Middle
Ages. Historically, the only constants were theK 484 Moslem