mosque 505See alsoMANORS AND MANORIAL LORDSHIP; PEASANTRY;
SOCIAL STATUS AND STRUCTURE; TAXATION, TAXES, AND
TRIBUTE.
Further reading:Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King’s
Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957),
164–192; Sandra Raban, Mortmain Legislation and the
English Church, 1279–1500(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1982).
mosaic The art of mosaic began as the laying of luxuri-
ous pavements made of pebbles. It can be made of tiles or
tesserae of stone, terra-cotta or glass set in a bed of lime
or gypsum. This was soon transferred to wall and ceiling
decoration. On walls there were two layers, one attached
to the walls and one on which artists laid out their
designs. Because the use of mosaic was slow and expen-
sive, it became a luxury and was gradually restricted to
places of worship and particularly to privileged and
prominent areas such as choirs, transepts, or CRYPTS. Dur-
ing the ROMANESQUEperiod glazed tiles, pieces of marble,
and ALABASTERcame into use as mosaic media. The best
examples of mosaic work can be found in Italy at
RAVENNA,VENICE,PALERMO, and ROMEand in the BYZAN-
TINEEMPIRE.
See alsoART AND ARCHITECTURE, BYZANTINE.
Further reading:Hans Belting, The Mosaics and Fres-
coes of St. Mary Pammakaristos (Fethiye Camii) at Istanbul
(Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin, 1978); Eve Borsook,
Fiorella Gioffredi Superbi, and Giovanni Pagliarulo, eds.,
Medieval Mosaics: Light, Color, Materials(Milan: Silvana
Editoriale, 2000); Otto Demus, The Mosaics of Norman
Sicily (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1949); Otto
Demus, The Mosaic Decoration of San Marco, Venice,ed.
Herbert L. Kessler (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1988).
Moscow(Moskva) Moscow got its name from the
river along whose banks it evolved, the Moskova, a tribu-
tary of the Oka, that linked the town to the Volga River
basin. Occupied from the seventh century, it is mentioned
in sources from 1147 onward. A long-time stronghold of
the princes of Rostov and then of Vladimir, in 1263 it
became the capital of a growing principality, when
Alexander NEVSKYleft it to his younger son, Daniel (d.
1304). Daniel’s sons began a struggle for power in north-
east Russia and benefited from the support of the Golden
Horde, the MONGOLSand the Orthodox Church. Peter,
the metropolitan, established his residence to Moscow in
1326, but only under IVA NIII (1462–1505) that Moscow
became the capital of a Russian state.
The core of the city was the fortress or the KREMLIN
situated in a triangle of land formed by the Moscova
and Neglinnaya Rivers. Around the kremlin, villages and
suburbs developed, along with small CASTLES, and
monasteries. The first cathedral of the Assumption
(1326–27) and a second that collapsed in 1472–74 were
replaced by the present church in 1475. A palace was
built between 1487 and 1491, and the area was enclosed
by walls between 1385 and 1516. To these buildings were
added the church of the Deposition of the Virgin’s Robe
(1484–86), a private chapel for the metropolitans, the
collegiate church of the Annunciation (1484–89), and a
prince’s chapel.
See alsoDIMITRI OF THEDON,GRANDDUKE.
Further reading:Robert O. Crummey, The Forma-
tion of Muscovy, 1304–1613(New York: Longman, 1987);
J. H. Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia(Har-
mondsworth: Penguin, 1983); John L. I. Fennell, The
Emergence of Moscow, 1304–1359(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1968); Nancy Shields Kollmann, Kin-
ship and Politics: The Making of the Muscovite Political
System, 1345–1547(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1987); Arthur Voyce, The Art and Architecture of
Medieval Russia(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1967).mosque (masdjid, place where one prostrates oneself
in worship) The term, as used in the QURAN, referred
to the pre-Islamic places of prayer or sanctuaries at
MECCA, the KABA, or at JERUSALEM. After his flight to
MEDINA in 622, Muhammad built a wall of bricks
around a rectangular court that was open to the sky. It
was flanked by apartments for the Prophet’s wives. So
the first mosque was a home, a political and military
headquarters of the Prophet, and a place of worship for
Muslims.
Muslims built or expropriated a building for a great
mosque in each town they took during the early con-
quests. There were to be a great Friday mosque, one per
town, and more scattered and lesser ones for daily
PRAYER. These great mosques were central to a Muslim
town and were close to the seat of local government.
Soon funerary mosques were added, containing the TOMB
of a member of the Prophet’s family, or a companion, or a
saint, near the Friday mosques.
The mosque in medieval Islam usually had a MINARET,
a mihrab or niche designating the direction of MECCAfor
prayer, a MINBARor pulpit for Friday preaching, and a cen-
tral court surrounded by rooms for teaching, administra-
tion of justice, accommodation for travelers, and places
for worship, daily life, and study. The later rooms became
the meeting places for Sufi CONFRATERNITIES.GREAT MOSQUES
The great mosques of medieval Islam were, under the
UMAYYADS, the Great Mosque of DAMASCUSand, under