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61-619: The mosque was added to the Tentative List of potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995. It suffered significant damage during the 2023 Marrakesh–Safi earthquake . Tinmel is located along the important High Atlas mountain pass known as Tizi-n-Test between Marrakesh to the north and the Sous region to the south. It was the first capital of the Almohad movement founded by Ibn Tumart. He established his followers here in 1124 or 1125 CE and it became

122-711: A ṣawma῾a ("monk's cell", due to its small size). An example of these platforms is documented during the reconstruction of the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in 673 by Mu'awiya 's local governor, Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari , who was given orders by the caliph to add one to each of the mosque's four corners, similar to the Great Mosque of Damascus which had a ṣawma῾a above each of the Roman-era towers at its four corners. Historical sources also mention such features in mosques in other parts of North Africa . In another example, under

183-413: A different design than the others. This configuration was particularly characteristic of Cairo . The minaret of the al-Maridani Mosque (circa 1340) is the first one to have an entirely octagonal shaft and the first one to end with a narrow lantern structure consisting of eight slender columns topped by a bulbous stone finial . This style later became the basic standard form of Cairene minarets, while

244-414: A full evaluation. The extent of damage to the historic mihrab is not yet known as it was obscured by the debris of the collapsed roof in front of it. In November 2023, Moroccan news outlet Médias24 published an article criticizing the clearance of debris from the mosque, alleging it was being done without proper supervision from archeologists and that historical fragments were potentially being lost in

305-539: A major study on the question in 1926 which then became the standard scholarly theory on the origin of minarets for roughly fifty years. Creswell attributed the origin of minaret towers to the influence of Syrian church towers and regarded the spiral or helicoidal minarets of the Abbasid period as deriving from local ziggurat precedents, but rejected the possible influence of the Pharos Lighthouse. He also established that

366-430: A monumental appearance. The first known minarets built as towers appeared under Abbasid rule. Four towers were added to the Great Mosque of Mecca during its Abbasid reconstruction in the late 8th century. In the 9th century single minaret towers were built in or near the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall of mosques. These towers were built across the empire in a height to width ratio of around 3:1. One of

427-508: A new restoration of the mosque overseen by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, projected to last 18 months. The plan also called for the eventual construction of a museum next to the mosque. The mosque was severely damaged in a major earthquake in September 2023 . Parts of the minaret tower and some walls appeared to have collapsed. The Moroccan Culture Ministry responded by stating that

488-829: A small chamber where the minbar (pulpit) was stored, while the other led to the imam's entrance at the eastern base of the minaret. UNESCO World Heritage Sites Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 812275306 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:34:25 GMT Minaret A minaret ( / ˌ m ɪ n ə ˈ r ɛ t , ˈ m ɪ n ə ˌ r ɛ t / ; Arabic : منارة , romanized :  manāra , or Arabic: مِئْذَنة , romanized:  miʾḏana ; Turkish : minare ; Persian : گل‌دسته , romanized :  goldaste )

549-521: A square shaft and are arranged in two tiers: the main shaft, which makes up most of its height, and a much smaller secondary tower above this which is in turn topped by a finial of copper or brass spheres. Some minarets in the Maghreb have octagonal shafts, though this is more characteristic of certain regions or periods; e.g. the minarets of the Great Mosque of Chefchaouen , the Great Mosque of Ouazzane ,

610-497: Is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques . Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer ( adhan ) from a muezzin , but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can have a variety of forms, from thick, squat towers to soaring, pencil-thin spires. Two Arabic words are used to denote the minaret tower: manāra and manār . The English word "minaret" originates from

671-482: Is not clear what function these towers served. They do not appear to have been used for the call to prayer and may have been intended instead as visual symbols of the mosque's status. Historical sources also reference an earlier manāra , built of stone, being added to the mosque of Basra in 665 by the Umayyad provincial governor, but it is not entirely clear if it was a tower or what form it had, though it must have had

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732-490: Is readily available, and often changes from region to region. In the construction of the tall and slender Ottoman minarets, molten iron was poured into pre-cut cavities inside the stones, which then solidified and helped to bind the stones together. This made the structures more resistant to earthquakes and powerful winds. The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller tower structures. The early Muslim community of Medina gave

793-465: Is surrounded on all sides by the arches of the prayer hall and its extensions. The mihrab (niche symbolizing the qibla ), situated in the middle of the southern wall, is similar in form and decoration to that of the Kutubiyya Mosque and other Almohad mosques, consisting of a small octagonal room covered by a muqarnas cupola. This overall form inherits the tradition of the 10th-century mihrab of

854-412: The adhān is called from the musallah (prayer hall) via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret. Additionally, minarets historically served a visual symbolic purpose. In the early 9th century, the first minarets were placed opposite the qibla wall. Oftentimes, this placement was not beneficial in reaching the community for the call to prayer. They served as a reminder that

915-684: The Fatimids , generally refrained from building them during these early centuries. The earliest evidence of minarets being used for hosting the call to prayer dates to the 10th century and it was only towards the 11th century that minaret towers became a near-universal feature of mosques. Next to the Huaishengsi Mosque in Guangzhou is the Tower of Light, also known as the Guangta minaret (1350). The mosque and

976-450: The Great Mosque of Cordoba , which also consisted of a small octagonal room. The wall surrounding the mihrab 's opening is decorated with carved geometric and interlacing motifs in stucco . The tradition of a mihrab composed of a Unlike the Kutubiyya Mosque, the decorative capitals of the engaged columns around the mihrab are carved from stucco rather than marble. On either side of the mihrab are two tall arched openings: one led to

1037-755: The Kasbah Mosque of Tangier , and the Great Mosque of Asilah in Morocco or the Ottoman-era minarets of Tunisia such as the Youssef Dey Mosque and the Hammouda Pacha Mosque . Inside the main shaft a staircase, and in other cases a ramp, ascends to the top of the minaret. The minaret at the Great Mosque of Kairouan , built in 836 under Aghlabid rule, is the oldest minaret in North Africa and one of

1098-667: The Minaret of Jam , in a remote area of present-day Afghanistan , was built c.  1175 by the Ghurids and features elaborate brick decoration and inscriptions. The Qutb Minar in Delhi , the most monumental minaret in India , was built in 1199 and was designed on the same model as the Minaret of Jam. In later periods, however, minarets in this region became generally less monumental in comparison with

1159-611: The Umayyad Emirate of al-Andalus , emir Hisham I ordered the addition of a ṣawma'a to the Great Mosque of Cordoba in 793. A possible exception to the absence of tower minarets is documented in Caliph al-Walid 's renovation of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in the early 8th century, during which he built a tower, referred to as a manāra , at each of the mosque's four corners. However, it

1220-498: The makhbara -style summit disappeared. Later minarets in the Burji Mamluk period (late 14th to early 16th centuries) typically had an octagonal shaft for the first tier, a round shaft on the second, and a lantern structure with finial on the third level. The stone-carved decoration of the minaret also became very extensive and varied from minaret to minaret. Minarets with completely square or rectangular shafts reappeared at

1281-611: The oldest minarets still standing is that of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia , built in 836 and well-preserved today. Other minarets that date from the same period, but less precisely dated, include the minaret of the Friday Mosque of Siraf , now the oldest minaret in Iran, and the minaret opposite the qibla wall at the Great Mosque of Damascus (known as the "Minaret of the Bride"), now

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1342-669: The 15th century. It is categorized by the use of multiple minarets. Examples of this style include the monuments of Mughal architecture in the Indian subcontinent , such as the minarets on the roof of the south gate in Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra (1613), the minarets on the Tomb of Jahangir (1628-1638), and the four minarets surrounding the mausoleum of the Taj Mahal . Elsewhere in India, some cities and towns along

1403-521: The Abbasid period and remains the most massive historic minaret in the world, involving over 6000 cubic meters of brick masonry. The Abu Dulaf Mosque, built near Samarra and finished in 861, has a smaller minaret of similar shape. In the later Abbasid period (11th to 13th centuries), after the Seljuk period, minarets were typically cylindrical brick towers whose square or polygonal bases were integrated into

1464-445: The Great Mosque of Cordoba in 951–952, which became the model for later minarets in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Jonathan Bloom has suggested that Abd ar-Rahman III's construction of the minaret – along with his sponsoring of other minarets around the same time in Fez – was partly intended as a visual symbol of his self-declared authority as caliph and may have also been aimed at defying

1525-709: The Kutubiyya and was likely designed and built by craftsmen from Marrakesh. The mosque was smaller in scale than other major Almohad mosques as it was designed for a small town, but it was nonetheless a pilgrimage site and subsequent Almohad rulers were buried near here as well. Later, as the Marinids wrested control of Morocco from them, the Almohads of Marrakesh made a final stand in Tinmel until their last leaders were defeated and captured here in 1275. The mosque eventually fell into ruin and

1586-590: The Seljuk Empire, built paired portal minarets from brick that had Iranian origins. In general, mosques in Anatolia had only one minaret and received decorative emphasis while most of the mosque remained plain. Seljuk minarets were built of stone or brick, usually resting on a stone base, and typically had a cylindrical or polygonal shaft that is less slender than later Ottoman minarets. They were sometimes embellished with decorative brickwork or glazed ceramic decoration up

1647-469: The base from which they launched attacks on the Almoravids who ruled the region at the time. A first mosque was built here around this time or shortly after. When Ibn Tumart died in 1130 he was buried here and a religious sanctuary and pilgrimage site subsequently developed at the site of his tomb. Abd al-Mu'min , who took over leadership of the Almohads after him, decided to build a new mosque nearby or on

1708-476: The call to prayer from the doorway or roof of the house of Muhammad , which doubled as a place for prayer, and this continued to be the practice in mosques during the period of the four Rashidun Caliphs (632–661). The origin of the minaret is unclear. Many 19th-century and early 20th-century scholars traced the origin of minarets to the Umayyad Caliphate period (661–750) and believed that they imitated

1769-840: The church steeples found in Syria in those times. Others suggested that these towers were inspired by the ziggurats of Babylonian and Assyrian shrines in Mesopotamia . Some scholars, such as A. J. Butler and Hermann Thiersch, agreed that the Syrian minarets were derived from church towers but also argued that the minarets of Egypt were inspired by the form of the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria (which survived up until medieval times). K. A. C. Creswell , an orientalist and important early-20th-century scholar of Islamic architecture , contributed

1830-446: The coast have small mosques with simple staircase minarets. The oldest minarets in Iraq date from the Abbasid period. The Great Mosque of Samarra (848–852) is accompanied by one of the earliest preserved minarets, a 50-metre-high (160 ft) cylindrical brick tower with a spiral staircase wrapped around it, standing outside the walls of the mosque. It is the tallest of the early minarets of

1891-521: The current tower was reconstructed later in 1296. Under the Fatimids (10th-12th centuries), new mosques generally lacked minarets. One unusual exception is the Mosque of al-Hakim , built between 990 and 1010, which has two minarets at its corners. The two towers have slightly different shapes: both have square bases but one has a cylindrical shaft above this and the other an octagonal shaft. This multi-tier design

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1952-493: The details of minarets borrowed from Fatimid designs. Most distinctively, the summits of minarets had a lantern structure topped by a pointed ribbed dome, whose appearance was compared to a mabkhara , or incense burner. This design continued under the early Bahri Mamluks (13th to early 14th century), but soon began to evolve into the shapes distinctive to Mamluk architecture . They became very ornate and usually consisted of three tiers separated by balconies, with each tier having

2013-474: The earliest mosques had no minarets and he suggested that the first purpose-built minarets were built for the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat in 673. In 1989 Jonathan Bloom published a new study which argued that the first true minaret towers did not appear until the 9th century, under Abbasid rule, and that their initial purpose was not related to the call to prayer. References on Islamic architecture since

2074-516: The early Abbasid minarets were not built to host the call to prayer, but were instead adopted as symbols of Islam that were suited to important congregational mosques . Their association with the muezzin and the call to prayer only developed later. As the first minaret towers were built by the Abbasids and had a symbolic value associated with them, some of the Islamic regimes opposed to the Abbasids, such as

2135-409: The early Islamic period: manār could also mean a "sign" or "mark" (to show one where to go) and both manār and manāra could mean " lighthouse ". The formal function of a minaret is to provide a vantage point from which the muezzin can issue the call to prayer, or adhan . The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques,

2196-572: The former, via the Turkish version ( minare ). The Arabic word manāra (plural: manārāt ) originally meant a "lamp stand", a cognate of Hebrew menorah . It is assumed to be a derivation of an older reconstructed form, manwara . The other word, manār (plural: manā'ir or manāyir ), means "a place of light". Both words derive from the Arabic root n-w-r , which has a meaning related to "light". Both words also had other meanings attested during

2257-473: The late 20th century often agree with Bloom's view that the mosques of the Umayyad Caliphate did not have minarets in the form of towers. Instead of towers, some Umayyad mosques were built with platforms or shelters above their roofs that were accessed by a staircase and from which the muezzins could issue the call to prayer. These structures were referred to as a mi'dhana ("place of the adhān" ) or as

2318-452: The level of their balconies. Ottoman architecture followed earlier Seljuk models and continued the Iranian tradition of cylindrical tapering minaret forms with a square base. Classical Ottoman minarets are described as "pencil-shaped" due to their slenderness and sharply-pointed summits, often topped with a crescent moon symbol. The presence of more than one minaret, and of larger minarets,

2379-414: The minaret merge aspects of Islamic and Chinese architecture . Its circular shaft and the double staircase arrangement inside it resembles the minarets of Iranian and Central Asian architecture, such as the Minaret of Jam. The style of minarets has varied throughout the history of Egypt . The minaret of the 9th-century Ibn Tulun Mosque imitated the spiral minarets of contemporary Abbasid Samarra, though

2440-569: The minaret of the Kutubiyya or the Giralda in Seville ). The mosque has seven entrances: three on both its east and west sides and one central entrance to the north. Inside, the mosque has a typical hypostyle layout with an interior courtyard. The main prayer hall is divided into nine " naves " (running roughly north to south) by rows of pointed horseshoe arches . Another aisle, perpendicular to these rows of arches (running roughly east to west), runs along

2501-579: The mosque will be aided by the Italian Ministry of Culture , at the request of the Moroccan government's Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. The Italian architect Aldo Giorgio Pezzi has been sent to assist in the project. The building has a fortress-like exterior appearance with thick plain walls, which was characteristic of other Almohad mosques and buildings as well. It has a roughly quadrangular floor plan measuring 43 by 40 metres. A more unusual feature

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2562-473: The mosque would be restored, while UNESCO indicated it would send a team to evaluate the damage. Prior to the earthquake, the renovation of the mosque was in its final stage. An early assessment in October 2023 estimated that 75% of the building was destroyed, although more complete destruction was avoided because the terrace on which the mosque stands did not collapse. The building was not yet safe enough to enter for

2623-581: The mosques for which they were built. The tradition of building pairs of minarets probably began in the 12th century, but it became especially prominent under the Ilkhanids (13th-14th centuries), who built twin minarets flanking important iwans such as the mosque's entrance. The rise of the Timurid Empire , which heavily patronized art and architecture, led to what is now called the "international Timurid" style which spread from Central Asia during and after

2684-538: The most common style in the eastern Islamic world (in Iran, Central Asia , and South Asia ). During the Seljuk period minarets were tall and highly decorated with geometric and calligraphic design. They were built prolifically, even at smaller mosques or mosque complexes. The Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara remains the most well known of the Seljuk minarets for its use of brick patterned decoration. The tallest minaret of this era,

2745-466: The northern edge of this aisle, further setting it apart from the rest of the mosque. All these decorative flourishes also served to emphasize the southern aisle and middle nave in the T-plan of the mosque. The rectangular courtyard ( sahn ) of the mosque occupies a large part of its northern section, corresponding to the width of the mosque's five middle naves and the length of three transversal aisles. It

2806-704: The oldest minaret in the region of Syria (though its upper section was probably rebuilt multiple times). In Samarra , the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in present-day Iraq , the Great Mosque of Samarra was built in the years 848–852 and featured a massive helicoidal minaret behind its northern wall. Its design was repeated in the nearby Abu Dulaf Mosque (861). The earlier theory which proposed that these helicoidal minarets were inspired by ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats has been challenged and rejected by some later scholars including Richard Ettinghausen , Oleg Grabar , and Jonathan Bloom. Bloom also argues that

2867-409: The oldest minarets in the world. It has the shape of a massive tower with a square base, three levels of decreasing widths, and a total height of 31.5 meters. The first two levels are from the original 9th-century construction but the third level was reconstructed at a later period. Another important minaret for the architectural history of the region is the minaret built by Abd ar-Rahman III for

2928-532: The other aisles of the mosque and thus draw a "T" shape in the floor plan of the building. The southern aisle of the qibla wall also features three muqarnas ("honeycomb" or "stalactite") cupolas : one at the middle, in front of the mihrab , and one at either end, at the southern corners of the mosque. Each cupola is also flanked by "lambrequin" or "muqarnas" arches below, whose intrados are enhanced with carved sebka , muqarnas, and palmette / seashell motifs. Multifoil and lambrequin arches also run along

2989-411: The process. A subsequent article by Le Desk , another Moroccan news outlet, has challenged this allegation, quoting Aboulkacem Chebri, president of the Moroccan branch of ICOMOS , who states that historical fragments from the site were being collected and stored appropriately, including those that could be potentially be reused during reconstruction. In May 2024 it was reported that the restoration of

3050-472: The region was Islamic and helped to distinguish mosques from the surrounding architecture. They also acted as symbols of the political and religious authority of the Muslim rulers who built them. The region's socio-cultural context has influenced the shape, size, and form of minarets. Different regions and periods developed different styles of minarets. Typically, the tower's shaft has a cylindrical, cuboid (square), or octagonal shape. Stairs or ramps inside

3111-660: The rival Fatimid Caliphs to the east who did not endorse the construction of minarets at the time. Other important historic minarets in the region are the Almohad -era minarets of the Kutubiyya Mosque and the Kasbah Mosque in Marrakesh , the Hassan Tower in Rabat , and the Giralda in Seville , all from the 12th and early 13th centuries. The Seljuks of Rum , a successor state of

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3172-540: The same site in 1148, as confirmed by historical documents of the time – although the foundation date of 1153-1154 CE (548 AH) given by the Rawd al-Qirtas is still cited by many. The new mosque most likely replaced the existing mosque of Tinmel that was present here. Construction of the mosque thus began very soon after the conquest of Marrakesh (1147) and the beginning of construction on the Kutubiyya Mosque there. The Tinmal Mosque's architecture demonstrates many similarities with

3233-406: The southern wall (the qibla wall towards which worshippers prayed). The mosque is a notable example of the "T-plan" or "T-type" mosque which is found in earlier Almoravid architecture and was standard for later medieval Moroccan mosques: the aisle running parallel to the qibla wall and the middle nave leading to the mihrab , running perpendicular to that wall, are wider and more prominent than

3294-599: The structure of the mosque itself. Their main cylindrical shafts were tapered and culminated in muqarnas cornices supporting a balcony, above which is another small cylindrical turret topped by a dome. Two examples of this style are the Mosque of al-Khaffafin and the Mosque of Qumriyya. Minarets in the Maghreb (region encompassing present-day Algeria , Libya , Mauritania , Morocco , Tunisia , and Western Sahara ) and historical al-Andalus (present-day Gibraltar , Portugal , Spain , and Southern France ) traditionally have

3355-411: The tower climb to the top in a counterclockwise fashion. Some minarets have two or three narrow staircases fitted inside one another in order to allow multiple individuals to safely descend and ascend simultaneously. At the top of the stairs, a balcony encircles the upper sections of the tower and from here the muezzin may give the call to prayer. Some minaret traditions featured multiple balconies along

3416-540: The tower's shaft. The summit often finishes in a lantern -like structure and/or a small dome, conical roof, or curving stone cap, which is in turn topped by a decorative metal finial . Different architectural traditions also placed minarets at different positions relative to the mosque. The number of minarets by mosques was also not fixed: originally only one minaret accompanied a mosque, but some later traditions constructed more, especially for larger or more prestigious mosques. Minarets are built out of any material that

3477-615: The very end of the Mamluk period during the reign of Sultan al-Ghuri (r. 1501–1516). During al-Ghuri's reign, the lantern summits were also doubled – as with the minaret of the Mosque of Qanibay Qara or al-Ghuri's minaret at the al-Azhar Mosque – or even quadrupled – as with the original minaret of al-Ghuri's madrasa . Starting with the Seljuk period (11th and 12th centuries), minarets in Iran had cylindrical shafts with square or octagonal bases that taper towards their summit. These minarets became

3538-449: Was only found in the minarets of the great mosques at Mecca and Medina at that time, suggesting a possible link to those designs. Shortly after their construction, the lower sections of the minarets were encased in massive square bastions, for reasons that are not clearly known, and the tops were rebuilt in 1303 by a Mamluk sultan. Under the Ayyubids (late 12th to mid-13th centuries),

3599-404: Was partly restored in the mid-20th century. Further restoration works were undertaken in the 1990s. The mosque no longer operates as a religious building but was opened to visitors as a historic site, making it one of the few mosque buildings in Morocco open to non-Muslims. The site has been on UNESCO 's Tentative List of World Heritage Sites since 1995. As of January 2023, work was underway on

3660-609: Was reserved for mosques commissioned by the Ottoman sultans themselves. Taller minarets often also had multiple balconies (known as şerefe in Turkish) along their shafts instead of one. The Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne , finished in 1447, was the first sultanic mosque to have multiple minarets with multiple balconies. Of its four minarets, the northwestern minaret was the tallest Ottoman minaret up to that time, rising to 67 metres. Its height

3721-408: Was the position and form of the minaret , located at the middle of its southern wall on top of the mihrab ; a design feature which is not found in other historic mosques. The minaret has a rectangular base and projects outwards from the surrounding outer wall, but has a truncated or unfinished appearance, contrasting with the bold and monumental minarets of other Almohad mosques that came after (such

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