Glossary · M
Minaret
Also called minarets
The tower of a mosque from which the call to prayer is given; square in the Maghreb, cylindrical in Iran, slender and polygonal in Ottoman lands.
See also: Şerefe
Rules that use the word
The minaret takes the shape of its region. Build the tower for the call to prayer in the form of the regional tradition: square and stepped in the Maghreb and Spain, cylindrical and tapering in Iran and Central Asia, needle-like and polygonal in the Ottoman lands.
The pishtaq. Set the iwan arch in a tall rectangular screen that rises above the roofline, framed by bands of inscription and flanked by minarets.
Minarets mark rank. Give an ordinary mosque one minaret with one balcony; reserve several minarets, and several balconies (şerefe) on each, for the foundations of the sultan and his family.
Crown the roof with chhatris. Mark the corners of roofs, minarets and gateways with chhatris: small open domed kiosks on columns with a projecting eave.
Minarets that frame, not touch. Stand the minarets free at the corners of the plinth, so that they frame the tomb in every view without crowding it.
The sultan’s mosque on the hilltop. Set an imperial mosque on the crest of a hill so that its domes and minarets command the skyline, level the site on terraces and vaulted substructures, and step its dependencies down the slope.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Islamic World.
A feature of Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid), Moorish (Western Islamic), Persian Islamic (Seljuk, Timurid and Safavid), Ottoman, Mughal architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Megalith · Megaron · Metope · Mihrab · Minbar · Mingjian · Modillion · Module