What determines the number of towers in a mosque? Minarets are once again minarets. History of the construction of minarets

Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque) - (Sultanahmet Camii) is the largest mosque in Istanbul and a real symbol of the historical part of the city. The mosque was built during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I. Construction of the Ahmediye Mosque (old name) began in 1609 and ended in 1616. The remains of Sultan Ahmed I rest in the mausoleum, which is located next to the mosque.

The mosque is located on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara on the same square with another Byzantine shrine - the Hagia Sophia (now a mosque and museum). The history of the construction of the Blue Mosque dates back to the early 17th century, when the Ottoman Empire was at war with the Austrians and Persians. The defeat in the war greatly undermined the international authority of the Sultan and the Ottoman Empire, and then Sultan Ahmed I decided to seek the mercy of Allah and build the greatest mosque in the world. Construction of the mosque began in 1909, when the Sultan was only 19 years old. It is interesting that the mosques, erected as a sign of gratitude to the Almighty, were built with money obtained during wars. Sultan Ahmet I had not won a single war by that time, so funds for the construction of the Blue Mosque were taken from the state treasury. No expense was spared on the construction of the mosque - black Damascus marble was delivered from Syria, green - from Saudi Arabia, and red was mined in Eastern Anatolia.

The architect of the Blue Mosque was Sedefkar Mehmet Agha, a student and chief assistant of the legendary architect Sinan, who sought to surpass his mentor. The architecture of the building combines classical Ottoman and Byzantine styles. The Blue Mosque received its name due to the use of a huge number of handmade white and blue Iznik tiles in its decoration. The dome and semi-domes of the mosque are decorated with suras from the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. What makes the mosque unique is the mihrab, a prayer niche carved from a single block of marble. On the mihrab there is a black stone brought from Mecca.

There is an entrance from the western part of the mosque, which historically could only be used by the Sultan, entering the courtyard on horseback. A chain hung over the gate, and the Sultan, entering the gate of the mosque, bent down, which showed his insignificance in comparison with the Almighty. The mosque complex includes a large number of buildings - a madrasah, a hospital, charitable institutions, kitchens, a caravanserai and other buildings. Four minarets of the mosque have three balconies each and two minarets have two balconies each. Initially, there were 14 balconies - according to the number of predecessors of Sultan Ahmed I. An interesting fact is that when the construction of the Blue Mosque was completed, it turned out that the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca - the greatest shrine of Muslims, equaled the number of minarets with the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Then it was decided to add another minaret to the al-Haram mosque so that it would again become the largest mosque in the world.

Today the mosque seats 10,000 people, and the Turks have a tradition of gathering at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque before the start of the Hajj to Mecca.

HOW TO GET THERE

Getting to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is very easy - it is located at the T1 tram stop of the same name (Bagcilar - Kabatas). If you are coming from Bagcilar/Zeitinburnu/Aksaray, you need to get off at Sultanahmet station and you will see the square where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are located.

If you want to get to the mosque from Taksim Square, you can take the cable car down to Kabatas station and take the T1 tram to Sultanahmet station. Alternatively, you can take a bus to the Aksaray stop and from there take the T1 tram towards Kabatas to the stop you need.

From the Asian part of the city you can get to the Eminönü and Kabatas piers by boat by transferring to the T1 tram at the pier.

WHAT IS THE PRICE

Entrance to the Blue Mosque is free, but the mosque is active, so during prayers and religious holidays the entrance to tourists will be closed. Please note that entering the mosque requires no shoes. You can pick up a shoe bag at the entrance at the turnstile.

Mosque address: At Meydanı No.7 34122, Fatih
Office phone: 0212 458 07 76
Email: [email protected]
Facebook page:

Only by tracing the history of the development and architecture of the building can one understand the minaret - what it is and why it plays such an important role for the religion of Islam. After all, even in pre-Islamic times similar structures were known, but it was among the faithful that they were established and used.

Origin of the word and its meaning

The most common meaning of this word is used in architecture. If we are talking about the structure, then when asked what a minaret is, we can answer that it is a high tower with a platform at the top from which the muezzins call all the faithful to prayer. These towers are built next to mosques, creating a special composition. It towers over every Muslim city or village, its silhouette is difficult to confuse with any other.

The word itself originates from the Arabic "manara", which literally translates as lighthouse or tower. The minaret plays a big role in Islam, because the time of namaz (prayer) for Muslims depends on sunrise and sunset and changes. It is difficult to remember every day and watch the clock when the time comes to praise Allah, and you can get confused, but it is from the balcony of this building that the muezzin will call and remind you that the time has come.

Architectural views and history of development

There are two types of minarets in appearance:

• with round section;
• quadrangular.

And if you trace the history of development, then those built earlier had either a ramp on the outside, for lifting to the site, or a rope ladder. These days they are no longer built, but inside the structure there is a staircase, most often a spiral one. The outside of the minarets was decorated, and continues to be done now, with openwork masonry, carvings, balconies are made openwork, covered with glaze.

The beauty of the architecture of mosques cannot be described, especially those built earlier, but those who have never been to Muslim countries have little idea of ​​what a minaret is. The photo, of course, will not be able to convey all the greatness, but it will give a general idea.

In the world you can find mosques with one, two or more minarets. The largest number is 9, at the Al-Haram mosque, built in Mecca. Why are there different numbers of them? This is due to the size of the building itself. Small ones have one, medium ones have two. The Sultan's mosques have from 4 to 6.

In Samarra (Iraq), when you see Al-Malwiya, you will not immediately realize that this is a minaret. "What it is?" - you will ask, she is very unusual. It is made in the shape of a truncated cone and with steps of a spiral ramp going outside. It bears little resemblance to the minarets we are used to seeing usually.

Trying to understand the minaret - what it is and why it plays such an important role among Muslims, various theories have been put forward. One of them is that this heritage comes from one of the wonders of the world - the Alexandria lighthouse, which had a similar structure. Although it has not survived to this day, Egyptian architects during the reign of the Mamluk saw it and simply adopted it. But this only explains the origin of the quadrangular minarets.

The theory of the origin of minarets with a round cross-section is as follows: in Rome, columns were erected in honor of significant victories. A minaret with a round cross-section, what is it, no matter how it is, a symbol of the victory of Islam. Such buildings are typical for Afghanistan and Iran. Naturally, we are not talking about modern buildings.

In publishing

Another confirmation that the structure of the minaret plays a significant role in the Muslim religion is the publication of a magazine of the same name. Magazine "Minaret" - what is it? This publication is intended for representatives of religion and the intelligentsia. In it you can find stories from the lives of Islamic figures, their statements and works that reveal the essence of the religion. This information will be interesting for every Muslim who wants to be educated.

In a dream

Although in general the concept has more of an architectural meaning, those involved in astrology and fortune telling have not neglected this concept. In dream books you can also find the interpretation: “A minaret, what does it mean to see it in a dream?”

The building itself signifies a person who strives to unite others for a good cause. If the minaret is destroyed, then the person will die and they will not even remember about him. Seeing a Friday cathedral mosque in a dream is a reminder to return to faith, and falling inside a minaret means that luck has turned away from the dreamer.

Finally, I would like to tell one story for skeptics who do not believe in prophetic dreams. One unknown land surveyor saw in a dream that he was climbing a high wooden minaret and calling believers to prayer. The interpreter thought about it and predicted that being the dreamer's governor would soon bring him honor and power. After a short time, the one who saw the dream became the governor of Balkh, and this is a historical fact.

"What's in front of her now? Winter. Istanbul.

The consul's grins. An annoying hum

market at noon. Class minarets

earth-earth or earth-turban

(otherwise - cloud). Zurna, antimony.

Another race."

Joseph Brodsky. "Ritratto di donna".
(Portrait of a Woman).1993

Traveling during the non-tourist season - from November to March - has its advantages. It gets dark early, early
Museums are closing, but there are noticeably fewer tourists. Cities, even southern ones, are not decorated
flowering trees and flower beds, but through the bare branches there are views that
in summer it hides dense foliage. How beautiful in combination with the exquisite pattern of the branch domes,
spiers, and in Istanbul - minarets so thin that they can be likened to tree trunks.

"Mosque of Princes" - Shahzadeh. 1548

However, for Joseph Brodsky, who strongly disliked Istanbul, the minarets evoked others
associations: "... the mosques of Istanbul! These gigantic ones, perched on the ground, are unable to tear themselves away from it
frozen stone toads! Only the minarets, most reminiscent - prophetically, I'm afraid -
ground-to-air installations, and indicate the direction in which the soul was going to move,"
- Brodsky wrote in his essay “Travel to Istanbul” in 1985.

Minarets of the Blue Mosque of Sultanahmet. 1616

Almost 30 years later, Brodsky’s prophetic fears became almost a reality.Europe
fears the expansion of Islam, quiet Switzerland votes to ban the construction of minarets,
politically correct Germany is seriously concerned that the minarets will rise higher
Cologne Cathedral.

Suleymaniye Mosque. 1557 Fragments.

In Istanbul, as you know, Muslims, Christians and Jews once coexisted peacefully. Herself
the amazing geography of the city contributed to this - Muslims and non-Muslims lived side by side
side, but each on its own shore of the narrow and long, like a river, Golden Horn Bay. Bosphorus divides
Istanbul is divided into European and Asian parts, and the Golden Horn, in turn, is conventionally divided
the European part of the city to "Istanbul is truly Muslim" , on the south, and "Istanbul
Gentiles" - on the northern bank of the Golden Horn. In the European part of the city there is
the famous Pera (now Beyoglu) - an area where everything is just like in Europe, Christian
temples, the few remaining synagogues in the city, the Galata Tower, which offers a view
to the “Istanbul of the Faithful”, separated by a strip of water, with huge mosques on the hills and
the ancient Sultan's Palace Topkapi.

View of Istanbul from the Galata Tower. On the left is the Bosphorus and the Asian part of the city.
To the right is the Golden Horn Bay, behind it is old Istanbul with palaces and mosques.

Beautiful! Even Brodsky could not help but admit: “Against the background of the sunset, on the crest of a hill, their (mosques)
silhouettes make a strong impression; hand reaches for the camera, like a spy at the sight
military facility. There really is something menacingly otherworldly about them,alien,
absolutely hermetic, shell-like. And it's all the samedirty brown, like
most buildings in Istanbul. And all this onbackground of the turquoise Bosphorus."

View of the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn from the Galata Tower

So my hand reached out to the camera, although the sun was shining straight into my eyes and the conditions for
The photo sessions weren't the best. As for the “armor-shaped” mosques, the comparison
really spot on! The mosques lay down like huge turtles by the water, climbed onto
hills. Their squat monochrome bodies (all the beauty and brightness is inside!) would be completely
awkward, if not for the minarets, but for the silhouette of the city without multiple verticals
minarets would have lost unspeakably.

Let's look at the minarets without bias - they are very slender, graceful, and up close
does not resemble a rocket at launch. The word "minaret" comes from the Arabic "manara", "lighthouse",
since in coastal cities minarets served as lighthouses. Istanbul minarets -
round, sometimes with grooved grooves, very narrow, with a pointed cone-shaped
completion. From above their trunks are surrounded by one or two or three openwork balconies -
shurfe. The balconies below are often decorated with characteristics characteristic of Muslim architecture
"muqarnas" or "stalactites" - decorative reliefs located above each other
another prism.

Dolmabahce Mini-Mosque (1855) on the shores of the Bosphorus near Dolmabahce Palace

The larger and more significant the mosque, the more minarets it has - from one to four, and the more
they are taller. The only minaret of a small quarterly mosque does not reach 50 meters,
and the minarets of the Sultan’s mosques rise almost a hundred meters, however, they cannot compete
with skyscrapers of modern Istanbul.

Minaret of the Blue Mosque (1616) with balconies decorated with “stalactites”

Inside the mineret there is a spiral staircase, along which the muezzin in former times
once a day he went up to the shurfe balcony to call the believers to prayer. Sometimes
inside the minaret there were two or three spiral staircases, so that those walking along them
haven't met each other. These days, the muezzin no longer ascends the minaret, but broadcasts
through a loudspeaker mounted on it.

Blue Sultanahmet Mosque with six minarets. 1616

It would seem, why build four minarets when one is enough? How
The more minarets, the more glorious and significant the mosque. How important this is proves
a story that is quite boring to me (all the guides happily tell it and repeat it
all guidebooks in all languages) about the six minarets of the Sultanahmet Mosque (or Ahmediye or, as
It was called the “Blue Mosque” for the incomparable beauty of its tiles). Sultan Ahmet allegedly said
to the architect that he wants to build golden ("Altyn") minarets, but the somewhat deaf architect heard
"alti" - six. Because of this misunderstanding, a mosque with six minarets was built. Muslim
the world perceived this as insolence, since only the Beytullah Mosque in
Mecca, so Sultan Ahmet had to build another - the seventh - minaret for the mosque
Beytullah, and balance was restored.

Byzantine temple HAHA SOPHIA, converted into a mosque.

There’s a separate conversation about it, so let’s look at it through the jets of the fountain .

Suleymaniye Mosque (1557) with 10 balconies on four minarets

In the evening, the minarets are especially spectacular - illuminated, they sparkle against the dark sky,
like burning pillars.

Blue Sultanahmet Mosque illuminated at night

A tower (round, square or polygonal in cross-section) from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. The minaret is placed next to the mosque or included in its composition. Early minarets often had a spiral staircase or ramp on the outside (spiral minarets), later ones - inside the tower.

There are two main types of minarets: tetrahedral (North Africa) and round (Near and Middle East). The minarets were decorated with patterned brickwork, carvings, glazed ceramics, and openwork balconies (sherefe).

Small mosques usually have one minaret (or none at all), medium ones - two; the large Sultan's mosques in Istanbul had from four to six minarets. The largest number of minarets, ten, is at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

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Notes

Again and again, day after day, five times a day, the voice of a muezzin is heard over the cities of the Islamic world, calling on Muslims to turn to Allah in prayer. The larger the city, the larger the mosque to accommodate all the believers. And, accordingly, the higher the minaret so that the call of the muezzin reaches the ears of everyone who has them.

Translated from Arabic, “minaret” means “lighthouse”. This is a legacy of past centuries, when fire was lit on the minarets of coastal cities at dusk. Using them as a guide, the ship captains chose the correct course to the harbor. And in the first decades after the emergence of Islam, there were no minarets at all. It is believed that they were first acquired by the Amr ibn Asa mosque in El Fustat, one of the largest medieval cities, the historical predecessor of present-day Cairo.

The design of the minaret is simple: it is a tower with a spiral staircase inside. Having entered the minaret, the muezzin climbs the stairs to the very top and goes out onto a balcony called a sharaf. Small minarets have one scaraf, higher minarets have two, and the highest ones have three scarafs.

Various architectural styles have contributed to the configuration of minarets in different Muslim countries. If the minaret has a round cross-section in cross-section, a helmet-shaped dome and, as a rule, one scarf, it is located in Iran or Iraq. In Turkey, minarets with a narrower cross-section than in Mesopotamia and with a cone-shaped tip are common. The square cross-section of minarets is typical for North African countries. There are even minarets in the modernist style - quite a few of these have appeared in Europe in recent decades.

The standard Turkish mosque - Selimiye - can be seen if you visit the city of Edirne. It was erected in the 16th century. Each of its minarets rises 80 meters above the ground. In each, three spiral staircases lead up to the sharafs, each to its own sharaf. If the muezzins climb these stairs at the same time, they will not see each other - the central support column will interfere with them, but they will be able to talk to each other.

An interesting story is connected with the world famous Sultanahmet Mosque - a symbol of Istanbul and all Islamic architecture. As you know, it was built in the 17th century with six minarets. But at that time, only the Haram Beit Ullah mosque in Mecca, where the Kaaba sanctuary is located, had such a number of minarets, and no one else. Unnecessary conversations began: they say that Sultan Ahmet I is trying to compete with Mecca. He had already decided to demolish one minaret. But some smart person suggested: why destroy if you can create? So Sultanahmet retained all its mosques, and Haram Beit Ullah acquired a seventh minaret.

Another interesting story concerns the equally famous Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. It has “only” four minarets, but one (which is unknown) is truly precious. There is a story that one day the construction of the mosque was stopped for some reason. After some time, the then reigning Sultan Suleiman Ghanuni received from the Safavid (modern Iran) Shah Tahmasib I a box of jewelry and reproaches for stopping construction. In anger, the Sultan ordered the architect Sinan to be called and ordered him to use the jewelry as building material. No sooner said than done: the solution in which the jewels were mixed was used for the construction of one of the minarets. They say that it sparkled in the sun for several years...

The Iranian city of Isfahan is famous for the 14th-century tomb of Minar Jomban and its two minarets. Tourists constantly come here to see a real ship. Every half hour, specially hired servants begin... to swing the right minaret, which requires considerable physical effort. And the minaret actually sways. But after him, the left one begins to sway in the same way! To the accompaniment of the ringing of bells hanging on them. The secret of the design of the minarets has not yet been solved. And the reason why the vizier of the all-powerful Shah Abbas, Sheikh Bahai, planned this way lies on the surface: Isfahan is located in one of the most seismic regions of the planet.

The Qutub Minar in Delhi is amazing - the largest in the world, built entirely of brick. The 72-meter-high tower began to be built at the beginning of the 12th century, and was completed only by the middle of the 15th century. The minaret consists of five tiers, and on the lowest one, suras from the Koran are carved on the brick walls. Moreover, the bricks in this tier were made of sandstone, and on the top two - from marble.

Modern life has made its own adjustments to the design of minarets. Now, in most cases, the muezzin does not need to climb onto the sharaf - there are four speakers installed there, one on each side of the world, which broadcast the call to the entire area. And the highest 200-meter minaret in the city of Casablanca (Morocco) is equipped with a special lighting device, and when the time for prayer comes, a laser beam points the faithful in the exact direction to the Kaaba in Mecca, where they should go, praising Allah.