How many minarets are there in the mosque and why. Interesting facts about the history of mosque minarets. Tallest minaret

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-barreled (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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Whatever you want, there is something in these minarets that far exceeds the desire gothic architecture free yourself from materiality and rush as high as possible to the sky, to where “God and angels live, where paradise is located.” An extremely narrow cylinder of snow-white stone is erected, a narrow spiral is cut inside it and a herald is sent up along it, so that from the carved balcony of the mosque he glorifies the prophet and, with his trembling voice, calls believers to heaven, where they can go if they are ready to give up even their own for faith life.., From history we know that there were countless such hunters.

In the south-eastern corner of the Aya Sophia we were shown a strange five-fingered spot on a column. This is supposedly the handprint of Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of the Byzantine Empire. And how did the Sultan manage to climb to such a height! After all, the imprint is located at a level of six meters from the foot of the column!

It is said that he rode into the Temple of the Divine Wisdom, which was filled with the corpses of his soldiers and those of the defeated Byzantines, on the day of the capture of Constantinople. The horse, walking over the corpses, became frightened and reared up. And today tourists are shown the footprint on the place of the column on which he leaned with his bloody hand so as not to fall...

Symbolism of numbers

Entering the famous Suleymaniye Mosque, we immediately felt as if we were in the mid-sixteenth century. This is exactly what this mosque probably looked like in 1557, shortly before the end of construction, when the scaffolding that supported the vault was removed. This is exactly how it looked now, hung with a web of scaffolding that covered ornaments, the names of caliphs and complex designs of intricate Arabic writing. It was dark in the mosque: a wooden cobweb blocked access to the sun's rays, but in the courtyard they burned the dark backs of the workers who were cutting stones that were intended to repair this valuable architectural monument.

The mosque bears the name of the most famous Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Solomon. It was supposed to become the spiritual center of the entire empire, so the buildings adjacent to the mosque were occupied high school and Faculty of Medicine. Suleiman even ordered the construction of a hospital and a canteen for poor students here.

And in order to give the proper splendor to his creation outside, he ordered four minarets to be erected around the mosque. Two of them have three balconies, the rest do not have third balconies. This symbolism of numbers is not accidental. By the fact that there were four minarets, Suleiman wanted to emphasize that he was the fourth to own Istanbul. Ten balconies were supposed to proclaim to the world that he was the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman dynasty.

The balconies, faded with age, are in need of repair. At the foot of one of these stone “pencils” they are already beginning to stretch a web of scaffolding so that the stonemasons can reach the crinolines of the balconies by a different route than the path of the muezzins.

Beloved by Ahmed and the Baroque of Prague

Was it the deafness or the cunning of the architect Sultan Ahmed, which aroused the indignation of the Muslim spiritual hierarchy and almost led to a schism between Mecca and Istanbul?

The reason for this religious upheaval lies in the similarity of the sound of two Turkish words - “al-ty” and “altyn”. The first means “six”, the second means “gold”.

The architect left Ahmed with the order to build a luxurious mosque with “Altyn” minarets, a structure that would surpass even the Aya Sophia. It was truly no easy task. Therefore, it was not surprising that when the mosque was ready, there were no funds for the construction of “golden” minarets. Then the architect erected four minarets around the mosque he had built, and placed two more in the corner of the spacious courtyard in front of the mosque. Thus, there were six of them in total - “alty”.

The task was completed in its entirety, with the exception of only one little detail - the last letter in the word “Altyn”. But that is precisely why the clergy raised a terrible cry, accusing Ahmed of blasphemy. After all holy mosque Mecca had only five minarets, and suddenly a mosque with six minarets appears in Istanbul!

How it all ended is known. Ahmed capitulated, but instead of destroying the two magnificent minarets of his mosque, he agreed to build two more in Mecca, and thus Mecca regained the palm.

Nowadays this six-minaret mosque is called the Blue Mosque, and, believe me, it is the most beautiful among all in Istanbul. And not only with its six towering minarets, but also with its purity of style and amazing proportions interior spaces and the breathtaking blue of the tiles that pave the floor of the mosque. Embedded in the migrab, a prayer niche in the façade of the mosque, is a piece of black holy stone from the Kaaba in Mecca. Therefore, it was in the Blue Mosque that the most solemn services were performed in the presence of the sultans, and therefore it was here that the birthdays of the prophet were always celebrated. Through two hundred and sixty multi-colored windows, rainbow light penetrates the blue of the mosque, which on special holidays competes with artificial lighting beating from hundreds of glass bells hung inside the temple.

Is there anything I can help you with? - suddenly a voice is heard nearby. This question was asked first in German, then in English and, just in case, in French. A man of about thirty, with an elegant, well-groomed mustache, stands, bowing respectfully, with the obligingness of a professional cicerone, waiting for us to pay attention to him.

But he quickly realized that he wouldn’t get anything from us, that when a person is busy filming, he doesn’t have time to listen to a story about how many tiles cover the floor of the mosque, who made them and what the names of Ahmed’s lovers were.

Having learned that we were from Czechoslovakia, he perked up and boasted in broken Czech that he was “writing with Prague.”

Prague Radio sent me the book I requested, Baroque Temples of Prague. But I didn't receive it. I wrote again. I was informed that the book was sent by registered parcel and that, just in case, they were sending me a second one. But I didn’t receive this one either.
He looked around cautiously and whispered:
- These disappearances are on the conscience of the Turkish police. They are afraid of communism.
“Sorry,” he said after this in English, “and headed towards a group of tourists who stopped at the entrance and raised their heads to the dome. They wore colorful shirts, and there was no doubt that they were Americans.

Tea party at the grave

If you yearn for silence and intimacy, if you want to take a break from the wild roar of the streets, run to the very end of the Golden Horn, to the charming Eyup Mosque. Here you will find not only pleasure from the fragile ornaments and pastel green carpets that cover every corner of the mosque. In the deathly silence, the cooing of pigeons can be heard, finding shelter in the rafters and niches. Here no one shouts at them, no one drives away the pigeons as they fly through the open gates from the courtyard, where pious pilgrims who have come to Istanbul's holiest mosque wash their lips and feet at the fountain. On the carpet lies a broken pigeon egg that has fallen from the nest. No one here kicks him away, none of the visitors trample on him or stain the soft carpet. Perhaps only in the evening, when the guard sees off the last pilgrim and prohibits entry, he will carefully collect the remains of the pigeon egg and take them out behind the mosque, under the spreading plane trees. Under their shadow is the tomb of Eyup, Mehmed's standard-bearer, who fell here in 670 during the first siege of Constantinople. Over the past centuries, the fence of his grave has been kissed so that at the window through which a high turban is visible, a depression has formed in the copper board.

Just a few years ago, these holy places were not dared to be seen by the eye of an unbeliever. Today, tourists come here every Friday to look at the crowd of thousands of believers, convinced that all their wishes will come true here...

A narrow road rises from the Eyup Mosque leading to the slope above the Golden Horn. And again, graves, graves, as if there were few of them along the fourteen-kilometer rampart in the west of Istanbul, as if there were few of them here, on the northern and southern slopes, above the Golden Horn, among the workers’ houses, among the sports fields and gardens!

Burials continue here to this day. Immediately behind the green fence by the road lies a marble slab and a marble turban - a sign that a man is buried here. Turbans alternate with rosebuds and fans carved from stone. They say that women are buried here.

Some graves literally hung in the air. The slab is about to fall off, it is undermined because it is making its way up the slope new Age. The electric cable that is being laid here will soon supplant the oil hagans. They will be taken to the flea market, and electric light bulbs will appear in their place.

On the concrete parade ground, the soldiers line up, some corporal hits them on the heels, straightening the ranks. The sheep climbs onto the grave and gnaws at the daisies on it and at the same time bleats with pleasure. A little further on, several more sheep surrounded a shepherd boy with a pipe. So he stopped and played Constantinople pastorals to the ram lying down at his feet.

At a distance there is a wooden building - the famous coffee shop of Pierre Loti. In front of it, people sit at round tables and thoughtfully look down at the one and a half million anthill, at the minarets and chimneys of steamships that will set out into the open sea at dawn tomorrow.

A boy of about ten ran out of the kitchen. In his hand, swinging on four chains, is a tray with three pot-bellied glasses of tea. Tea was ordered by three young people who were calmly sitting on a gravestone and admiring the sunset.

Melodies of Istanbul

Six thousand taxis are driving around Istanbul today. Half of the capital's total vehicle fleet. They determine the rhythm of movement and the color of the city of one and a half million people on the banks of the Golden Horn, giving it a character that can be expressed in one word: pandemonium. If you put traffic controllers here who are accustomed to normal traffic, then after an hour they will take off their white gloves, spit on everything and leave. Here they travel according to the right of the strong: who wins whom. You can overtake as you please, just choose a convenient moment to squeeze into the gap between the cars, push your neighbors' bumper apart and drive away. At your own peril and risk.

Turkish drivers have a passion for sound combinations. Ordinary sound signals do not satisfy them. Their horns play various melodies, hum, howl like a fire siren, and make sounds that are no different from the whistles of a steam locomotive. More than once we were frightened by such signals, and we expected with horror that a train would jump out of nowhere. According to the unwritten law of Turkish roads, when passing and overtaking, drivers greet each other with intricate melodies.

True, such a “circus” is not allowed on the streets of Istanbul, so at intersections drivers are content with shouting at each other, hitting the car with their palms if they want to catch a pedestrian.

Turkish drivers also have another passion. They decorate their cars not only with various mascots, but also with names and inscriptions. The most common inscription on buses is “Mashaallah!” - “God bless me!” This request perfectly characterizes the “basic law” of street traffic: step on the gas, and let everything else happen according to the will of God!

Drivers love plenty of lighting. We saw taxis and buses, the bumpers and cabs of which were hung with colorful lights, like Christmas trees.

Architecture and housing issue

It would be unfair to say that Istanbul is all slums, shops and mosques. A significant part of the city is occupied by stone residential buildings, which are gradually replacing wooden ones.

And today there is a lot of construction in Istanbul. In place of the ruins along the newly laid streets leading from the center outside the city, blocks of modern houses are gradually growing. And we must admit that they are built with taste. Architects borrow models from Italy, the United States, and Brazil. They are not afraid of bright colors, new shapes, new materials.

In the Beyoğlu district, we saw a whole street of new houses, sparkling with tastefully laid small mosaics, in harmony with the neighboring facades not only in color, but also in design. The houses have many balconies and terraces. Decoration with decorative flowers is not forgotten either. In another area, we were pleased to see that the concrete slabs in the front of the balconies were not made in the shape of a traditional rectangle, but in the form of a trapezoid, with its narrow part placed on the base. In addition, each trapezoid is painted in its own color, usually something cheerful. And the houses themselves are colorful - light green, orange, heavenly, soft pink. The facade of such a house smiles at you from afar. No barracks-style gloom and inexpressive grayness. Imagine how your eyes can rest here!

All this is good, but what about the rent? The answer to this question is not so happy. A four- to five-room apartment (smaller ones are not built for commercial purposes, it is unprofitable) costs a tenant 1,500 Turkish liras per month. A tram driver in Turkey earns three hundred liras a month, a skilled worker - from four hundred to eight hundred.

Thus, we also answered the question of how often in such modern houses families of workers are moving in.

Small restaurant on the Bosphorus

Even in the times of ancient mythology, jealousy of one's rivals was distinctive feature women.

Hera, the wife of Zeus, was also distinguished by this property, who took revenge on Io, Zeus’s beloved, by turning her into a cow at the very moment when she was sailing from the shore of one part of the world to the shore of another part. The first part of the world was Asia, the second was Europe, the water space between them has since become known as Bosporos - Bosporus, or translated from Greek - Cow Ford.

We are sitting in a small restaurant on the Bosphorus, in its narrowest part, not far from the Rumeli Hissary fortress. This is a famous fortress. In 1452, three thousand workers built it day and night to complete it in four months, as ordered by Sultan Mehmed II.

Over half a millennium, progress has advanced so much that the heirs Ottoman Empire They are now thinking about how to reconnect two continents that separated from each other hundreds of thousands of years ago. They are designing the construction of a bridge between Europe and Asia, seven hundred meters long and seventy meters high, so that the largest sea vessels can pass under it. In the future, the bridge should connect to the motorway that goes around the suburb of Beyoglu, and beyond the Eyup Mosque, which crosses the Golden Horn, connect to another motorway leading to Edirne, to the Bulgarian border. So, we are sitting in a small restaurant on the Bosphorus. A quiet night spread over the strait. Arabic music can be heard from the outdoor terrace. Below us, a police patrol boat rushes through the night, searching the surface of the water with searchlights, probing the Asian and European shores, and disappears somewhere behind the garlands of neighboring dance halls. A taxi stopped right under the terrace wall. The engine is about to stall. He coughs weakly for a while and then goes completely deaf. The driver calmly disembarks the passenger, who nods to the loser’s colleague and, without swearing, continues on his way in his car. The driver of the stalled veteran does not take this whole story to heart. With fatalistic resignation, he rolls the car to the side in his hands, pulls out a watermelon, and cuts it in half. Only after thoroughly refreshing himself does he pull out the tool and begin the repair...

You can’t say anything, Asia is also manifested in this - a part of the world, teasing us with clusters of lights on the nearby opposite shore. The part of the world that we will enter tomorrow. A part of the world that will be our home for the next few years...

Translation by S. Babin, I.R. Nazarova

Islamic architecture is usually easily recognizable due to its characteristic vaults, specific domes and, of course, minarets, which we will discuss briefly below.

The meaning of the word "minaret" goes back to the Arabic word "manara", meaning "lighthouse". In addition, this structure is also called mizana or sauma. Architecturally, a minaret is quite easy to define - it is essentially an ordinary tower. But what makes a tower a minaret?

What is a minaret

A minaret is not just a tower, it is a structure that is being built near a mosque. Its functional purpose is somewhat similar to Christian bell towers - to notify believers about the beginning of prayer and to convene them to perform general prayer. But unlike their Christian counterparts, there are no bells on the minarets. Instead, people called muezzins call believers to prayer at certain hours with special exclamations. This word comes from an Arabic verb, which can roughly be translated into Russian with the words “shout in public.” In other words, the minaret is, in a sense, an elevation for the speaker.

Types of minarets

Architecturally, there are at least two types of minarets - round or square in base and section. Multifaceted structures are less common. In all other respects, the minaret is similar to the usual lighthouse or bell tower. Just like on them, on the upper tier of the sauma there is a special platform where the muezzin rises. It looks like a balcony and is called sherefe. The entire structure is usually crowned with a dome.

Square, that is, tetrahedral at the base, minarets are most often found in North Africa. Round-trunked trees, on the contrary, are rarely found there, but they prevail in the Near and Middle East.

In ancient times, in order to go upstairs, minarets were equipped with an external spiral staircase or ramp. Therefore, they often had a spiral design. Over time, stairs increasingly began to be built inside buildings. This tradition has spread and taken over, so now it is difficult to find a minaret that has an external staircase.

Like the mosque building, the minaret is often decorated in a distinctive Islamic style. This could be brickwork, carving, glaze, openwork decorations balcony Therefore, a minaret is not just a functional structure, it is also an object of Islamic art.

If the mosque is small, as a rule, one minaret is attached to it. Medium-sized buildings are supplied with two. Particularly large ones can have four or more. The maximum number of minarets can be found in the famous Prophet's Mosque, which is located in Medina. It is equipped with ten towers.

Minarets in our time

Technological progress makes its own adjustments to the way of life of Muslims. Often today there is no longer any need for muezzins to climb to the top of the minaret. Instead, speakers are installed on the tower's balcony, like on pillars, which simply broadcast the muezzin's voice.

In some countries, minarets are completely prohibited. We are talking, of course, not about Muslim countries, but about Western regions and states. The first among such countries was Switzerland. In 2009, following the results of a popular referendum, the construction of a misan was prohibited. Therefore, the minaret is a prohibited structure in this European country.

A minaret is a tall tower-like structure erected in the corner(s) of mosques. Used to spread the sounds of the azan more widely and sometimes for illumination.

Translated from Arabic as “lighthouse”. The reason is that in past times, lights were lit on top of the minarets of coastal cities so that ships could determine the correct course towards the city.

In the first decades of Islam there were no minarets. The caller to prayer climbed either to the roof of the mosque or another nearby tall building. According to some sources, for the first time the Egyptian governor Maslama ibn Muhallad (d. 682) ordered the construction of a minaret in each corner of the Amr ibn Asa mosque in Fustat (old Cairo).

Inside the minarets there are spiral staircases. Along them, the person calling for prayer climbs to the balcony (sharaf), which is located at the top of the minaret. Depending on the height, the minarets have one, two or three balconies.

The minarets of mosques in different Muslim countries differ in their configuration. This is due to the architectural style. For example, mosque minarets in Iran and Iraq typically have a single scarf, a circular cross-section, and helmet-shaped domes. And minarets in Turkey have a narrow round cross-section and a cone-shaped tip. Minarets in North African countries are square in cross section. In the minarets that have been erected recently in Europe, preference is given to the modernist style.

Most high minaret in the world is located in Morocco, in the city of Casablanca. The height of the minaret, which is built on the shore Atlantic Ocean and named after the Moroccan King II Hassan, has a rectangular cross-section and reaches a height of 200 meters. A laser beam installed on the top of the minaret indicates the direction of the qibla and can be seen from a distance of 30 kilometers.

And the history of Islam has several interesting facts related to minarets. For example, inside the 80-meter minarets of the Salmiyya Mosque with three scarafs, built in Edirne by the famous Turkish architect Sinan (1489-1588) by order of the Ottoman Sultan Salim II, three staircases were erected separately. Each leads to one balcony. People ascending these steps at the same time do not see each other, but hear voices.

The history of the Ahmadiyya Mosque with six minarets, built in Istanbul during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I (1603-1617), is very interesting. At that time, only the Beitullah Mosque in Mecca had 6 minarets, and in all other mosques their number was smaller. After the construction of the Ahmadiyya was completed, the Sultan was reproached for building a mosque that rivaled Mecca. To prevent unnecessary conversations, the Sultan decided to destroy one of the minarets. But he was advised, instead of destroying the minaret in Ahmadiyya, to build another minaret in Mecca. As a result, Sultan Ahmed ordered the construction of the seventh minaret in the Beytullah Mosque. Thus, the primacy remained again with Mecca.

And the Suleymaniye Mosque, built by the architect Sinan during the reign of Sultan Suleiman Ganuni (1520-1566) in Istanbul, has 4 minarets. Two of them have 3 balconies, two have 2 balconies. This makes a total of 10. Sultan Suleiman Ghanuni is the tenth Ottoman Sultan. It is said that, having heard about the delay in the construction of the Suleymaniye Mosque, the Safavid Shah Tahmasib I (at that time relations between Iran and Turkey were very tense) sent Sultan Suleiman a box of jewelry to reproach him, and so that he would continue the construction of the mosque. Sultan Suleiman was furious at this. Having handed over the box to Memar Sinan, he ordered the jewelry to be used as a building material in the construction of mosques. Gems mixed with the solution and applied to one of the minarets. They say that the same minaret sparkled in the sun for several years.

Another interesting example of a minaret is the “swinging minarets” mosque located in the Iranian city of Isfahan, the design of which was developed by the vizier Sheikh Bahai during the reign of Shah Abbas. This mosque has two minarets. Despite the fact that this mosque is 400 years old, even today, if you push one of the minarets, both begin to sway. This method was developed so that during earthquakes the minarets would pass shocks through themselves and not collapse. For a long time, the secret of these minarets could not be unraveled, even by the Europeans who arrived there centuries later. Let us note that the author of the design of the world-famous bathhouse, heated by just one candle, is also Sheikh Bahai, but the mystery of this structure has not yet been solved. The heating system of this bathhouse has not survived. During the period of the Russian-Iranian War and the occupation of part of Iran by Russian troops, Russian engineers dismantled the heating system of the bathhouse, however, they were never able to reveal its secret. And once restored, it stopped working.

Minaret of the Islamic Center in Serbia - 77.5 m

With the financial support of Muslim believers from Luxembourg, Germany, Sweden, the USA, Australia and other parts of the world, an Islamic center - a mosque was built in the village of Delimeđe, with the two highest minarets in Eurasia - 77.5 m, and one of the highest in the world . Over 1 million euros were raised for the construction of the Islamic Center, which includes a mosque and other services.

For comparison: the minaret of the Fitja mosque in Stockholm is 32 m high; the minaret of the relatively new “Heart of Chechnya” mosque in Grozny is 62 m high and the minaret of the famous Qutub mosque in New Delhi is 72.5 m high. The tallest minaret in Central Asia is in Bukhara - 47 m.

In the sky

The mosque with the tallest minarets in Eurasia was erected in the small village of Delimeje, in the Tutin community, where there are only 88 households and three hundred adult residents. The minarets, built in 2009, took the palm from the Islamic center “Heart of Chechnya” built in 2008 in Grozny, whose minarets are more modest in height - 62 meters.

The architect of the minarets in Delimije, Muharem Kruško from Maglaj, is a former builder who worked in Croatia; during his life he built 230 minarets, mainly in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, being a kind of world record holder. Krushko built the first minaret back in 1966 in Gluhaya Bukvitsa.

The absolute record holder for the height of a minaret is the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca in Morocco with a height of 210 meters, but the Iranians are planning to build a minaret in Tehran with a height of 230 meters.

Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

About minarets

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.

Muezzin (Arabic: مؤذن‎‎) - calling Muslims to prayer.

There are several versions about the origin of the call to prayer (adhan or nida). According to one, the tradition of the call to prayer arose even before Muhammad’s migration to Medina (Hijra). According to another - after the migration, approximately in the second year of the Hijri. The first muezzin, the Abyssinian Bilyal ibn Rabah, first called people to prayer on the streets, and only after some time they began to use the most high point in the city. There were also regional methods of calling: in Fez (Morocco) a banner was strengthened on the minaret, and in dark time- lit the lamp.

The verb “adzana” in Arabic means “to shout in public,” says Wikipedia. The muezzin is the assistant to the imam-khatib, he must recite the adhan and tasbih. The time when the muezzin calls for prayer is strictly determined by the laws of Islam, and this has a deep meaning inherent in centuries-old traditions.

The winter days of the year are much shorter than the summer ones, so in winter the morning prayer of a Muslim will be much later, and the night prayer much earlier than in summer. Currently, the muezzin no longer climbs the minaret, but his voice is broadcast by speakers installed on the minaret.

Fittja Mosque minaret in Stockholm

Ancient mosques and minarets reflected the national cultural differences of Muslims. The merit of Muslims in the cultural and religious historical context is enormous. Followers of Islam built magnificent Islamic temples emanating blessed light. For centuries, an atmosphere of philanthropy was created in them.

Distant ancestors understood that mosques were built to last, and that the Islamic religion was the future. Mosques contain the spiritual and moral code of Islam and the power of the Almighty (it is no coincidence that the tradition of entering a mosque without shoes is observed).

The modern culture of mosque construction is unified; many factors influence the appearance of the building and its style. Within the city of Pyatigorsk, the court, following a lawsuit from the authorities, ordered the dismantling of the minarets of two mosques. Pyatigorsk – resort town, part of the North Caucasus Federal District tourist cluster. And what will tourists remember when looking at the Pyatigorsk mosque without a minaret against the backdrop of the mountains?

Russia is not small Serbia, which cares about the image of the country, with a population of 7,186,862 people, of which 239,658 (3.2%) are Muslims. There are twenty million Muslims in Russia who are grateful for the minarets.

Svetlana Mamiy. Moscow