Buildings

Now we know that as the muslim umma grew bigger

from a small town in the desert into a world covering empire,

the wealth that was available to it grew bigger in the same way.

And those that ruled the muslim world spent that wealth in some very grand ways

to show how powerful and rich they were.

They built great palaces for themselves,

with the most amazing decoration,

like the Al-Hambra palace in Granada.

Or they built magnificent forts for their armies,

often with their palaces inside them,

like the Sheesh Mahal, with its walls and ceiling covered in mirrors,

inside the Amber Fort at Jaipur.

But the buildings for which the muslim world is best known are its mosques,

as they were always the centre of the community,

and were seen as not for the glory of a ruler

but for the glory of God,

while also having the side effect of reflecting God's glory

on to the Caliph or emperor who had built them,

along with the suggestion

that they were not only rich and powerful

but also very religious,

So the mosque of a small desert town,

with mud walls around an open courtyard

and some palm leaves to give shade along the qibla wall,

in the middle of new cities became like palaces,

with marble floors and huge domed roofs to keep off the sun and rain,

and all covered in wonderful decoration,

in carved stone, or coloured tiles, or inlaid marble.

And some with roofs and qiblas buit up out of complicated geometry

known as muqarnas

And all these things were done in different styles in different places,

with one clear local difference being

the variety of minarets that can be found.

Some of them are square shaped,

as in Marrakesh, but most are circular at the bottom.

They can be thin and pointed like needles in Turkey,

or have bulbous domes in Iran and Samarkand.

They can have onion domes in Russia,

and flat domes like hats in Mughal India and Pakistan.

From one minaret to a mosque the number grew to four or more,

and they soon became seen as part of muslim architecture,

even without a mosque to which to call to prayer.

Some of the most famous minarets are part of the Taj Mahal,

but that is a glorious tomb, not the mosque,

which is a much simpler red sandstone building

a short distance away.

But in the Messenger's mosque

there was no minaret.

Bilal would climb to the top of the walls,

and give the call to prayer from there,

and for all the beauty of the architecture since,

it is hard to believe that his azan had less value in the hearing of God

than those that blare from loudspeakers on minarets around the muslim world today.