Islam Architecture Flashcards

An Arabic term meaning “submission to God’s will,” it is used to describe the religion based on the Qur’an and Muhammad’s teachings.

According to Islam, Muhammad begins receiving divine messages from angel Gabriel in 610. He leaves his
hometown of Mecca in 622, returns in 630

Seen as direct word of God as revealed to Muhammed through the angel Gabriel. In this way it differs from the
Old Testament and New Testament

-shahada (avowal of faith)
-prayer (five times daily)
-alms
-fasting during Ramadan
-hajj

-(avowal of faith)
the act of bearing witness to God’s unity is
the basic act of Muslims

-(five times daily)
the format of the prayer comes from the teachings of Muhammad; purity of the body and place of prayer is
required

A certain percentage of income is given to the needy

Refraining from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity from dawn to sunset during the ninth month of the
Islamic lunar calendar

Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once for all Muslims who have the means to do so

-leaders in Islam
-they perform no tasks that cannot be performed by any adult Muslim
-means “the learned” and these figures preserve and maintain knowledge

-place of communal prayer
-term derived from the Arabic masjid, meaning place of prostation
-often the focal point of a complex that includes hospitals, madrasas (religious schools), shelters for travelers, and other buildings
-In addition to providing a place for prayer, mosques typically serve as educational centers

-Large communal mosques
-often called Great Mosques or Friday Mosques

-minaret (distinctive architectural features that are generally tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns)
-courtyard
-covered prayer hall
-minbar (a speaker's stand in the mosque where the leader of prayer stands to deliver sermons)
-qibla (is the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays during salah)
-mihrab (a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla)

-Umayyad Dynasty: 661-750; capital at Damascus. After Abbasids capture Damascus, an Umayyad prince flees to Spain and begins the Islamic age there.
-Abbasid Dynasty: 750-1258; capital at Baghdad

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name for areas on the Iberian peninsula (an area including modern-day Spain and Portugal). From the 7th century until 1492, Islamic rulers controlled parts of this region