Stone minbars in various styles were also favoured in the Indian subcontinent; earlier wooden minbars may have been common but few have been preserved.
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The decorative effect is achieved by different coloured inlays instead of the deep carvings of earlier minbars.
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The original minbar of the first Marinid mosque is lost, but when Moulay Isma'il rebuilt or expanded the mosque in the late 17th century he commissioned a new minbar. The minbar, now preserved in the Dar Jamai Museum, is 3.25 metres long and 2.57 metres high and has eight steps. Its overall form and decoration is consistent with the traditional minbars of Moroccan mosques since the 12th-century Almoravid Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque and the Almohad minbars after it. Much of the minbar is decorated with an eight-pointed star motif, with the main flanks covered in a more elaborate motif found in the earlier minbars.
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Jama Masjid in Mandu, India (15th century) geometric motifs and inlay work on the Minbar of al- Ghamri at the Khanqah of Sultan Barsbay, Cairo (15th century) Woodwork was the primary medium for the construction of minbars in much of the Middle East and North Africa up until the Ottoman period. These wooden minbars were in many cases very intricately decorated with geometric patterns and carved arabesques (vegetal and floral motifs), as well as with Arabic calligraphic inscriptions (often recording the minbar's creation or including Qur'anic verses). In some cases they also featured delicate inlay work with ivory or mother-of-pearl. Many workshops created minbars that were assembled from hundreds of pieces held together using an interlocking technique and wooden pegs, without glue or metal nails.
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Boyacı Mosque, a historic mosque in the Şahinbey district, was built by Kadı Kemalettin in 1211 and completed in 1357. It has one of the world's oldest wooden minbars which is elaborately adorned with Koranic verses, stars and geometric patterns.
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During the Umayyad period the minbar was used by the caliphs or their representative governors to make important public announcements and to deliver the Friday sermon (khutba). In the last years of the Umayyad Caliphate, before its fall in 750, the Umayyads ordered minbars to be constructed for all the Friday mosques of Egypt, and soon afterwards this practice was extended to other Muslim territories. By the early Abbasid period (after 750) it had become standard in Friday mosques across all Muslim communities. Minbars thus quickly developed into a symbol of political and religious legitimacy for Muslim authorities.
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Details of the mosque's alt= The mosque today also contains a minbar (pulpit next to the mihrab) that is sometimes cited as the most beautiful and accomplished work of its kind in Cairo. Like most Mamluk minbars of the period it is made of wood and inlaid with ivory across a surface decorated with complex geometric star patterns. One detail that differs from other minbars of this type is that the geometric patterns have slightly curved lines instead of straight lines, subtly enhancing their visual effect. The minbar originally belonged to the Mosque of al-Ghamri which was built in 1451 in the Bab al-Shari'a area of Cairo.
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Sultanate-era mosques featured multiple domes or a single dome, richly designed mihrabs and minbars and an absence of minarets. While clay bricks and terracotta were the most widely used materials, stone was used from mines in the Rarh region. The Sultanate style also includes gateways and bridges. The style is widely scattered across the region.
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In addition to the already-mentioned Almoravid Minbar and the Minbar of Saladin, other highly accomplished examples of this style are the Minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (commissioned in 1091), the minbar of the Qarawiyyin Mosque (completed in 1144), and the Minbar of al-Ghamri (now housed at the Khanqah of Sultan Barsbay) in Cairo (circa 1451), among others. Stone minbars were sometimes produced in this early period too, as with the example of the minbar of the Mosque of Sultan Hasan in Cairo (14th century). During the Ottoman period, however, stone and marble became increasingly favoured materials for new minbars, though often with relatively simplified ornamentation. An accomplished example of this genre, still featuring rich decoration, is the minbar of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (late 16th century).
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The original minbar of the madrasa's mosque is today housed at the Dar Batha museum (located further west, not far from Bab Bou Jeloud), with a later replacement now present in the mosque itself. This original dates from 1350-1355 when the madrasa was being built, and is notable as one of the best Marinid examples of its kind. Minbars, often described or translated as a "pulpit", was by this period a mostly symbolic object in mosques; the form of the Bou Inania minbar did not practically allow an imam to actually climb it. Its form and decoration, like most minbars of Morocco after the Almoravid period, was closely inspired and derived from the famous minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque, which was commissioned in 1137 by the Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf and crafted in Cordoba, Spain (Al-Andalus).
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It remained there until 1962, when it was moved into storage and then to the El Badi Palace for public display, where it remains today. Made primarily of wood and decorated with a variety of techniques, the minbar is considered one of the high points of Moorish, Moroccan, and Islamic art. It was enormously influential in the design of subsequent minbars produced across Morocco and the surrounding region.
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It was moved to Barsbay's mosque when al- Ghamri's mosque was demolished in 1884. The craftsman of the minbar is known from historical sources and is named as Ahmad ibn 'Isa al-Dimyati, who was also responsible for constructing minbars for the Mosque of Mecca and the later Mosque of Qijmas al-Ishaqi. The construction of the minbar was originally financed by a merchant and scholar named Ibn al-Radadi.
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Bengali mosque architecture featured terracotta, stone, wood and bamboo, with curved roofs, corner towers and multiple domes. During the Bengal Sultanate, a distinct regional style flourished which featured no minarets, but had richly designed mihrabs and minbars as niches. Islamic Bengal had a long history of textile weaving, including export of muslin during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, the weaving of Jamdani is classified by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.
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The minbar inside the mosque also dates from the Mamluk era (around 1300) and was a gift of the Mamluk amir Baktimur al-Jugandar. It has excellent craftsmanship and is one of the oldest surviving minbars in Cairo. Today, the base of the mosque (along with the shops that once lined its exterior) is nearly two metres below the current street level, illustrating how much the street level has risen in the city since the 12th century.
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The Kutubiyya Mosque's original minbar (pulpit) was commissioned by Ali ibn Yusuf, one of the last Almoravid rulers, and created by a workshop in Cordoba, Spain (al-Andalus). Its production started in 1137 and is estimated to have taken seven years. It is regarded as “one of the unsurpassed creations of Islamic art”. Its artistic style and quality was hugely influential and set a standard which was repeatedly imitated, but never surpassed, in subsequent minbars across Morocco and parts of Algeria.
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The Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh today. The Kutubiyya Mosque's historic minbar (pulpit) was commissioned by Ali ibn Yusuf, one of the last Almoravid rulers, and created by a workshop in Cordoba, Spain (al-Andalus). Prior to this, one of the most celebrated minbars in the region was the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, commissioned by Caliph al-Hakam II during his expansion of the mosque between 961 and 976. Like the later Almoravid-commissioned minbar, it was made using precious woods and inlaid with ivory, but it has not survived to the present day.
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The mihrab is set in a niche with a flat floor. Adjoining the mihrab on either side there are two door openings which lead to small oblong rooms, one of which housed the minbar which used to be shifted on rails to the prayer hall for the Imam to say the daily prayers and give sermons. While the rails that were used to shift the minbar are still embedded in the floor, the minbar itself is now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Arts in Algiers. It is one of the finest sculpted minbars of its type in Algeria.
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As religious scholars, members of the Mojabi family held various minbars in Qazvin throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The family also had considerable involvement in political and societal affairs in Qazvin and across Iran. During the late Qajar and Pahlavi eras, the Mojabi family pioneered the publishing houses and periodicals of Qazvin, a city famed for its political newspapers. Of these, Ra’d-i-Qazvin founded and edited by Ali Ra’d Mojabi, was the most long-standing of these periodicals, in print from 1933 to 1950 and was closed down on various occasions by Soviet forces during the occupation of northern Iran in the Second World War.
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The Almohad minbar of the Kasbah Mosque in Marrakesh, produced in 1189-1195, marks another high mark of minbar artistry which presented a slight variation on the same model and also proved influential in subsequent designs. Later minbars are seen by scholars as lesser imitations of these earlier models, though still in some cases accomplished works of art in their own right. Notable examples include the Almohad renovation to the minbar of the Andalusi Mosque in Fes (1203-1209), the Marinid minbar of the Great Mosque of Taza (circa 1290-1300), the Marinid minbar of the Bou Inania Madrasa (1350-1355), and the Saadian minbar of the Mouassine Mosque (1562-1573).
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The minbar is symbolically the seat of the imam who leads prayers in the mosque and delivers sermons. In the early years of Islam, this seat was reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and then for the caliphs who followed him, who were officially the imam of the whole Muslim community, but it eventually became standard for all Friday mosques and was used by the local imam. Nonetheless, the minbar retained its significance as a symbol of authority. While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits, they have a function and position more similar to that of a church lectern, being used instead by the imam for a wide range of readings and prayers.
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Awqaf ministry building In the year 2008 growing concern erupted in Egypt over the increase of thefts from Awqaf mosques in Egypt, such as Ganim Al Bahlawan and Altinbugha Al-Maridani mosques, where inlaid wood panels from the minbars were stolen. Thieves were also caught trying to steal an ironwork grill window from the sabil kuttab of Rokaya Dudu. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) blamed the Ministry of Awqaf for the incidents, stating that the role of the SCA is only to restore mosques and give then back to the Awqaf, who are then in charge of security. Yet, legally the SCA is in charge of security of monuments and archaeological sites.
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Al-Mansur himself narrates on the second occasion that the blind man did not recognize him at first and began reciting the following Umayyad lines of poetry: > The women of the House of Umayya lament For their daughters are orphaned > Their good fortune slept, their stars set For fortunes do sleep and stars do > set. Their high minbars are vaccant; May peace be upon them until I die. After hearing this, Al-Mansur questions the blind man as to how much and where Marwan II, the Umayyad Caliph, paid him to recite these lines to which the man responded four thousand dinars, a gala robe and two riding camels in Basra. Al-Mansur reveals his identity as the Abbasid Caliph and the blind man begs for forgiveness.
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It was one of the only major formal furnishings of a mosque and was thus an important architectural feature in itself. More importantly, however, it was the setting for the weekly Friday sermon which, notably, usually mentioned the name of the current Muslim ruler over the community and included other public announcements of a religious or political nature. As a result, later Muslim rulers sometimes invested considerable expense in commissioning richly- decorated minbars for the main mosques of their major cities. Examples of these include the Almoravid Minbar in Marrakesh, commissioned in 1137 by Ali ibn Yusuf, and the Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque (also commonly known as the Minbar of Saladin) in Jerusalem, commissioned in 1168-69 by Nur ad-Din.
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That minbar established a prestigious artistic tradition, originating from formerly Umayyad Al-Andalus, which was imitated and emulated in subsequent periods, though subsequent minbars varied in their exact form and in the choice of the decorative methods. Like the Kutubiyya minbar, the Bou Inania Minbar, made of wood (including ebony and other expensive woods), is decorated via a mix of marquetry and inlaid carved decoration. The main decorative pattern along its major surfaces on either side is centered around eight-pointed stars, from which bands of decorated with ivory inlay then interweave and repeat the same pattern across the rest of the surface. The spaces between these bands form other geometric shapes which are filled with wood panels of intricately carved arabesques.
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The minbar (pulpit) of the mosque, kept next to the mihrab, follows in the artistic style and tradition of previous Almohad minbars and of the Almoravid-era Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque. Its form seems to be inspired in particular by the minbar of the Kasbah Mosque (a mosque which was also repaired and restored by Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib). It is made of a combination of different-coloured woods including cedar and ebony, and its decoration mixes marquetry, ivory or bone inlay, and panels with sculpted reliefs to form both geometric and plant motifs. Scholars have argued that while the quality of its craftsmanship does not live to its predecessors, it does show originality and a continued effort to adopt new forms into the decorative schema.
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The minbar was already widely praised and appreciated among observers and scholars soon after its creation. The fact that the Almohad leader Abd al-Mu'min, who is reputed to have destroyed all Almoravid religious buildings in Marrakesh after he took the city, selected the minbar to be transferred and used at his newly built great mosque (the Kutubiyya) suggests that he saw it as a trophy and a significant artistic object in its own right. The minbar's artistic style and quality was hugely influential and set a standard which was repeatedly imitated, but never surpassed, in subsequent minbars across Morocco and parts of Algeria. The only other minbar produced in the same period and considered to be of similar quality is the Almoravid minbar of the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fes, produced in 1144.
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Tiles with some calligraphy in the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul (Turkey) Calligraphic design is omnipresent in Islamic art, where, as in Europe in the Middle Ages, religious exhortations, including Qur'anic verses, may be included in secular objects, especially coins, tiles and metalwork, and most painted miniatures include some script, as do many buildings. Use of Islamic calligraphy in architecture extended significantly outside of Islamic territories; one notable example is the use of Chinese calligraphy of Arabic verses from the Qur'an in the Great Mosque of Xi'an. Other inscriptions include verses of poetry, and inscriptions recording ownership or donation. Two of the main scripts involved are the symbolic kufic and naskh scripts, which can be found adorning and enhancing the visual appeal of the walls and domes of buildings, the sides of minbars, and metalwork.
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This involved not only embellishing some of the arches with new forms but also adding a series of highly elaborate cupola ceilings composed in muqarnas (honeycomb or stalactite-like) sculpting and further decorated with intricate reliefs of arabesques and Kufic letters. Lastly, a new minbar (pulpit), in similar style and of similar artistic provenance as the famous (and slightly earlier) minbar of the Koutoubia Mosque, was completed and installed in 1144. Made of wood in an elaborate work of marquetry, decorated with inlaid materials and intricately carved arabesque reliefs, it marked another highly accomplished work in a style that was emulated for later Moroccan minbars Elsewhere, many of the mosque's main entrances were given doors made of wood overlaid with ornate bronze fittings, which today count among the oldest surviving bronze artworks in Moroccan/Andalusian architecture. Another interesting element added to the mosque was a small secondary oratory, known as the Jama' al-Gnaiz ("Funeral Mosque" or "Mosque of the Dead"), which was separated from the main prayer hall and dedicated to providing funerary rites for the deceased before their burial.
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