Short answer: Islamic architecture is the building tradition of Muslim lands, shaped first by the needs of the mosque. Its main features are the courtyard, the prayer hall facing Makkah, the mihrab (a niche showing the direction of prayer), the minbar (the pulpit), the minaret (the tower for the call to prayer) and, in many regions, the dome. Decoration uses calligraphy, geometric patterns and muqarnas, the honeycomb vaults of the later periods. Famous examples include the Dome of the Rock (692), the Great Mosque of Cordoba (begun 785), the Alhambra, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (1616) and the Taj Mahal, which is a tomb.
It began with a courtyard in Madinah
A mosque does not need a building at all. The Prophet ﷺ said that the whole earth had been made a place of prayer for him and his ummah, so a Muslim may pray wherever the time finds him.1 When he reached Madinah in 622, the first thing he built, with his own hands alongside the Companions, was a simple mosque: an open courtyard with walls of mud brick, a roof of palm leaves on one side held up by palm trunks, and his family's rooms along one wall.2 Everything that came later grew from this plan.
فِى بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ ٱللَّهُ أَن تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَ فِيهَا ٱسْمُهُۥ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ فِيهَا بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ
Fee buyootin azinal laahu an turfa'a wa yuzkara feehasmuhoo yusabbihu lahoo feehaa bilghuduwwi wal aasaal
"[Such niches are] in mosques which Allah has ordered to be raised and that His name be mentioned therein; exalting Him within them in the morning and the evenings"
Quran 24:36 · translation by Sahih International
To see where it all began, read the oldest mosques in the world, from Quba to the first mosques of America.
The parts of a mosque
- The prayer hall and the qiblah wall. Every mosque is turned towards the Kaaba in Makkah. The wall facing it is the qiblah wall, and the rows of worshippers stand parallel to it. Early halls were "hypostyle": a forest of columns holding up a flat roof, which could be extended in any direction as the city grew.
- The courtyard (sahn). An open court in front of the hall, often with a fountain or pool for wudu. In hot countries it holds the overflow on Fridays and Eids.
- The mihrab. A niche in the middle of the qiblah wall that shows the direction of prayer. The imam stands in front of it. The historians of Madinah report that the first niche mihrab was made when Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz rebuilt the Prophet's Mosque between 88 and 91 AH (707 to 710 CE). Mihrabs became the most richly decorated part of many mosques.
- The minbar. The pulpit for the Friday sermon, set to the right of the mihrab. The first was made for the Prophet ﷺ from tamarisk wood, with three steps.3 The palm trunk he had leaned on before it was heard to cry, a famous miracle.4
- The minaret. In the Prophet's time Bilal called the adhan from a high roof near the mosque.5 Towers came later, from the Umayyad period. They took many shapes: square in North Africa and Spain, the spiral of Samarra, the round brick towers of Iran and Central Asia, and the needle-thin pencils of the Ottomans.
- The dome. Domes mark an important place: over the space in front of the mihrab, over a whole prayer hall, or over a tomb. The Ottomans built mosques around one great central dome.
Muqarnas, arches and decoration
Muqarnas are small niches stacked in tiers like a honeycomb, used to turn the corner from a square room to a round dome, or simply to make a ceiling glow. They appear from the tenth and eleventh centuries in Iran, Iraq and North Africa, and reach their height in the Alhambra and in Iranian domes. Arches came in many forms: the horseshoe arch of Cordoba, the pointed arch, and the four-centred arch of Iran and India. Walls and domes carry the same decoration as the rest of Islamic art: Quran verses in calligraphy, geometric stars and the arabesque. Pictures of people and animals are not used in mosques.
Famous examples, with dates
| Building | Place | Built | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Prophet's Mosque | Madinah | 1 AH (622), rebuilt many times | The model for every mosque; the Prophet ﷺ is buried in it |
| The Dome of the Rock | Jerusalem | 72 AH (691 to 692) | The oldest great Islamic monument still standing; a shrine over the rock, beside Masjid al-Aqsa |
| The Great Mosque of Damascus | Syria | 87 to 96 AH (706 to 715) | The Umayyad mosque, with mosaics of gardens and buildings |
| The Great Mosque of Kairouan | Tunisia | Founded 50 AH (670); mostly 9th century | Its square minaret is among the oldest standing |
| The Great Mosque of Cordoba | Spain | Begun 169 AH (785), enlarged to 987 | Its red and white double arches; a cathedral since 1236 |
| The Great Mosque of Samarra | Iraq | 848 to 852 | Its spiral minaret, the Malwiya |
| The Alhambra | Granada, Spain | Mostly 14th century (8th century AH) | Nasrid palaces of muqarnas, tile and calligraphy |
| The Suleymaniye Mosque | Istanbul | 957 to 964 AH (1550 to 1557) | The masterpiece of the architect Sinan |
| The Sultan Ahmed Mosque | Istanbul | 1018 to 1025 AH (1609 to 1616) | The Blue Mosque, with six minarets and Iznik tiles |
| The Taj Mahal | Agra, India | 1041 to about 1063 AH (1632 to about 1653) | A tomb, not a mosque, with a mosque beside it |
| The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque | Abu Dhabi | Opened 2007 | A modern mosque in the classic style |
The Dome of the Rock was completed by the caliph Abd al-Malik; its mosaic inscription gives the year 72. It is not itself the Aqsa mosque, as our answer on the Dome of the Rock explains. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was begun by Abd al-Rahman I and enlarged by his successors until it held more than 850 columns. After Castile took Cordoba in 1236 it became a cathedral, and a church was built in its middle in the sixteenth century.
The Alhambra was the palace city of the Nasrid sultans of Granada. Its walls repeat their motto, wa la ghaliba illa Allah, "there is no victor but Allah". The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul was built by Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, a pupil of Sinan, and its blue tiles gave it its popular name. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal; the Quran verses around its arches were written by the calligrapher Amanat Khan.
Regional styles
Islam spread across many building traditions, and each region kept its own. Iran and Central Asia built in brick with tiled domes and the great iwan, a vaulted hall open on one side. Ottoman mosques stack half-domes around a central dome, with pencil minarets. Mosques of the Mughal and Delhi sultans use red sandstone and white marble. In West Africa, the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali is built of mud brick, replastered by the whole town every year. In China, old mosques look like Chinese temples, with curved tiled roofs. A mosque does not need a dome or a minaret to be a mosque: it needs only a clean place, a qiblah and people who pray.
FAQ
What are the main features of Islamic architecture?
The courtyard, a prayer hall facing Makkah, the mihrab niche, the minbar pulpit, the minaret, and often a dome, decorated with calligraphy, geometric patterns, arabesque and muqarnas.
What is a mihrab?
A niche in the qiblah wall of a mosque that shows the direction of Makkah. The imam leads the prayer standing in front of it.
What is the oldest Islamic building still standing?
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed in 72 AH (691 to 692 CE), is the oldest great Islamic monument that survives largely in its first form.
Is the Taj Mahal a mosque?
No. It is a tomb built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. There is a mosque on its western side, and Quran verses are written around its arches.
Why do mosques have domes and minarets?
They are not required. Domes mark and roof the most important spaces, and minarets let the call to prayer be heard far away. The Prophet's own mosque had neither.
Sources
- Sahih al-Bukhari 335, from Jabir ibn Abdullah: "The earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification."
- Sahih al-Bukhari, from Abdullah ibn Umar, on the mosque in the Prophet's time; Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, on its building.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 917, from Sahl ibn Sa'd, on the minbar of tamarisk wood.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3583, from Abdullah ibn Umar, on the palm trunk.
- Sunan Abu Dawud, from a woman of Banu al-Najjar, on Bilal calling the adhan from her roof; graded hasan by al-Albani.
- Jonathan Bloom, Minaret: Symbol of Islam (Oxford, 1989), on the first minarets and mihrabs; Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning (Edinburgh, 1994).
- Oleg Grabar, The Dome of the Rock (Harvard, 2006); Encyclopaedia Britannica entries on the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the Alhambra, the Suleymaniye Mosque, the Blue Mosque and the Taj Mahal.
- Quran 24:36, Arabic from the Uthmani text, translation by Sahih International.