Hi guys it's Miss E.. I just want to do a quick video to introduce you all to the different parts of the mosque. I am thinking maybe some of you guys have never stepped foot in one before and so will be interested in doing a quick little tour of the traditional parts of a mosque. You will learn in this module that mosques can vary, from place to place, location to location. We're going to identify three really standard styles but certainly in today's world they can vary greatly. But there are some characteristics that are typical to really all mosques structures. So we start with this slide which is kind of boring. It's basically a line drawing of the House of the Prophet Muhammad that was in Medina in Saudi Arabia. This line drawing just shows that initially the most was based off of Muhammad's own house. Arabian houses were in the desert. They tended to have a flat roofs. They didn't need any kind of peaked roof for precipitation or snow to slide off of. And they tended to have big beautiful open courtyards in front of them to take advantage of the environment. The structure that we see here also has a number of columns, kind of hard to tell from this picture, but there would have been columns inside, essentially of Muhammad's house, to hold up the roof. And these columns start the tradition of the Hypostyle mosque which is the first style of mosque that we see emerging in Islamic architecture where there is a big covered area that's all held up by a multitude of columns in front of a big Courtyard area. So that's where we start with the idea that a courtyard is very a common feature- No matter what the mosque style is- to Islamic architecture religious architecture. The Sahn or Courtyard that you're seeing here shows a Fountain area in the front. This is not a hypostyle mosque this is a 4 Iwan plan, which you will also learn about but you guys can see that there's as big beautiful gathering area in the courtyard. And the courtyards often feature water in some form - being from Saudi Arabia originally this religion of course has a great respect for water. There's wonderful associations with the waters connected to Paradise or Heaven. Particularly in dry climates like the desert. And there's also a connection to cleansing. Another feature of mosque is usually that those Courtyards would have some type of place to wash yourself or there would be a kind of Fountain area on the way into the Mosque like to basically wash. There's a wonderful and emphasis in the Muslim tradition of cleansing oneself before being ready to participate in any kind of religious service. There's also the tradition of every mosque having big open space for congregational gathering which means lots of people praying together. There is an emphasis in the Islamic faith on unity of people and so having a big area inside for people to come together as one is very simple. Many times these mosques will have carpeted floors and not, say chairs or pews, like you might think of in a Christian space because essentially Muslims do a lot of moving when they pray. They're standing, they're sitting and there's kneeling, in particular total prostration- or like this gentleman is doing here in this picture kneeling all the way down and touching his head to the floor is it completely humble gesture right you're completely being subservient to God in this position and that is one of the reasons why a nice soft carpet is used, including one here that shows you where each person and kind of stay on the carpet to be properly spaced-out is a common feature of the Islamic mosque. Men and women are prohibited from praying together in the Islamic faith so mosques commonly have a woman's dedicated area for women to pray in. Every mosque will also have a Qibla wall. Now this wall can look different from mosque to mosque but it is a wall that has some type of feature in it that lets you know that this is the wall facing towards Mecca. Mecca is the birthplace of Muhammad the prophet Muhammad, right? We learned that already. And every time a Muslim prays they would like to be praying in the direction towards Mecca. So you can understand that this kind of feature wall would be important in a mosque to make sure that people are directed in the right direction no matter what location you are in around the world this helps you to know which way to turn for prayer. Qibla walls usually are highlighted by a kind of a Minbar which is is a little niche that you'll find inside that Qibla wall that will be a focus for your prayer and your attention- another way to suggest okay this is the direction toward Mecca. There's a lot of borrowing in the Islamic decoration tradition because it is a religion it is a tradition that comes along in the world after a lot of other traditions are already established. For example and we see this kind of idea of an niche even coming from Roman times. It's a kind of semi circular indentation in the wall that is a highlighted future and in Roman times the Romans would have used it to place a sculpture of an important emperor. An Islamic Niche does not have a sculpture in it. We've already learned that the Islamic faith tends to be aniconic, or without images, avoiding the images. So this isn't meant to be a placeholder for a statue that is lost, it's literally meant to be a visual reminder of the direction to turn and even a kind of mental emphasis for that prayer for a person as they are doing their prayers. Lots of times these niches have a calligraphic band around them. Remember this example of a Mirab that is isolated- it originally would have been part of a mosque- here it's actually amazingly removed and put into a museum, but we have this kind of Niche feature with its beautiful tile work- another aspect of that the Islamic tradition is so famous for- and even though you may not be able to read Arabic I can identify that there's writing around the border. Here is some Arabic beautiful stylized calligraphy and a different kind of font, for better word, is also shown here with Arabic calligraphy and even some calligraphy in here. That's a common feature- this calligraphy is so important to the Islamic decoration tradition and usually features lines from the Quran the most famous holy book of the Islamic faith. Their inspiration is thinking that those passages are actually the direct word of God given to Muhammad in his various meditation. There's also a pulpit area usually in a mosque. It's like a raised platform for someone to speak -possibly a sermon to be given or a speech to be made and this also probably takes from the times of Muhammad where he would have probably stood on a platform to ultimately be able to protect his voice out to the multitude of people. So this is the tradition that we see in other in a religious basially as well to just allow for someone to be kind of highlighted and for the projection of someone's voice to be able to address a whole crowd. It eventually becomes associated honestly with the politics of the Islamic faith because a lot of the leaders of the Islamic faith are both religious and political figures and so their stance there would be very impressive I think to those that were inside the mosque. Mosques also feature towers in many different forms called minarets and minarets are towers essentially to allow for a crier or a person to call out the call to prayer that the Islamic people believe is needed 5 times a day. Prayer five times a day is one of the pillars of faith of the Islamic religion and so you know when you're busy in your day and you're working you might forget, so this is a great idea to have someone call out the song basically to encourage people to stop what they're doing kneel down to pray maybe roll out a special prayer carpet and kneel in that prostrated position and do their prayers. The idea for this actually again was borrowed came from the example of the Roman Watchtower - a kind of square structure that would be in Roman times, not for religious purposes. We find sometimes minarets have this kind of square-shape. They come in all kinds of designs so they vary in the way that they look, but their function is always the same- to basically allow for that call to prayer to be to be sent out to the people and do their obligation of prayer five times a day. Domes are also a common feature of mosques no matter what the mosque looks like or what no matter what type the mosque is. Domes are beautiful, kind of circular ceilings, that are very supportive and allow for actually a lack of columns to hold them up inside. So domes often highlight maybe the Qibla wall side or where the Minbar is. Ultimately what domes do for the Islamic architecture is they're symbolic of the Vault of Heaven- big beautiful circular ceilings over your head that reminds you of the vastness of the universe and of course the rewards of the Islamic Paradise. I want to also say that these mosques would also incorporate lamps. Essentially in older times they would be oil burning lamps and today they are electric. The element of light is very important, like I said there's five times a day prayer so there's prayers, sometimes before the light comes up in the morning. Prayer after the light goes down at the end of the day. So having a lighting feature was important to illuminate the insides of their structure. To finish, I want to remind you guys all that mosques are not usually stand-alone structures. Most are going to usually part of the whole complex they're going to be a structure that is connected to maybe a soup kitchen or possibly like a hospital area or school. There would be a Market Place connected on one of the sides of the mosque complex. And so they're really community centers - seen as the kind of heart of the community and they function not only religiously but culturally and sometimes administratively and certainly they are a Gathering Place for everyone there Mosques are the center of everything that's going on for Islamic life in the past and even for today. so I hope this helps you guys understand the components of the mosque remember there are many different mosques around the world because the Islamic faith has spread so far and wide. Lots of times that architecture might look more like the native place that they are erected in. They might look different at one Mosque to the other but they're usually present. So these are the elements of the mosque that you can find typically in every mosque architecture and they will help you identify mosques as you look out in your world.