The Minaret
Jonathan M. Bloom
Abstract
Tracing its origins and development, this book reveals that the Minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a visible symbol of Islam. Drawing on buildings, archaeological reports, medieval histories, geographies, and early Arabic poetry, it reinterprets the origin, development, and meanings of the minaret. From early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen, and Southeast Asia, the book is ... More
Tracing its origins and development, this book reveals that the Minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a visible symbol of Islam. Drawing on buildings, archaeological reports, medieval histories, geographies, and early Arabic poetry, it reinterprets the origin, development, and meanings of the minaret. From early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen, and Southeast Asia, the book is a sweeping tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam.
Keywords:
Islam,
muezzin,
call to prayer,
buildings,
archaeological reports,
medieval histories,
geographies,
early Arabic poetry,
Yemen,
Southeast Asia
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748637256 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: May 2014 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637256.001.0001 |
