The mosque can be found in almost every corner of the globe. Most of these incredible places of worship challenge typical expectations of what a mosque should look like. Unconventional minarets, new architectural solutions and building experiments add variety to mosques, and also demonstrate the enormous potential for creativity in mosque design.
"Beauty surrounds us," said the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi. Take a look at these unusual holy places of Muslims around the world and once again be convinced of the accuracy of his words. We bring to your attention a series of the most amazing mosques in the world.
1. Mosque named after Mashkhur Zhusup (Kazakhstan)
The building of the mosque is built in the shape of an eight-pointed star measuring 48 × 48 meters, the height of the minarets is 63 meters, the height of the dome with a crescent is 54 meters. The dome of the mosque is sky-colored, made in the shape of a shanyrak. Architecturally, the mosque looks like an open heart, open to peace and goodness.
2. Crystal Mosque (Malaysia)
The official opening took place on February 8, 2008 by the thirteenth Yang di Pertuan Agong, Sultan Terengganu Mizan Zaynal Abidin. The prayer building can accommodate up to one and a half thousand people at a time. The building is made of reinforced concrete and covered with mirrored glass. The mosque has seven-color changing illumination.
3. Faisal Mosque (Pakistan)
One of the largest mosques in the world. The mosque is famous in the Islamic world for its size, with an area of 5,000 square meters, it can accommodate 300,000 worshipers.
4. Shakirin Mosque (Turkey)
It is the most modern mosque in Turkey.
5. Jenna Cathedral Mosque (Mali)
The largest clay-alluvial building in the world, built in 1906. The mosque is located in the city of Jenne, Mali in the floodplain of the Bani River. In 1988, the mosque was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Jenne Old Town.
6. Kul Sharif Mosque (Russia)
One of the main attractions of the Republic of Tatarstan is the Kul Sharif mosque - a recreation of the legendary multi-ministerial mosque of the capitalKazan Khanate, center of religious education and development of sciences of the Middle Volga region XVI century.
7. Putra Mosque (Malaysia)
The Putra Mosque was built from 1997 to 1999 in the new administrative center of Malaysia, in the city of Putrajaya and is located on the shore of the artificial lake Putrayawa next to the residence of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
8. Ubudiya Mosque (Malaysia)
Built in 1917 during the reign of Sultan Idris Shah, the mosque is located next to the Mausoleum on Bukit Chandan. Its construction was ordered by order of the Sultan, who vowed that he would build a mosque of extraordinary beauty, as a sign of recovery from illness.
9. Baytunnur Mosque (Canada)
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque in Calgary Municipality, Alberta, Canada. The largest mosque in Canada, it can simultaneously accommodate approximately 3,000 believers.
10. Mosque of Sultan Omar Ali Sayfuddin (Brunei)
Royal Mosque located in Bandar Seri Begawan, in the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei. The mosque can be classified as one of the most spectacular mosques in the Asia-Pacific region and the main attraction of Brunei.
In the early 20th century, Ali Jan Bepari, a local businessman, financed the restoration of the mosque and added a new east veranda. The surfaces were decorated in the Chinitikri style (mosaic of shards of Chinese pottery), popular in the 1930s. The mosque, which had no historical significance before, became one of the few remaining architectural structures with a similar design. The mosaic is laid out in the form of stars, which gave the name of the mosque. In 1987, an extension of the prayer hall was made, which made it possible to add two more domes.
Crescents are also depicted in the upper part of the eastern façade.
Interior decoration
Inside, the Chainitikri technique is also used, but in a slightly different way, tiles of different textures are used, from which both stars and floral ornaments are laid out, including vases with flowers. The space between the doors is decorated with the image of the Japanese Mount Fujiyama.
Notes (edit)
Literature
- Haque, Enamul. 1983. Islamic Art Heritage of Bangladesh. Dhaka: Bangladesh National Museum, 98.
- Ahmed, Nazimuddin. 1984. Discover the Monuments of Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press Limited, 181.
- Hasan, Syed Mahmudul. 1981. Dacca: The City of Mosques. Dhaka: Islamic Foundation, 46.
I have long wanted to ask for help from respected blog visitors: what does the star of David (hexogram) mean in the vicinity of the Muslim crescent and does this combination carry any special semantic load at all?
At the Zaeltsovsky cemetery there is a corner where Muslim burials of the 60s are located. Monuments of the same type are made of concrete, on some of them there are partially crumbling and worn inscriptions, several wooden tablets with names written in paint. The tombstones depict an inverted crescent and a six-pointed star - somewhere exactly corresponding to the Star of David, somewhere there is no drawing inside the star - the line of intersections.
Here, the monument itself is wrapped with adhesive tape, I think, which weakly protects the concrete obelisk from destruction, below is a plate with the name, 1959 of death.
The names are similar to the Tatar ones. The inscription is made in a ligature similar to Arabic. I have Tatar friends, and I grew up in a small multicultural northern town. Whom she asked, no one knows the answer.
I managed to find the following information:
The hexagram is an international symbol of a very ancient origin. Researchers discovered this sign in India, where it was used, apparently, long before it appeared in the Middle East and Europe. Initially, the hexagram was not a specifically Jewish symbol and had nothing to do with Judaism. In the Middle and Near East, she was a symbol of the cult of the goddess Astarte. And in Mecca, the main Muslim shrine, the black stone of the Kaaba, has been traditionally covered with a silk veil from century to century, on which hexagonal stars are depicted. Since the "Bronze Age" (the end of the fourth - the beginning of the first millennium BC), the hexagram, like the pentagram, was widely used for decorative and magical purposes by many peoples that are so geographically distant from each other as, for example, the Semites Mesopotamia and the Celts of Britain. It is worth noting that at the same time, the pentagram was used as a magic symbol much more often than the hexagram, but both geometric figures can be found among the illustrations on the pages of many medieval books devoted to alchemy, magic and sorcery.(with)
Hexagram is a universal symbol. And he doesn't just have to do with EVERYONE
Tradition, but it is the FUNDAMENTAL sacred symbolism.
Sufis use this symbol in their spiritual practices. Sura "Yasin",
called the heart of the Qur'an, it "carries" the hexagram.
During prayer, a Muslim writes out this figure with his body. Standing position with a belt tilt,
constitutes the first triangle, and a deep bow, coupled with the surface
land forms the second.
If "expanded", then this figure should be considered in volume,
then you will see that it is based on a three-dimensional cross. This cross
with six rays and a center, there are six days of creation and a day of "rest".
It is here that one of the places where Christianity and Islam meet.
The cross is not only not alien to Islam, but is also its symbolism,
but in a veiled form. (with)
http://kuraev.ru/smf/index.php?topic=10372.0
If there are people among the readers who can explain which peoples it is customary to place such symbols on tombstones, I would be grateful.
Muslim graves in all Novosibirsk cemeteries are no different in design from the graves of Christians and either represent standard monuments of the Soviet and post-Soviet eras - a trapezoidal or rectangular tombstone, which depicts a crescent moon and a five-pointed star, which are often adjacent to a red Soviet star, sometimes have more vivid a pronounced oriental motive, such as this 1950 monument at the Kleshchinsky cemetery:
"To a friend and dear mother from her husband and children."
Zaeltsovskoe cemetery, the grave of the girl. An inexpensive metal monument is carefully painted in a bright color every year. Here is a photo taken in 2011:
photo taken a year later, in 2012:
Muslim part of the cemetery:
The owner of a very colorful mustache:
And finally, one more mysterious monument.
Almost every tourist who has visited the Small Mosque of the Khan's Palace is surprised to ask a question: "What does the Star of David do in a Muslim mosque?"
The six-pointed star or hexagram is one of the most ancient signs that has been found in various cultures since the Bronze Age. Performing decorative functions, the star (two triangles superimposed on each other in the opposite direction) is found in carving on stone, wood, in the design of manuscripts, etc. a magical symbol that has been depicted in books on the occult and magic. The six-pointed star among the Slavs was called the "Star of Veles" and was depicted on various cult and everyday objects.
The blue hexagram today is most often identified with the Jews. According to legend, the shape of the shields of the army of King David was in the form of a hexagram. The Blue Star of David has become the central symbol on the national flag of Israel.
But in the Islamic world, the six-pointed star is one of the earliest symbols: it is the Seal of Suleiman, the legendary ancient ruler who wore a ring that allowed him to understand the language of animals and birds and control the jinn. It was also placed on a panel of flags: for example, on the flag of one of the ancient Turkic Anatolian dynasties - the Karaman, who subdued in the XIV century. Central and South Anatolia. 
In general, the number 6, the image of a six-petalled flower or a six-pointed star, has a special meaning and many interpretations in Sufism. Performing the function of a powerful amulet against evil forces, such a star is found in all types of Islamic art. In the architecture of the Khan's palace, in the subjects of the ethnography of the Crimean Tatars, we find many such examples. The hexagram here is in stone carving on the tombstones of the Khan's cemetery, in the complex geometric ornament of wooden inlaid ceilings, in the design of handwritten books and Korans, in bronze and copper dishes, in jewelry and embroidery. But most of all, the stained-glass windows of the Small Palace Mosque (located above the mihrab) and the Great Palace Mosque (located outside, from the side of the Khan cemetery) attract attention.
Safie Abduramanova, Researcher
MICKT GBU RK BIKAMZ
Stone tombstone
Fragment of the ceiling of the Khan's dining room
Fragment of a belt buckle. Brass, garnet, diopside. 19th century
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