Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Doris Behrens-Abouseif, The Minarets 

of Cairo (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 

1985); Jonathan Bloom, “The Minaret: Symbol of Faith 

and Power.” Saudi-Aramco World 53, no. 2 (2002): 26–

35; Omar Khalidi, “Import, Adapt, Innovate: Mosque 

Design in the United States,” Saudi-Aramco World 53, 

no. 6 (2004).

minbar

The minbar is a seat raised on six or seven steps 

that is located against the 

qibla

 wall of 

mosqUe

s. It 

is used by the 

imam

 to deliver the 

khutba

 (sermon) 

on Fridays as it insures his visibility and allows his 

voice to be better heard by the assembly. At the end 

of the khutba, the imam descends from the minbar, 

turns to face the qibla wall (usually in front of the 

mihrab

) and leads the assembled community in 

prayer

. The association between the minbar  and 

the imam’s 

aUthority

 is one reason it continues 

to be the most important element of mosques. Its 

importance was even greater in the past.

Historical sources inform us that the first minbar

was created for the prophet m

Uhammad

’s use at his 

mosque in m

edina

. A carpenter who observed the 

Prophet’s fatigue during the Friday assemblies con-

trived a simple raised seat with steps that allowed 

the Prophet to sit while facing and addressing his 

followers. After the Prophet’s death his successors 

(the first 

caliph

s) used this seat but did not sit on 

the top step in honor of the Prophet’s memory. This 

seat came to be known as the minbar, a term whose 

Arabic root signifies “amplification.”

Art historians have attempted to fix the ori-

gins of the minbar  by relating it to the pulpits 

of churches or the thrones of palaces. The role 

and importance of the mosque minbar,  however, 

derives from its connection to the khutba and to 

the  khutba’s own political, social, and religious 

import. By extension, the minbar was related to 

the authority of the leadership that sponsored 

the khutba and protected Islam. Even when rulers 

no longer delivered it themselves, the khutba was 

given in their name and became the primary means 

of announcing and legitimating new rulers.

Since the khutba was delivered in the main 

or community mosques of towns and 

cities

, the 

minbar itself became a marker of the presence 

of populations large enough to warrant a Friday 

mosque (some medieval geographers calculated 

the size of towns through the number of their 

minbars). It also marked the boundaries of towns, 

especially in situations where religious authori-

ties allowed only one Friday mosque per city. For 

example, Hanafi law allows for multiple Friday 

mosques in a single city (which accounts for their 

numbers in Ottoman Constantinople) whereas 

the Shafii law allows only one (which accounts