Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
India, Indonesia, Malaysia
Further reading:
J.Beamish and J.Ferguson, A 
History of Singapore
Architecture: The Making of a City,
Singapore 1985.
Monuments Board of Singapore, 
Preservation of Singapore
National Monuments,
Singapore 1985.
Siraf
Major early Islamic port city located on the Iranian side
of the Arabian/Persian Gulf.
The city contains some of the earliest examples of
Islamic architecture excavated in Iran. The most
significant discovery is the congregational mosque,
a huge rectangular structure with a central courtyard
set on a raised podium. There is a single entrance
reached by a set of steps on the east side opposite
the qibla, next to which is the square base of a mihrab.
The first phase of the mosque, dated to the early
ninth century, has three arcades parallel to the qibla
wall forming the prayer hall, and a single arcade on
the other three sides. In the second phase (dated to
850) two more arcades were added to the prayer hall
and the single arcades on the other three sides were
made double. In both phases the mihrab was a
simple rectangular niche set into the middle of the
qibla wall. Several smaller mosques were also
discovered, each with a rectangular mihrab
projecting on to the outside of the building.
See also:
Abbasids, Iran, Iraq, Samarra
Further reading:
D.Whitehouse, 
Siraf II. The Congregational Mosque and
Other Mosques from the Ninth to the Twelfth Centuries,
The
British Institute for Persian Studies.
Somalia
Somalia is located on the coast of East Africa directly below
the Arabian peninsula.
The landscape of the country is predominantly semi-
arid bush with mountains in the north near the
border with Ethiopia. The coastal plain is similar to
that of Kenya further south, with man-groves and
coastal reefs.
Islam seems to have spread to Somalia through
Muslim traders who established trading stations
and urban centres along the coast between the
seventh and the twelfth centuries CE. From the
twelfth century the coastal towns had become
independent Muslim sultanates fighting the
Ethiopian Christians who controlled the interior.
From the tenth century the Somalis of the interior
gradually adopted Islam and became attached to
the coastal towns. During the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries Somalia was divided between
Italian, British and French administrations before
achieving independence in 1960.
The Islamic architecture of Somalia is similar to
that of Kenya, with coral used as the main material
for permanent buildings. The principal urban centre
is Mogadishu which also has some of the oldest
mosques, the most famous of which is the mosque
of Fakhr al-Din built in the thirteenth century. Further
south are a number of ancient urban settlements, the
most important of which are Merka, Munghia,
Barawa and Bur Gao. Most of the mosques of Merka
are eighteenth century or later, although the tomb of
Sheikh Uthman Hassan may date to the thirteenth
century. Munghia consists of a large roughly square
Somalia

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enclosure (about 200 m per side) built of earth with
a facing of stone. Approximately in the centre there
is a raised mound with the remains of a mosque on
top. Although the mosque is badly damaged, it
seems to consist of a central rectangular hall flanked
by two side aisles. The mihrab in the centre of the
north wall has a fluted semi-dome and, together with
the pottery found there, suggests a twelfth-century
foundation for the site. Although Barawa was
probably founded at a similar date, the earliest
buildings in the town date from the eighteenth
century. One of these, a mosque, has a square minaret
with elaborate carved woodwork. Probably the
largest early site on the coast is Bur Gao whose are
contained within a huge enclosure similar to that of
Munghia. The principal standing structure on the site
is a square building covered with a low domical
vault. The site also contains a number of pillar tombs
similar to those of north Kenya.