MINARET, the tower usually attached to a Mohammedan mosque, from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer at the appointed hour. The origin of the form has been traced to the pharos or lighthouse at Alexandria. The Arabic word manor or minar signifies lighthouse. Early examples are those built by El Walid for the mosque at Damascus (7o7), and that of the mosque at Ibn Tulun at Cairo (879) ; the latter is remarkable for its heavy, square base and the external stair which leads up to the gallery from which the call to prayer is sung.
Four characteristic types of minarets were later developed. The first is the type of Cairo and Syria in which there are usually several galleries supported on stalactite work with the tower receding in stages at each gallery and the whole crowned with a bulbous dome. At times the lowest stage is square. Character istic examples are those of the mosque of El Moyed, Cairo (1416) ; of Sultan Barkuk, Cairo (14o5) and of Kait Bey, Out side the Walls, Cairo (1468) ; and the two later minarets of the mosque at Damascus (c. 140o). The second type, that of Mo rocco and Spain, consists simply of a large, richly decorated, square tower with a smaller square pavilion at the top, the platform over the lowest stage serving as the gallery for the call to prayer. This type is frequently built of brick, with rich re lief patterns on all four sides. Noteworthy among them are the simple, low minaret at Kairouan (probably 9th century) ; that of the Koutoubia at Marrakech (1184) ; of Hassanat Rabat in Morocco (1184) and the famous Giralda at Seville (1195). The third type, characteristic of Persia, usually consists of a long, slender, tapered, cylindrical turret, most frequently placed in pairs flanking a great entrance arch, and usually carrying a single, high gallery and capped by a low dome. The whole is
often cased in glazed Persian tile and glows with green, blue and yellow. Examples of the Persian type are the minaret of the tomb of Tamerlane at Samarkand (14o5), those of the Shir-dar mosque at Samarkand 0600, and those of the im perial mosque at Ispahan (1613-27), the last noteworthy be cause of the delicate wooden gallery with open-work railing and slim posts that crowns the balcony from which the call to prayer is given. The fourth class comprises the slim, tapered, circular or polygonal minarets of Turkey which are probably based on Persian precedent, although frequently built of white marble and always without colour decoration. In most cases, however, instead of the single gallery of the Persian minaret, there are two, or even three, and the minarets are universally capped with slim, wooden cones. There are usually two minarets on the smaller mosques, and from two to six on the larger ones. The six minarets of the mosque of Sultan Achmed I. (1615), at Con stantinople, are characteristic.
In India, early minarets were much affected by the native Hindu styles. Thus the famous Koutub Minar at Delhi (early 13th century), in its ridged masonry and rich solidity owes much to the Jaina style. Later examples show, on the other hand, strong Persian influence. The forms are, nevertheless, treated with that peculiar delicacy and restrained richness typi cal of Mogul work.
See H. Saladin, Manuel d'Art Musulman, vol. i. Architecture (19°7). (T. F. H.)