MINARET. The tower of a mosque (1.v.). corresponding to the hell-tower or campanile of Christian chnrehes, and so called (light-tower') because on feast days it was illuminated at night. The call to prayer is not by but by the voice of the official termed ntir(::in who at stated times (five times daily) mounts to the summit of the minaret and summons the people from its upper balcony with the pre scribed formula. Each mosque has one o• nao•e minarets. The normal number for the largest Djami mosques is four, one at each angle of the inclosure. Some have as many as six. e.g. the Ahmed mosque at Constantinople. The mosque at Mecca has the exceptional number of seven.
The usual type is a slender polygonal and cylindrical structure of stone or brick. often rising from a square base and consisting of sev eral stories marked by balconies. either pro •jecting on stalactite supports, o• with a receding story above; it is crowned by a pinnacle or small dome. The summit is reached by a winding inner stairway; only the old stone minaret, of Tutu]] at Cairo has an external winding staircase.
The earliest mosques had no minarets. They were first built during the seventh century. the Khalif Omar being said to have erected two at Etifa I.(1 ion. TM INV earlier than the twelfth century were usually heavy square structures of stureoed brick or stout' much ornament. This type is preserved at the mosque of Sidi Dklitt at ha irwan ill TI1111... Among the finest groups of the middle period is that of Cairo— the mosques of Ihn Tulun, i1 assail, Ilarktik, Kalann, llordei. and bait Bey. The Tulun mosque had a stone minaret in the centre of one of Ilw sides on a square plan passing first to a cylindrical and then to an octagonal shape. The
Hassan mosque has two minarets; that of 'Knit Bey only one.
The minarets of Egypt. Spain. Syria, India, Persia. and Turkey built between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries are among the most original and graceful works of Eastern archi teetnre. The tlirabla at Seville shows that the moors maintained the early square type with added delieaey and rieliness; generally the eireular and ta•tagtmal types iwevail. old simplicity has been replaced by a wealth of t ion in relief and color and by great slenderness. Stalactite corbels support the balconies. arabesques and colonnettes break up the and glazed tiles, especially in Persia, add a brilliant coloring. Damascus and Bagdad preserve some of their meal:real ex amples. 'rile minarets of .\binedabad rival those of Cairo; those of Delhi and Agra are hardly less interesting. 'rhos'. of the Constantinople mosques. such as Saint Sophia, Ahmed, cue., are exceedingly graceful. Sometimes the colleges or madras:1h had minarets of similar style to those of the mosques. as in that of Sultan Ilusein at ',spitball. where the towers are similar to those of the great mosque of Ispahan. The height varies exceedingly; among the highest are (:irahla (formerly 230 feet, now 308 feet ), Ka. limn 1193 text ), and Hassan (280 feet ) at ('airo, and the Ktitub near Delhi 1242 feet). 4 '011M1t the bibliography of 3lolta.AtmEn.tx