mosque

Quanzhou mosque, also known as Qilin temple and aisuhab mosque, is located in the middle of Tumen street, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, covering an area of about 2500 square meters. It was founded in the second year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1009) of the Northern Song Dynasty (400th year of the Islamic calendar). It is the oldest existing Islamic Temple founded by Arab muslin in China. In 1961, it was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units and "China's top ten famous temples".

mosque

Mosque, also known as the mosque, is the place where Muslims worship. The root of the word is "bow down", because Muslims need to bow down when they worship.

Masjid is one of the Islamic architectural groups. It is the central place for Muslims to hold worship, religious lessons, religious education and missionary activities. It is also known as the chapel. It's a free translation of the Arabic word "Masjid.". The Koran says, "all mosques belong to Allah, so you should pray to Allah, not to anything.". In Tang and Song Dynasties, it was called "Hall", "auditorium", "sacrificial hall" and "chapel". In Yuan Dynasty, it was called "Temple", "Huihui hall" and "chapel". In Ming Dynasty, Islam was called "Muslim religion", so "auditorium" was renamed "mosque", which is still in use today. Muslims of Hui, Dongxiang, Baoan, Salar and other nationalities in Northwest China still follow the original name of "Masjid", or "JAMA 'at".

history

At the beginning of Islam, there was no special place of worship, but a clean place for worshiping. In September 622, the Islamic prophet Muhammad moved to Mai Di. At that time, the first simple Kuba mosque was built in Kuba, 3 kilometers southeast of the city. After arriving in Medina, a formal mosque was built, later known as the "prophet Temple". During the construction, Muhammad personally participated in the labor, and then led the people to worship in the temple. In 637, the second Caliph Omar ordered the expedition generals to build mosques as the center of religious activities in a new area. According to this, otabai Ibn gezwan built the first camp mosque in Basra, Iraq in 637-638, saird Ibn Abby wakas built the mosque in Kufa city in 638-639, Amur Ben as built the first mosque in Africa in ForStat (Cairo), Egypt in 642, and ogbai Ben and nafir built the first mosque in Kailu, Tunisia in 670-675 Wan built the ogbai mosque.

Since then, the construction of mosques has been regarded as the embodiment of the sacred religious obligation and piety of Muslims. Where there are Muslims, there are mosques. Later, after the wumaiye Dynasty (661-750) and the Abbas Dynasty (750-1258), the government allocated huge funds to build large-scale and magnificent temple buildings, making mosques all over Asia, Africa and Europe. According to the historian Ibn lasta, there were more than 30000 mosques in Baghdad alone in 891. From the mid-12th century to the early 13th century, there were more than 10000 mosques in Alexandria and its surrounding areas, which made the Abbasid period the heyday of mosque architecture. Since then, Islamic countries have taken the construction of mosques as one of their religious systems and national policies.

origin

The first place of Muslim worship in the world is the former residence of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. At that time, Muhammad led Muslims to worship here. There is a large courtyard with only a small house in the middle, which is Muhammad's residence. On one side of the courtyard, there are a row of pillars made of jujube palm trunks, and between the pillars and the walls, there are covered with balconies made of jujube palm leaves Muslims can worship in the shade of the shed to protect themselves from the sun. Muhammad stands on the porch of the room to lead the worship. The first mosque in the world is the Kuba mosque in Mecca, which is said to have been built in four days under the leadership of Muhammad himself. According to the Koran, this mosque is "a mosque built on the basis of piety from the first day.". No statues, portraits or offerings are allowed in the mosque. There is only a colonnade around the mosque. There is a large vault in the center. The main wall should face Mecca. In the middle of the wall, there is a concave niche called mihailab, which indicates the direction of Muslim worship. There is a high platform with steps in the niche, which is used by Imam to lead them to read the Koran on the main Ma day. It is called minbair. There is no music or singing when reading the Koran. There is usually a carpet underneath because Muslims need to worship barefoot. There are running water or fountains outside the mosque or at the entrance. Muslims are required to clean their hands and face before worshiping. Some mosques have wooden partitions or compartments, which used to be used to prevent leaders from being assassinated and enable them to worship in them. Now they are sometimes used as a separation between men and women. In the past, mosques did not allow women to enter, but now more enlightened countries also allow women to participate in worship, but generally all mosques do not allow non muslims to enter, thinking that they are unclean.

Since the Koran requires Muslims to worship five times a day: sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset and night, it is difficult to master the unified time without a clock in ancient times. Therefore, there are minarets outside the mosque. Every time of worship, people with a loud voice call on the minarets. There are many minarets around some great mosque, generally four, facing the north It's everywhere. Modern mosques are equipped with loudspeakers, no longer using people, and the loudspeakers are loud, so some mosques built in modern times have only one minaret. Mosques in different parts of the world are not the same, but the interior is basically the same. The original mosques in the mainland of China have adopted traditional Chinese wooden structures, which are similar to other temples. The only difference is that they use green roofs (Buddhist temples use yellow or gray tile roofs). The mosques in the northwest also have three standing styles on the roof, and the middle one has the sign of Islamic crescent on the top. Due to the small population of Muslims in the mainland, they often live in one place. Mosques generally do not have minarets. Some mosques in the northwest have minarets with the same structure as pagodas, but the top is decorated with crescent moon. Modern new mosques also adopt the international popular large vault structure. When Muslims worship in mosques, they have to stand in long rows, kneel down and touch the ground with their forehead. Therefore, the hats used by Muslims all over the world do not have a brim. If they wear a hat with a brim, they should turn the brim to the back of their head, otherwise they cannot touch the ground with their forehead.

function

Mosques are closely related to the life of Muslims. Their functions are as follows:

(1) Religious activity center: Daily "five o'clock worship", weekly gathering ceremony, twice a year "meeting ceremony", are held in the mosque. Religious festivals, such as the birth of the prophet, are celebrated in mosques. When the baby was born, the funeral ceremony of naming and death should also be held by the Imam in the temple.

(2) Yijiao Center: since the Prophet Muhammad delivered his missionary speech at the first "gathering ceremony" in Medina mosque, the mosque has become a place suitable for religion. Since then, in the "gathering ceremony" day every week and the "meeting ceremony" twice a year, propaganda and education through "hutubai" (speech) has become custom-made.

(3) Religious Education Center: in the period of wumaiye Dynasty, mosques began to set up schools to teach and read the Koran. During the Abbasid period, many famous mosques were also the sites of famous universities of the same name, such as Azhar University in Egypt, calavien University in FES, Morocco, and zeituna University in Tunisia.

(4) Cultural Center: most mosques are attached with libraries and medical institutions. For example, Sana'a mosque Library in Yemen is one of the largest libraries of mosques in the Arab world.

(5) The center of Muslim contact and communication: usually busy with their own affairs, they get together in worship, especially in the weekly gathering ceremony and the annual meeting ceremony, they worship together and exchange seram. The mosque plays a role of cohesion and unity.

type

There are many kinds of mosques built in history

(1) Holy temple, namely the mosque related to the era of Prophet Muhammad, such as the "three holy temples".

(2) Royal Mosque: it is mainly built in the name of caliph, Sudan and Emir, such as wumaiye mosque.

(3) The main mosque is mainly located in Iran.

(4) GAMI Mosque: it is the central temple of the area, also known as the grand temple.

(5) A mosque attached to the main building of a mausoleum, such as the Hussein mosque.

(6) General mosque.

architectural style

The buildings of the early mosques were simple and unadorned. For example, the prophet temple in Medina was mainly surrounded by a courtyard for worship, the roof for worship, and a simple platform for preaching. Later, with the development of Muslim architectural art, architectural groups with neat structure, magnificent and decorative art appeared one after another. The main building of the mosque is the main hall of worship, which faces Meckel Bai. In the front wall of the main hall, IB has a concave wall (miharab), and there is a stepped pulpit (minbaer) in the front left. The larger mosques also have minarets. The top of the tower is pointed, so it is called jianta. Generally, there are 1-4 minarets in mosques, 6 minarets in Istanbul, Turkey, and 7 minarets in Mecca

Chinese PinYin : Qing Zhen Si