Badshahi Mosque

The Badshahi Mosque, or the ‘Emperor's Mosque', was built in 1673 by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in Lahore, Pakistan. It is one of the city's best known landmarks, and a major tourist attraction epitomising the beauty and grandeur of the Mughal era.

Capable of accommodating over 55,000 worshippers, it is the second largest mosque in Pakistan, after the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The architecture and design of the Badshahi Masjid is closely related to the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father and predecessor, emperor Shah Jahan.

Badshahi Masjid is one of the famous locations where Qari Basit recited quran.

The mosque was built under the patronage of the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir. It was completed in 1673 under the supervision of Aurangzeb's foster brother Muzaffar Hussain (also known as Fidaie Khan Koka) who was appointed governor of Lahore in May 1671 and held this post until 1675.

He was also Master of Ordnance to the emperor. The construction of the mosque took about two years from May 1671 to April 1673. The mosque was built opposite the Lahore Fort, illustrating its stature in the Mughal Empire. In conjunction with the building of the mosque, a new gate was built at the fort, named Alamgiri Gate after the Emperor.

From 1852 onwards, piecemeal repairs were carried out under the supervision of the Badshahi Mosque Authority. Extensive repairs were carried out from 1939 to 1960 at a cost of about 4.8 million rupees, which brought the mosque to its original shape and condition. The blueprint for the repairs was prepared by the late architect Nawab Zen Yar Jang Bahadur.

In 2000, the repair work of marble inlay in the main vault was repaired under the supervision of Saleem Anjum Qureshi.

On the occasion of the second Islamic Summit held at Lahore on February 22, 1974, thirty-nine heads of Muslim states offered their Friday prayers in the Badshahi Masjid, led by Maulana Abdul Qadir Azad, the ‘Khatib' of the mosque.

Recently a small museum has also been added to the mosque complex. It contains relics of Muhammad (PBUH), his cousin, and his daughter, Hazrat Fatima Zahra.

-----------------------------

About the Author

Visit his website: Heritage Pakistan to find interesting articles, Pakistan Creative Art , Pakistan news, Pakistan Destinations, Pakisatni Cuisines.

(ArticlesBase SC #2011889)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Badshahi Mosque

these pictures are taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badshahi_Mosque

Faisal Mosque

The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the world.

Faisal Mosque is conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan. It has a covered area of 5,000 m2 (54,000 sq ft)and has a capacity to accommodate approximately 300,000 worshipers (100,000 in its main prayer hall, courtyard and porticoes and another 200,000 in its adjoining grounds)

The Faisal Mosque is named after the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who supported and financed the project.

History

The impetus for the mosque began in 1966 when the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia supported the initiative of the Pakistani Government to build a national mosque in Islamabad during an official visit to Pakistan. In 1969, an international competition was held in which architects from 17 countries submitted 43 proposals. After four days of deliberation, Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay's design was chosen. Construction of the mosque began in 1976 by National Construction of Pakistan, led by Azim Borujerdi, and was funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, at a cost of over 130 million Saudi riyals (approximately 120 million USD today).

King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was instrumental in the funding, and both the mosque and the road leading to it were named after him after his assassination in 1975. The mosque was completed in 1986, and used to house the International Islamic University. Many conservative Muslims criticised the design at first for its non-conventional design and lack of the traditional dome structure, but virtually all criticism was eventually silenced by the mosque's scale, form, and setting against the Margalla Hills upon completion.
Location
The mosque is located in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. It is situated at the north end of Faisal Avenue, putting it at the northernmost end of the city and at the foot of Margalla Hills, the westernmost foothills of the Himalayas.

Design

The Faisal Mosque is the work of famous Turkish architect, Vedat Dalokay who won the Agha Khan Architectural Award with this project. The mosque's relatively unusual design fuses contemporary lines with the more traditional look of an Arab Bedouin's tent, with its large triangular prayer hall and four minarets. However, unlike traditional masjid design, it lacks a dome.

The minarets borrow their design from Turkish tradition and are thin and pencil like. The interior of this prayer hall holds a very large chandelier and its walls are decorated with mosaics and calligraphy by the famous Pakistani artist Sadequain. The mosaic pattern adorns the west wall, and has the kalimah writtern in early Kufic script, repeated in mirror image pattern.

The mosque's architecture is a departure from the long history of South Asian Islamic architecture. It is one of the most outstanding and modern Islamic architecture examples in the world.

-------------------------

About the Author

Visit his website: Heritage Pakistan to find interesting articles, Pakistan Creative Art , Pakistan news, Pakistan Destinations, Pakisatni Cuisines.

(ArticlesBase SC #2011878)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Faisal Mosque

The Great Mosque of Djenne

Djenne is a historically and commercially important small city in the Niger Inland Delta of central Mali. It is just west of the Bani River. It has an ethnically diverse population of about twelve thousand in 1987.

The Great Mosque of Djenne is the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano Sahelian architectural style, albeit with definite Islamic influences.

The mosque is located in the city of Djenne, Mali on the flood plain of the Bani River. The first mosque on the site was built in the 13th century, but the current structure dates from 1907. As well as being the centre of the community of Djenne, it is one of the most famous landmarks in Africa.

The entire community of Djenne takes an active role in the mosques maintenance via a unique annual festival. This includes music and food, but has the primary objective of repairing the damage inflicted on the mosque in the past year, mostly erosion caused by the annual rains and cracks caused by changes in temperature and humidity.

In the days leading up to the festival, the plaster is prepared in pits. It requires several days to cure but needs to be periodically stirred, a task usually falling to young boys who play in the mixture, thus stirring up the contents. Men climb onto the mosques built in scaffolding and ladders made of palm wood and smear the plaster over the face of the mosque.

Another group of men carries the plaster from the pits to the workmen on the mosque. A race is held at the beginning of the festival to see who will be the first to deliver the plaster to the mosque. Women and girls carry water to the pits before the festival and to the workmen on the mosque during it. Members of Djennes masons guild direct the work, while elderly members of the community, who have already participated in the festival many times, sit in a place of honour in the market square watching the proceedings.

The original mosque presided over one of the most important Islamic learning centres in Africa during the middle Ages.

The historic areas of Djenne, including the Great Mosque, were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. While there are many mosques that are older than its current incarnation, the Great Mosque remains the most prominent symbol of both the city of Djenne and the nation of Mali.
--------------------------

About the Author

Douglas Scott works for The Rental Car Hire Specialist. and is a free lance writer for The Djenne Rental Site

(ArticlesBase SC #160409)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - The Great Mosque of Djenne

the picture is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Djenn%C3%A9

The Suleyman Mosque, Turkey

The Süleymaniye Mosque was built on the order of Sultan Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent) and was constructed by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. The construction work began in 1550 and the mosque was finished in 1557.

Sinan considered the design to be an architectural counterpoint to the Byzantine Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia, converted into a mosque under Mehmed II, served as a model to many Ottoman mosques in Istanbul. However, Sinan's Süleymaniye is a more symmetrical, rationalized and light-filled interpretation of earlier Ottoman precedents, as well as the Hagia Sophia. It is possible that dialogue between Italy and Istanbul contributed to Sinan's enthusiasm for symmetrical and rational forms, as promoted by writers like Alberti.

The design of the Süleymaniye also plays on Suleyman's self-conscious representation of himself as a 'second Solomon.' It references the Dome of the Rock, which was built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, as well as Justinian's boast upon the completion of the Hagia Sophia: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" The Süleymaniye, similar in magnificence to the preceding structures, asserts Suleyman's historical importance. The structure is nevertheless smaller in size than its older archetype, the Hagia Sophia.
The Süleymaniye was ravaged by a fire in 1660 and was restored by Sultan Mehmed IV. Part of the dome collapsed again during the earthquake of 1766. Subsequent repairs damaged what was left of the original decoration of Sinan (recent cleaning has shown that Sinan experimented first with blue, before turning red the dominant color of the dome). The mosque was restored again in the middle of the 19th century by the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. In a botched attempt to restore it to its supposed original glory, the dome and the semi-domes were painted in an Ottoman baroque style. During the recent cleaning the original design was faithfully restored.

During World War I the courtyard was used as a weapons depot and when some of the ammunition ignited the mosque suffered another fire. Not until 1956 was it fully restored again.

adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleyman_mosque