The
minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque
is an 11th-century
minbar
(mosque pulpit) in the
Ibrahimi Mosque
(Cave of the Patriarchs) in
Hebron
,
West Bank
. The minbar was commissioned by the
Fatimid
vizier
Badr al-Jamali
in 1091 for the
Shrine of Husayn's Head
in
Ascalon
(present-day Ashkelon) but was moved to its current location by
Salah ad-Din
(Saladin) in 1191.
History
[
edit
]
The first minbar in the Muslim world was
Muhammad
's minbar in
Medina
produced in 629.
[1]
In later periods minbars were produced for every major
Friday mosque
and developed into a symbol of political and religious legitimacy. The minbar of a mosque was significant not only because it was the only major formal furnishing of the mosque and the symbolic seat of the
imam
or
caliph
, but also because it was the setting for the weekly Friday sermon (
khutba
) which usually mentioned the name of the current Muslim ruler and included other public announcements of a religious or political nature.
[2]
[1]
The minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque was originally commissioned in 1091-92
CE
(484
AH
) for the
Shrine of Husayn's Head
by
Badr al-Jamali
, the
Fatimid
grand vizier
under
Caliph
al-Mustansir
.
[3]
[2]
At the time, Badr al-Jamali had just reestablished Fatimid control over the coastal regions of
Syria
(
Lebanon
and
Palestine
) during a 1089 military campaign.
[4]
Ascalon
, one of the southernmost cities along this coast, was a strategic fortress located at the beginning of the road from the
Levant
to
Cairo
(the Fatimid
capital
). It was here that in 1091 the head of
Husayn ibn Ali
(the
Shi'a
Imam
and grandson of
Muhammad
,
killed in 680
) was "miraculously" discovered. This granted the city a new religious significance, especially for the Shi'a Fatimids. Badr ordered the immediate construction of a
mashhad
(a
memorial
mosque and
shrine
),
[4]
known as the
Mashhad ?usayn
,
[5]
to house Husayn's head and to serve as the Friday mosque of the city. He commissioned the minbar, by then a standard feature of Friday mosques, for this occasion to serve the new mosque.
[4]
Later, in 1153, the head of Husayn was moved by the Fatimids from Ascalon to a new shrine in
Cairo
(now the
al-Hussein Mosque
), but Ascalon continued to be visited by pilgrims after this and the minbar remained there.
[6]
[5]
In 1187
Salah ad-Din
(Saladin) succeeded in
recapturing
Jerusalem
from
Crusaders
and securing Muslim (
Ayyubid
) control over most of the region. However, he judged that Ascalon was too vulnerable to a Crusader counterattack and he worried about its potential use as an enemy
bridgehead
against the newly recaptured Jerusalem. He therefore decided to demolish the city in 1191 but transferred the Fatimid minbar of al-Husayn's now-empty mashhad to the
Ibrahimi Mosque
in Hebron, which was also a holy site and was situated at a safer distance from the Crusader threat.
[5]
The minbar has remained there until the present day.
Design
[
edit
]
The minbar, made of many wood pieces assembled together, is considered a significant piece of
Islamic art
and one of the most significant historic minbars in the medieval Muslim world.
[2]
[3]
It is also the oldest surviving minbar in this style of woodwork with
geometric decoration
; a style also seen in the design of the later
Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque
in Jerusalem (which was also a gift from Salah ad-Din).
[2]
Like other minbars, it has the form of a staircase with a doorway
portal
at its bottom and a kiosk with
cupola
at its summit. Both the top of the portal and the contour of the copula are crowned with
gilded
muqarnas
sculpting. The doors of the minbar consist of two panels covered with carved geometric star patterns. Above the doors is a carved panel with a long
Arabic
inscription
in
Kufic
script, while another long Kufic inscription runs along the outer frame of the doorway.
[2]
[7]
The portal and the kiosk of the minbar probably date from a later period than the rest of it, perhaps from the
Mamluk period
.
[8]
The flanks of the minbar are covered in a large motif consisting of interlacing
strapwork
forming a geometric pattern of
hexagons
and
hexagrams
, with each piece of the surface carved with intricate
arabesques
.
[2]
[7]
The inscriptions record the construction of the minbar and of the original Ascalon shrine by Badr al-Jamali on behalf of the Fatimid caliph.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Petersen, Andrew (1996). "minbar".
Dictionary of Islamic architecture
. Routledge. pp. 191?192.
ISBN
9781134613663
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
M. Bloom, Jonathan; S. Blair, Sheila, eds. (2009). "Minbar".
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780195309911
.
- ^
a
b
al-Natsheh, Yusuf.
"Haram al-Ibrahimi"
.
Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers
. Retrieved
October 18,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Brett, Michael (2017).
The Fatimid Empire
. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 218.
ISBN
9781474421522
.
- ^
a
b
c
Talmon-Heller, Daniella; Kedar, Benjamin Z.; Reiter, Yitzhak (2016).
"Vicissitudes of a Holy Place: Construction, Destruction and Commemoration of Mashhad ?usayn in Ascalon"
.
Der Islam
.
93
(1): 182?215.
doi
:
10.1515/islam-2016-0008
.
- ^
Williams, Caroline (2018).
Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide
(7th ed.). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. p. 257.
- ^
a
b
Bloom, Jonathan; Toufiq, Ahmed; Carboni, Stefano; Soultanian, Jack; Wilmering, Antoine M.; Minor, Mark D.; Zawacki, Andrew; Hbibi, El Mostafa (1998).
The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque
. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ediciones El Viso, S.A., Madrid; Ministere des Affaires Culturelles, Royaume du Maroc. p. 28.
- ^
Pedersen, J.; Golmohammadi, J.; Burton-Page, J.; Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. (2012). "Minbar". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.).
Encyclopaedia of Islam
(second ed.). Brill.