Maqsurah

The maqsura Arab مقصورة, مقاصير, DMG maqsura, Pl is maqāṣīr originally a Muslim for the ruler or the governor separate area in the prayer hall of a mosque. It is located generally adjacent to the minbar.

The maqsura in history

The Umayyad

The Islamic history unanimously reported the fact that the maqsura either at the time of the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan († 656), or from the first Umayyad Mu ʿ āwiya I ( † 680 ), or by Marwan I. († 685 ) as a kind of " box " was introduced for the rulers to prevent enemy attacks on it. at- Tabari relates in his annalistic history of the world, al - Baladhuri in his Kitaab Futuh al - Buldan " The conquest of the lands " that Marwan ibn al - Hakam, nor in his capacity as governor of Medina in the year 664 when he one of Yemenis was attacked, a maqsura of stone was built with a window. His example was followed by Mu ʿ āwiya in Syria in the same year. Ibn ʿ Asaakir reported by older sources that maqsura at the time of Mu ʿ āwiya was also used as a meeting place of the caliph with his advisors. He also reported that after the inauguration of Sulaiman ibn Abd al -Malik in 717 a maqsura for the Caliph was built.

The Abbasids

As under the Umayyads was the maqsura also the time of the Abbasid Caliph al -Mahdi († 785) a place of public life; during his visit to Medina, the Caliph entered the maqsura in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in order to distribute to the noble representatives of Quraysh awards and gifts. History According to reports, is to al -Mahdi have this facility banned in prayer halls of the main mosques in the provinces in the year 778 by decree. In Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid, the maqsura remained, however, where al - Ma ʿ mun the festive prayer on the Day of Arafat ( " yaum ʿ Arafa " ), at the height of the Islamic pilgrimage, was doing. Al- Ma'mun († 833 ) wanted to remove the maqsura from all mosques on the grounds that it states that it is not only a but introduced by the Umayyad Mu ʿ āwiya by the Prophet Muhammad Sunna, thus a bid ʿ a Nevertheless, the maqsura in the following period, as has been understood " a specifically Islamic establishment " as Ibn Khaldun points out.

The maqsura of Kairouan

The oldest, resulting from 1040 and still preserved maqsura stands in the Great Mosque of Kairouan. She is on the order of Al -Mu ʿ izz b. Badis az- Ziri been set up with a decorative, standing next to the Minbar custom wood construction and the foundation inscription in stylized Kufic script († 1062). The inscription frieze at the top of maqsura was first published in 1950 in Arabic and in French translation. According to another inscription on the wooden construction maqsura between December 1624 and January 1625 has been repaired. The building, which was through a beaten in the qibla wall double gate, called Bab al- Imām " door of the ruler " accessible, is one of the most beautiful examples of Islamic interior design.

The Mosque of Kairouan library, a collection of valuable Korancodices and literary manuscripts from the late 9th and 10th centuries, was still housed in the late 19th century in the maqsura.