Maqsurah

Not to be confused withZarih.

The wooden maqsura in theGreat Mosque of Kairouan(Tunisia)

Maqsurah(Arabic:مقصورة,literally "closed-off space" ) is an enclosure, box, or wooden screen near themihrabor the center of theqiblawall in amosque.It was typically reserved for aMuslimruler and his entourage, and was originally designed to shield him from potential assassins during prayer.Theimamofficiating inside the maqsurah typically belonged to the sameschool of lawto which the ruler belonged.

There also may have been some spiritual connotation similar to thechancel screenin Christian churches. They were often wooden screens decorated with carvings or interlocking turned pieces of wood (similar to amashrabiya).Sometimes, Muslimsaintsare buried behind a maqsurah in a similar way to azarih.

History

The maqsura area of theGreat Mosque of Cordoba

The first maqsura is believed to have been created byCaliphUthman(caliph between 644 and 656 CE) at theMosque of Medinato protect himself from possible assassins after his predecessor,Umar,was assassinated inside the mosque.In this early Islamic period, the caliph also acted as imam and led prayers in the main mosque. Uthman's initial maqsura was a simplemudbrickwall pierced with holes so that he could not be approached but could still be seen by worshippers during prayers. It was later replaced by a more permanent stone structure.A maqsura was also created by the firstUmayyad caliphMuawiyah Iin theUmayyad MosqueofDamascus,where the so-called "Mihrab of the Companions (of the Prophet)" belonged to the "Maqsura of the Companions". Other maqsuras were also built in the same mosque at later points.

The oldest maqsura in theIslamic worldto be preservedin situis the wooden maqsura of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, commissioned by theZiridruleral-Mu῾izz ibn Badisand dating from the first half of the 11th century (though later restored in the 17th century). It is located directly to the right of the mosque'sminbar,and is notable for its woodwork which includes an elaborately carvedKuficinscription dedicated to al-Mu'izz.The preserved maqsura of theGreat Mosque of Cordoba,although no longer part of a functioning mosque, is even older but represents a very different example. It dates from 965 duringCaliph al-Hakam II's expansion of the mosque.Rather than being situated to the side of the mihrab, the maqsura here occupied a rectangular area directly in front of and around the mihrab. Although no physical screen (if there was one) has survived, the area is marked off by the architecture of the arches around it, which differ from the rest of the mosque's arches and present an elaborateinterlacingpattern which was highly influential in subsequentMoorishandMoroccan architecture.The area is also covered by three richly-crafteddomesabove.

Thehünkâr mahfiliin theHagia Sophia,Istanbul

Maqsuras continued to be built for some mosques throughout the Islamic world afterwards, though the term also came to denote other kinds of rooms or spaces which do not appear to have been necessarily reserved for the ruler.No clear early examples of maqsuras survive inIran,but the earliest preserved example appears to be a richly-decorated balcony in the 10th-centuryGreat Mosque of Na'in.The term maqsura is later applied to the domed space in the front of the mihrab in theGreat Mosque of Qazvinand maybe also in theGreat Mosque of Isfahan(to whichNizam al-Mulkadded a large dome in the late 11th century). However, the term here may have had a symbolic architectural meaning rather than a functional meaning, since domes soon became typical of mosque architecture generally.

InOttoman architecture,no areas were referred to as maqsura but most imperial mosques (commissioned by thesultanor his family) contained a Sultan'sloge,known as thehünkâr mahfili,which usually consisted of an elevated platform protected by a screen. An early example of this is the richly-decorated balcony in theGreen Mosque (Yeşil Cami)ofBursa,dating from the early 15th century. Thehünkâr mahfilithen became more standard in the major mosques ofIstanbulafter thecity's conquest.One was probably present in the originalFatih Mosquebuilt byMehmed II the Conqueror(which was destroyed by a later earthquake and rebuilt).