Mihrab

Categorized as Terms

Mihrab

Yasemin Gencer

Related Terms:

  • Aniconism (lack of figural imagery)
  • Kaʿba (the most sacred structure in Islam)
  • Mecca (the holiest city in Islam)
  • Qibla (direction of the Ka’ba in Mecca)
  • Salah (daily ritual prayers)

Related Khamseen Videos:

Glaire Anderson, “The Mihrab of the Great Mosque of Córdoba,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 19 October 2020.

Sumru Belger Krody, “Prayer Carpets,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 11 May 2021.

References:

Fehérvári, Géza. “Miḥrāb.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, and W.P. Heinrichs. Leiden: Brill, 2012.  

Frishman, Martin and Hasan-Uddin Khan. The Mosque: History, Architectural Development and Regional Diversity. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. 

Irwin, Robert. Islamic Art in Context. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1997. 

“Mihrab.” In The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, edited by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, vol.2, 515-517. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 

Ogunnaike, Oludamini. “The Mihrab: Reflections on Form, Function and Symbolism.” In The Art of Orientation, edited by Idries Trevathan, Mona AlJalhami et al., 201-208. Munich: Hirmer Publishers, 2021.

Worksheet:

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Citation:

Yasemin Gencer, “Mihrab,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 1 July 2021.

Yasemin Gencer is a scholar of Islamic art and civilization specializing in the history of Ottoman and modern Turkish art and print culture. She is the author of multiple articles on printing and the early Turkish Republican popular press and publishes a research and translation blog entitled Today in 1920s Turkey. Gencer is also preparing for publication her English translation of Celal Nuri’s Hatem ül-Enbiya (1914), an Ottoman Turkish scholarly monograph on the life of the Prophet Muhammad. She is an Affiliate Scholar at Indiana University’s Institute for Advanced Study and Content and Captions Coordinator of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online. She also teaches Islamic Art History courses at Wayne State University.