Al-Muhdar Mosque () or Al-Mihdar Mosque () is one of the historical

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s in the ancient city of Tarim, in the

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Hadramaut. It is attributed to Omar Al-Mihdar bin Abdul-Rahman Al-Saqqaf (), a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

leader who lived in the city during the 15th-century.

Architecture

The building is characterized by Islamic geometric design. Its layout consists of an open courtyard surrounded by four corridors, the biggest of which contains the

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

h, which is adorned with three exquisite frescoes decorated with geometric, floral and scriptural motifs. In the center of the qibla corridor, there is the iconic

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

, which at about high is the highest

mudbrick Mudbrick or mud-brick, also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of mud (containing loam, clay, sand and water) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE. From ...

structure on Earth. It is square-shaped and there is a staircase reaching to the top inside. It was built around 1914 C.E. (1333 A.H.), and is built of

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

. This minaret was designed by the architect 'Awad Salman 'Afif al-Tarimi (), who had already carried out many designs and constructions of clay lattices and domes, and the maintenance and supervision were conducted by Abu Bakr bin Shihab (d. 1345 AH). It is considered one of the most important architectural sites and destinations for visitors and researchers of the city of Tarim.

Al-Ahqaf Library

Al-Ahqaf Library occupies the ground floor of the mosque building, which was built to accommodate the need to store the large number of manuscripts in the city of Tarim and neighboring cities. Tarim has been considered a distinguished Islamic scientific center since the 10th-century in Wadi Hadramaut region.

References

External links

Archnet.org: Masjid al-Mihdhar

MCID: Al-Muhdhar Mosque
Buildings and structures completed in 1914 Mosques completed in 1914 Mosques in Yemen {{Yemen-mosque-stub

Architecture

Al-Ahqaf Library

See also

References

External links