The Friday Mosque
Law, Architecture and Authority in Pre-Modern Muslim Societies
Offers a longue durée history of the Friday mosque, examining the urban, legal and political contexts of its evolution
- The first monograph dedicated to the history of the Friday mosque across the Islamic world
- Reconstructs the history of the Friday mosque through legal debates and sources concerning the Friday prayer
- Examines the Friday mosques in ‘Abbasid Baghdad, Mamluk Cairo, Ottoman Istanbul, Safavid Isfahan and Ibadi capitals in Oman
- Brings Sunni, Shiʿi and Ibadi legal traditions into a comparative analytical framework
- Advances a methodological intervention that integrates legal, political and architectural perspectives
The Friday mosque is a central Muslim institution and a universally recognised architectural symbol. It is also the locus of Friday prayer, its pulpit is the platform for weekly public allegiance to political authority, and its presence affirms the role of jurists as regulators of Islamic ritual practices. This book explores the development of the Friday mosque from the eighth to the twentieth centuries in Abbasid Baghdad, Mamluk Cairo, Ottoman Istanbul, Safavid Isfahan and Ibadi capitals in Oman.
Drawing critically upon architectural, urban and legal sources by Sunni, Twelver Shi‘a, Ismaili Shi‘a and Ibadi scholars, the book offers a new understanding of the development of the Friday mosque. It demonstrates that, while commonplace in the present day, the Friday mosque evolved over many centuries and its evolution followed varying trajectories that were often contested in response to debates about Friday prayer and its relationship to religious authority and political power.
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration and Dates
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Introduction to the Material, Legal, and Political Context of the Friday Mosque: A Fatwa by Taqi al-Din al-Subki (d. 1355)
1. ‘Abbasid Baghdad: Friday Mosques and the Emergence of Substantive Law on Friday prayer
2. Cairo: Friday Mosques, Legal Pluralism, and the Shifting Centre of the City
3. Istanbul: Friday mosques, fatwas, and urban neighbourhoods
4. Isfahan: Friday Mosques, the Shi‘a Dilemma of Ghayba, and the Role of the Faqīh
5. Ibadi Oman and the Principle of Tamṣīr: from a Peripatetic Friday Prayer to the Contemporary State Mosques
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Legal works (furū‘ and fatāwā) consulted for this book
Glossary
Bibliography
