Editing Minbar (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:GRAHAM(1887) p183 MIMBAR IN DJAMÄA EL-KEBIR (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The minbar of the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]] in [[Kairouan]], [[Tunisia]], the oldest minbar in existence, still in its original location in the prayer hall of the mosque. (Photograph from the 19th century, before a modern protective glass barrier was installed)]]
The first recorded minbar in the Islamic world was Muhammad's minbar in [[Medina]], created in 629 [[Common Era|CE]]<ref name=":1" /> (or between 628 and 631 CE).<ref name=":242">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/groveencyclopedi0002unse/page/534/mode/2up |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=9780195309911 |editor-last1=M. Bloom |editor-first1=Jonathan |volume=2 |pages=534–535 |language=en |chapter=Minbar |editor-last2=S. Blair |editor-first2=Sheila}}</ref> It consisted simply of two steps and a seat, resembling a [[throne]].<ref name=":1" /> After Muhammad's death, this minbar continued to be used as a symbol of authority by the [[Caliphate|caliphs]] who followed him. The [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliph [[Muawiyah I|Mu'awiya I]] ({{Reign|661|680}}) heightened Muhammad's original minbar by increasing the number of steps from three to six, thus increasing its prominence. During the Umayyad period, the minbar was used by the caliphs or their representative governors to make important public announcements and to deliver the Friday sermon (''khutba''). In the last years of the Umayyad Caliphate, before its fall in 750, the Umayyads ordered minbars to be constructed for all the [[Jama masjid|Friday mosques]] of [[Egypt]] and soon afterward this practice was extended to other Muslim territories. By the early [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] period (after 750), it had become standard in Friday mosques across all Muslim communities.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":242" />

Minbars thus quickly developed into a symbol of political and religious legitimacy for Muslim authorities. It was one of the only major formal furnishings of a mosque and was therefore an important architectural feature in itself. More importantly, it was the setting for the weekly Friday sermon which, notably, usually mentioned the name of the current Muslim ruler over the community and included other public announcements of a religious or political nature.<ref name=":242" /><ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Jonathan |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/the_minbar_from_the_kutubiyya_mosque |title=The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque |last2=Toufiq |first2=Ahmed |last3=Carboni |first3=Stefano |last4=Soultanian |first4=Jack |last5=Wilmering |first5=Antoine M. |last6=Minor |first6=Mark D. |last7=Zawacki |first7=Andrew |last8=Hbibi |first8=El Mostafa |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ediciones El Viso, S.A., Madrid; Ministère des Affaires Culturelles, Royaume du Maroc |year=1998}}</ref> As a result, later Muslim rulers sometimes invested considerable expense in commissioning richly-decorated minbars for the main mosques of their major cities.

The oldest Islamic pulpit in the world to be preserved up to the present day is the minbar of the [[Mosque of Uqba|Great Mosque of Kairouan]] in [[Kairouan]], [[Tunisia]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ixCyd2lByggC&dq=oldest+minbar+kairouan&pg=PA345 Muḥammad ʻAdnān Bakhīt, ''History of humanity'', UNESCO, 2000, page 345]</ref><ref name=":242" /> It dates from around 860 or 862 CE, under the tenure of the [[Aghlabids|Aghlabid]] governor [[Abu Ibrahim Ahmad ibn Muhammad|Abu Ibrahim Ahmad]], and was imported in whole or in part from [[Baghdad]]. It is an eleven-step staircase made of over 300 sculpted pieces of [[teak]] wood (a material imported from [[India]]). Thanks to its age and the richness of its decoration, it is considered an important piece of historic [[Islamic art]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Qantara - Minbar of the Great Mosque of Kairouan|url=http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=640&lang=en|website=www.qantara-med.org| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727191854/http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/public/show_document.php?do_id=640&lang=en | archive-date=2011-07-27 }}</ref><ref name=":242" />