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 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.