Islam Concepts

The religion Islam is here for centuries. It was the time when Muslim rule the world. They were not only land lords or rulers but also very nice human being and socialist people. They were also rich so wherever they go, used to create great marvels so that rest will remember them for their brilliance in architecture.

As Muslims used to build other architectural masterpieces, they also created mosques for Muslims as well. This tread is somehow remain in modern-day Muslims as well.

So without wasting time, I want you to see some of the best and beautiful Mosques around the world that shows the greatness and glory of the Muslims. Many of them are new along with centuries old Mosques.

Ohh, just another thing that I like to show you is, check 10 Best Mosques of Pakistan if you didn’t check that post few months ago.

• MASJID AL HARAM

-          AKA: Ka’aba or Khana Ka’bah

-          Location: Makka, Saudi Arabia

-          Built in: Around 2000 BC

-          Built by: Originally built by Prophet Ibrahim

-          Capacity: 8000,000 worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• surrounds Ka’aba
• Holiest place for the Muslims of the world
• Covers an area of 400800 Square meters
• It has the largest annual religious gathering in the world
• It has Hijr-e-Aswad
• It has Aab-e-Zamzam in its premises
• Height of Ka’bah is 39 feet & 6 inches.
• Italian marble used for flooring, which absorbed the heat in summer and convert it hotness into coolness and in winter it convert its coolness into hotness.

• MASJID-E-NABWI

-          Location: Medina, Saudi Arabia

-          Built in: Originally built-in 622 AD

-          Built by: Prophet Muhammad

-          Capacity: 1000,000 worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements

• Grave of Prophet Muhammad
• 2^nd Holiest place for Muslims
• Originally it was 30 x 35 m. Today it covers 165 000 square meters
• Two prayers halls. Ottoman prayer hall projects south and the main prayer hall covers the ground floor
• Flat paved roof with 24 domes
• All the domes can slide open
• The courtyards equipped with Umbrella tents
• The walls composed of a series of windows topped by pointed arches with black and white voussoirs.
• 10 Minars, each 105 m high.
• Decorated with polychrome marble stone.

• FAISAL MASJID

-          Location: Islamabad, Pakistan

-          Built in: 1986

-          Designed by: Turkish architect, Vedat Dalokay

-          Built by: Pakistani Govt, with the help of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz

-          Capacity: 50,000 Worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Was the largest mosque in the world till 1993
• Turkish architectural style
• Covered area of 5,000 m²
• Third largest capacity of accommodating worshipers in its adjoining grounds after the Masjid al-Haram
• Each Minar 80m high (tallest in South asia), 10 x 100 m in diameter
• Architects from 17 countries submitted proposal for this Mosque’s construction
• Cost of building: 130 million Saudi riyal (approx. $120 million)
• Size: Building height: 131ft (40m); minaret height: 300ft.

Note: Read about my personal experience about Shah Faisal mosque when I visited in last Ramadan.

• SHEIKH ZAYED MOSQUE

-          Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

-          Year of completion: 2007

-          Capacity: 40.000 worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Mix of Mughal, Arab & Moorish Architecture
• 4 Minars at 4 corners, each 115 m tall
• 57 Domes
• Courtyard measures 17000 square meters
• World’s Largest hand-made carpet, 5627 square meter weighs 47 tons
• Seven chandeliers, World’s largest Chandelier – 10 m in diameter, 15 m in height.

• HASSAN II MOSQUE

-          Location: Casablanca, Morocco

-          Year of completion: 1993

-          Designed by: Designed by French architect, Michel Pinseau.

-          Built by: Bouygues.

-          Capacity: 105.000 Worshipers

-          Special Features:

• Largest mosque in Morocco, Third Largest in the world
• Tallest minar – 210 m
• Almost half mosque is built on Atlantic water
• Part of the floor is glass and sea water can be seen.
• Specially designed for earthquakes.

• MASJID UBUDIAH

-          Location: Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia

-          Designed by: Arthur Benison Hubback

-          Built in Year: 1917

-          Built by: Sultan of Perak

-          Special Features:

• Most beautiful mosque of Malaysia
• Total Cost of RM 200.000, high for its times.

• MUHAMMAD ALI MOSQUE

-          Aka: Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha or Albaster Mosque

-          Location: Citadel, Cairo, Egypt

-          Built by: Commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha in memory of his eldest son

-          Built in year: Took 27 years. 1830 – 1857

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Largest mosque built in the first half of 19^th century
• Animated silhouette and twin minarets
• Most Visible Mosque in Cairo
• Stripped walls were clad with wood painted to look like marble
• Square shaped. 41 x 41 m
• Mosque 52 m and Minarets 82 m high
• Central Dome 21 m high

• SULTAN OMAR ALI MOSQUE

-          AKA: Sultan Omar Ali Saiffudin Mosque

-          Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Sultanate of Brunei

-          Year of completion: 1958

-          Special Features:

• Most Spectacular mosque of Asia- Pacific
• Influence of Islamic and Italian Architecture
• Constructed on artificial lagoon
• Marble minarets and Golden Domes
• Floral Gardens
• A long bridge over the lagoon leading to the entrance
• Another bridge connects to a structure in water resembling a ship
• Main Dome covered with pure Gold
• 52 m high, the mosque can be seen from almost everywhere in the city
• Minerates have working elevators

• SULTAN QABOOS MOSQUE

-          Location: Oman

-          Year of completion: 2001

-          Built by: Sultan Qaboos

-          Capacity: 20 000 Worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Built with 300 000 tons of Indian sandstone
• Main Prayer Hall is square – 74.4 x 74.4 m
• Central Dome 50 m
• Main minar 90 m high
• Four other minars 45.5 m high
• World’s Second largest hand made carpet – 4343 square meters
• World’s second largest Chandelier – 14 m high

• SULTAN AHMAD MOSQUE

-          AKA: The Blue Mosque

-          Location: Istanbul, Turkey

-          Built in: 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I

-          Special Features:

• Lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles
• The upper levels of the interior are dominated by blue paint
• More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light
• On the chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that were meant to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by repelling spiders
• The decorations include verses from the Qur’an, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari

• SULTAN HASSAN MOSQUE

-          Location: Cairo Egypt

-          Completed in: 1363

-          Built by: Sultan Hassan bin Al Nasir

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Most compact and unified monument of Cairo
• A masterpiece of  Mamluk Architecture
• Facade is 76 meters long and 36 meters high
• Verses from the Quran in elegant Kufic and Thuluth scripts

• QOLSHARIF MOSQUE

-          Location: Kazan Kremlin

-          Built in: 16^th Century originally, Rebuilt and completed in 2005

-          Special Features:

• Second largest mosque in Europe
• Traditional Volga Bulgaria Architecture
• 8 minarets and central cupola
• Was rebuilt with the donations of several Muslim countries (Saudia Arabia & UAE)
• Most important symbols of Tatar aspiration to independence

• EL MURSI ABUL ABBAS MOSQUE

-          Location: Alexandria, Egypt

-          Built in: 1775

-          Design: Ayoubids design

-          Special Features & Special Features:

• Walls of the mosque stand 23 meters high and dressed in artificial stone
• Minarets are 73 m high
• Ayoubids design, with four floors.
• Ground floor is 15 m high and square shaped.
• First floor is 8 m high and is octagonal.
• Second floor is 15 m high and it is hexadecagonin shape (16 sides).
• The top floor is 3.2 meters high and is circular.

• BADSHAHI MOSQUE

-          Location: Lahore, Pakistan

-          Built in: 1673

-          Built by: Emperor Aurangzeb

-          Capacity: 110.000 Worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements

• Was the largest mosque in the world for 313 years
• The four minarets of the Badshahi Mosque are 13.9 ft (4.2 m) taller than those of the Taj Mahal and the main platform of the Taj Mahal can fit inside the 278,784 sq ft (25,899.9 m²) courtyard of the Badshahi Mosque, which is the largest mosque courtyard in the world.
• On the occasion of the second Islamic Summit held at Lahore February 22, 1974, thirty-nine heads of Muslim states offered their Friday prayers in the Badshahi Masjid
• A small museum is also attached to the mosque complex. It contains relics of the Prophet Muhammad, his cousin Ali, and his daughter, Fatimah.

• ZAHIR MOSQUE

-          Location: Alor Satar, Malaysia

-          Built in: 1912

-          Built by: TM Tunku Mahmud Ibni Almarhum Sultan Tajuddin Mukarram Shah

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• The site of this mosque was the cemetery of Kedah warriors who had died while defending Kedah from the Siamese in 1821
• Architecture was inspired by Azizi mosque
• 5 large prime domes symbolizing the five pillars of islam
• Covers 11558.3 square meters
• Central Prayer hall is 62 x 62 feet
• One of the oldest mosques in Malaysia
• Was in the list of 10 most beautiful mosques in the world.

• SABANCI MOSQUE

-          Location: Adana, Turkey

-          Built in: 1998

-          Built by: Turkish Religious Foundation and Sabanci Foundation

-          Capacity: 28500 Worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Largest Mosque in Turkey
• Exterior of the mosque is similar to Sultan Ahmed Mosque and interior is similar to Selimiye Mosque
• Built over 52600 Square meters
• It has 6 minars, 4 are 99m high while 2 are 75 m high and 8 pillars which carry the central dome
• The central dome is 32 m in diameter and 54 m high
• 4 classrooms, 10 itikaf rooms, rooms of imam and muezzin, discussion rooms and the fountain.

• AL FATEH GRAND MOSQUE

-          AKA: Al- Fateh Islamic Center or Al-Fateh Grand Mosque

-          Year of completion: 1988

-          Built by: Sheikh Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifa

-          Location: Bahrain next to King Faisal Highway Jaffair

-          Capacity: 7000 Worshipers

-          Special Features: Fiber Glass Dome, weighing over 60,000 Kg. World’s largest fiber glass dome.

• ISFAHAN MOSQUE

-          AKA: The Imam Khomeini Mosque

-          Foundation Stone: laid in 1611

-          Location: Isfahan, Iran

-          Built by: was built during Safavids period.

-          Measurements and Features:

• Port – 27 m high
• Two minars – 42 m tall
• Surrounded by 4 iwans and arcades
• Largest Dome in the city. 52 m high. The dome is double layered.

• MASJID TOOBA

-          AKA: Goal Masjid (due to its round shape)

-          Location: Karachi, Pakistan

-          Built in: 1969

-          Capacity: Central Prayer hall capacity – 5000 worshipers

-          Special Features & Measurements:

• Largest single dome mosque in the world
• Built with pure white marble
• The dome is 72 m in diameter
• Dome is balanced on a low wall and no pillars are found
• Single minaret 72 m high
• Use of Acoustic design so that there is no need for speakers

• GOLDEN MOSQUE, Manila

-          AKA: Masjid Al-Dahab

-          Year of completion: 1976

-         Location: Quiapo district in Manila, Largest mosque in Manila

-          Special Features: Golden Domes and minars.

• SULTAN MOSQUE

-          AKA: Masjid-e-Sultan

-          Location: Singapore

-          Built in: Original Mosque completed in 1826

-          Rebuilt: It was rebuilt and renovated and the work completed in 1928

• KRISTAL MOSQUE

-          AKA: Crystal Mosque

-          Location: Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

-          Built in: 2008

That’s it Friends!

Now waiting for your comments, what you think about these beautiful Mosques of the world, which you already visited, what about your experience there, Which one you most like and have desire to go there.

Share your interesting thoughts with me and all the order readers.