The Meaning of the Miḥrāb: From the Perspective of Perennial Philosophy

Yıl 2010, Cilt: 1 Sayı: 2, 149 - 193, 07.08.2011

Rusmir Mahmutcehajic

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2010.12.14

Cited By: 1

Öz

This paper presents research findings on the meaning of the miḥrāb from the metaphysical, cosmological, anthropological and psychological perspectives of the Muslim intellectual heritage. The aim is to broaden the scholarly approach to the miḥrāb as a key symbol of the Muslim heritage and thereby to facilitate a more holistic understanding of its meaning in the history of the world’s art and architecture. This paper applies the findings of new research, the articulation of key questions concerning the miḥrāb in history, architecture and art, and philological and theological considerations of its place in Muslim heritage. These conclusions are then examined in light of the perennial philosophy typical of modern studies of traditional intellectuality, both specifically Muslim and in general. The structure of the study is hierarchical, from general anthropotheological premises to specific kinds of symbolic forms. Miḥrābs from the Bosnian tradition are considered as the initial pragmatic material and the final illustrative material for the conclusions drawn.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Perennial philosophy, Muslim tradition, sacred art, mosque, miḥrāb, Perennial philosophy, Muslim tradition, sacred art, mosque, miḥrāb

Kaynakça

• ʿAlī al-Makkī ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Fatḥ al-Karīm al-Khāliq fī ḥall alfāẓ al-Durr al-fāʾiq fī l-ṣalāt ʿalā ashraf al-khalāʾiq (Ṣ) li-l-Shaykh Muṣṭafā al-Bakrī, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2010).
• Babić, Mirko, "Rezultati arheoloških istraživanja lokaliteta Atik džamije u Bijeljini", Glasnik Udruženja muzejskih radnika 2 (2004), 48-70.
• Burckhardt, Titus, Art of Islam: Language and Meaning (London: World of Islam Festival Publishing Company, 1976).
• Djedović, Rusmir, "Dovište na Ratišu kod Srebrenika", in Salih Kulenović, Rusmir Djedović and Enes Mutapčić (eds.), Srebrenik: historijsko-etnografske skice (Srebrenik: Centar za kulturu i informisanje, 2007), 69-76.
• Evlija Čelebi [Awliyāʾ Chalabī], Putopis: Odlomci o jugoslovenskim zeml-jama (Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša, 1973).
• Fehérvári, Géza, "Tombstone or Miḥrāb: A Speculation", in Richard Ettinghausen (ed.), Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972), 241-254.
• Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, 4 vols., (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿat al-ʿĀmira al-Sharafiyya, 1908-1909).
• Handžić, Mehmed, "Sarajevo u turskoj pjesmi", in Esad Duraković (ed.), Mehmed Handžić: Izabrana djela, 4 vols., (Sarajevo: Ogledalo, 1999).
• Ibn Sīda, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl, al-Muḥkam wa-l-muḥīṭ al-aʿẓam fī l-lugha, 3 vols., (ed. ʿĀʾisha ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; Cairo: n.p., 1958).
• Al-Iṣfahānī, Abū l-Qāsim Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Mufaḍḍal al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān (ed. Muḥammad Sayyid Kīlānī; Cairo: Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlādihī, 1371/1961).
• Khoury, Nuha N. N., The Miḥrāb Concept: Palatial Themes in Early Islamic Religious Architecture (PhD dissertation; Harvard: Harvard University, 1992).
• Khoury, Nuha N. N., "The Miḥrāb Image: Commemorative Themes in Medieval Islamic Architecture", Muqarnas 9 (1992), 11-28. https://doi.org/10.2307/1523132
• Khoury, Nuha N. N., "The Dome of the Rock, the Kaʿba, and Ghumdan: Arab Myths and Umayyad Monuments", Muqarnas 10 (1993), 57-65. https://doi.org/10.2307/1523172
• Khoury, Nuha N. N., "The Miḥrāb: From Text to Form", International Journal of Middle East Studies 30/1 (1998), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800065545
• Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah Souren, "The Light of Heaven and Earth: From the Chahār-tāq to the Miḥrāb", Bulletin of the Asia Institute 4 (1990), 95-131.
• Miles, George C., "Miḥrāb and ʿAnaza: A Study in Early Islamic Iconography", in George C. Miles (ed.), Archeologia Orientalia: In Memoriam Ernst Herzfeld (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1952), 156-171.
• Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, 3 vols., (Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša, I: 1974, II: 1977, III: 1982).
• Padwick, Constance E., Muslim Devotions: A Study of Prayer-Manuals in Common Use (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1996).
• Papadopoulo, Alexandre (ed.), Le Mihrāb dans l'architecture et la religion musulmanes (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988).
• Perry, Mary Elizabeth, The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005).
• Al-Rūmī, Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn, Discourses of Rūmī (Fīhi mā fīhi) (trans. Arthur J. Arberry; London & New York: Routledge, 1995).
• Šanjek, Franjo, Bosansko-humski krstjani u povijesnim vrelima (13.-15.st.) (Zagreb: Barbat, 2003).
• Al-Suyūṭī, Abū l-Faḍl Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr, al-Ḥirz al-manīʿ min al-qawl al-badīʿ fī l-ṣalāt ʿalā l-Ḥabīb al-shafīʿ (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿat al-ʿĀmira al-Sharqiyya, 1323 H.).
• Al-Tijānī, Abū l-ʿAbbās Sayyid Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, al-Ṣalāt al-ghaybiyya fī l-ḥaqīqat al-Aḥmadiyya (Marakesh: al-Zāwiyat al-Kubrā li-Sayyidī Muḥammad al-Kabīr al-Tijānī, 2009).
• Voegelin, Eric, The New Science of Politics: An Introduction (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987).
• Wensinck, Arent J., "The Ideas of the Western Semites Concerning the Navel of the Earth", in Arent J. Wensinck, Studies of A. J. Wensinck: An Original Arno Press Anthology (ed. Kees W. Bolle; New York: Arno Press, 1978), 1-65.
• Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand, Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka (Leipzig: Olms Verlag, 1858).