Monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, may serve as an oratory. Monasteries vary in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex comprises a number of buildings which include a church, cloister, library and infirmary. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community; these may include a hospice, a school, a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery. In English usage, the term monastery is used to denote the buildings of a community of monks.
In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics communities of teaching or nursing religious sisters. A convent denoted a house of friars, now more called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in more specific ways; the word monastery comes from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος – monasterios from μονάζειν – monazein "to live alone" from the root μόνος – monos "alone". The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, ch. III. In England the word monastery was applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, were served by canons secular, which were communal but not monastic. However, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a short time a cathedral, was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition.
See the entry cathedral. They are to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St George's Chapel, Windsor. In most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a somewhat more specific definition of the term and many related terms. Buddhist monasteries are called vihara. Viharas may be occupied by men or women, in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can refer to a temple. In Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are called gompa. In Thailand and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat. In Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be a priory, or conceivably a hermitage, it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order. In Eastern Christianity, a small monastic community can be called a skete, a large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra.
The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the anchoretic life of an anchorite and the eremitic life of a hermit. There has been under the Osmanli occupation of Greece and Cyprus, an "idiorrhythmic" lifestyle where monks come together but being able to own things individually and not being obliged to work for the common good. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, koil, or most an ashram. Jains use the Buddhist term vihara. In most religions the life inside monasteries is governed by community rules that stipulate the gender of the inhabitants and require them to remain celibate and own little or no personal property; the degree to which life inside a particular monastery is separate from the surrounding populace can vary widely. Others focus on interacting with the local communities to provide services, such as teaching, medical care, or evangelism; some monastic communities are only occupied seasonally, depending both on the traditions involved and the local weather, people may be part of a monastic community for periods ranging from a few days at a time to an entire lifetime.
The life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods agricultural products, by donations or alms, by rental or investment incomes, by funds from other organizations within the religion, which in the past formed the traditional support of monasteries. There has been a long tradition of Christian monasteries providing hospitable and hospital services. Monasteries have been associated with the provision of education and the encouragement of scholarship and research, which has led to the establishment of schools and colleges and the association with universities. Christian monastic life has adapted to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services and management as well as modern hospital and educational administration. Buddhist monasteries, known as vihāra i
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, the earliest, followed by the Ionic order; when classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders; this architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations; the name Corinthian is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although the style had its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus. It was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable podium temple at Vienne. Other prime examples noted by Mark Wilson Jones are the lower order of the Basilica Ulpia and the arch at Ancona the "column of Phocas", the "Temple of Bacchus" at Baalbek.
The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket, its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period. The earliest Corinthian capital was found in Bassae, dated at 427 BC. Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles of symmetria" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, the full height of column with capital is a multiple of 6 Roman feet while the column height itself is a multiple of 5. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the Ionic column, though it is more slender, stands apart by its distinctive carved capital; the abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, it may have a rosette at the center of each side.
Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight, having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1. One variant is the Tivoli Order, found at the Temple of Tivoli; the Tivoli Order's Corintinan Capital has two rows of Acanthus and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleuron in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops; the frieze exhibits fruit swag suspended between bucrania. Above each swag is a rosette; the cornice does not have modillions. Indo-Corinthian capitals are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, combine Hellenistic and Indian elements; these capitals are dated to the 1st centuries of our era, constitute important elements of Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara. The classical design was adapted taking a more elongated form, sometimes being combined with scrolls within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples.
Indo-Corinthian capitals incorporated figures of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas as central figures surrounded, in the shade, of the luxurious foliage of Corinthian designs. During the first flush of the Italian Renaissance, the Florentine architectural theorist Francesco di Giorgio expressed the human analogies that writers who followed Vitruvius associated with the human form, in squared drawings he made of the Corinthian capital overlaid with human heads, to show the proportions common to both; the Corinthian architrave is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or may bear interesting proportional relationships, to one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies the frieze, which may be richly carved with a continuous design or left plain, as at the U. S. Capitol extension. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are 1:1. Above that, the profiles of the cornice moldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions, which are ornamental brackets used in a series under a cornice.
The Corinthian column is always fluted, the flutes of a Corinthian column may be enriched. They may be filleted, with rods nestled within the hollow flutes, or stop-fluted, with the rods rising a third of the way, to where the entasis begins. In French, these are called chandelles and sometimes terminate in carved wisps of flame, or with bellflowers. Alternatively, beading or chains of husks may take the place of the fillets in the fluting, Corinthian being the most flexible of the orders, with more opportunities for variation. Elaborating upon an offhand remark when Vitruvius accounted for the origin of its acanthus capital, it became a commonplace to identify the Corinthian column with the slender figure of a young girl. Sir William Chambers expressed the conventional comparison with the Doric order: The proportions of the orders were by the ancients formed on those of the human body, it could n
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture by Vitruvius, is considered to be one of the most influential individuals in the history of architecture. All of his buildings are located in what was the Venetian Republic, but his teachings, summarized in the architectural treatise, The Four Books of Architecture, gained him wide recognition; the city of Vicenza, with its 23 buildings designed by Palladio, 24 Palladian Villas of the Veneto are listed by UNESCO as part of a World Heritage Site named City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Palladio was born on 30 November 1508 in Padua and was given the name, Andrea Di Pietro della Gondola, his father, called "Della Gondola", was a miller. From early on, Andrea Palladio was introduced into the work of building. In Padua he gained his first experiences as a stonecutter in the sculpture workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza da Sossano, the sculptor responsible for the altar in the Church of Santa Maria dei Carmini in Padua.
Cavazza da Sossano is said to have imposed hard working conditions. At the age of sixteen he moved to Vicenza. Here he became an assistant in a leading workshop of stonecutters and masons, he joined a guild of bricklayers. He was employed as a stonemason to make decorative sculptures; these sculptures reflected the Mannerist style of the architect Michele Sanmicheli. The key moment that sparked Palladio's career was being employed by the Humanist poet and scholar, Gian Giorgio Trissino, from 1538 to 1539. While Trissino was reconstructing the Villa Cricoli, he took interest in Palladio's work. Trissino was influenced by the studies of Vitruvius, which had become available in print in 1486; these influenced Palladio's own ideals and attitudes toward classical architecture. As the leading intellectual in Vicenza, Trissino stimulated the young man to appreciate the arts and Classical literature and he granted him the opportunity to study Ancient architecture in Rome, it was Trissino who gave him the name by which he became known, Palladio, an allusion to the Greek goddess of wisdom Pallas Athene and to a character of a play by Trissino.
Indeed, the word Palladio means Wise one. After Trissino's death in 1550, Palladio benefited from the patronage of the Barbaro brothers, Cardinal Daniele Barbaro, who encouraged his studies of classical architecture and brought him to Rome in 1554, his younger brother Marcantonio Barbaro; the powerful Barbaros introduced Palladio to Venice, where he became "Proto della Serenissima" after Jacopo Sansovino. In addition to the Barbaros, the Corner and Pisani families supported Palladio's career. Andrea Palladio began to develop his own architectural style around 1541; the Palladian style, named after him, adhered to classical Roman principles he rediscovered and applied in his works. His first major public project began when his designs for building the loggias for the town hall, known as the Basilica Palladiana, were approved in 1548, he proposed an addition of two-storey stone buttresses reflecting the Gothic style of the existing hall while using classical proportions. The construction was completed posthumously in 1617.
Aside from Palladio's designs, his publications contributed to Palladianism. During the second half of his life, Palladio published many books on architecture, most famously, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. Palladio is most known for his designs of palaces as well as his books; the precise circumstances of Palladio's death are unknown. He died in 1580, retold in tradition in Maser and was buried in the church of Santa Corona in Vicenza. Since the 19th century his tomb has been located in the Cimitero Maggiore of Vicenza. Palladio's architecture was not dependent on expensive materials, which must have been an advantage to his more financially pressed clients. Many of his buildings are of brick covered with stucco. Stuccoed brickwork was always used in his villa designs in order to portray his interpretations of the Roman villa typology. In the part of his career, Palladio was chosen by powerful members of Venetian society for numerous important commissions, his success as an architect is based not only on the beauty of his work, but for its harmony with the culture of his time.
His success and influence came from the integration of extraordinary aesthetic quality with expressive characteristics that resonated with his client's social aspirations. His buildings served to communicate, their place in the social order of their culture; this powerful integration of beauty and the physical representation of social meanings is apparent in three major building types: the urban palazzo, the agricultural villa, the church. Relative to his trips to Rome, Palladio developed three main palace types by 1556. In 1550, the Palazzo Chiericati was completed; the proportions for the building were based on musical ratios for adjacent rooms. The building was centralized by a tripartite division of a series of colonnades. In 1552, the Palazzo Iseppo Porto located in Vicenza was rebuilt incorporating the Roman Renaissance element for façades. A colonnade of Corinthian columns surrounded a main court; the Palazzo Antonini in Udine, constructed in 1556, had a centralized hall with four columns and service spaces placed toward one side.
He uses styles of incorporating the six columns, supported by pediments, into the walls as part of the façade. This technique had been applied in
Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano, known as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter, born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco the Elder, studying under Bonifazio Veronese in Venice, he painted religious paintings including landscape and genre scenes. Bassano's pictures were popular in Venice because of their depiction of animals and nocturnal scenes, his four sons: Francesco Bassano the Younger, Giovanni Battista da Ponte, Leandro Bassano, Girolamo da Ponte became artists and followed him in style and subject matter. He was born around 1510 in the town of Bassano del Grappa, located about 65 km from the city of Venice, his father, Francesco il Vecchio, was a locally successful painter who had established a family workshop that produced religious works in the local style. During his early youth Bassano was an apprentice in his father's workshop, he made his way to Venice in the 1530s, during which he studied under Bonifazio de Pitati and was exposed to such famous artists as Titian and il Pordenone.
After his father's death in 1539 he returned to Bassano del Grappa and permanently set up residence there taking a local woman, Elisabetta Merzari, as his wife in 1546. He took over the management of his family workshop, which would come to include his four sons, Leandro Bassano, Francesco Bassano the Younger, Giovanni Battista da Ponte, Girolamo da Ponte. After his death in 1592, his sons continued to produce numerous works in his style, making it difficult for art historians to establish which pieces were created by Jacopo himself and which works were created at the hands of his progeny. Jacopo Bassano was considered unique amongst his fellow Renaissance artists by his ability to incorporate diverse artistic influences into his work despite his reluctance to leave the comfort of his home town, he is believed to have learned about their art by seeing their prints, of which he was most an avid collector. Bassano's ability to experiment and absorb stylistic qualities from other contemporary artists is evident in the four distinct periods seen in his artistic legacy.
Each period shows the artist's work in reconciling his own aesthetics with the styles of his peers. Early 1530s and onward. Bonifazio de Pitati imparted upon his young pupil a lasting appreciation of Titian's work, the influence of, seen in his early pieces. Bassano's earliest paintings exhibit his lifelong obsession with brilliant colors that he had seen in Titian's beginning works in Bassano's Supper at Emmaus. In this commission for a local church, Bassano fills the canvas with rich, luminous colors that help the distinguish the figures from their surrounding environment, he breaks away from the practices of his contemporaries by placing the figure of Christ towards the back of the scene and allowing the lay-people around him to play a more significant part in the composition of the piece. They are unique in their dress. Instead of clothing his figures in the draping, shapeless fabrics many Renaissance artists equated with Classical Roman fashion, Bassano chose to feature figures in 16th-century clothing.
The details of this piece are the most discussed aspect of it. To many art historians his inclusion of various food on the tables, a dog lying down and a cat slinking around the chairs, as well as numerous secondary characters is a testament to Bassano's practice of drawing from life instead of relying on stylistic conventions of the age. Bassano's piece, The Last Supper, shows his new interest in Mannerism in Italian art. Within the piece he expressed influences related to contemporary prints of Dürer and paintings of Raphael; this is expressed in the charged emotions of the subjects and the dynamic and stylized posture of the figures. The Mannerist preoccupation with developed design elements is evident in Bassano's careful placement and "character" of the figures to create an active composition that leads the viewer's eyes around every detail of the canvas. Compared to earlier figures, which were more staid, Bassano's figures in The Last Supper seem alive, their skin suggesting muscles and sinews below rather than the wooden, tired postures of his early work.
Bassano started experimenting with his subjects around 1550s -- 1570s. It was during this period that he was one of the first artists to paint a "nocturne", or a painting in a nighttime landscape with artificial lighting; this type of painting was popular with local audiences and made Bassano paintings valued. His works began to feature more prominently pastoral elements, which were both painted by his father and part of his environment. Rather than placing religious scenes in Classical Roman settings, he placed figures in a more natural landscape, where the trees and the flowers were as rendered as his figures. Paintings Media related to Jacopo dal Ponte at Wikimedia Commons Jacopo Bassano in the Web Gallery of Art Jacopo Bassano: Founder of Landscape Style Bryan, Michael. Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves, ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers and Critical. York St. #4, Covent Garden, London. P. 308
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII, born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 13 May 1572 to his death in 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day. Ugo Boncompagni was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and of his wife Angela Marescalchi in Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530, he taught jurisprudence for some years, his students included notable figures such as Cardinals Alexander Farnese, Reginald Pole and Charles Borromeo. He had an illegitimate son after an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, Giacomo Boncompagni, but before he took holy orders. At the age of thirty-six he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III, under whom he held successive appointments as first judge of the capital and vice-chancellor of the Campagna e Marittima. Pope Paul IV attached him as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carlo Carafa, Pope Pius IV made him Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent him to the Council of Trent.
He served as a legate to Philip II of Spain, being sent by the Pope to investigate the Cardinal of Toledo. It was there that he formed a lasting and close relationship with the Spanish King, to become important in his foreign policy as Pope. Upon the death of Pope Pius V, the conclave chose Cardinal Boncompagni, who assumed the name of Gregory XIII in homage to the great reforming Pope, Gregory I, surnamed the Great, it was a brief conclave, lasting less than 24 hours. Many historians have attributed this to the backing of the Spanish King. Cardinal Borromeo and the cardinals wishing reform accepted Boncompagni's candidature and so supported him in the conclave while the Spanish faction deemed him acceptable due to his success as a nuncio in Spain. Gregory XIII's character seemed to be perfect for the needs of the church at the time. Unlike some of his predecessors, he was to lead a faultless personal life, becoming a model for his simplicity of life. Additionally, his legal brilliance and management abilities meant that he was able to respond and deal with major problems and decisively, although not always successfully.
Once in the chair of Saint Peter, Gregory XIII's rather worldly concerns became secondary and he dedicated himself to reform of the Catholic Church. He committed himself to putting into practice the recommendations of the Council of Trent, he allowed no exceptions for cardinals to the rule that bishops must take up residence in their sees, designated a committee to update the Index of Forbidden Books. He was the patron of a new and improved edition of the Corpus juris canonici. In a time of considerable centralisation of power, Gregory XIII abolished the Cardinals Consistories, replacing them with Colleges, appointing specific tasks for these colleges to work on, he was renowned for having a fierce independence. The power of the papacy increased under him, whereas the influence and power of the cardinals decreased. Noteworthy is his establishment of the Discalced Carmelites, an offshoot of the Carmelite Order, as a distinct unit or "province" within the former by the decree "Pia consideratione" dated 22 June 1580, ending a period of great difficulty between them and enabling the former to become a significant religious order in the Catholic Church.
A central part of the strategy of Gregory XIII's reform was to apply the recommendations of Trent. He was a liberal patron of the formed Society of Jesus throughout Europe, for which he founded many new colleges; the Roman College of the Jesuits grew under his patronage, became the most important centre of learning in Europe for a time. It is now named the Pontifical Gregorian University. Pope Gregory XIII founded numerous seminaries for training priests, beginning with the German College at Rome, put them in the charge of the Jesuits. In 1575 he gave official status to the Congregation of the Oratory, a community of priests without vows, dedicated to prayer and preaching. In 1580 he commissioned artists, including Ignazio Danti, to complete works to decorate the Vatican and commissioned The Gallery of Maps. Noteworthy during his pontificate as a further means of putting into practice the recommendations of the Council of Trent is the transformation in 1580 of the Dominican studium founded in the 13th century at Rome into the College of St. Thomas, the precursor of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.
Pope Gregory XIII is best known for his commissioning of the calendar after being authored by the doctor/astronomer Aloysius Lilius and with the aid of Jesuit priest/astronomer Christopher Clavius who made the final modifications. The reason for the reform was that the average length of the year in the Julian calendar was too long – as it treated each year as 365 days, 6 hours in length, whereas calculations showed that the actual mean length of a year is less As a result, the date of the actual vernal equinox had slipped to 10 March, while the computus of the date of Easter still followed the traditional date of 21 March; this was verified by the observations of Clavius, the new calendar was instituted when Gregory decreed, by the papal bull Inter gravissimas of 24 February 1582, that the day after Thursday, 4 October 1582 would be not Friday, 5 October, but Friday, 15 October 1582. The new calendar duly replaced the Julian calendar, in use since 45 B
Leandro Bassano
Leandro Bassano called Leandro dal Ponte, was an Italian artist from Bassano del Grappa, awarded a knighthood by the Doge of Venice. He was the younger brother of artist Francesco Bassano the Younger and third son of artist Jacopo Bassano, their father took his surname from their town of Bassano del Grappa, trained his sons as painters. Leandro studied with his brothers in their father's workshop. After Francesco opened a workshop in Venice before 1575, Leandro took over the studio in Bassano del Grappa. Leandro followed in the tradition of his father’s religious works, but became independently well known as a portrait painter. By around 1575, Leandro had become an important assistant to his father, his father wanted Leandro to carry on the studio in Bassano del Grappa. Shortly after their father died, his brother Francesco committed suicide. Leandro moved to Venice, he became a successful portraitist, working close to the influential style of Venetian master Tintoretto. Leandro developed his style, furthering his fine drawing style.
His approach to painting differed from his father’s in the use of "fine brushwork, with cool, light colours, smoothly applied in well-defined areas, unlike his father, who painted with dense and robust brushstrokes." His success grew in Venice. Leandro was awarded a knighthood from Doge of Venice Marino Grimani in 1595, he lived his remaining days in that city. With the knighthood, Leandro began to sign his name with the honorary, “Eques.” Much of his work is not dated, his works have sometimes been confused with other artists. His Portrait of an Old Man in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest was once attributed to Tintoretto. In addition to his many portraits and religious pieces, Leandro painted secular, genre works, such as his Concert, now in the Uffizi Gallery, his Kitchen Scene, displayed in the Indiana University Art Museum in the United States. Portraits Portrait of an Old Man, Oil in canvas, Portrait of an Old Woman, Oil on canvas, Portrait of a Man, Oil on canvas, Portrait of a Man, Oil on canvas, Portrait of a Man, Oil on canvas, Portrait of a Widow at her Devotions, Oil on canvas, Oil in canvas, Procurator of San Marco or Portrait of Duke of Candia Giovanni Francesco Sagredo, Oil on canvas, Religious Works Angel,Oil on canvas, National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade Marriage at Cana, Oil on canvas, Incredulity of St Thomas, Oil on canvas, Moses Striking the Rock, Oil on canvas, Expulsion of the merchants of the Temple, Oil on canvas, Carrying of the Cross, Oil on black slate, Christ at the house of Simon the Pharisee, Chalk on paper, Last Supper Last Judgment, Oil on copper, Oil on canvas, The Tower of Babel, Oil on canvas, The Adoration of the Shepherds, Chalk on paper, Other La Riva degli Schiavoni, Oil on canvas, Oil on canvas, Kitchen Scene, Oil on canvas, Oil on burlap, Fish market by the sea, circa 1578, Oil on canvas, Allegory of the Element Earth, circa 1580.
The Walters Art Museum. Media related to Leandro Bassano at Wikimedia Commons
Minaret
Minaret, from Arabic: منارة manarah known as Goldaste, is a type of tower found built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets serve multiple purposes. While they provide a visual focal point, they are used for the Muslim call to prayer; the basic form of a minaret includes shaft, a cap and head. They are a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, they can either be taller than the associated support structure. The architecture and role of the minaret vary by region and time period. Minarets attached to mosques serve two main functions: to perform the call to prayer and to act as a symbol of Islam. In the early 9th century, the first minarets were placed opposite the qibla wall. Times, this placement was not beneficial in reaching the community for the call to prayer, they served as a reminder that the region was Islamic and helped to distinguish mosques from the surrounding architecture. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the other function is to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer, or adhan, is made.
The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, mid-afternoon and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a speaker system on the minaret; the basic form of minarets consists of four parts: a shaft, a cap and a head. Minarets may be conical, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a counter-clockwise fashion, providing necessary structural support to the elongated shaft; the gallery is a balcony that encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer. It is covered by a roof-like canopy and adorned with ornamentation, such as decorative brick and tile work, cornices and inscriptions, with the transition from the shaft to the gallery displaying muqarnas; the earliest mosques lacked minarets, the call to prayer was performed from smaller tower structures. Hadiths relay that the early Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer.
The first known minarets appear in the early 9th century under Abbasid rule, were not used until the 11th century. These early minaret forms were placed in the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall; these towers were built across the empire in a height to width ratio of 3:1. The oldest minaret is the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia and it is the oldest minaret still standing; the construction of the Great Mosque of Kairouan dates to the year 836. The mosque is constituted by three levels of decreasing widths. Minarets have had various forms in light of their architectural function. Minarets are built out of any material, available, changes from region to region; the number of minarets by mosques is not fixed one minaret would accompany each mosque the builder could construct several more. Styles and architecture can vary according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive: Central Asia During the Seljuk period, minarets were decorated with geometric and calligraphic design.
They were built prolifically at smaller mosques or mosque complexes. Additionally, minarets during the Seljuk period were characterized by their circular plans and octagonal bases; the Bukhara minaret remains the most well known of the Seljuk minarets for its use of brick patterns and inscriptions. The "international Timurid" style surfaced in central Asia during the 17th century and is categorized by the use of multiple minarets. Examples of this style include the minarets on the roof of the south gate in Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra, the minarets on the Tomb of Jahangir, as well as the four minarets surrounding the mausoleum of the Taj Mahal. Egypt The styles of minarets have varied throughout the history of Egypt. Most minarets were on a square base, the shaft could be plain or decorated and topped with various crowns and pavilions; the tiers of the minaret are separated by balconies. The Mosque of al-Hakim, built between 990 and 1010, has a square base with a shaft that tapers towards the crown.
East China Eastern Chinese minarets were influenced by the Islamic minarets of Iran. They had circular platforms and cylindrical shafts with decorative patterns of the Chinese landscape; the Tower of Light known as the Guangta minaret, merges aspects of Islamic and Chinese architecture. Iraq The Great Mosque of Samarra is one of the earliest minarets and is characterized by a 30 meter high cylindrical tower outside the walls of the mosque. A common Abbasid style of minaret seen in Iraq, is characterized by a structure with a polygonal base and a thick cylindrical shaft, it is typically found on the roof of the mosque. Two examples of this style are the Mosque of Qumriyya. Iran The minarets of 12th century Iran had cylindrical shafts with square or octagonal bases that taper towards their capitals; these minarets became the most common style across the Islamic world. These forms were highly decorated. Pairs of minaret towers. Southeast Asia Tower minarets were not as common in Southeast Asia as mosques were designed to function more as community structures.
Mosques were designed to be much smaller and contained staircase minarets. Tunisia The minaret at the Great Mosque of Kairouan, built in 83
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Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 
