Минбар: Кафедра проповедника в мечети

Pulpit in a mosque
minbar, a pulpit in the mosque
A minbar (منبر; sometimes romanized as mimber) is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (خطبة, khutbah). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation.

The word is a derivative of the Arabic root ن ب ر n b r ("to raise, elevate"); the Arabic plural is manābir (مَنابِر). It eventually became standard for all Friday mosques and was used by the local imam, but it retained its significance as a symbol of authority. While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits, they have a function and position more similar to that of a church lectern, being used instead by the imam for a wide range of readings and prayers. The minbar is located to the right of the mihrab, a niche in the far wall of the mosque that symbolizes the direction of prayer (i. e. towards Mecca). It is usually shaped like a small tower with a seat or kiosk like structure at its top and a staircase leading up to it. The bottom of the staircase often has a doorway or portal. In contrast to many Christian pulpits, the steps up to the minbar are usually in a straight line on the same axis as the seat.

The first recorded minbar in the Islamic world was Muhammad's minbar in Medina, created in 629 CE It consisted simply of two steps and a seat, resembling a throne. 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 Great Mosque of Kairouan in Kairouan, Tunisia. The oldest surviving example is the Minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, commissioned in 1091 under the Fatimids, originally for a shrine in Ascalon. It features decoration in geometric strapwork motifs and Arabic inscriptions. Among the most famous minbars was the Minbar of the al Aqsa Mosque (also known as the Minbar of Saladin) in Jerusalem, commissioned in 1168 69 by Nur ad Din and signed by four different craftsmen. This minbar takes the design of decorative geometric patterns slightly further by using curved lines instead of the usual straight lines to form its polygons.

In the Maghreb, a number of wooden minbars have been preserved from the 10th to 15th centuries. Both are wooden structures, with the former's flanks decorated by rectangular panels with beveled motifs and the latter's flanks decorated by octagonal geometric motifs. The minbar in Na'in is also one of the few Iranian minbars topped by a canopy. It shares the overall form of the minbar in Na'in A marble minbar was also constructed for the earlier Mosque of Ulmas al Hajib (1329–1330). Only fragments of it have been preserved (kept at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo), but they attest to some of the highest quality stonework from the Mamluk period. The stone minbar of the Mosque of Sultan Hasan in Cairo (circa 1360) is relatively plain, though it has unusually ornate bronze doors.

Ottoman minbars are distinguished in part by the shape of their canopy, where the traditional small dome is replaced with a tall, polygonal cone similar to the caps of Ottoman minarets. An exceptional early minbar is that of the Ahmed Pasha Mosque in Amasya, which has extensive finely carved floral decoration. In the finest Ottoman minbars, the main flanks are pierced with geometric openwork and arcades. The apogee of this style is exemplified by the minbar of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (circa 1574). The conical cap of this minbar is also covered with decorative tiles, a feature shared with the slightly earlier minbar of the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque. In later centuries, following the introduction of the Ottoman Baroque style, minbars were carved with eclectic motifs inspired by the European Baroque.

Minbars were highly variable in style and size on the Indian subcontinent, but stone was the favoured material throughout the region. Wooden minbars may have been employed in earlier periods, but few or none have been preserved. Some of the minbars are merely a series of simple steps while others are very elaborate. Among other variations, the minbars of the Bengal Sultanate and the Gujarat Sultanate typically have canopies, while those of the Jaunpur Sultanate and Mughal Empire usually do not. One of the most elegant examples of the canopied type is the minbar in the Friday Mosque of Mandu in the Malwa region, dated to 1454, which has a dome in the local style upheld by curving brackets. In both the Gujarat and Malwa regions, the first step of the minbar is often preceded by a small square platform whose original purpose is unclear. In the Deccan, the minbar is usually a plain staircase of three steps. In the Mughal Empire, some minbars also had a simple design form with three steps, but they sometimes had flourishes such as a highly polished or inlaid marble finish (especially under Shah Jahan) or a pierced stone balustrade.