Tarihte Minbere Yüklenen Sembolik ve Terminolojik Anlamlar Üzerine Bazı Tespitler
Some Remarks on the Symbolic and Terminological Meanings Attributed to Minbar in History
Yazar: Can, Mesut
Dergi: Bilimname, Vol. 2019 No. 39, 2019
Anahtar kelimeler: İslam Tarihi,Minber,İslam Şehri,Cami,Sembol

Cami mimarisinin bölümlerinden birisi olan minberler, tarihte yalnız üzerine çıkılarak din görevlisinin cemaat tarafından görünür hale gelmesini sağlayan, sesinin duyulmasına yardımcı olan alelade bir araç değildiler. Bilakis, kökleri Hz. Peygambere kadar dayanan birtakım görevlerin ifa edilmesinde önemli paya sahiptiler. Başta müslümanların dinî konularda bilgilendirilmesi olmak üzere, toplumun idaresine dair işler de minber vasıtasıyla tabana yayılmıştır. Asr-ı Saadet’te ilk numunesi neşvünema bulan minber, daha sonra Râşid Halifeler zamanında da aynı vazifeyi görmeye devam etmiştir. Emevîler döneminden itibaren minberler, gerek devlet idaresinde gerekse siyasî hayatta aktif rol oynamışlardır. Bu devirle birlikte minberler, siyasî ve idarî birtakım yeni anlamlar yüklenmesi hasebiyle sembolik/terminolojik bir karakter kazanmaya başlamıştır. Bir kavram olarak ona yüklenen sembolik anlam, tarihi süreçte zaman zaman zayıflasa da yakın zamana kadar varlığını korumuştur. İslam dünyasının farklı coğrafyalarında ve farklı tarihlerde gerçekleşen gerek iktidar mücadelelerinde gerekse isyan hareketlerinde siyasî propaganda aracı olarak yine minberlerin etkin bir kullanımı söz konusudur. Bunun yanında, halifeye biatın minberlerde gerçekleşmesi ve minberlerde okunan hutbelerin, iktidarın bir sembolü olarak telakki edilmesi de minberin yüklendiği siyasî ve idarî sahadaki sembolik/terminolojik anlamla ilgilidir. Minberin terminolojide kazandığı anlamlardan bir diğeri, İslam coğrafya ilmine dairdir. Ortaçağ İslam coğrafyacıları, eserlerinde “minber” kelimesini gelişigüzel kullanmamaktadırlar. Müelliflerin, tasvir ettikleri şehirlerin minbere sahip olup olmadığı ve sahip oldukları minber sayısı gibi kaydettikleri malumat, burada mevzubahis edilecek olan sembolik/terminolojik anlama işaret etmektedir.

The minbars (pulpits), one of the sections of mosque architecture, had an important role in performing some functions in Islamic history dating back to the time of the Prophet. It can be said that he did his actions while he was alive, not only as a prophet, but also as a president and a political leader. The Masjid in Madīna was a place of worship for muslims, as well as their meeting place, education-training center, courtroom, military camp, hospital, prison, guesthouse, and finally a state administration center. In early times when the mosque was the center of state administration, his minbar was the place where the administrative, military and political issues of the Muslim community were discussed, but it was also the place where the caliphs receive their allegations from people. In the ongoing historical process, it is certain that these practices in the Prophet’s and the Rightly Guided Caliphs’ periods had an impact on the acceptance of Minbar as one of the signs of sultanate.The spread of minbars outside Ḥijāz corresponds to ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (r. 13-23/634-44) era in terms of the actualization of great conquest movements. In this period, large Masjids (al-Masjid al-Jamīʿ) for Friday prayer (ṣalāt al-jumʿa) were built or existing buildings converted into mosque in the conquered cities of Iraq, Dimashq, Iran and Egypt. According to the general opinion, which is included in both the source works and the contemporary studies, the second minbar established after the Prophet’s minbar is the one which was founded by ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ in al-Fusṭāṭ on the territory of Egypt. However, the account that ʿUmar addressed a speech to the public on the minbar of Basra after the conquest shows that the second minbar recorded in Islamic history may be in Iraq district.Construction of a single minbar in a city and a mosque was implemented as a principle during the period of Rightly Guided Caliphs, but it had had to be abandoned due to several reasons in some cases. One of them is the tribal fanaticism, which had existed in the Arab society since the Jāhiliyya (pre-Islamic) period. Another reason for establishment of more than one minbar is growth of cities, growing population and expanding settlement area over the time. With these motives, it was started to be built more than one Friday mosque in cities or the existing mosques where only five times prayer were performed was started to be converted into Friday mosque.The use of minbar in the political/administrative disagreements between muslim communities, in other words, the instrumentalization of minbar in domestic politics and political life, corresponds to the period of Muʿāwiya, the founder of the Umayyad Dynasty. After Muʿāwiya came to power and moved the capital from Madīna to Dimashq in 50/670, he attempted to take Prophet’s minbar at the Masjid of Madīna to Dimashq. While the previous caliphs tried to keep the meaning and the function of minbar that the Prophet had ascribed to, he opened a new door in order to use it as a basis for internal political activities. Therefore, if the caliph was indeed in such a desire, the purpose behind it should be to try to strengthen the legitimacy of his power. Because, when he came to power, the most important problems he encountered were a legitimacy problem. As a result of his other initiative, Muʿāwiya, who gave up his first ambition, succeeded in bringing in something new into the history of minbars. According to the historical acoounts, the first person who placed a minbar in the Kaʿba was Muʿāwiya. It is possible to explain his insistence on minbar and the importance of minbars to become widespread during the Umayyads, by the relationship between minbar and the government/state/caliphate. Accordingly, “the minbar represents the Prophet’s authority and the capital of the Islamic state. So, where the capital is, the minbar should be there”.Since the Umayyads era, minbars have played an active role in both government and political life. From this date on, minbar began to gain a symbolic/terminological character in terms of performing new political and administrative meanings. This symbolic meaning imposed on it as a concept, though weakened in the historical process from time to time, remained until recently. There was also an effective use of minbars as a tool of political propaganda in the movements of power and rebellion in different geographies and different histories of the Islamic world. In addition, reciprocal pledging made between Muslim leaders (caliphs) and his followers (bayʿa or mubāyaʿa) on minbars throughout history and considering khuṭbas (sermons) read in minbars as a symbol of power are relate to the symbolic/terminological meaning of minbar in policy and administration. The fact that the oath of loyalty to the caliphs was carried out on minbars and that the khuṭbas read on it considerd as a symbol of power throughout history were related to the symbolic and terminological meaning gained by this word in policy and administration.Here, one of the important points that we should emphasize in terms of Turkish-Islamic tradition is that Ḥanafiyya which started to become official/semi-official sect of the state accepted the sultan (president/authority) as a part of validity conditions of Friday prayer anymore. With this fatwa of the sectarian scholars who were influenced by the conjuncture, the control of the state authority on minbars gained a religious identity. Thus, although it started with the period of Umayyad, it is seen that minbars were now officially and legally started to be builded completely by the state since the ʿAbbāsid period due to entering into the literature of the sects. This application continued with the Seljuks (Saljūqs) and after that, minbars which to be built during the Ottoman period in the same way, even in the most remote villages and neighborhoods of the country, were subject to the supervision/permission of the state.One of the meanings gained by the minbar in terminology is about the science of Islamic geography. The medieval Islamic geographers do not use the word minbar haphazardly in their works. Informations given by müslim geofraphers about cities such as whether or not they have a minbar and the number of minbars, indicates the terminological understanding which is mentioned here. Accordingly, the minbar is considered one of the conditions required for a settlement to be remarked as a city and the settlements belong to large cities also hade been mentioned with this concept in geography writings over time. Again, the number of units connected to that cities is expressed by specifying the number of minbar. The fact that minbar entered into the terminology with this meaning is directly related to the role it played in political and administrative life of Islam and the symbolic meaning it gained in this field since the period of the Prophet.