page_title: Mosque
section_title: Arab plan
hierarchical_section_title: Mosque / Architecture / Arab plan
caption_attribution_description: Català: Mesquita d’al-Azhar. El Caire. Egipte English: Al-Azhar Mosque. Cairo. Egypt
context_page_description: A mosque is a place where Peoples worship. The word mosque comes from the Arabic word masjid. A larger, 'collective', mosque is called a masjid jāmi. Larger mosques offer more services to their community.
  For many Muslim people, a mosque is more than a place of worship. Muslims worship, study and discuss Islam, and do many other things in a mosque and its compounds. In the United Kingdom, many mosques are used as community centres. They are also used to teach about Islam. Religious festivals and gatherings are held in mosques. Weddings are one example. Mosques have rules to control what people do inside. One of these is that it is disrespectful to disturb another person who is worshipping.
  Many mosques are known for their Islamic architecture. The earliest mosques, opened in 7th century were open-air spaces. They are the Quba Mosque and Masjid al-Nabawi. Later Mosques were buildings that were specially designed. Nowadays, mosques are in every continent, except Antarctica.
context_section_description: Many early mosques have a square or rectangular plan. They also have a prayer hall and an enclosed courtyard. This is known as Arab-plan. The first mosques of this type were built during the Umayyad Dynasty.
  The flat roof of the prayer hall was supported by columns. Many rows of columns were needed to support such roofs; this is called "hypostyle architecture". One of the most famous hypostyle mosques is the Mezquita de Córdoba in Spain. It is supported by over 850 columns.
  In the warm Mediterranean and Middle Eastern climates, the courtyard served to hold the large number of worshippers during Friday prayers. Often, hypostyle mosques have outer arcades. They allow the visitors to enjoy the shade. Arab-plan mosques were built mostly during the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The Arab plan was very simple, which did not allow for much further development. This caused that style of mosque to fall out of favour.
caption: Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt has a hypostyle hall
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