Islamic Religious Sites: Explore Mosques, Madrasas and Mausoleums
Explore more than 600 Islamic religious sites, including courtyard mosques, domed prayer halls, madrasas, mausoleums and residential Sufi foundations. Examples extend from North Africa and the Middle East to Anatolia and Central Asia. Their surviving buildings bring prayer, teaching, burial and charitable services together in different arrangements, from a single hall to a complex of courts and accommodation.
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Afyonkarahisar Grand Mosque is a thirteenth-century mosque associated with the Sahib Ataoğulları principality. Its wooden roof, rows of columns,…
Built in 1228–1229 under the Mengujekid dynasty, Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital combines a Friday mosque, a medical institution, and richly carved…
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha I Mosque is a sixteenth-century Ottoman mosque in Istanbul, designed by Mimar Sinan and completed in 1571–72 as part of a…
Hagia Sophia in Trabzon is a thirteenth-century church of the Empire of Trebizond, later converted into a mosque and museum. Its cross-domed…
Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo is an active Shia mosque and mausoleum associated with Husayn ibn Ali. Founded by the Fatimids in the twelfth century, it…
Sheikh Abdul Qader al-Jilani Mosque is a major Sunni religious complex in Baghdad, combining a mosque, mausoleum, madrasa, shrine, and library…
Founded by Yusuf I in 1349, the Madrasah of Granada was a major center of Islamic learning in al-Andalus. Its surviving oratory and later…
Saint Sophia Cathedral in North Nicosia developed from a thirteenth-century Latin Christian cathedral into Cyprus’s principal mosque, retaining major…
Built in 1374–1375 under the Aydinid emirate, İsa Bey Mosque is an important surviving example of pre-Ottoman religious architecture at historic…
Bibi-Heybat Mosque in Baku grew around the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum, became a major Shiite pilgrimage center, was demolished under Soviet rule, and was…
Chor Minor, founded in 1805–1806 and completed in 1807, is the surviving gatehouse and mosque of a larger madrasa complex in Bukhara, Uzbekistan,…
Erzurum Mosque, also known as Erzurum Grand Mosque, is a major 12th-century Saltuklu monument whose history reflects the development of Turkish rule…
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Courtyard mosques and domed prayer halls
The Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq preserves the brick perimeter and spiral minaret of a vast ninth-century Abbasid foundation. An external ramp winds around the minaret, giving the tower its distinctive form. Within the enclosure, the roofed prayer hall and surrounding arcades have largely disappeared, but the surviving walls establish the extent of the mosque and its courtyard.
At the Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, Turkey, a large central dome covers the main part of the prayer hall, with smaller domes above the side spaces. An arcaded courtyard precedes the building. Four minarets rise around it, differing in their ornament and number of balconies. This fifteenth-century Ottoman mosque preserves a more concentrated interior than the broad, repeated aisles of the earlier Samarra plan.
Madrasas, student rooms and teaching courtyards
The Ben Youssef Madrasa in Marrakesh, Morocco, has a decorated central courtyard with a shallow pool and a prayer hall at the far end. Behind the principal galleries, small courtyards admit light to rows of student rooms on two levels. Those residential areas form a large part of the building, beyond its better-known marble, carved plaster and cedar decoration. The standing complex chiefly belongs to a sixteenth-century Saadian rebuilding.
The Ulugh Beg Madrasa in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, was founded in 1417. Its tall entrance portal leads through a covered passage into a courtyard lined with rooms. A mosque and a domed classroom occupy opposite sides near the entrance, making their different functions apparent in the plan. Glazed brick and tilework decorate the façade and courtyard, with original areas surviving alongside later repairs and replacement facing.
Mausoleums and endowed religious complexes
At Gur-e Amir in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a tall fluted dome rises above an octagonal mausoleum. Blue glazed surfaces cover the exterior, while the chamber below contains painted and gilded decoration above stone wall panels. Memorial stones in the main chamber mark burials placed in the crypt beneath it. The surrounding madrasa and Sufi building survive chiefly as excavated remains, leaving the mausoleum as the principal standing structure.
The Sultan Qaytbay Complex in Cairo, Egypt, places a royal tomb beside a mosque and other endowed facilities. A public water dispensary occupied the ground floor near the entrance, with a school above it. The minaret, carved entrance and domed mausoleum rise together above the surrounding cemetery. The arrangement joins commemoration of the patron with prayer, education and the supply of water.
Khanqahs and residential Sufi foundations
The Mosque and Khanqah of Faraj ibn Barquq, also in Cairo, was designed around a broad courtyard with accommodation for Sufi residents. The prayer hall occupies one side, with large domed mausoleums at its corners. Residential ranges, entrances and water-and-school facilities complete a nearly symmetrical arrangement.
The complex was built in the early fifteenth century on an open site in the Northern Cemetery. Its generous plan allowed the living quarters, prayer spaces and tombs to be grouped within one enclosure. Later repairs altered parts of the minarets and other details, while the main organisation of the foundation remains readable.
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