Cream

The title of this article is ambiguous. For further meanings see Sahn (disambiguation)

Inner courtyard of the main mosque of Qairawān , Tunisia

Courtyard and facade of the prayer room of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Thatta , Pakistan

Cream ( Arabic صحن, DMG ṣaḥn ) describes a walled inner courtyard in Islamic architecture . According to the traditional Islamic architectural style, almost every courtyard mosque has a sahn , which is surrounded on all sides by arcades ( riwaqs ) . In Persian architecture there is often a symmetrical water basin ( houz ) within the sahn , on which ritual ablutions ( wudū ' ) are performed. Some other sahns also have drinking fountains.

history

A prayer place open to the side and at the top was the archetype of a mosque in the early days of Islam, which were largely nomadic ; only when the weather was bad did you avoid a building if possible. This changed with the first urban mosques ( Umayyad Mosque of Damascus or Mezquita of Córdoba ). From then on, the mosque courtyard, which was mostly huge in terms of area, and the comparatively small surrounding mosque building formed an almost inseparable unit.

The cream of a mosque is not religiously prescribed, so many new mosques - mainly in rainy regions - no longer have such a courtyard area. There are also older mosques without a walled yard area; however, they are rather rare (e.g. the Khirki Mosque in Delhi (India) or the "Sixty-Dome Mosque" near Bagerhat (Bangladesh)).

See also

• Eidgah

Web links

• Bernhard Peter: Kalon Mosque in Bukhara. (Photos of the typical elements of the cream of the Kalon mosque in Bukhara )
• Bernhard Peter: The Kalon Mosque in Bukhara. (Building description and floor plan)