WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -minaret, (Arabic: “beacon”) in Islamic religious architecture, the tower from which the faithful are called to prayer five times each day by a muezzin, or crier. Such a tower is always connected with a mosque and has one or more balconies or open galleries.

Detailed explanation-2: -The English word “minaret” originates from the former, via the Turkish version (minare). The Arabic word manāra (plural: manārāt) originally meant a “lamp stand", a cognate of Hebrew menorah.

Detailed explanation-3: -A minaret is a type of tower usually located near a mosque. It’s used by a holy man called a muezzin to signal the call to prayer for the Islamic faith.

Detailed explanation-4: -The oldest minaret still surviving is that of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia. It was constructed in 836 AD and is considered as the prototype for all the square shaped minarets built in the Western Muslim World.

Detailed explanation-5: -Some existing mosques overseas mosques do the same. The splendid Grand National Assembly mosque in Ankara (no minaret) has, instead of a wall on its prayer or qibla side, a huge glass window that gives worshippers a view over a serene body of water.