Editing Mosque (section)

===Minarets===
{{Main|Minaret}}
[[File:Tower of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.JPG|thumb|left|upright|One of the oldest standing minarets in the world, at the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia]]

A common feature in mosques is the minaret, the tall, slender tower that usually is situated at one of the corners of the mosque structure. The top of the minaret is always the highest point in mosques that have one, and often the highest point in the immediate area. [[File:ASC Leiden - van Achterberg Collection - 5 - 022 - Deux minarets de boue de la Grande Mosquée - Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 19-26 août 2001.tif|thumb|Two minarets made of clay with twenty layers of horizontal protruding wooden sticks from the [[Grand Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso|Great Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso]] in Burkina Faso]]The origin of the minaret and its initial functions are not clearly known and have long been a topic of scholarly discussion.{{Sfn|Hillenbrand|1994|pp=129–137}}{{sfn|Bloom|2013|p=|loc=Chapter 1: The History of Scholarship and the Nature of the Problem}} The earliest mosques lacked minarets, and the call to prayer was often performed from smaller structures or elevated platforms.{{sfn|Bloom|2013|pp=29-46}}<ref name="Creswell 12">{{cite journal |last1=Creswell |first1=K. A. C. |author-link1=K. A. C. Creswell |date=March 1926 |title=The Evolution of the Minaret, with Special Reference to Egypt-I |journal=[[The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs]] |volume=48 |issue=276 |pages=134–140 |jstor=862832}}</ref>{{Sfn|Hillenbrand|1994|pp=136–137}} The early Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the doorway or the roof of the house of [[Muhammad]], which doubled as a place for prayer.{{sfn|Bloom|2013|pp=23–30, 46}} The first confirmed minarets in the form of towers date from the early 9th century under Abbasid rule and they did not become a standard feature of mosques until the 11th century.{{sfn|Bloom|2013|pp=xvii, 64, 72}}{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|pp=187–188}} These first minaret towers were placed in the middle of the wall opposite the qibla wall.{{sfn|Bloom|2013|pp=73–82}} Among them, the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, dating from 836, is well-preserved and is one of the oldest surviving minarets in the world today.<ref name=":2432">{{harvnb|Bloom|Blair|2009|loc=''Minaret''}}</ref>{{Sfn|Petersen|1996|pp=187-188}}{{sfn|Bloom|2013|pp=73-75}}

Before the five required daily prayers, a ''[[Mu'adhin|Mu'adhdhin]]'' ({{langx|ar|مُـؤَذِّن|links=no}}) calls the worshippers to prayer from the minaret. In many countries like Singapore where Muslims are not the majority, mosques are prohibited from loudly broadcasting the ''[[Adhan|Adhān]]'' ({{langx|ar|أَذَان|links=no}}, Call to Prayer), although it is supposed to be said loudly to the surrounding community. The ''adhan'' is required before every prayer. Nearly every mosque assigns a ''muezzin'' for each prayer to say the ''adhan'' as it is a recommended practice or ''[[Sunnah]]'' ({{langx|ar|سُـنَّـة}}) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. At mosques that do not have minarets, the ''adhan'' is called instead from inside the mosque or somewhere else on the ground.<ref name="teach-islam" /> The ''[[Iqama|Iqâmah]]'' ({{langx|ar|إِقَـامَـة|links=no}}), which is similar to the ''adhan'' and proclaimed right before the commencement of prayers, is usually not proclaimed from the minaret even if a mosque has one.