Education in Islam:  

The Role of the Mosque

by

S. Zaimeche

The mosque has played a major role in the spread of education across the Muslim world. The association of the mosque with education has remained one of its main characteristics throughout history, as schools became an indispensable appendage to the mosque.

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A Mosque of Arab Origin in Singapore: History, Functions and Networks

by

Mona Abaza

This paper attempts to draw attention to a mosque of Arab origin in Singapore, the Ba'alawi mosque. It outlines the physical and social setting of the mosque to reveal the networks with the Middle East and the cosmopolitanism of its Imam. This paper will also briefly highlight the history of the Arabs and this mosque. It will moreover focus on the everyday activities of the mosque and examine the hawl (the commemoration of the death of the father of the Imam).

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Mosque Architecture Past and Present

by

Negar Hakim

The mosque is a symbol of Islam and the most important building type in the Islamic world, which today encompasses 40 countries and a fifth of the world's population. Of all the Abrahamic religions, it is Islam that is currently expanding most rapidly. So what should a building look like whose name when translated means a "place of prostration"? The task of designing an architectural form for the worship of a god that is invisible and prohibited from depiction has never been easy.

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Reconstruction of the Earliest Mosque in Malaysia using  

Virtual Reality Technique

by

Harlina Md Sharif and Hazman Hazumi     

It is the aim of this research to establish the nature of those early settlements and that will hopefully provide us with some clues on how Islam as a great religion was integrated into the cultural and traditional fabric of the early pagan Malays. The information gathering process on the probable existence of the earliest mosque has highlighted related issues regarding conservation and heritage management in Malaysia. These findings have led us to the definition (or re-definition) of what is known as "Islamic Architecture" whether it is influenced by culture, if it carries a certain language, forms or function.

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Bringing the Mosque Home

and Talking Politics:

Women, Domestic Space, and the State in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan)

by

Svetlana Peshkova

In this article I argue that domestic space has to be theorized as an important center of religious practice and socio-political activism. Devout Muslim women in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan) use domestic space as an important sacred place for religious observance and socialization equal to the mosques. This sacred place has a special meaning for devout Muslims as it carries a promise of personal and social change.

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