architecture: The Islamic World 79 the urban planning was based on an enormous number of gardens, which shaped the whole city Mosques, Colleges, and Mausoleums The religious architecture in Islamic countries includes mosques (Friday mosques, royal mosques, local mosques, and musalas), religious schools (madrasas), and memorial shrines The term mosque, or masjid, literally means “a place of prostration.” Mosques functioned not only as sacred religious buildings for five mandatory daily prayers but also as public places for social gatherings, ceremonies, charity events, and even business meetings Friday mosques of different scales (which varied from neighborhoods to a whole city) were places for Friday prayers, while musalas were natural clearings or walled-in enclosures to hold two feast prayers (to celebrate fulfilling the Ramadan fast and the Mecca pilgrimage) The earliest mosque, erected by the order of the Prophet, was a walled-in square, including a courtyard separating a back portico from a roofed prayer hall This plan, which was called hypostyle, was used in Arabic countries and was later modified in other regions For example, in Iran and central Asia the four-iwan plan was used as a prototype The roofing system was more a local decision In Anatolia a central domed space flanked by smaller spaces flourished The mosques in Indonesia followed regional patterns with pyramidal roofs In China mosques with traditional hip roofings were designed The prayer hall was required to face qibla (the direction of Mecca) Thus, architects oriented spaces and whole plans in mosques in certain directions In most mosques pools were located in the center of the courtyard in order to accommodate the cleaning ritual before the beginning of the prayer The architecture of the madrasa followed the same plan as for mosques In most cases, four-iwan plans were used, with several rooms surrounding a central courtyard With the advancement of science, astronomy, and philosophy and the emergence of Persian scientists, such as Omar Khayyam (ca 1034–ca 1131), Ibn Sina (980–1037), and Razi (ca 865–between 932 and 935), madrasas played a vital role in the medieval Islamic world The first madrasas were probably built in the ninth century in the eastern regions of Iran The construction of madrasas was in most cases the result of political administrative decisions to expand knowledge and sometimes to take over other religious sects or political movements The madrasas were sometimes iwan buildings attached to mosques of the houses of their founders During the rule of the Seljuks in Persia and the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria several madrasas were built Although erecting mausoleums was not encouraged in Islamic regulations, Abbasid caliphs began reviving this tra- dition, which had roots in pre-Islamic architecture in Persia, Anatolia, and Egypt The earliest-surviving mausoleum, Qubbat al-Sulaibiya, erected in Samarra in the ninth century, was an octagonal monumental mausoleum and resembled Roman mausoleums This trend was continued later by nomad Turks, such as the Seljuks and the Ghaznavids, who erected towers on tombs of kings or members of the royal families Palaces and Citadels Administrative buildings in the Islamic world can be divided into two categories: palaces and military fortifications The first palaces in the Islamic world were built in the Umayyad Period, when caliphs rejected the simple lifestyle of the Prophet and his successors The architecture of Umayyad palaces located at Syria, Jordan, and Palestine is related to Roman villas and Sassanid palaces erected in pre-Islamic ages in the same region, when the construction of palaces and villas was the result of the kings’ and nobles’ desire to show their power After the Umayyads and the Abbasids, nomad Turks, who gained power, were more interested in constructing pavilions that were similar to their tents, such as the Ghaznavid palaces in central Asia The Ilkhanids’ most important palace was in Takht-i-Suleyman, which was originally a Sassanid palace and temple After the 15th century the Timurids, the Ottomans, and the Safavids erected several palaces in central Asia, Iran, and Turkey Besides erecting palaces and stabilizing the frontiers of the Muslim world, Muslim leaders established a formalized system of defense The result was the creation of several fortifications in North Africa, Spain, Anatolia, and central Asia At the same time, the citadel, which was a fortified defensive unit, was occupied by the king or the lord In the Islamic world these fortresses, which were based on Near Eastern architecture, especially in Assyria, varied in size and importance With baths, reception halls, walls, towers, and probably rest areas, some citadels were initially located far from cities to accommodate alien soldiery Gardens Gardens occupied a significant place in the architecture of Islamic countries They were developed in two different forms; the first form was an open planted garden with a pavilion, while the second form was an inner courtyard enclosed within a building The so-called Islamic garden was a fourfold garden that originated with Cyrus the Great’s (ca 585–ca 529 b.c.e.) garden at Pasargadae After the rise of Islam, Abbasid caliphs, whose palaces (in present-day Iraq) were in areas close to the Sassanid capital (Ctesiphon), continued the Mesopotamian and Persian tradition of making gardens for pleasure and hunting Muslims, for whom pleasure gardens were traces of paradise on earth, attempted to