Maqsurah

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Maqsurah (Arabic مقصورة) (literally “closed-off space”), an enclosure, a box or wooden screen near the Mihrab or the center of the qiblah wall, which was originally designed to shield a worshiping ruler from assassins.^[1] The imam officiating inside the maqsurah typically belonged to the same school of law to which the ruler belonged.^[2]

There also may have been some spiritual connotation similar to the chancel screen in churches. They were often wooden screens decorated with carvings or interlocking turned pieces of wood (mashrabiyya).^[3]

Historically, it was first innovated by Muawiya I, Umayyid caliph, in Umayyad Mosque. The Companions Mihrab belonged to the Maqsura of the Companions.^[4]

References

1. ^ Maqsurah an article in encyclopedia Britannica Online
2. ^ Gibbs, H.A.R. The Travels of Ibn Battuta (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1999) p127
3. ^ Dictionary of Islamic Architecture
4. ^ The Great Ummayad Mosque