A question of facing

The Mihrab & Maksura
The Mihrab traditionally has two functions in Islamic worship, first it indicates the direction of Mecca (therefore prayer) and it amplifies the words of the Imam, the prayer leader. Initially Al-Andalus was part of the Caliphate of Damascus, so it is not surprising to find the Cordoba Mosque Mihrab facing south in the same way as the Damascus mosque and not south east in the direction of Mecca. Furthermore, it is an octagonal room rather than the conventional niche.
The bay immediately in front of the mihrab and the bays to each side form the maksura, the area where the caliphs and courtiers would have prayed.
Al-Hakim II’s ex­tension in the 960s was the portal of the mihrab – a crescent arch with a rectangular surround known as an alfiz. For the portal’s decora­tion, Al-Hakim asked the emperor of Byz­antium, Nicephoras II Phocas, to send him a mosaicist capable of imitating the superb mosaics of the Great Mosque of Damas­cus, one of the great 8th-century Syrian Omayyad buildings. The Christian emperor sent the Muslim caliph not only a mosai­cist but also a gift of 1600kg of gold mosaic cubes. Shaped into flower motifs and in­scriptions from the Quran, this gold is what gives the mihrab portal its magical glitter.
Inside the mihrab, a single block of white marble sculpted into the shape of a scallop shell, a symbol of the Quran, forms the dome that amplified the voice of the imam for all to hear.Read more