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Bloom, Jonathan M. et al. The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. ISBN: 0-87099-854-4. $ 40.00
A minbar, best translated as pulpit, is essentially a series of steps from which the khatib, or preacher, addresses the congregation at the Friday noon prayer, and is an important item within any Jum'a or Cathedral Mosque. The minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque, crafted of three different kinds of wood and bone for their various coloring, was begun on the first of Muharram (New Year's Day) in the year A.H. 532 (A.D. Sept. 19, 1 137) in Cordoba, for the Almoravid sultan 'Ali ibn Yüsuf. The latter was the son of the Sanhäja Berber Yüsuf ibn Tùshufïn (1061-1 106), die founder of the Almoravid dynasty who had first visited Spain on the invitation of the Spanish Muslims to help vanquish their Christian enemies. He later returned to become their ruler on account of their factionalism. The extraordinary work of art, celebrated by this book, was probably transported in parts and finally assembled only once it reached the newly constructed Jum'a Mosque of Marrakesh for which it had been ordered. By 1 147, Marrakesh was seized by the Almohads, Masmfida Berbers, whose leader 'Abd al-Mu'min proudly transferred the minbar, along with other items from that mosque, to a...