ARCH 2303 - Exam 3 Vocabulary

Mihrab

niche in qibla wall which marks reinforces the direction of prayer, often decorated or architecturally elaborated in some way.

Minbar

pulpit in the form of a set of stairs, just to the right of the mihrab, from which the imam gives the sermon during Friday services.

Minaret

tower-like structure which provides an elevated platform where the muezzin, an official of the mosque, would call out to the faithful by singing selected verses from the Quran, to remind them of their obligation to pray.

Hypostyle Mosque

a mosque type dating to the Umayyad period and based upon the house of the Prophet Muhammad in which the prayer hall is characterized by a forest of columns in the manner of a hypostyle hall.

Musallah

prayer hall, the place where the faithful take up positions for prayer, often built in the form of a hypostyle hall with many closely spaced columns.

Muqarnas

honeycomb or stalactite vaulting made up of individual cells or small arches.

Sahn

or central courtyard which forms a place of gathering and where often fountains for ritual cleansing before prayer are located.

Qibla

the direction of Mecca.

Terracotta

Literally ‘baked earth’: clay moulded and kiln-fired to make a hard compact material used for bricks, roof-tiling, cladding and ornament, especially with motifs repeated by casting from a single matrix, but also hand-modelled figurative sculpture.

Barrel vault

The simplest form of vault, consisting of a continuous vault of semi-circular or pointed sections, unbroken in its length by cross-vaults.

Cushion capital

A Romanesque and Byzantine capital cut from a cube, with its lower parts rounded off to adapt it to a circular shaft; the remaining flat face of each side is generally a LUNETTE.

Latin cross

A cross with three short arms and a long arm; shaped like a cross with a long nave, north and south transepts and a chancel or chevet.

Baptistry

A room or building for Christian baptismal rites.

Pilaster

A shallow PIER or rectangular column projecting only slightly from a wall and, in classical architecture, conforming with one of the ORDERS.

Polychrome

The ancient Greek use of many colours in architecture, especially on the exterior, was ‘discovered’ in 1830 by HITTORF, to the dismay of Greek purists.

Cathedra

The bishop’s chair or throne in his cathedral church, originally placed behind the high altar in the centre of the curved wall of the APSE.

Cathedral

Bishop’s church, from CATHEDRA.

Baray

a large man-made reservoir.

Prasat

a Hindu sanctuary defined by a square cella which housed a statue of a divinity. The cella was accessed by a single door to the east. The sanctuary's tower rises in five receding levels, the topmost taking the form of a lotus blossom.

Quincunx

five points arranged in a cross; the basis for the arrangement of sanctuaries in Hindu temples at Angkor.

Wat

a Khmer temple.

Wabi-Sabi

a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that embraces simple rustic forms, age, and imperfections. Wabi connotes simplicity, simplified forms, and rusticity. Sabi refers to an appreciation for the patina of age and imperfection.

Kamadhatu

the sphere of desire.

Rupadhatu

the sphere of forms.

Arupadhatu

the sphere of formlessness.

Stupa

The earliest Indian Buddhist (and Jain) religious monument, in origin a hemispherical funerary mound. The first were built to enshrine the cremated remains of Buddha and his disciples; later they commemorated the teaching of Buddha (or of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism) though enshrining the relics of other teachers. Early stupas, such as those at Sanchi of C3-1 BC, consist of hemispheres of earth and rubble raised on low cylindrical bases and faced with bricks or stone. Miniature stone railings mark the square platform at the summit, with a central stone mast supporting a finial with one or more umbrella-like tiers, called a chattra. A relic casket is embedded below. A paved pathway for worshippers to perform the rite of pradakshina by circumambulation surrounded the stupa, usually with a stone railing and four gateways, often bearing elaborate sculptural decorations. The stupa itself is undecorated, but it is imbued with complex cosmological and/or Buddhist symbolism.

Anda

a hemispherical dome (or egg) erected on the platform and symbolizing the universe; the mound of a stupa.

Pradakshina path

a raised path for procession around the Anda.

Vedika

the stone railing around the path of the pradakshina path symbolizing the wooden fences of the ancient Aryans.

Chattra

umbrella-like form often multi-tiered, was placed on top of the mast; the ancient Indian emblem of royalty.

Harmika

a cubic receptacle at the top of the dome, originally holding a relic of the Buddha.

Torana gates

provide access to the sacred path at the cardinal points, modeled on wooden prototypes and covered with relics depicting scenes in the life of the Buddha and symbols of his doctrine.