Prayer niche

Mihrab (Arabic: ‎ miḥrāb, pl. محاريب maḥārīb) is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla; that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the "qibla wall".

Mihrab should not be confused with the minbar, which is the raised platform from which an Imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation. The mihrab is located to the left of the minbar.

The word is possibly derived from the verb ḥariba ("to fight", from the root Ḥ-R-B), so miḥrāb would mean "battlefield" or "place of fight (with Satan)". Some scholars have suggested that the word is from the Ethiopian mekʷerab, or from the Hebrew ḥorḇôt.

The word mihrab originally had a non-religious meaning and simply denoted a special room in a house; a throne room in a palace, for example. The Fath al-Bari (p. 458), on the authority of others, suggests the mihrab is "the most honorable location of kings" and "the master of locations, the front and the most honorable." The Mosques in Islam (p. 13), in addition to Arabic sources, cites Theodor Nöldeke and others as having considered a mihrab to have originally signified a throne room.

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