| adhan | daily call from a mosque to the five obligatory prayers |
| bismillah | „In the name of Allah...“; the first verse of the Quran |
| dar al-imara | governor‘s palace |
| dikka | raised platform from which the respondents (qadi) re peat the ritual postures of the Iman and speak the responses so that the stages of prayer may be transmitted to larger congregations |
| ghazi | leader; a person who has taken part in a ghazwa, a battle for the cause of Allah in which the Prophet Muhammad himself took part |
| hadith | literally: communication or narration; in the Islamic context it has come to denote the record of what Mohammed the Prophet said, did, or tacitly approved |
| hajj | pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam, a duty one must perform during one‘s life- time if one has the financial resources for it |
| haram | consecrated space in a mosque where rituals and prayer take place; it is essentially the covered prayer hall but can also include an entire sacred area |
| imaret | public kitchen to feed the needy; a complex of religious and commercial institutions in Otto man cities, consisting of religious and charitable institutions such as a mosque, mad rasah, hospice and hospital on the one hand and mercantile establishments such as covered bazaars and market places on the other, the latter having been designed to provide for the expenses of the former |
| iwan | aulted architectural space whose facade is mostly open, usually towards a courtyard |
| jihad | the Lesser Jihad is the expectation that Muslims will defend their homeland and Islam from attack; the Greater Jihad is the inner battle which Muslims continually fight within themselves to submit to Allah and to fulfill his expectations |
| khutbah | address by the Imam during Friday prayers |
| kursi | lectern for the Quran |
| külliye | in the tradition of Ottoman architecture, a complex of buildings made up of schools, hospitals and the like, joined to a mosque |
| madhana | place from which the call to prayer is made |
| madrasa | literally: place of learning; Islamic school or university for theology and law |
| manara | minaret or lighthouse; towers that were mainly used as a place to light fires so that people would know when to pray, break their fast, etc (from 'nar,' meaning fire) |
| maqsura | enclosure around the most sacred area of the mosque (the minbar and mihrab), meant to protect the sovereign attending prayers |
| masjid (Turkish: mescit) | mosque; derived from the word 'sadj,' the place where one prostrates oneself |
| masjid-i jami | large communal mosque |
| masjid-i jumah | on Friday, Muslims are expected to gather in community prayer at noon; this is usually done in a large, centrally located mosque called a "Friday Mosque" |
| maydan | large, open space or plaza in the center of a city, used for ceremonial purposes |
| mihrab | a niche in the qibla wall of the main prayer hall that shows the direction of Mecca |
| minaret | “tower” from which the muezzin calls to prayer |
| minbar | steps to the right of the mihrab; the Imam stands on the second highest step to deliver the Khutbah (address) on the day of the Jumah (Friday) |
| muqarnas | ornamental stalactites adorning the cupolas or corbels of a building |
| namaz (salaat) | prayer; one of the five pillars of Islam |
| qadi | Islamic judge; his responsibility is limited to matters of religion |
| qibla | wall of the mosque oriented perpendicularly to the direction of Mecca |
| riwag | arcade around a central courtyard (sahn), providing shade from the sun |
| sahn | open, interior courtyard of the mosque |
| sharia | Islamic law, based upon the Quran and tradition |
| shadirwan | pool or fountain for ritual ablutions before prayer |
| shahadah | the Muslim declaration of faith:"There is no God but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God" |
| sunna | paradigm of the behavior of the perfect Muslim, based on the example set by Mohammed; it includes aspects of ethics and morality, purity, prayer and worship, as well as matters of social and familial relations; it is derived from the hadith, the stories and sayings about Mohammed |
| sura | a chapter of the Quran |
| ulama | community of learned men; islamic theologists and legal experts, trained in the interpretation of the Sharia and Quran |
| umma | the entire community of all Muslims |
| waqf | religious endowment; a charitable trust in the name of Allah |
| zakat | almsgiving, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, an obligatory "poor tax" given directly to the poor or to a distribution official and used for hospitals, schools, helping indigent debtors and freeing slaves, as well as helping the poor |
| ziyada | outer courtyard surrounding a mosque, separating it from its urban surroundings |
