Madrasa in the context of "Timurid art"

Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western Africa and Europe to eastern Asia. Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural styles across all these regions, but over time different regions developed their own styles according to local materials and techniques, local dynasties and patrons, different regional centers of artistic production, and sometimes different religious affiliations.

Early Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman, Byzantine, Iranian, and Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands which the early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries. Later it developed distinct characteristics in the form of buildings and in the decoration of surfaces with Islamic calligraphy, arabesques, and geometric motifs. New architectural elements like minarets, muqarnas, and multifoil arches were invented. Common or important types of buildings in Islamic architecture include mosques, madrasas, tombs, palaces, hammams (public baths), Sufi hospices (e.g. khanqahs or zawiyas), fountains and sabils, commercial buildings (e.g. caravanserais and bazaars), and military fortifications.

Ahmed Şefik Midhat Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: احمد شفيق مدحت پاشا, romanized: Aḥmed Şefīḳ Midḥat Pāşā; 1822 – 26 April 1883) was an Ottoman politician, reformist, and statesman. He was the author of the Constitution of the Ottoman Empire.

Midhat was born in Istanbul and educated from a private medrese. In July 1872, he was appointed grand vizier by Abdulaziz (r. 1861–1876), though was removed in August. During the First Constitutional Era, in 1876, he co-founded the Ottoman Parliament. Midhat was noted as a kingmaker and leading Ottoman democrat. He was part of a governing elite which recognized the crisis the Empire was in and considered reform to be a dire need. Midhat was reportedly killed in al-Ta'if.

Sheikh Said (Kirmanjki: Şêx Seîd; c. 1865 – 29 June 1925) was a Zaza Kurd religious leader, one of the leading sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order and the head of the Sheikh Said rebellion.

He was born around 1865 in Hınıs or Palu, into an influential family of the Naqshbandi order, where his grandfather was an influential sheikh. Sheikh Said studied religious sciences at the madrasa led by his father Sheikh Mahmud Fevzi as well from several Islamic scholars in the region. Later he was involved in the local tekke set up by his grandfather Sheikh Ali. His grandfather was a respected leader of the religious community and his grave was visited by thousands of pilgrims. He became the head of the religious community after his father Sheikh Mahmud died. In 1907 he toured the neighboring provinces in the east and he established contacts with officers from the Hamidiye cavalry.

The Blue Mosque, officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultanahmet Camii), is an Ottoman-era historical imperial mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was constructed between 1609 and 1617 during the rule of Ahmed I. It attracts a large number of tourists and is one of the most iconic and popular monuments of Ottoman architecture.

The mosque has a classical Ottoman layout with a central dome surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. It is fronted by a large courtyard and flanked by six minarets. On the inside, it is decorated with thousands of Iznik tiles and painted floral motifs in predominantly blue colours, which give the mosque its popular name. The mosque's külliye (religious complex) includes Ahmed's tomb, a madrasa, and several other buildings in various states of preservation.

Muhammad Umar Mujahid (1959 – 23 April 2013), commonly known as Mullah Omar or Muhammad Omar, was an Afghan militant leader who served as the first supreme leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He founded the Taliban in 1994 and served as its first supreme leader until his death in 2013. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing its First Islamic Emirate. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks, the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan, prompting Omar to go into hiding; he successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013 from tuberculosis.

Born into a religious family in Kandahar, Omar was educated at local madrasas in Afghanistan. After Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979, he joined the Afghan mujahideen to fight in the Soviet–Afghan War and he was trained by Amir Sultan Tarar. He served as an important rebel commander during several skirmishes, losing his right eye in an explosion. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country in 1989 and Afghanistan's Soviet-backed Democratic Republic was toppled in 1992, triggering the Second Afghan Civil War. While initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies, Omar became increasingly discontent with what he perceived as fasād in the country, ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War.

A beth midrash (Hebrew: בית מדרש, "house of learning"; pl.: batei midrash), also beis medrash, bais midrash, or beit midrash, is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall". It is distinct from a synagogue (beth knesseth), although the two are often coextensive. In Yiddish the beth midrash may be referred to as a zal, i.e. "hall". Beis midrash can also refer to a yeshiva gedolah, the undergraduate-level program in Orthodoxy, for boys over 12th grade.

The Arabic term "madrasah" is derived from the same Semitic root, and refers to any type of educational institution. The root דרש means "to seek [knowledge]" and is then generalized to mean "expound".

Al-Aqsa (/æl ˈæksə/; Arabic: الأَقْصَى, romanized: Al-Aqṣā) or al-Masjid al-Aqṣā (Arabic: المسجد الأقصى) is the compound of Islamic religious buildings that sit atop the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif, in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock, many mosques and prayer halls, madrasas, zawiyas, khalwas and other domes and religious structures, as well as the four encircling minarets. It is considered the third holiest site in Islam. The compound's main congregational mosque or prayer hall is variously known as Al-Aqsa Mosque, Qibli Mosque or al-Jāmiʿ al-Aqṣā, while in some sources it is also known as al-Masjid al-Aqṣā; the wider compound is sometimes known as Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in order to avoid confusion.

During the rule of the Rashidun caliph Umar (r. 634–644) or the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), a small prayer house on the compound was erected near the mosque's site. The present-day mosque, located on the south wall of the compound, was originally built by the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) or his successor al-Walid I (r. 705–715) (or both) as a congregational mosque on the same axis as the Dome of the Rock, a commemorative Islamic monument. After being destroyed in an earthquake in 746, the mosque was rebuilt in 758 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775). It was further expanded upon in 780 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), after which it consisted of fifteen aisles and a central dome. However, it was again destroyed during the 1033 Jordan Rift Valley earthquake. The mosque was rebuilt by the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir (r. 1021–1036), who reduced it to seven aisles but adorned its interior with an elaborate central archway covered in vegetal mosaics; the current structure preserves the 11th-century outline.

Arabic Afrikaans (Afrikaans: Arabies Afrikaans, Arabic Afrikaans: عربس افركانس) or Lisan-e-Afrikaans (Arabic Afrikaans: لسانِ افرکانس) is a form of Afrikaans written in the Perso-Arabic script. It began in the 1830s in the madrasa in Cape Town, South Africa. Beside a 16th-century manuscript in the German language written with Arabic script, it is the only Germanic language known to have been written in the Perso-Arabic script. Arabic Afrikaans is not a mixed language.