thumb|[[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman-era minbar of the Molla Çelebi Mosque in Istanbul.]]A minbar (; sometimes romanized as mimber) is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, khutbah). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Husayniyya, where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation.
Etymology
The word is a derivative of the Arabic root n-b-r ("to raise, elevate"); the Arabic plural is manābir ().
While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits, they have a function and position more similar to that of a church lectern, being used instead by the imam for a wide range of readings and prayers. The minbar is located to the right of the mihrab, a niche in the far wall of the mosque that symbolizes the direction of prayer (i.e. towards Mecca). It is usually shaped like a small tower with a seat or kiosk-like structure at its top and a staircase leading up to it. The bottom of the staircase often has a doorway or portal. In contrast to many Christian pulpits, the steps up to the minbar are usually in a straight line on the same axis as the seat.
Origins
thumb|upright=1.5|The minbar of the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan in Kairouan, Tunisia, the oldest minbar in existence, still in its original location in the prayer hall of the mosque. (Photograph from the 19th century, before a modern protective glass barrier was installed)]]
The first recorded minbar in the Islamic world was Muhammad's minbar in Medina, created in 629 CE It consisted simply of two steps and a seat, resembling a throne. As a result, later Muslim rulers sometimes invested considerable expense in commissioning richly decorated minbars for the main mosques of their major cities.
The oldest Islamic pulpit in the world to be preserved up to the present day is the minbar of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Kairouan, Tunisia. The oldest surviving example is the Minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, commissioned in 1091 under the Fatimids, originally for a shrine in Ascalon. It features decoration in geometric strapwork motifs and Arabic inscriptions. Among the most famous minbars was the Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque (also known as the Minbar of Saladin) in Jerusalem, commissioned in 1168-69 by Nur ad-Din and signed by four different craftsmen. This minbar takes the design of decorative geometric patterns slightly further by using curved lines instead of the usual straight lines to form its polygons.
Maghreb
In the Maghreb, a number of wooden minbars have been preserved from the 10th to 15th centuries. Both are wooden structures, with the former's flanks decorated by rectangular panels with beveled motifs and the latter's flanks decorated by octagonal geometric motifs. The minbar in Na'in is also one of the few Iranian minbars topped by a canopy. It shares the overall form of the minbar in Na'in A marble minbar was also constructed for the earlier Mosque of Ulmas al-Hajib (1329–1330). Only fragments of it have been preserved (kept at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo), but they attest to some of the highest-quality stonework from the Mamluk period. The stone minbar of the Mosque of Sultan Hasan in Cairo (circa 1360) is relatively plain, though it has unusually ornate bronze doors.
Ottoman period
Ottoman minbars are distinguished in part by the shape of their canopy, where the traditional small dome is replaced with a tall, polygonal cone similar to the caps of Ottoman minarets.