Download or read book The Minaret written by Jonathan M. Bloom and published by Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bloom reveals that the Minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a visible symbol of Islam. Drawing on buildings, archaeological reports, medieval histories, geographies, and early Arabic poetry, he reinterprets the origin, development, and meanings of the minaret and provides a sweeping historical and geographical tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam.