TEHRAN - A restoration project has been commenced on a minbar (pulpit) of a mosque in Semnan province, which dates back to the Ilkhanid era (1256–1353).

The wooden pulpit is a piece of furniture at the Imam Hussein Mosque that stands tall at Jovin village of Sorkheh county, Sorkheh tourism chief Bahman Akhlaqi announced on Tuesday.

A minbar is where the imam stands to deliver sermons in a mosque or in the Hussainia where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation.

“The pulpit has no steps due to its small size, and the type of connections in this pulpit is of the tongue-and-groove type… and despite the simplicity of construction, it has significant symmetry, order, beauty, and visual balance,” Semnan province’s tourism department quoted Akhlaqi as saying on Tuesday.

In the middle of the minbar the date of its construction is inscribed, showing the year 727 AH, and in its beneath the name of the designer is engraved, the official added.

According to Britannica, during the first century of Islam, provincial governors also came to use the minbar, from which they made speeches and heard petitions, primarily in their capacity as rulers. When the khutbah lost its informative, political, and discursive character and became a purely religious sermon during the reign of the Abbasid caliphs, the minbar also became a religious object. It became more permanent in nature, the number of steps increased, and it was commonly executed in stone or brick.

AFM/MG