2018-05-14 Mon

The 80 fils stamp depicts the Minatare of Samarra, which is originally the part of the beautiful great mosque of Samarra located in Iraq, on the banks of river Tigris. The mosque was built by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil. It had been the largest mosque in the world during the Abbasid Caliphate.

The mosque was spread over an area of 17 hectares, the building itself covered 38,000 square meters. A total of 80,000 muslims could worship there at the same time.

The Malwiya minaret, an impressive tower, at a height of 52 meters high and 33 meters wide with a spiral ramp, still recalls the past glory of the great mosque of Samarra.

The spiral minaret built alongside the mosque was an indicator of the wealth and power of the caliphate, as well as an indicator of the presence of Islam in the city.

The minaret was constructed in 848–852 of sandstone and is unique among other minarets because of its ascending spiral conical design. The spiral contains stairs reaching to the top. The word "malwiya" translates as "twisted" or "snail shell."

Image Source: Google Images