Monar - Minaret
The Iranian minaret differs from all others. It almost certainly stems from a very old pre-Islamic culture
and was adapted for use under the new religion. Like all cultures the ancient Iranians attached an
importance both the vertical and horizontal alignment of space. Thus in its earliest manifestation the
minaret was a form of delimiting space, a kind of totem, known as a mil from which we derive
the English word "Mile". The word must have been converted into monareh or monar
which philologically means "the place where light burns" under the Zoroastrians, and this gives a special
significance to the atashgah, shown above, as the
precursor of Iranian minarets.
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about minarets
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15-January-95
