The Prayer Room

What is this? Where are we? I do not recognize this place. This doorway did not exist, the floor has been dug away and it is deeper than in my time.

Ah, this is the Prayer Room. The sultans of Granada used to pray in this hall.

Habibi, the passage of time is like a storm, it erases certain traces, and leaves others behind… But the beautiful horseshoe arches still let in the fresh mountain air… I see you have noticed the lovely niches on the walls. The wall with the vertical niches is the main one because it faces Mecca, in accordance with to the rules of Islam. And inside the niche you can read a line from the Koran. “Come to prayer, do not be neglectful…”

More than twenty Nazrid sultans ruled Granada. How many of them must have prayed and meditated here, looking in this direction...



(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Carlos Madrid (2012)

Picture:
Source: Own work
Author: Julián Hernández Martínez (2013)