Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A niche in the wall of a mosque or a room in the mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca.
  • noun A niche design in the middle of a Muslim prayer rug, pointed toward Mecca during worship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A niche, or sometimes merely a decorated slab, in one of the interior walls of a mosque, marking the direction of Mecca, to which the faithful ought to turn in prayer, In the niche a copy of the Koran is usually, kept, and in front of it the imam stands when he leads the congregation in prayer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Islam a niche in a mosque, that indicates the qibla (direction of Mecca), and into which the imam prays
  • noun Islam a design in a Muslim prayer mat with the same function

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Islam) a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca
  • noun (Islam) a design in the shape of niche in a Muslim prayer rug; during worship the niche must be pointed toward Mecca

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic miḥrāb, probably from Old South Arabian mḥrb, part of a temple, from ḥrb, to fight, perform a certain ritual in a temple; see x̣rb in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Arabic محراب (miḥrāb)

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Examples

  • Though he was so ignorant still of eastern lore, that he hardly knew the meaning of the word mihrab, the arched recess looking towards Mecca, in the Mosque of the lawyer-saint Aboul

    The Golden Silence 1901

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    Error Theory 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    My Own Thoughts 2008

  • What a mihrab means to the Wahhabists, the Khomeini-ists and the other Salafists explained the meaning of a Mecca-direction indicator (called a mihrab), like the one now being planted on the Flight 93 crash site:

    And Rightly So... 2008

  • In the last moments of his life he put on a girdle and seated himself in the "mihrab" [19] of the mosque.

    Mystics and Saints of Islam Claud Field 1902

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