A group of building workers line up. One stands in front to lead the prayers. Draw a line around this group, put a bulge at the centre of the side facing Makkah and you have the plan of a mosque.
From the noisy, chaotic activity of a bustling covered suq in Damascus pass through a small door into a large calm colonnaded court where groups of men and women sit on carpets in the shade and talk, read or sleep. Mosques are enclosures for the community and fill for prayers five times a day. Churches have different qualities. In gothic cathedrals holy rites are performed at the altar and the architecture soars towards heaven. Orthodox churches embody mysteries shrouded in incense. Protestant churches, chapels and assemblies encourage the congregation to focus on a preacher.
Muhammad had been both prophet and head of the community and there was no separation.
