Prayer Niches That Do Not Face Mecca

About this book

Amr Mohsen Abdel Raouf begins with a provocative architectural observation: a number of early Islamic mosques preserve prayer niches whose measured direction appears not to point toward Mecca. Rather than treating the question as a slogan, the book undertakes a documentary journey through geography, archaeology, historical construction, and astronomical calculation. It asks how orientation was established, what surviving structures can reliably show, and whether later assumptions have obscured earlier practice. The study invites critical examination of material evidence while approaching a sensitive subject through research rather than sensational certainty.