The Islamic Center (Events Venue/Dar al-Munasabat), A new type of Islamic Religious Building

Congregational mosques in Islam have evolved in different ways throughout Islamic history. By the twentieth century, a new Islamic congregational mosque has evolved as a new building type: the Islamic Center, which is a congregational mosque with other subsidiary functions, especially a venue center or “dar munasabat” for social functions, plus other functions, in a new combination that was not known before in the historic Islamic era (632-1850AD). This research will discuss this new building type, its historical evolution, the different types, and its role in serving the Islamic society. We will follow an analytical comparative historical methodology in which we will follow the function of the mosque in Islamic architecture and the form it took to perform its main task. The research has been divided into an Introduction where we will identify the terms used for the different building types, part two will follow the historical evolution of the form and function for the different mosque types in Egypt dividing the development and change in form and function into twelve stages, from the date of the earliest mosque in Madina till our current time in the first quarter of the twenty first century. The twelfth stage, the contemporary period, we will identify how the "venue center" (dar al-munasabat) (hall for funeral condolences & formal wedding ceremony) appeared by the middle of the twentieth century and the current contemporary types that give us the "Islamic Center”, “the Islamic Complex” and the “Islamic Medical Complex” with designs and styles different from the traditional historical Islamic examples, and how the form changed with the changes and multiplicity of functions. Through the stylistic analysis of several selected examples we will identify the different types of this new building type in Egypt and we will demonstrate that we can divide the existing types into five groups that all include a “venue center” plus other subsidiary functions. The third and final part of this research is a summary of our findings.