Saudi Arabia Its culture, how Islam spread, and its architecture.

Food We made mtabaq. It was yammy. Oh and let me tell you something awesome. We're gonna make Amazing Intl. Flag cookies after everything is done.

The women usually wear a black abaya and sometimes a veil called a niqab and/or head covering. The men wear thawbs, ghutra/shemagh with an igal, or an imma, and sometimes a Mishlah or Bisht on special occasions. An abaya is a long dress that's usually black, but can be any color. The same goes for the niqab and head covering. Thawbs are similar to abayas, but they are for men, and therefore less feminine. Ghutras are folded square pieces of cloth that are held in place on a head by the igal, a black rope, looped twice around. Clothes A Mishlah/Bisht An abaya (right) A Thawb A Shemagh with an Igal

Flag The Saudi Arabian flag is too complicated to sew, so I'm just going to write about it. It's a green flag with the shahada on it and a sword pointing to the left of the flag. Because of wanting to show respect to the shahada, the flag is not lowered at half-mast in the appropriate times. S drew the sword on this flag, but had to copy the shahada. Isn't the sword perfectly exact?

Islam in Saudi Arabia Well, from what I know, Islam was passed down from other prophets until it reached the last prophet, Muhammad SAW. The religion of islam in Saudi is 100%. The vast majority of people in Saudi are Sunni Muslims. Muhammad SAW was born in the year 570. Around the year 610, Muhammad SAW started preaching. So he was 40 years old. The non-Muslim population of Saudi Arabia are foreign. Estimations of Saudi Arabia's population is 8,000,000, mostly Muslim. The foreign population has 1.6 million Indians, 1.5 million Pakistanis, 1.2 million Filipinos, 1 million Bangladeshis, 1 million Egyptians, 600,000 Indonesians, 400,000 Sri Lankans, 350,000 Nepalese, 250,000 Palestinians, 150 Lebanese, 100,000 Eritreans, and 30,000 Americans. The religions include Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. So I guess you could say Saudi Arabia is a pretty big place. The most popular religion in Saudi Arabia is Islam.

Architecture When the masjid was first made, it was made 35x30 meters big. It was made out of date palm trunks and mud walls. It was very simple and had no roof. Inside the masjid, there was a place to the south called the suffrah and there was a place there to face Jerusalem to pray. When Allah changed the Qiblah, the suffrah was switched to the North so they could face the south towards Makkah instead. Seven years later, obviously 7 AH, the masjid had to be expanded for the many more Muslims that had accepted Islam. After Muhammad SAW died, new rulers came, and in 707 AD, Umayyad Caliph Al Waleed broke the original masjid down and made a new one in its place, including Muhammad SAW's house and tomb in it.

Architecture (continued) The masjid he built was 84x100 meters, with stone walls and an added roof. the rock was engraved with Roman and Greek designs. There was also an added courtyard, and a dome topped the side of the mosque pointing to the Qiblah. Then came Abbasid Caliph Mahdi, who in AD removed the northern side of Al Waleed's masjid and again expanded. He also added 20 doors to the masjid, 16 on the east and west walls, and 4 on the north wall. When Mamluk Sultan Qalawun was leader, he built a dome over Muhammad SAW's house and grave and he made a wudu place outside. He also rebuilt a minaret which had been destroyed. Then, when lightning destroyed a whole chunk of the masjid in 1481, A new leader, Sultan Qaytbay rebuilt it.

Architecture (continued) The Ottoman sultans who ruled Madinah 1517 to World War I. One of them rebuilt the east wall and the west wall of the masjid and built a new minaret called As- Sulaymaniyah. He also added a new mihrab next to Muhammad SAW's mihrab and made a new dome plated with shiny green lead sheets above Muhammad SAW's house and grave. When the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I was ruling, he redid the whole masjid, save for the Prophet's Tomb, three mihrabs, the minbar and the As- Sulaymaniyah minaret. Parts of the masjid were also expanded to add more features. In 1981 new extensions were added to the masjid, making it 5 times its size. Now, with the help of King Fahd, the masjid is much larger and more modern.

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