Military-Security Functions of Minarets According to Historical Texts

Minarets, as the spiritual heritage of diverse cultures, have continued to exist for thousands of years with different functions of navigation, call to prayer (Adhan), grandeur, turning buildings into landmarks, as well as economic and commercial functions. These ancient and Islamic structures have also had military and security functions that have not received much attention so far. This research thus aimed to study the role of minarets in domestic security and military. Investigating historical texts shows that minarets have played an important role in wars and conquests, capture of castles or their defense, and making commercial highways secure. Furthermore, the construction of military minaret-inscriptions next to towers of skulls in order to tell of the military campaigns and causes of the buildings of towers of skulls, which per se have been considered as a form of historiography, is only a part of the security and military functions of minarets as discussed in this research.