Understanding the Ezan

Islam is by far the biggest religion in Turkey. According to turkeytravelplanner.com, "99% of Turkey's people today are Muslim, and Turkey's history is principally that of an Islamic people, their empires, architecture, arts and literature." 

In Turkey, an Azaan, or more commonly known as Ezan is called out, which is the Islamic call to prayer. The muezzin, the person who calls out the prayer, recites it on each occasion, passing it to the locals, inviting them to the prayer.

An Arabic word, the Ezan is recited five times a day. This is what it sounds like:




The muezzin, calls out to the people to come to the mosques, which are scattered throughout cities, and share in the prayer. He or she climbs up the minaret, the tower next to or built into the mosque, to recite into loud speakers, allowing the city to hear.

I have heard up to three at a time, since being in Turkey. Tapes are not allowed, someone must recite it.

The Blue Mosque with 6 minarets.
photo cred.

The information below is from www.allaboutturkey.com and shows the times of day the prayer is recited:

Every Muslim, male or female, must offer at least five daily prayers in time, if is no lawful reason for exemption, combination, or temporary delay, They are:

1. The Early Morning Prayer (Salatu-l-Fajr), which may be offered any time after the dawn and before, a total period of about two hours.
2. The Noon Prayer (Salatu-z-Zuhr). This prayer may be offered anytime after the sun begins to decline from its Zenith until it is about midway on its course to setting. For example, if the sun sets at 7:00 p.m. the prayer time begins a little after 12:00 noon and continues until a little after 3:30 p.m. Soon after that the time of the next prayer begins. However, there are accurate calendars telling the time of each prayer. But if there is none available, one must resort to one's best judgment.
3. The Mid-Afternoon prayer (Salatu-l-Asr), which begins right after the expiration of the Noon prayer time and extends to sunset.
4. The sunset prayer (Salatu-l-Maghrib). The time of this prayer begins immediately after sunset and extends till the red glow in the western horizon disappears. Normally it extends over a period of one hour and twenty to thirty minutes.
5. The Evening prayer (Salatu-l-Isha), which begins after the red glow in the western horizon disappears (nearly one hour and thirty minutes after sunset) and continues till a before the dawn.

Every morning around 6:30 I hear the first Ezan and throughout the day I hear the others. It is different in Turkey but I love getting to know the culture of each place I visit. Hope you enjoy learning about this, I sure did. ❤