Differences in Islamic practice occurred not only among various regions or cultural settings but also between men and women, even in a single mosque, as illustrated in this sixteenth-century Persian painting. The setting involves the visit of a prominent teacher to a mosque, an event that drew a large and varied congregation. The guest teacher, on the left, sits at the top of a raised platform or pulpit. The rest of the congregation is distributed at various distances from him according to age and gender.
Men and Women at WorshipBodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, UK/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY