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Turkey / Arabia: The Prophet Muhammad preaching from a minbar (pulpit) at a mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, as represented in a 16th century Siyer-i Nebi or Life of the Prophet commissioned in Turkey by Sultan Murad III (r. 1574-1595)

Turkey / Arabia: The Prophet Muhammad preaching from a minbar (pulpit) at a mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, as represented in a 16th century Siyer-i Nebi or Life of the Prophet commissioned in Turkey by Sultan Murad III (r. 1574-1595)

Representations of the Prophet Muhammad are controversial, and generally forbidden in Sunni Islam (especially Hanafiyya, Wahabi, Salafiyya). Shia Islam and some other branches of Sunni Islam (Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i) are generally more tolerant of such representational images, but even so the Prophet's features are generally veiled or concealed by flames as a mark of deep respect.