In the Shia Ismaili community today, the jamatkhana represents the physical space in which the community gathers in a shared process of communal worship and expressions of piety. The Ismaili Constitution defines jamatkhana as a place designated by the Imam-of-the-time for Ismaili tariqah practices.
Consonant with the ethos of Islam, which welds together the ‘worldly’ and the ‘spiritual’, the jamatkhanas (like other Muslim spaces of piety and worship) are multifunctional and act as the religious, educational and social centres for the Ismaili community. These functions (and forms) have evolved, as in the case of all other Muslim spaces and institutions, reflecting the changing historical and cultural contexts of these institutions as well as the evolving needs of its users. Speaking on the occasion of the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon, His Highness the Aga Khan suggested that among the programmatic dimensions of the Ismaili Centre will be “lectures, presentations, conferences, recitals, and exhibits of art and architecture.”
The recently built high-profile Ismaili jamatkhana and Centres are ‘representational’ buildings. As His Highness the Aga Khan stated at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ismaili Centre in Dushanbe:
“These Centres serve to reflect, illustrate and represent the community’s intellectual and spiritual understanding of Islam, its social conscience, its organisation, its forward outlook and its positive attitude towards the societies in which it lives…Like its counterparts elsewhere, the Ismaili Centre in Dushanbe will stand for the ethics that uphold the dignity of man as the noblest of creation. It will bring down walls that divide and build bridges that unite. ..It is my prayer that, once it has been built, the Ismaili Centre in Dushanbe will be a place of order, of peace, of hope, of humility and of brotherhood, radiating those thoughts, and attitudes which unite us in the search for a better life.”
Source: Institute of Ismaili Studies
Next related:
Architecture of Jamatkhanas
Earlier related:
Ismaili Jamatkhanas
The custom of meeting in ‘Jamatkhana’
The meaning of ‘Jamatkhana’ and its use
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