Jama'at Khana

Not to be confused with Musallah.
A Jama'at Khana in Nishapur, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran.

Jamatkhana or Jamat Khana (from Persian: جماعت خانه, literally "congregational place") is an amalgamation derived from the Arabic word jama‘a (gathering) and the Persian word khana (house, place). It is a term used by some Muslim communities around the world, particularly sufi ones, to a place of gathering.[1] Among some communities of Muslims, the term is often used interchangeably with the Arabic word musallah (a place of worship that has not been formally sanctified as a masjid [2] or is a place that is being temporarily used as a place of worship by a Muslim). The Nizārī Ismā'īlī community uses the term Jama'at Khana to denote their places of worship.[3]

  1. ^ Azim Nanji and Razia Nanji, The Penguin Dictionary of Islam (London: Penguin, 2008), s.v. jamat khana.
  2. ^ Fiqh of Masjid & Musalla Archived 2011-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Sami Nasib Makarem, The Doctrine of the Ismailis (Beirut: The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1972), 70.