A "minaret" is a tower on a mosque from which a crier, or muezzin, calls the faithful to prayer. A "minbar" is a podium for a reader of the Koran. The "qibla wall," found in the prayer hall, points the believer towards Mecca.

One of the most important features of any mosque, a Muslim place of worship, is the space to broadcast the regular call to prayer. In the Middle Ages particularly, this was achieved through building a thin, tall tower at one corner of the mosque. This high tower was called a "minaret" and was often the tallest building in a medieval Islamic society.

Minarets are tall shafts. Each contains a staircase and a gallery, from which a muezzin calls Muslims to pray five times each day. Daily prayer is an important element of Islamic life.

An architrave is the structure that rests above the tops of columns and is found primarily in Greek and Roman architecture. All the other techniques or components are found in Islamic architecture. Examples include the following:

Joggled voussoirs: Madrasa-Mausoleum-Mosqure of Sultan Hasan, Cairo

Muquarnas: Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada

Mosaics: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

Wooden strapwork: Kutubiya Minbar, Marrakesh

Calligraphy is the one of the most common artistic expressions due to adherence to Qur'an ideals that prevent idolatry by banning the artistic rendering of figures. Mosaic is characteristic of Islamic architecture, but calligraphy is present in both architecture and sculpture.

The qibla is the wall in a mosque oriented toward Mecca that indicates the direction of prayer for the congregation. The minbar is a niche in the qibla wall, often arched like a doorway or passage toward Mecca, while the minbar is a raised, stepped platform from which the imam addresses the congregation. The minaret is a tall, slender tower in a mosque from which the faithful are called to prayer.

Minarets are the surrounding towers in a mosque. Mosques have anywhere from one to four minarets (sometimes more).

A pagoda is a type of roof and cannot be the answer. Columns and balusters are not common in Islamic architecture, but these two are not usually independent structures.

Though minarets share the shape of an obelisk, they are not as minimalist in design.

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This is an image of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was first a Greek Basilica church under Constantine and converted to a Mosque when the Turks invaded and occupied Istanbul in 1453.

This is the only answer choice that fits the historical context of being converted to a mosque in this region (Istanbul, Turkey/Greece). Though the Blue Mosque is in Istanbul, it was built after the occupation.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hagia_Sophia_Cathedral.jpg

The influence of Islamic art and architecture can easily be found in Spain, which had Muslim rulers for over 700 years. Thus, the Alhambra and its arabesques is the best choice. Ziggurats predate Islam, pointed arches can't be traced back just to an Islamic influence, and "elaborate designs" is too vague to be correct. 

Coptic art emerged out of Egypt as a product of anti-iconic Christian tendencies. During this period, there was much debate in the emerging Christian church as to whether or not iconography would be permissible in Christian art. The Coptic tradition sided against depictions of the divine, laying the framework for the Islamic style which forbids images of the Prophet as blasphemous. This question challenges students to understand how art history, like history itself, is not a simply defined series of movements, but instead the product of cultural assimilation and synthesis, with complicated politics of power and philosophy that evolve styles and root themselves in meaning and belief.