Artisans, Workshops and Markets in Almohad Communities

Almohad communities depended on makers who supplied buildings, vessels, textiles, books and other goods. Large commissions required coordinated materials and specialist work, while household equipment demanded forms suited to heat, water and repeated handling. Excavated objects and traces left during construction reveal practical choices by workers as well as the finished surfaces seen by patrons.

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Construction materials and building work

Rammed-earth construction used wooden forms filled and compacted in successive layers. Forms could then be moved to continue the wall. Brick supplied arches and other structural parts, while stone could be cut for foundations and display façades. Such work involved preparing materials before assembling them on site.

Building work served more than one kind of demand. Caliphs commissioned mosques, palaces, city walls and fortifications, while houses and bathhouses formed part of urban life. The Great Mosque of Taza, begun in 1142, is the oldest surviving Almohad mosque. At Tinmal, the mosque’s walls were made of rammed earth, while its pillars and arches were built in brick. Decoration was concentrated around the mihrab, the niche indicating the direction of prayer. These buildings show builders applying related materials to structures with different purposes and levels of ornament.

Planning surfaces and functional objects

Seville’s Giralda provides evidence of work organisation within a major commission. Ahmad ibn Baso began its construction in 1184, and Ali de Gomara continued the project. Modern study has identified careful control of brick dimensions and probable supply from more than one producer. Procuring compatible materials helped different stages of work fit together in a single structure.

Scratched designs found on the Giralda include geometric, plant, figure and calligraphic forms. Researchers interpret some as experiments or exchanges of ideas among Almohad artisans. Planning ornament could therefore involve marks made on the work itself, alongside the more formal layout of the finished façade.

Pottery workers also designed around function. A wheel-thrown anafe from Manises, dated to the first half of the thirteenth century, has a perforated grate between its fire and ash chambers. Rim supports kept a pot steady, vents admitted air and combed incisions decorated the surface. The parts had to be shaped and joined before firing so the finished stove could withstand heat and support a vessel.

Weaving, textiles and leatherwork

Textile makers produced patterned cloth in which additional woven threads created designs. Lampas combined a supporting weave with pattern-forming threads, allowing repeated motifs across a surface. Silk, coloured yarn and decorative roundels required preparation before weaving as well as skilled control of the loom. Some such fabrics circulated through trade beyond their production centres.

Book production brought together paper, writing and leatherwork. Paper mills spread in Seville and Marrakesh, and paper came into use for Qur’ans, religious books and official documents. Manuscript pages could also be made from goat or sheep parchment. Covers were commonly bound in goatskin and decorated with pressed or stamped geometric patterns and interlacing designs.

Metal objects for use and display

Metalwork met household and religious needs. Lamps provided light, and braziers, containers for burning coals, supplied heat; examples of both, along with other metal objects, have been found in Córdoba. A hexagonal brazier combines pierced openings with incised decoration, including inscriptions and a pattern resembling the stepped battlements used on buildings. Its surface joined ornament to an object with a practical purpose.

Caliphal commissions could demand more elaborate work. The Great Mosque of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez received a bronze chandelier commissioned by the caliph Muhammad al-Nasir. Its carved and pierced surfaces combine plant forms with inscriptions in angular Kufic Arabic script. A bronze lion fountainhead known as the Monzón Lion is also dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century and attributed to the Almohad period, but its place of manufacture is unknown. Since it was found outside Almohad territory, it cannot securely identify a particular workshop or patron.

Markets and the circulation of goods

Markets also linked craftspeople with customers and officials. In the market regulation described by al-Saqati, an amin was an experienced representative proposed by a trade group and approved by the muhtasib, the official overseeing market conduct. The amin supplied expert judgement when disputes arose between makers and customers. Practical knowledge of a craft thus had a role in resolving transactions.

In Marrakesh, the Kutubiyya’s association with booksellers places a particular trade beside a major mosque. Copying, binding and selling required distinct skills and materials. Rural sellers meanwhile brought milk and firewood into markets. Urban exchange joined such necessities with goods requiring more specialised preparation.

For the wider setting, see Work, Meals and Everyday Worship in the Almohad World.