The Great Mosque of Taza: An Almohad, Marinid, and Alawi Religious Complex in Morocco
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Morocco
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Alaouite, Almohad, Marinid
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page18 sections
History
The Great Mosque of Taza is a Sunni Islamic religious complex in Taza, Morocco, founded by the Almohad caliph and sultan Abd al-Mu’min after 1142. Built during the Almohad period, it is regarded as the oldest surviving monument of Almohad architecture and became the most important religious building in Taza’s historic medina. The city stood on the strategic route between Morocco and Algeria, making it one of the Almohads’ earliest bases after Tinmel, while Marrakech was not conquered until 1147.
Almohad foundation
Abd al-Mu’min established the mosque around the time of the Almohad conquest of Taza. The Almohads were a North African religious and ruling dynasty that controlled Morocco and parts of the western Islamic world during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Their architectural tradition favored large prayer halls, monumental minarets, geometric planning, and carefully ordered decoration.
The medieval geographical work Kitab al-Istibsar states that the mosque’s walls were completed in 1172. The first building had a nearly square plan measuring approximately 32 by 33 metres. Its foundation placed an Almohad religious institution at the centre of a strategically important city and created the earliest major phase of the monument that survives today.
Marinid enlargement
The Marinids, the dynasty that ruled Morocco after the Almohads, enlarged the mosque during the reign of Sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf. Work began in 1292 and was completed in 1293, although 1294 has also been proposed for the completion date. The project extended the prayer hall with two lateral naves and four southern aisles, and it created a large courtyard on the eastern side.
The expansion also introduced the present mihrab, the architectural feature that marks the direction of Mecca. Abu Yaqub Yusuf later donated a large bronze chandelier to the mosque in 1294, linking the building’s religious furnishings to the same period of Marinid patronage. In 1324, the future Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan founded a madrasa near the mosque while serving as a governor under his father. A madrasa was an Islamic institution of religious learning, commonly associated with law, theology, and related studies. The building is now largely ruined.
The mosque’s courtyard also acquired a dynastic association when the Marinid sultan Abu al-Rabi was buried there after his death in 1310. The burial took place in the large courtyard created during the Marinid enlargement, adding a commemorative function to an already important religious space.
Alawi restoration
After 1665, the Alawi ruler Moulay Rashid briefly made Taza his principal base. The Alawi dynasty has ruled Morocco since the seventeenth century, and Moulay Rashid was one of its early rulers. During this period he built the Dar al-Makhzen royal palace in the southern part of the old city and restored the mosque.
Moulay Rashid also added a southern gallery to the large courtyard for use as a summer mosque. This intervention gave the courtyard a further religious function while preserving the complex’s earlier Almohad and Marinid character. The Great Mosque of Taza is classified as Moroccan cultural heritage, and its principal historical phases remain visible in the surviving Almohad and Marinid fabric.
Remains
The present complex consists of a main mosque building and a large eastern courtyard, each described as having a rectangular plan of approximately 72 by 44 metres. The mosque stands near Bab er-Rih, or the Gate of the Winds, and has nine exterior gates. Its architectural organization combines an Almohad hypostyle prayer hall with Marinid extensions and later Alawi additions. A hypostyle mosque is built around a large hall supported by many columns or piers and divided into rows of bays or naves.
Prayer hall and internal courtyards
Almohad prayer hall
The original Almohad mosque had a nearly square plan of about 32 by 33 metres. Its prayer hall was wider than it was deep, with probably seven or nine naves running perpendicular to the southeastern qibla wall, the wall oriented toward Mecca. Four aisles ran parallel to that wall. The middle nave and the aisle immediately before the qibla wall were slightly wider, producing a T-shaped arrangement that emphasized the route toward the mihrab.
The present main building retains a hypostyle prayer hall and a smaller northern courtyard enclosed by extensions of the hall. Rows of horseshoe arches divide the interior into nine naves perpendicular to the southeastern qibla wall. They form eight transverse aisles south of the courtyard, or fourteen when the arches continuing through the courtyard galleries are counted.
Marinid extensions and mihrab
The Marinid enlargement added one nave along each of the western and eastern edges and four further aisles on the southern side. The widened central nave and southernmost aisle maintain and strengthen the earlier T-shaped plan. Decorative domes reinforce this organization. One dome covers the northern end of the central nave at the entrance from the courtyard, while three vaulted cupolas in the fourth aisle mark the position of the former Almohad mihrab.
The present mihrab stands at the southern end of the central nave and belongs to the Marinid expansion. Carved stucco covers the feature, while lambrequin arches enclose the space before it. Lambrequin arches are highly ornamented, scalloped or cusped arches used in Islamic architecture. Above the mihrab is an elaborate stucco dome pierced to admit light from outside. Four squinches carved with muqarnas occupy its corners. Muqarnas are three-dimensional, tiered geometric forms often used in domes and supporting transitions. The dome has been compared with examples in the Great Mosque of Tlemcen and the Great Mosque of Fes el-Jdid and is considered one of the finest of its type.
Northern courtyard and service chambers
The smaller northern courtyard lies at the centre of the northern part of the main building. Arcaded galleries flank it on the east and west, while chambers of varying sizes line its northern side. The outer eastern and western naves continue along the sides of the courtyard to its northern edge.
Two further vaulted cupolas occupy the southeastern and southwestern corners of the mosque. Behind the qibla wall are several chambers and annexes, including the imam’s chamber, a storage room for the minbar, a library, and an ablutions chamber. Together, these spaces preserve the supporting functions associated with the prayer hall.
Almohad minaret
The Almohad minaret stands near the northeastern corner of the smaller courtyard. It has a square base and is five times higher than it is wide, a proportion also used in later Almohad minarets such as the Kutubiyya minaret. Its secondary shaft is somewhat squatter than those of the later examples. Blind arches once surrounded the windows that lit the internal stairway, although much of this decoration is obscured by later whitewashing.
Eastern courtyard and summer mosque
Large eastern courtyard
The large eastern courtyard is almost as extensive as the main mosque building. It contains olive trees and a central fountain sheltered by a small domed kiosk. A narrow arcaded gallery on its western side connects the courtyard with the mosque. The courtyard existed during the Marinid period, while the domed fountain kiosk probably belongs to Moulay Rashid’s seventeenth-century restoration or to a later phase.
Southern prayer gallery
A deeper roofed gallery runs along the southern edge of the large courtyard and is bordered by pointed horseshoe arches. A mihrab in the centre of the southern wall indicates that this space functioned as an open-air or summer mosque. The gallery probably dates from Moulay Rashid’s restoration or a later period, when the courtyard received this additional religious use.
Religious furnishings
Marinid bronze chandelier
The mosque preserves a Marinid bronze chandelier donated by Abu Yaqub Yusuf in 1294, according to its inscription. It measures approximately 2.5 metres across at its widest point and weighs about three tonnes. The chandelier has nine circular tiers arranged in a cone and could hold 514 glass oil lamps.
Arabesque floral motifs and a cursive poetic inscription decorate the object, with much of the ornament concentrated on the upper shaft and the large dome-like underside. Its decorative scheme relates to the stucco dome before the mihrab. The chandelier was inaugurated during a celebration of the Prophet’s birthday on 30 January 1295, when its oil lamps were lit. The ceremony included recitation of its Quranic and poetic inscriptions. The accompanying poem, titled “I Am the Chandelier,” contains eight couplets, with its sixteen half-lines distributed across parts of the object.
Medieval lamps
Other medieval lamps are preserved in the mosque. One has a church bell as its core and may have been captured during Marinid campaigns in present-day Spain.
Marinid minbar
The Marinid minbar dates from the late thirteenth century. Made from numerous assembled pieces of wood, it takes the form of a movable staircase with a lower arch and an upper canopy. It measures 3.25 metres high, 2.96 metres long, and 0.80 metres wide.
Later restoration damaged or altered parts of its original appearance, especially the upper elements and the arch at the base, but much of the Marinid woodwork survives. Its two principal sides carry geometric designs based on eight-pointed stars and interlacing bands. The spaces between them contain marquetry mosaics inlaid with ivory and precious woods rather than carved floral reliefs.
Anaza screen
The anaza is a carved wooden screen at the entrance from the courtyard to the central nave. It could serve as an exterior mihrab for worshippers praying in the courtyard. The date of the present screen is uncertain, although its craftsmanship has led to the suggestion that it is no earlier than the seventeenth century.
The side facing the courtyard is relatively plain. Its interior-facing side contains carved panels with six blind-arch motifs. Above the centre, a semicircular tympanum bears a polygonal geometric design surrounding an inscription.
