Koutoubia Mosque
The Koutoubia Mosque ( Arabic جامع الكتبية, DMG Ǧāmiʿ al-kutubiyya , dt. About 'mosque of booksellers') is the largest mosque in Marrakech . It dates from the second half of the 12th century, making it one of the oldest mosques in Morocco .
Building history
After the conquest of Marrakech in 1147, Abd al-Mu'min , the first caliph of the Almohads , began building the mosque on the site of the Ksar el-Hajar ( stone palace ) of the Almoravids . The building history is complex: shortly after its completion, the new Almohad building was replaced in 1157 - allegedly due to a faulty alignment of the qibla wall - by today's less precisely oriented building with similar dimensions. The Koutoubia Mosque was inaugurated in 1158 - still without a minaret. Yaʿqūb al-Mansūr , the grandson of Abd al-Mu'min, had the interior of the mosque partially rebuilt first as vizier , then as caliph, and the tower of the minaret that still exists today was built in 1199 . The mosque received its popular name later; it comes from a bookseller's souq near the mosque.
architecture
Mosque construction
Unlike most Moroccan mosques, the Koutoubia Mosque, which is largely made of rammed earth, is not encircled by other buildings and is - free-standing and surrounded by palm gardens and open spaces - strangely a bit away from the medina of Marrakech. The basic dimensions of the mosque building, which can hold around 25,000 believers, are approx. 90 × 60 meters (for comparison: Mezquita de Córdoba approx. 179 × 130 meters). The prayer room, which is located behind an inner courtyard ( sahn ), which is framed by pillar arcades and - because of the ablutions prescribed by the Koran (sura 5, verse 6) - has a large fountain basin, consists of a pillar hall with 17 parallel aisles and 7 transepts. The central nave, oriented towards the mihrab niche, is slightly wider than the other naves. The transept directly in front of the qibla wall is also widened - therefore the floor plan is often referred to as "T-shaped". In contrast to the rest of the mosque, the Qibla wall is made of stones and - comparable to the mosque of Tinmal - has squat corner towers and a similar structure above the mihrab.
minaret
Together with the lantern and the crowning spherical shaft (jamur) , the minaret , which is placed in a corner of the mosque and - due to the lack of structuring elements ( cornices , pilaster strips ) - is almost monolithic-looking minaret is 77 meters high with a side length of 12.8 meters. With the exception of the corner stones and the decorative fields, the tower is built from roughly hewn sandstone blocks.
In the lower decorative field, facing the city, there is a simple motif consisting of a small central window opening and two side windows with a common Alfiz frame, which already appeared on the minaret of the mosque of Tinmal and on the minaret of the Sidi Oqba mosque of Kairouan can be traced back. Further decorative fields surround the window openings, which - because of the inclined ramps running around the inside - are arranged at different heights; they are covered by large decorative blind arches, which in turn are surrounded by rectangular frames (alfiz). The upper area of the tower shaft, delimited by a surrounding cornice, on the other hand, shows windows arranged at the same height with standardized edging. The parapet of the platform - visible from afar and appearing for the first time in the Maghreb - is adorned with a circumferential approx. 2 meter high geometric ceramic mosaic; a crenellated wreath runs above it.
The lantern top is designed the same on all four sides and repeats - above a small, potentially infinite diamond pattern - the motif of the surrounding tile mosaic with a crenellated wreath; a ribbed dome forms the conclusion. The top of the minaret consists of a gold-plated ball stick ( jamur ), whose original symbolic meaning is no longer known, and a 'gallows' on the side, on which the green flag of the Prophet was previously hoisted before Friday prayers and on religious holidays. A wide, spiral-shaped ramp, which served as a transport route for the required building material during the construction period, leads around six superimposed rooms inside the tower to the upper platform. Until the introduction of a public address system, the muezzin might have ridden the long and arduous way up on a horse.
meaning
The minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque is the symbol of the city of Marrakech and the entire country; it is illuminated every evening and is still visible up to 30 km away. Even more than the 150 years older minaret of the Qala of Beni Hammad in today's Algeria and together with the Giralda in Seville , the Hassan Tower of Rabat and the minaret of the Kasbah Mosque in Marrakech, it became the model for almost all later minarets of the Maghreb.
Legend
The Sufi saint Sidi Abu l-'Abbas es Sabti (1130–1205) exercised great influence as an Islamic scholar in Marrakech and is venerated to this day. In one of the mythical stories told about him, he climbs up the minaret of the Koutoubia mosque every evening as the patron saint of the poor and only comes down when all the blind beggars in the city have found food and a place to sleep.
Furnishing
So that the faithful are not distracted during prayer, the Koutoubia Mosque - like most mosques in the Maghreb - is only sparsely decorated inside. There were no pictures or cult devices.
The minbar (the pulpit of the Imam) was made around 1125/30 in Córdoba on behalf of Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin for a previous Almoravid building ; it is about 4 meters high and about 3.50 meters deep and artfully encrusted with ivory , ebony and sandalwood . The side panels are adorned with - potentially infinite - geometric braided ribbon ornaments ; the steps, on the other hand, are adorned with a multitude of more traditional blind arcades with horseshoe arches. Today the minbar, which was used until the 1960s, is exhibited in an outbuilding of the El Badi Palace after extensive restoration .
literature
- Arnold Betten: Morocco. Antiquity, Berber Traditions and Islam - History, Art and Culture in the Maghreb. DuMont, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7701-3935-4 , pp. 50, 283f.
Web links
- Koutoubia Mosque - Photos + Info (ArchNet English)
Coordinates: 31 ° 37 ′ 26.8 " N , 7 ° 59 ′ 36.7" W.