Berber architecture
The term Berber architecture summarizes building types and individual buildings of the Berber peoples in the rural regions of the southern Maghreb (i.e. mainly in Libya , Tunisia , Algeria and Morocco ). The buildings are generally village constructions; thus they differ fundamentally from the - largely Arab-Islamic - urban architecture of the north.
Living conditions
Although there is no written evidence of the history and culture of the Berbers, something can be deduced from the oral traditions and the buildings that have been preserved: In the mountainous and semi-arid regions of the southern Maghreb - unlike in the north - the population was only permanently settled given in rare cases and usually only for part of the year (November to April). Most of the village population spent the rest of the year in tents on hikes with the herds of cattle (sheep and goats) in the higher mountain regions ( transhumance ). During this time, the home villages, the residential buildings with the farm implements and a large part of the harvest were left almost unguarded. In some areas of the Anti-Atlas and the High Atlas, together with its eastern foothills, defensive strategies emerged - probably already in pre-Islamic times - to ward off wandering nomads , robber gangs or hostile neighboring villages or tribes, which are particularly evident in the architecture.
After the Berbers converted to Islam (depending on the region in the 8th to 12th centuries), the living conditions did not change and the Berber languages have also been preserved to this day. The fact that prayer rooms were built in the Berber villages - even if only sporadically at first - but none of them had a minaret , although the construction of towers was technically possible without any problems (see Agadire and Tighremts ). The minarets found in today's Berber villages all date from the second half of the 20th century.
Building types
Until the early 20th century, fortified villages ( ksour ), agadirs ( igoudars ) or well-fortified residential castles ( tighremts ) emerged - often in community work - for the community or the population remaining in their home villages (mostly the elderly and the sick) and the guards offered some degree of protection. In all building types, there is a clear striving upwards - two or even three storeys were the rule. As a result, the defensive character of the buildings - especially in comparison with the mostly single-storey rural architecture of the north - is particularly evident.
Ksour
The term ksar (plural: ksour ) in the south of Tunisia denotes both well-fortified villages in the mountainous region with an irregular floor plan that adapts to the natural terrain (e.g. Chenini ) and multi-storey storage castles with a rectangular or oval floor plan (e.g. Medenine ), which were mostly on level ground on the caravan routes and were therefore temporarily used as storage and trading places.
In Morocco, the term is only used for defensive villages (e.g. Ait Benhaddou , Tizourgane ). Special cases are the royal ksour built by the ruling Alavids in the 17th and 18th centuries in the vicinity of Rissani with a straight network of paths.
Agadire
The storage chambers of the multi-secured Agadire (cactus bushes, ring wall with watchtowers, windowless outer walls of the storage chambers) offered every family in a village the opportunity to store long-life foods ( barley , argan oil , dates , almonds , honey, nuts, etc.) and domestic or agricultural products Equipment.
Tighremts
The extremely imposing, mostly two- or three-story windowless residential castles ( tighremts ) - mostly made of clay mixed with plant remains and small stones - offered families and their cattle protection at night and in the event of attacks by robber gangs or hostile tribes. With their narrow stairs and ramps (furniture was largely unknown - you sat or slept on the floor, which was covered with reed mats and blankets, rarely pillows), they were comparatively easy to defend.
Dwelling caves
In the Berber regions of Morocco and Tunisia, there are a few cave dwellings that were carved out of the relatively easy-to-work rock. They unfold a pleasant, temperature-regulating effect in both summer heat and nocturnal and winter coolness. While in Morocco (e.g. in Bhalil near Sefrou ) the caves were driven into vertical rock walls, the caves in Matmata (Tunisia) are grouped around an inner courtyard sunk into the ground, which first of all had to be excavated.
construction materials
Only the building materials available on site ( quarry stone or clay, argan or almond wood branches, palm trunks and / or branches and reeds) were used for the construction; the outer walls are mostly made of rammed earth . In contrast to the Arab-Islamic north of the Maghreb, all materials remained largely unplastered. Roof tiles were not needed in view of the scant rainfall in the winter months. Window glass or metals remained largely unknown until the early 20th century or were almost unaffordable in a self- sufficient society and in a largely moneyless environment.
Building ornamentation
Particularly in the south of Morocco - both in quarry stone and in clay buildings - an ornamentation emerged as can also be seen in weaving products ( diamonds , herringbone patterns , triangles, lattice shapes). Originally this was not intended as a decorative element, but had a disaster-preventing ( apotropaic ) function; For example, the recurring diamond motifs can be interpreted as abstract eyes - and thus as a sign of vigilance.
Current condition
After the pacification of the Berber tribes during and after the colonial period, the circumstances of daily life changed tremendously: Nobody wants to live in the dusty, lightless and constantly in need of care Tighremts; many - mostly younger - Berbers migrate to the big cities of the north in search of work; livestock farming and thus nomadic or semi-nomadicism is declining sharply; Electricity and telephone networks are being expanded and there are refrigerators and televisions everywhere. The old structures have become superfluous or are no longer up-to-date - with the consequence that the old building fabric is visibly deteriorating and is no longer being restored as it used to be. The end of traditional Berber architecture is thus looming - only a few buildings will survive as museums ( maisons traditional ).
meaning
The Berber architecture in the southern Maghreb with its Ksour, Tighremts, Agadirs and caves is undoubtedly one of the most original and impressive things that world architecture has produced. In addition, the remaining buildings offer deep insights into a bygone era and into a changing, but to a large extent also past, culture of entire peoples.
In the time of the Berber Almoravids , Almohads and Merinids , rammed earth construction also found its way to northern Morocco, where it was used, for example, to build city walls and fortresses ( kasbahs ) or mosques .
See also
- Berber tent
- Atalaya (watchtower)
- Bazina (archeology)
- Ghorfa (architecture)
- Agadir Tasguent
- Agadir Guimst
- Agadir Imi'm Korn
- Amtoudi
- Imchiguegueln
- Igherm n'Ougdal
- Timit
- Tioulite
- Tizourgane
literature
on history and sociology
- Wolfgang Neumann: The Berbers. Diversity and unity of a traditional North African culture (= DuMont documents. ). 2nd edition, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7701-1298-9 .
- Gerhard Schweizer : The Berbers. A people between rebellion and adjustment. 2nd Edition. Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1984, ISBN 3-7023-0123-2 .
to architecture
- Djinn Jacques Meunié: Les greniers collectifs au Maroc. In: Journal de la Société des Africanistes. Vol. 14, 1944, ISSN 0037-9166 , pp. 1-16, digitized .
- Djinn Jacques-Meunié: Greniers-citadelles au Maroc (= Publications de l'Institut des Hautes-Etudes Marocaines. Vol. 52, ZDB -ID 761596-6 ). 2 volumes. Arts et Métiers Graphiques, Paris 1951.
- Salima Naji: Greniers collectifs de l'Atlas. Patrimoines du Sud marocain. Editions EDISUD u. a., Aix-en-Provence u. a. 2006, ISBN 2-7449-0645-X .
- Herbert Popp, Abdelfettah Kassah: Les ksour du Sud tunesien. Atlas illustré d'un patrimoine Culturel. Natural Science Society, Bayreuth 2010, ISBN 978-3-939146-04-9 .
- Herbert Popp, Mohamed Aït Hamza, Brahim El Fasskaoui: Les agadirs de l'Anti-Atlas occidental. Atlas illustré d'un patrimoine culturel du Sud marocain. Natural Science Society, Bayreuth 2011, ISBN 978-3-939146-07-0 .
- Arnold Betten: Morocco. Antiquity, Berber Traditions and Islam - History, Art and Culture in the Maghreb. 5th updated edition. DuMont-Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7701-3935-4 , p. 109 ff.
