Great Mosque of Yama

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The Yama Great Mosque is a Friday mosque in the village of Yama in the Badaguichiri rural community , Niger .

history

The village elders of Yama (also spelled Yaama or Yamma) decided in 1962 to build a new Friday mosque. Until then, there had only been small neighborhood mosques in the village. They entrusted Falké Barmou , a traditional architect based in Yama, with the planning according to their specifications . The village population participated in the construction work.

After the first phase of construction of the mosque was a simple rectangular hypostyle -Gebetshalle with a mihrab as the only second space region. On the occasion of renovation work in 1975, Falké Barmou provided the building with a new roof and a dome, and by removing a column inside, he created a central space between the rows of columns. From 1978 he had an entrance extension and four monumental corner towers built, which gave the mosque an unmistakable appearance. The construction work was largely completed in 1982.

The building materials - especially clay - and the building techniques were of local origin in the Hausa architectural tradition, even if Falké Barmou and the villagers pursued experimental and innovative approaches in their execution. The Great Mosque of Yama was awarded the Aga Khan Prize for Architecture in 1986 . It is considered to be Falké Barmou's main work. All his Lehmmoscheen in the region of Tahoua are on since 2006 Tentative List for World Heritage .

As is customary with clay buildings in the region, continuous maintenance measures are required, especially with plastering. Parts of the building are a permanent construction site. The process of making sacrifices for the mosque plays an important role in the religious life of the villagers.

Location and architecture

The Great Mosque of Yama is located on flat terrain in the center of the village. With a length of 23 meters and a width of 18.7 meters, it occupies an area of ​​430.1 square meters. The main entrance is in the north towards the main street. An irregularly shaped, walled courtyard extends around the mosque, which, especially in its southern part, offers an area for religious activities outside the main building.

The rectangular prayer hall has a dome and 29 columns inside and is extended by a mihrāb with a crown-shaped structure. There are numerous small window openings on the facade of the mosque. The four minarets are corner towers up to eleven meters high, each of which is designed independently. The towers, which appear massive at the bottom, taper towards the top and each end with a more delicate, sculptural element. The lower part of the facade is decorated with painted geometric patterns. Additional decorative elements include niches, artfully pierced wall sections and reliefs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Yaama Mosque (Yaama, Niger). In: Islamic Arts and Architecture. October 7, 2011, archived from the original on May 4, 2012 ; accessed on September 8, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Les mosquées en terre de la region de Tahoua. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed September 8, 2018 (French).
  3. ↑ a b c L'architecture en terre au Niger entre passé et futur . Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP), June 2014, p. 56 ( developmentofpeoples.org [PDF; accessed September 8, 2018]).

Coordinates: 14 ° 21 ′ 34.6 "  N , 5 ° 29 ′ 57.3"  E