Publication Date
Date of construction of the Great Mosque: 490 AH / 1097 AD
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;dz;Mon01;2;ar
Library Location
Algeria
Date
Date of construction of the Great Mosque: 490 AH / 1097 AD
Notes
The Great Mosque in Algiers, with its tiles perpendicular to the qibla wall, and its rectangular courtyard surrounded by porticoes on its smaller sides, will constitute a model for religious architecture, especially in Al-Aqsa Morocco. The main section of the building takes a rectangular shape, its width is greater than its depth. The minaret, which was built late, rises in the northwestern corner of the mosque. The “Geneina” door and all the service rooms designated for the imam still stand in the northern corner. The building overlooks the courtyard, through which we pass to the arcades and then to the prayer hall. Stone pillars and arches paved with lime divide the prayer hall into eleven naves, each of which is covered by a gabled roof. As for the strong, lobed and transverse arches that connect these tiles, they appear, according to L.’s opinion. Golfan, as if it was added later to support the balance of the building structure. The mihrab is devoid of decorative elements and contains only the two small spiral columns on its sides, which are characteristic of Algerian architecture in the eighteenth century, in addition to some relief plaster decoration in the form of a lobed arch surrounding the pointed arch of the mihrab. It is not the original mihrab that was demolished in 1682. A portico with lobed columns and arches was added to the façade of the mosque, built at the beginning of the colonial period, due to the new road layout at that time. The minaret was added, according to an inscription at its base, in 732 AH / 1324 AD. We must note that the three mosques of central Morocco dating back to the Almoravid era did not originally have minarets. But the idea that the Almoravids considered its construction an innovation is rejected, as evidenced by the fact that they preserved the minaret of the Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez when it was rebuilt.
Sample Text
Ali Lafer “The Great Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;dz;Mon01;2;ar
