Publication Date
Around 590 / 1194, part of the building was restored and an eastern entrance was added in 1288 / 1871.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;2;ar
Library Location
It is located inside the Noble Sanctuary, in the southwestern section of it, close to the Mughrabi Gate, one of the gates of the Noble Sanctuary, Jerusalem
Date
Around 590 / 1194, part of the building was restored and an eastern entrance was added in 1288 / 1871.
Notes
The Moroccan Mosque is a stone building with a rectangular plan and two facades. The first northern façade overlooks the Mughrabi Gate, and an entrance was opened crowned by a pointed arch. Directly above the lintel of the door is a stone pediment, followed by three rectangular windows, the middle of which is the largest. At a height of two columns from the top of the arch, the facade ends with a stone frame that protrudes slightly from the surface of the facade. The entrance is original, and it led to the mosque and to what remains of the honorary khanqa, which is part of the Islamic Museum. The second façade of the mosque is eastern, opening onto an open courtyard and overlooking the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. In the middle of this facade was opened another entrance to the mosque, which is used today to enter the Islamic Museum. This entrance is a rectangular opening surmounted by a stone lintel, in the middle of which is a protruding stone carved in the shape of an incomplete pyramid. Directly above the lintel stands an inscription panel crowned with a tughra (signature of the Ottoman Sultan). The painting includes three lines, the text of which indicates that the one who ordered the restoration of this mosque was the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan. The inscription is surrounded by a prominent stone frame that takes the form of a motor arch and extends to surround the entrance. To the north and south of this entrance, there are two rectangular windows that belong to the same architectural fabric that belongs to this Ottoman entrance. The internal layout of the Mosque of the Maghreb consists of a hall with a rectangular horizontal plan, extending from north to south. This hall consists of seven surfaces of different sizes, roofed with barrel vaults. The central space immediately following the entrance on the eastern façade was modified and was covered by a central, shallow dome consistent with the Ottoman style, which replaced the cross vault that covered this space. A beautiful mihrab was built at the end of the hall, along its southern wall, in place of the door that was originally an entrance leading to the western half of the Women’s Mosque. When the Islamic Museum was established in 1927, the apse of the mihrab was removed, while its hood, the arch above it, and the two columns surrounding the mihrab on both sides were preserved. All of these elements are still in place today. From 1927 to the present day, the Mosque of the Moroccans forms one of the halls of the Islamic Museum.
Sample Text
Yusuf al-Natsheh “The Islamic Museum” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;pa;Mon01;2;ar
