Moorish architecture

Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture which developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (on the Iberian peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). The term "Moorish" comes from the historical Western European designation of the Muslim inhabitants of these regions as "Moors". Scholarly references on Islamic architecture often refer to this architectural tradition by a more geographic designation, such as architecture of the Islamic West or architecture of the Western Islamic lands, and some references on Islamic art and architecture consider use of the term "Moorish" to be outdated or contested.

This architectural style blended influences from Berber culture in North Africa, pre-Islamic Iberia (Roman, Byzantine, and Visigothic), and contemporary artistic currents in the Islamic Middle East to elaborate a unique style over centuries with recognizable features such as the horseshoe arch, '' riad'' gardens (courtyard gardens with a symmetrical four-part division), square (cuboid) minarets, and elaborate geometric and arabesque motifs in wood, stucco, and tilework (notably '' zellij''). Over time, this western style made increasing use of surface decoration while also retaining a tradition of focusing attention on the interior of buildings rather than their exterior. Unlike Islamic architecture further east, this style did not make prominent use of large vaults and domes. Major centers of this artistic tradition included the main capitals of the empires and Muslim states in the region's history, such as Cordoba, Kairouan, Fes, Marrakesh, Seville, Granada and Tlemcen. Within this wider region, there was also a certain difference between architectural styles in the more easterly region of Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia) and a more specific style shared by the western Maghreb (present-day Morocco and western Algeria) and al-Andalus, sometimes referred to as Hispano-Moresque or Hispano-Maghrebi.

Even as Muslim rule ended on the Iberian Peninsula, the traditions of Moorish architecture continued in North Africa as well as in the Mudéjar style in Spain, which made use of Moorish techniques and designs and adapted them to Christian patrons. Much later, particularly in the 19th century, the Moorish style was frequently imitated or emulated in the Neo-Moorish or Moorish Revival style which emerged in Europe, North African colonies and America as part of the Romanticist interest in the "Orient" and also, notably, as a recurring choice for new Jewish Synagogue architecture. Some scholarly references associate the term "Moorish" or "Moorish style" more narrowly with this 19th-century trend in Western architecture. Similarly, Néo-Mudéjar was a revivalist style evident in late 19th and early 20th-century Spain and in some Spanish Colonial architecture in northern Morocco.

History

Earliest Islamic monuments (8th–9th centuries)

In the 7th century the region of North Africa became steadily integrated into the emerging Muslim world during the Early Arab-Muslim Conquests. The territory of Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia), and its newly-founded capital city of Kairouan (also transliterated as "Qayrawan") became an early center of Islamic culture for the region. According to tradition, the Great Mosque of Kairouan was founded here by Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, although the current structure dates from later.

Al-Andalus

In 711 most of the Iberian Peninsula, part of the Visigothic Kingdom at the time, was conquered by a Muslim (largely Berber) army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad and became known as Al-Andalus. The city of Cordoba became its capital. In 756 Abd ar-Rahman I established the independent Emirate of Cordoba here and in 785 he also founded the Great Mosque of Cordoba, one of the most important architectural monuments of the western Islamic world. The mosque was notable for its vast hypostyle hall composed of rows of columns connected by double tiers of arches (including horseshoe arches on the lower tier) composed of alternating red brick and light-colored stone. The mosque was subsequently expanded by Abd ar-Rahman II in 836, who preserved the original design while extending its dimensions. The mosque was again embellished with new features by his successors Muhammad, Al-Mundhir, and Abdallah. One of the western gates of the mosque, known as ''Bab al-Wuzara (today known as ''Puerta de San Esteban''), dates from this period and is often noted as an important prototype of later Moorish architectural forms and motifs: the horseshoe arch has voussoirs that alternate in colour and decoration and the arch is set inside a decorative rectangular frame (''alfiz''). The influence of ancient Classical architecture is strongly felt in the Islamic architecture during this early Emirate period of the peninsula. The most obvious example of this was the reuse of columns and capitals from earlier periods in the initial construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. When new, richly-carved capitals were produced for the mosque's 9th-century expansion, they emulated the form of classical Corinthian capitals.

In Seville, the Mosque of Ibn Adabbas was founded in 829 and was considered the second-oldest Muslim building in Spain (after the Great Mosque of Cordoba) until it was demolished in 1671. This mosque had a hypostyle form consisting of eleven aisles divided by rows of brick arches supported on marble columns. Of the brief Muslim presence in southern France during the 8th century, only a few funerary stelae have been found. In 1952 French archaeologist Jean Lacam excavated the ''Cour de la Madeleine'' ('Courtyard of Madeline') in the in Narbonne, where he discovered remains which he interpreted as the remains of a mosque from the 8th-century Muslim occupation of Narbonne.''Islam Outside the Arab World'', David Westerlund, Ingvar Svanberg, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999, page 342

Ifriqiya

In Ifriqiya, the Ribat of Sousse and the Ribat of Monastir