Sidi Boumediene Mosque () or the Worshipper's Mosque () is a historic

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

religious complex In

Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran and is the capital of Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the port of Rachgoun. It had a population of ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, dedicated to the influential

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saint Abu Madyan. Abu Madyan was hailed from

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

and contributed greatly to the spread of ''

tasawwuf Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

'' in the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

region.

History

The mosque was founded by the

Marinid The Marinid dynasty ( ) was a Berber Muslim dynasty that controlled present-day Morocco from the mid-13th to the 15th century and intermittently controlled other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula ...

rulers in 1339. The madrasa was founded eight years after the mosque, where

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

had taught once.Madrasa Sidi Abu Madyan
. ''Archnet''. Retrieved January 7, 2018. Dar al-Sultan palace was established as well in the lower point of the complex, where the

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

s stayed during their visit to the mosque.Dar al-Sultan
. ''Archnet''. Retrieved January 9, 2018. The Sidi al-Haloui Mosque, built in 1353, was closely modelled on it.

Architecture

The complex contains several religious buildings including the

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, mausoleum,

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

and the

hamam A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the Islamic culture, culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

. The mosque has the main entrance resembling that of the several other

Moorish architecture Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture that developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). Scholarly references on Is ...

s from Córdoba to

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( , ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661� ...

. The entrance leads to the gallery of plaster paintings. On top of the dome exists

muqarnas Muqarnas (), also known in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe (from ), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in Islamic architecture in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below. It is an archetypal form of I ...

. It continues to the stairs which resemble that of the

Puerta del Sol, Toledo Puerta del Sol is a city gate of Toledo, Spain, built in the late 14th century by the Knights Hospitaller. The medallion above the arch of the gate depicts the ordination of the Visigothic Ildephonsus Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus (rarely ''Ild ...

. The wooden doors are decorated with bronze, and they lead to the

sahn A ''sahn'' (, '), is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central ''sahn'', which is surrounded by a ''Riwaq (arcade), riwaq'' or arcade (architecture), arcade on ...

with the fountain in the middle and surrounded by corridors and prayer hall.

Gallery

File:Minaret de Sidi Boumedienne.jpg, Minaret of the mosque File:Bild från familjen von Hallwyls resa genom Algeriet och Tunisien, 1889-1890 - Hallwylska museet - 92051.tif, Prayer hall, 1889-1890 File:Bild ur Johanna Kempes samling från resan till Algeriet och Tunisien, 1889-1890. "Tlemcen - Hallwylska museet - 91840.tif, Overview, 1889-1890 File:Mosquée Sidi Boumediene en 1886.jpg, The mosque, painted by

Fritz von Dardel Fritz Ludvig von Dardel (24 March 1817 – 27 May 1901) was a Swedish diarist, illustrator and early comics artist. He was a courtier, and is known for his diary and illustrations depicting the life of the Swedish court in the mid-19th century ...

in 1886 File:Emile Claus - The mosque of Sidi Boumedienne.jpg

References

Bibliography

*Georges Marçais, L’architecture musulmane d’occident, Tunisie, Algérie, Espagne et Sicile, Paris, Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1954, p.276 *Georges Marçais, Les villes d'art célèbres. Tlemcen, éd. du Tell, Blida, 2003, rééd. de l'ouvrage paru en 1950 à la Librairie Renouard (Paris) {{commons category Mosques completed in the 1330s Mosques in Tlemcen Marinid architecture Buildings and structures completed in 1339

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

Bibliography