The Bab Guissa Mosque () is a medieval

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 ...

in northern Fes el-Bali, the old city of Fez,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. It is located next to the city gate of the same name, and also features an adjoining

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 ...

History

Based on an inscription on one of its marble columns, the mosque is thought to originate from the 14th century, during the reign of 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 ...

sultan Abu al-Hasan (1331-1351), though there is not much available information. In the late 18th century, the Alaouite sultan Mohammed ibn Abdallah (1757-1790 CE) built an adjoining

while also restoring and expanding the mosque itself. The mosque was reportedly heavily restored and modified at the end of the 19th century as well. The mosque is named after the nearby Bab Guissa, a city gate which was in turn named after the 11th-century

Zenata The Zenata (; ) are a group of Berber tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. Society The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun repo ...

prince () who built the original gate by this name.

Description

Mosque

The mosque occupies a space of about 1440

square meters The square metre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square meter (American spelling) is the unit of area in the International System of Units (SI) with symbol m2. It is the area of a square w ...

Official signage posted outside the mosque. and is located just inside the northern city gate called Bab Guissa. This is a relatively elevated position compared to the rest of Fes el-Bali, and as a result the mosque's

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

is prominent on the northern skyline of the

medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

(historic city). The minaret is plain and mostly undecorated. On the mosque's eastern side, next to the base of the minaret, is the mosque's main entrance. The gateway is decorated with typical Moroccan motifs including interlacing semi-circles around the doorway's arch and a larger square frame with a band of ''darj-w-ktaf'' or ''sebka'' (a pattern with shapes similar to

palmette The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has a far-reaching history, originating in ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art o ...

s or

fleur-de-lys The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

). Above the door is a carved and painted wooden canopy, also characteristic of traditional Moroccan architecture. Next to this entrance, and adjoining the city wall, is a small outdoor gallery with wall fountains for ablutions (ritual washing before prayer), decorated with mosaic tiles (

zellij Zellij (), also spelled zillij or zellige, is a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces. The pieces were typically of different colours and fitted together to form various patterns on the basis of tessellations, ...

) in geometric patterns as well as tiles painted with

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ...

s and

Arabic calligraphy Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship, handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic language, Arabic as ''khatt'' (), derived from the words 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the ...

. The interior of the mosque is dominated by a relatively large courtyard or ''

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 ...

'', surrounded by galleries on three sides and by the main prayer hall on its southeastern side, all marked by large, slightly pointed

horseshoe arch The horseshoe arch (; ), also called the Moorish arch and the keyhole arch, is a type of arch in which the circular curve is continued below the horizontal line of its diameter, so that the opening at the bottom of the arch is narrower than the ar ...

es which are typical of medieval Moroccan mosques. The courtyard has a typical central fountain, but is also shaded by several

fig trees ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

, a much less typical feature. The main prayer hall is short and only two rows deep. The wall around the

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

(i.e. a niche on the

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

wall indicating the direction of prayer) is richly decorated with carved

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

and, in its top portion, a row of

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows with grilles of geometric patterns.

Funerary mosque annex

Behind the prayer hall (to the south or southeast) and attached but secluded from the rest of the mosque is an interior prayer space (of similar size to the main prayer hall) used only for

funerary rites A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect t ...

and for prayers over the bodies of the deceased before burial. This type of annex to a mosque, called a ''Jama al-Gna'iz'' ("Funeral Mosque" or Mosque of the Dead) is not common to all mosques in the Islamic world, but similar annexes are attached to the Qarawiyyin Mosque and the Chrabliyine Mosque in Fes. It is designed to be separate from the main mosque so as to maintain the purity of the latter as a regular prayer space (which by religious principle must not be soiled by unclean things, which would include dead bodies). This part of the mosque is accessed by another monumental portal on the south side of the complex, decorated with a radiating or semi-circular geometric pattern reminiscent of

Almohad The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). The Almohad ...

and Marinid gates. Since the Bab Guissa cemetery is located just outside the nearby city gate, it is likely that the mosque was well-situated to offer this type of service.

Madrasa

Adjacent to the mosque is the 18th-century

(for religious studies) built by sultan Mohammed ibn Abdallah (ruled 1757–1790). It is accessed through a door in the mosque's northern wall, but the building is located on the mosque's western or southwestern side. It is roughly the same length of the mosque but only half as wide. It consists of a two-story gallery around a long courtyard of 22 meters by 4.8 meters with a central fountain. Aside from the floor of the courtyard, which is paved with simple

mosaic tiles, this madrasa is essentially undecorated (in contrast with more famous madrasas in the city like the much older (14th century) Bou Inania Madrasa or the slightly more contemporary (17th century) Cherratine Madrasa). Today, the courtyard is also covered with modern light roof to keep out the rain. The galleries give access to the sleeping cells of the students. Seminars were conducted in the madrasa, and the mosque itself also hosted two teaching chairs (i.e. professors). At the beginning of the 20th century the madrasa housed 40-60 students, mostly from the nearby mountain regions of Morocco. It is still in use today.

References

External links

Bab Guissa Mosque and Madrasa
at ''ArchNet''. Includes pictures of the mosque's exterior and interior. {{Mosques in Morocco Mosques in Fez, Morocco Marinid architecture 14th-century establishments in Morocco 'Alawi architecture