Bab Mahrouk, also spelled Bab Mahruq, ( ) is historically the main western
city gate
A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway.
Uses
City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...
of
Fes el Bali, the old
walled city of
Fes,
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 ...
. The gate dates from 1204 and is located on the northwestern corner of
Place Bou Jeloud, near the edge of
Kasbah an-Nouar. It was historically the approximate starting point of the old city's main street,
Tala'a Kebira.
History
The current gate was built in 1204 by the
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 ...
ruler
Muhammad al-Nasir
Muhammad al-Nasir (,'' Muḥammad an-Nāṣir'', – 1213) was the fourth Almohad Caliph from 1199 until his death. Évariste Lévi-Provençalal-Nāṣir Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. 9 January 2013. Co ...
(ruled 1199-1213), who rebuilt the
city walls and fortifications of Fes generally.
It was also known (perhaps at an earlier period before the Almohad construction) as ''Bab ash-Shari'a'' ( meaning roughly "Gate of Justice/Law"), but became known as ''Bab Mahruq'' ("Gate of the Burnt") after the body of a
Wazzani rebel called al-'Ubaydi was burnt here in 1203-04 (600
AH).
The heads of executed rebels were hung here on display, a practice that continued on occasion even up to the beginning of the 20th century.
On some occasions the condemned were hung by the wrists just above the ground for a full day before their execution.
Today the gate is still standing but several other openings in the wall have been created nearby to allow for the passage of vehicles and regular traffic.
Description
Like many medieval fortified gates, the gate has a
bent entrance, entered from the west but turning 90 degrees to the south.
It opens through a large
horseshoe or Moorish arch, surrounded by a shallow rectangular frame (similar to Bab Mahrouk on the other side of the city).
Another simple opening in the walls, inserted in recent times for better circulation, can also be found to the south of the gate structure.
West of the gate, outside the city walls, stretches the historic Bab Mahrouk Cemetery, one of the main cemeteries of the old city. It includes the mausoleum of 12th-century
Islamic scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi.
, the famous
Andalusi poet from
Granada
Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
, was also buried there after he was killed while jailed in Fez in 1375.
One of the tombs in the cemetery may contain the final resting place of
Muhammad XII, the last ruler of Granada and al-Andalus, though experts have yet to confirm this.
References
{{Fes
Gates of Fez, Morocco
Almohad architecture