Great Mosque Of Algiers
36 47'7 "N 3 3'51" E / 36.78528, 3.06417
The Great Mosque of Algiers ( Jemaa Kebir) was built by the Almoravid Youssef Ibn Tasufin in 1097. The minaret date of 1324 and was built by Sultan Zianides of Tlemcen.
The prayer room, without central dome, is pillared, and piers are connected by great arcs. The mihrab is decorated with columns and ceramic. The minaret is topped by a flagpole that traverse three copper balls of decreasing size.
The outer gallery is not original. It was added in 1836. Its marble columns with capitals decorated with floral motifs come from the mosque that was Sayida Es Place des Martyrs and threw it down in 1830. More recently it has covered the red tiles of its roof seal roll.
It is built of stone, brick, tile, wood on a wood frame. The interior is made of ceramic and wood.
The Great Mosque is located at Rue de la Marine and is the oldest mosque of Algiers.
Summary |
Listings votive
On the minbar
On the minbar Kufic spelling:
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"In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. This chair has been completed the first of the month of Rajab of the year 490. Work of Muhammad.
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Marble Plaque
On a white marble plaque placed on one wall near the entrance to the minaret.
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"In the name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful, Allah bless our Prophet Muhammad! When Prince of Abu Muslim Tshufn Allah strengthens and supports the minaret was completed in Algiers in a period that begins on Sunday 17 dhil Qi'da year seven hundred and twenty two ends and ends the first month of Rajab of the year seven hundred and twenty three, the minaret aforesaid, said in the language (mute) to about his current situation: "Where is there a minaret to the beauty comparable to mine? The Prince of the Muslims drew up apples for which he has clothed me m'embellir and completed my building. "
Architecture
The mosque of the Arab plan, emblematic of the religious architecture Almoravid , is the largest and oldest mosque in Algiers. The rectangular building is wider than deep and covered with double-tiled roofs, like all mosques Almoravids. You get to the court by a portico leading to breakthroughs three entrances in the north wall. The oblong courtyard surrounded by porticoes, some of which are continuations of the aisles of the prayer hall. It also provided input side, is divided into eleven aisles perpendicular to the qibla wall and five bays. Parallel to the lobed arches mihrab arches alternate with slightly broken perpendicular to it, based on rectangular pillars and crosses.
Besides the pointed arches that are already in the earlier monuments, the Almoravids were a large place in their decor to other forms of arcs. They develop the Maghreb arc lobulated, the Andalusians were used at the Great Mosque of Cordoba , by diversifying, they use bows to five, nine and eleven lobes, introducing in their religious buildings a real hierarchy of arcs that will be retained their successors. The robustness of the pillars and the elegance of broken arches give the bays of the Great Mosque of Algiers a harmonious simplicity.
The central aisle is wider, is magnified by arches enriched scrap into lobes circumscribed braid interleaved. It leads to the mihrab, which was rebuilt. Flanked by two spiral columns and topped by a pointed arch decorated with stucco work in relief, it is carved a niche flat bottom bevels. Unfortunately it has not kept its decor. On both sides of the mihrab, two doors give access to small oblong pieces. One still has an ingenious system of rails on the ground, which allowed moving the minbar provided with wheels of the reserve until the prayer room. His minbar, now kept at the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art, is the oldest and most finely crafted of Algeria.
In the northeast corner of Bab al-Jenina remains, with its various service rooms reserved for the imam and the minaret. His position in the building is a peculiarity observed in Zianides. His was quadrangular ends with blast walls to degrees and a lantern with a similar profile. Its surface is animated by the rectangular niches blind lobed arches and blue and white ceramics due to a restoration of colonial era.
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Sources
- Algiers, some of its mosques, the Committee of Old Algiers, El-Djezar Sheets, Founder Henry Klein (1910), Editions du Tell, 2003 [1]
- Elwatan.com, Zineddine Sekfali That can still be saved Algiers?, 2005 [2]
- Museum With No Frontiers, Ali Lafer, The Great Mosque (Djamaa el-Kebir) [3]
- Museum With No Frontiers, Leila Merabet, Minbar The Great Mosque of Algiers [4]
- Bourouiba, R., commemorative inscriptions of mosques in Algeria, Algiers, OPU, 1984, p. 81-86
- Bourouiba, R., The Art Islamic cleric in Algeria, Algiers, NMCS, 1983
- Bourouiba, R. Contributions of Algeria to the Arab-Islamic religious architecture, Algiers, OPNA, 1956
- Devoulx, A., religious buildings of the old Algiers, Algiers, Bastide, 1870
- Marais, G., Architecture of Muslim west, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain and Sicily, Paris, Arts and Crafts Graphics, 1954
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