Марракеш қаласындағы Кутубия мешіті

Mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco

The Kutubiyya Mosque or Koutoubia Mosque (جامع الكتبية )efn|The mosque's name is also variably rendered as Jami' al Kutubiyah, Kutubiya Mosque, or Kutubiyyin Mosque. It is located in the southwest medina quarter of Marrakesh, near the Jemaa el Fnaa market place, and is flanked by large gardens. The mosque was founded in 1147 by the Almohad caliph Abd al Mu'min right after he conquered Marrakesh from the Almoravids. A second version of the mosque was entirely rebuilt by Abd al Mu'min around 1158, with Ya'qub al Mansur possibly finalizing construction of the minaret around 1195. This second mosque is the structure that stands today. It is an important example of Almohad architecture and of Moroccan mosque architecture generally. The minaret is also considered an important landmark and symbol of Marrakesh.

The mosque's name derives from the Arabic word kutubiyyin (كُتُبيين), which means "booksellers". It is situated on the Avenue Mohammed V, opposite Place de Foucauld. During French occupation, the network of roads was developed with the mosque as the central landmark, in the ville nouvelle. To the west and south of the mosque is a notable rose garden, and across Avenue Houmman el Fetouaki is the small mausoleum of the Almoravid emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin, one of the great builders of Marrakesh, consisting of a simple crenelated structure. A part of the perimeter of the Ksar al Hajjar, the original stone fortress built in 1070 by Abu Bakr ibn Umar, the Almoravid founder of the city, was also uncovered on the northern side of the original mosque. Also visible today at the northeast corner of these ruins and in other areas around the adjacent plaza are various remains attributed to the palace of Ali ibn Yusuf, built next to the fortress and completed in 1126, before being demolished by the Almohads to make way for their new mosque. Directly east of the current mosque is a 19th century walled residence known as Dar Moulay Ali, which now serves as the French consulate. Also on the same esplanade is a small white domed building, the Koubba (or Qubba) of Lalla Zohra. This is the tomb of Fatima Zohra bint al Kush (also called Lalla Zohra), a female mystic who died in the early 17th century and was buried here near the mosque.

The city of Marrakesh was founded around 1070 by the Almoravid dynasty to be their capital, but was captured in 1147 by the Almohads under their leader Abd al Mu'min. While the Almohads decided to make Marrakesh their capital too, they did not want any trace of religious monuments built by the Almoravids, their staunch enemies, as they considered them heretics.

The issue of the qibla alignment of the Kutubiyya and other Almohad mosques (and of medieval Islamic mosques generally) is a complex one which is often misunderstood. This alignment was actually further away from the "true" qibla used in modern mosques everywhere today, Qibla orientations varied throughout the medieval period of Morocco, but the Almohads generally followed an orientation between 154° and 159° (numbers expressed as the azimuth from the true north), whereas the "true" qibla in Marrakesh is 91° (nearly due east). The Almohads, who rose to power after these periods, apparently chose a qibla orientation which they saw as more ancient or traditional. Whether their interpretation of the qibla was a true and rigorously followed directive or a mostly symbolic argument to differentiate themselves from the Almoravids is still questioned by scholars. The Almohad qibla was similar to the qibla orientation of the prestigious Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Qarawiyyin Mosque of Fes, both founded at an early period in the late 8th to 9th centuries. This practice may also have sought to emulate the orientation of the walls of the rectangular Kaaba structure inside the Great Mosque of Mecca, based on another tradition which considered the different sides of the Kaaba as being associated with different parts of the Muslim world. In this tradition, the northwest face of the Kaaba was associated with al Andalus and, accordingly, the Great Mosque of Cordoba was oriented toward the southeast, as if facing the Kaaba's northwestern façade, with its main axis parallel to the main axis of the Kaaba structure (which is oriented from southeast to northwest). According to this view, Abd al Mu'min began construction of the first Kutubiyya Mosque in 1147, the same year that he had conquered the city. The date of the first mosque's completion is unconfirmed, but is estimated to have been around 1157, when it is known with some certainty that prayers were conducted in the mosque, as it was in 1157 that a celebrated copy of the Qur'an attributed to the hand of Caliph Uthman, previously kept in the Great Mosque of Cordoba, was transferred here. A more recent (2022) study by scholars Antonio Almagro and Alfonso Jiménez has argued for a reinterpretation of Arabic historical sources and proposes an alternative chronology. The new mosque was likely connected to the adjacent royal palace via a passage (sabat) which allowed the Almohad caliph to enter the prayer hall directly from his palace without having to pass through the public entrances (not unlike a similar passage that existed between the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the nearby Umayyad palace). Modern archeological excavations have also confirmed the existence in the first Kutubiyya Mosque of a near legendary mechanism which allowed the wooden maqsura (a screen separating the caliph and his entourage from the rest of the crowd during prayers) to rise from a trench in the ground seemingly by itself, and then retract in the same manner when the caliph left. It is unclear if the first Kutubiyya Mosque had a minaret, though some historians have suggested that a former bastion or gate of the Almoravid kasbah may have been reused for the mosque's first minaret. Fragments of such a structure are visible today at the northeastern corner of the first mosque. They were identified by French archeologist Jacques Meunié as the remnants of a gate (referred to as Bab 'Ali or Bab 'Ali ibn Yusuf) belonging to the palatial expansion of the Almoravid kasbah by Ali ibn Yusuf. or even as an excuse to make one of the mosques exclusive to the ruling elites while the other was used by the general population. The only architectural differences are in a few details and in the fact that the second mosque was slightly wider than the first.

It is not known when the first mosque was actually deserted, nor is it known for certain whether it was consciously demolished at some point or simply abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. Many scholars believe that the two mosques most likely coexisted for a time as one large mosque. Deverdun, in his 1959 study of Marrakesh, suggested the possibility that the first mosque was only abandoned after Ya'qub al Mansur built the new Kasbah, or royal citadel, further south. As part of this citadel, al Mansur had raised the new Kasbah Mosque, completed in 1190, which subsequently served as the main mosque of the caliph and the ruling elites. The mosque and its minaret were restored at the end of the 1990s. In 2016 the mosque was fitted with solar panels, solar water heaters, and energy efficient LED lights as part of an effort to make state run mosques more dependent on renewable green energy. The mosque is still active and non Muslims are not allowed inside. However, it is possible to visit the Tinmal Mosque, built along the same lines, which is inactive but preserved as a historic site south of Marrakesh. On 8 September 2023, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 Mw damaged the mosque. Video footage during the earthquake showed the mosque's structure shaking. The building remained standing after the earthquake, In March 2024, the mosque reopened after completion of renovation work.

Architectural details of the first mosque and the second mosque are almost identical except for the orientation. Hence, what is true of one holds true for the other, though the first mosque is now only visible as archaeological remains. Aside from the minaret, the mosque is generally built in brick, although sandstone masonry is also used for parts of the outer walls. The same materials and construction methods are also evident in the first mosque.

The mosque is located in a large plaza with gardens, and is floodlit at night. The wall on the northern side of the first mosque abutted the old Almoravid fortress wall (the Ksar el Hajjar). There are eight entrances to the mosque: four on the west side and four on the east side. The eastern side faces the street where book shops were located, hence the name "Booksellers' Mosque". There is a private entrance for the imam on the south side of the mosque, leading to a door on the left side of the mihrab. Historically, the first Kutubiyya Mosque also had a private entrance next to the mihrab which was used by the ruler to enter directly into the maqsura.

The minaret is designed in Almohad style and was constructed in rubble masonry using sandstone. It was historically covered with Marrakshi pink plaster, but in the 1990s, experts opted to expose the original stone work and removed the plaster. The main shaft measures tall and has a square base measuring per side. The minaret's height to width ratio is thus slightly over 5 to 1, which marked a shift in minaret design in the Maghreb, as these proportions made the Almohad minaret taller and more slender in comparison with earlier North African examples. The Kutubiyya minaret subsequently became a model for later minarets built in the regions that passed under Almohad influence. The tower's prominence makes it a landmark structure of Marrakesh, which is maintained by an ordinance prohibiting any high rise buildings (above the height of a palm tree) to be built around it. The decoration is mostly executed in an ochre yellow over an ochre red background, or otherwise with a dark colour over a light background. In addition to some simple geometric motifs, the most elaborate examples are floral compositions based on a tree of life motif. There are also medallions containing stylized Kufic inscriptions with the words al Mulku Lillah (الملک للہ) and al 'izzu Lillah (العز لله). Forming a mosaic with a simple geometric pattern, this tilework is cited by Jonathan Bloom as the earliest reliably dated example of zellij in Morocco. Above this zellij band, the top edge of the minaret's main shaft is crowned by stepped merlons. a pole with three spheres decreasing in size towards the top, with the largest being in diameter. The spheres are made of copper plating riveted together. There is a flag pole next to the copper balls forming the spire, which is used for hoisting the religious green flag of the Prophet, which the mu'azzin does every Friday and on religious occasions. A popular legend about the orbs, of which there are variations, claims that they are made of pure gold. The legend was originally associated with the minaret of the Kasbah Mosque further south (which has a similar finial), but is nowadays often associated with the Kutubiyya instead. Another version of the legend is that the balls were originally made entirely of gold fashioned from the jewellery of the wife of Saadi Sultan Ahmad al Mansur.

Inside the main shaft are six rooms in succession, one above the other. The whole tower can be ascended via a wide interior ramp that allowed the mu'azzin to ride a horse to the top. Some of the surfaces of the walls inside the minaret are also carved with various graffiti in the form of architectural and decorative patterns, possibly left behind by artisans and architects who worked on the mosque over many years.

The Kutubiyya Mosque's original minbar (pulpit) was commissioned by Ali ibn Yusuf, one of the last Almoravid rulers, and created by a workshop in Cordoba, Spain (al Andalus). Its production started in 1137 and is estimated to have taken seven years. It is regarded as “one of the unsurpassed creations of Islamic art”. It is long, wide, and tall.