Рабаттағы тарихи Хасан мұнарасы

Historic monument in Rabat, Morocco

Hassan Tower or Tour Hassan (صومعة حسان; is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat, Morocco. It was commissioned by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al Mansur, the third caliph of the Almohad Caliphate, near the end of the 12th century. The tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world, and the mosque, if completed, would have been the largest in the western Muslim world. When al Mansur died in 1199, construction on the mosque stopped. The minaret was left standing at a height of 44 meters. The tower, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms an important historical and tourist complex in Rabat.

Although the tower and the mosque were commissioned by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al Mansur, the monument is known as the "Hassan" Tower or the al Hassan Mosque. How the monument came to be given this name is unknown, although the name's use is attested as early as the 13th century. Construction of the mosque began in 1191, though the year 1195 is sometimes also cited due to historical reports by Mármol claiming that the creation of Ribat al Fath was intended to commemorate al Mansur's victory at the Battle of Alarcos.) The tower, like the Giralda of Seville in Al Andalus (modern day Spain), was modeled on the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh, but also drew influence from the ancient Egyptian Lighthouse of Alexandria for its height and method of ascendancy, a series of ramps. Yaqub al Mansur conducted other works in Rabat, most notably the construction of new city walls and gates and additions to the Kasbah of the Udayas.

The mosque is strategically placed on the high south bank of the Bu Regreg river to provide an imposing spectacle visible for miles around. Since the area surrounding was suburban at the time of construction and lacked the population to regularly fill the mosque, historians have been led to believe that it was meant to serve the Almohad troops who gathered here before setting off on campaigns and possibly even to serve double duty as both a place of worship and as a fortress. If completed, it would have been the largest mosque in the western part of the Islamic world, larger even than the Great Mosque of Cordoba. which has progressively turned a red ochre colour over the centuries. It has a square floor plan like other minarets in the region, measuring 16 meters per side. The current structure is tall but its intended height – based on knowledge of the regular proportions of other Almohad minarets – was at least , possibly to the top of its second tier (the smaller lantern tower usually topping minarets) and finial. This would have made it slightly taller than the original Giralda in Seville. Instead of stairs, the tower is ascended by ramps, which would have allowed the muezzin to ride a horse to the top to issue the call to prayer. At the center of each of the six floors would have been a vaulted chamber surrounded by the ramps and lit by the horseshoe shaped windows set into the sides of the tower. Its exterior is decorated with panels of sebka patterning as well as engaged columns and capitals carved from the same sandstone as the tower itself, although today it also retains one marble capital of Andalusi spolia.