Grand Mosque of Fes el-Jdid
The Grand Mosque of Fes el-Jdid is the historic main Friday mosque of Fes el-Jdid, the royal city and Marinid-era citadel of Fes, Morocco. It is believed to have been founded in 1276, around the same time that the city itself was founded, making it the oldest mosque in Fes el-Jdid.
History
The mosque was founded around 1276 by the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf, at the same time as he founded the new royal city Fes el-Jdid. Supervision of the mosque's construction was delegated to a man named Abu Abdallah ibn Abd al-Karim el-Jadudi and to the governor of Meknes, Abu Ali ibn Azraq. One historical chronicle claims that the mosque's construction was funded in part by olive oil production in Meknes and that labour was provided by Christian prisoners captured in al-Andalus. The mosques' construction was completed in 1278. The mosque's minbar, designed by a craftsman named "Algharnati", was finished in 1279. The mosque's maqsura and the mosque's grand chandelier were installed in 1280. The mosque was only the fourth "Friday mosque" to be founded in Fes, and was meant to serve the new city.In 1320 Sultan Abu Sa'id built a madrasa near the mosque, known as the Madrasa Fes Jdid or Madrasa Dar al-Makhzen, however it was never able to compete with the prestige of the madrasas in Fes el-Bali and was later absorbed by the expanding Royal Palace. Sultan Abu Inan is widely believed to have been buried in a tomb adjoining the mosque upon his death in 1358, although this is not fully confirmed. Abu Inan's burial here marked a shift in the choice of burial sites of the Marinid sultans. Up to that point they had been buried in the necropolis of Chellah but after this they were buried instead on the al-Qula Hill north of Fes.
An inscription on the mosque also records that it was "completed" by Sultan Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz II in 1395. Scholars believe it is much more likely that this refers to an embellishment or restoration of the mosque, as the mosque's layout does not suggest it was significantly altered or that construction was interrupted and then completed at a later date. The most likely interpretation is that some of the decoration was added or redone at this time. The decoration of the mihrab, for example, is consistent with a late 14th-century style.
Architecture
The mosque's overall layout reflects the "T-plan" that became standard in western mosques in the Almohad period. The building has a rectangular floor plan, measuring about 54 by 34 meters and covering about 2000 square meters. The layout includes a vast hypostyle interior prayer space and a large rectangular courtyard occupying most of the northern part of the building.The entrances
The mosque's main entrance is to the north, aligned with the mihrab at the opposite end of the building and leading into the courtyard. The entrance is doubled: to the left of the main gate is another gate. This resembles the arrangement of the double northern gate of the Qarawiyyin Mosque, whereby one gate featured a water channel which allowed visitors to wash their feet as they entered, while the other gate was a regular entrance. However, it seems likely that in this case the second gate was designed to give direct access to a walled-in gallery section in the northeastern corner of the courtyard which was reserved for women coming to pray.The mosque also had two gates on its eastern side and two more on its western side; on both sides, one gate led into the courtyard and another directly into the prayer hall to the south. On the eastern side of the mosque, the courtyard gate was at some point blocked off by the later construction of houses next to the mosque. Perhaps because of this, the remaining gate was also turned into a double gate with two doorways side by side.
The southern wall of the mihrab also has several doorways that lead to an annex space used by the imam. From here, there was also originally a direct access to one of the courtyards of the Dar al-Makhzen.
The courtyard (''sahn'')
The main courtyard occupied roughly the northern half of the mosque, measuring 24 by 18.6 meters. Like in other mosques, it has a central water bassin and is surrounded by arched galleries. The floor is paved with mosaic tiles. The central arch on the south side of the courtyard, which leads into the central "nave" of the prayer hall on the axis of the mihrab, is framed and surmounted by a tall and ornate portal. The spaces around the arch are decorated with carved stucco and crowned by a carved and painted wooden canopy. The arch itself is occupied by an ornate wooden screen known as an anaza; an outdoor or "summer" mihrab for those prayers taking place in the courtyard. The anaza has two doors, between which, in the middle, is a decorative composition with a mihrab shape containing a carved inscription in Arabic calligraphy. This feature is reminiscent of an equivalent creation added by the Marinids to the courtyard of the Qarawiyyin Mosque.The prayer hall
Like other standard Moroccan mosques, the prayer hall is a vast interior hypostyle space split only by rows of arches running perpendicular to the southern wall, except for an extra row of arches running close to the southern wall and parallel to it. The southern wall is also the qibla wall, and is marked by a mihrab in the middle. Of the aisles between the rows of arches, the center one, aligned with the mihrab, is slightly wider than the others and is emphasized with added stucco decoration on the walls between the arches.The mihrab itself is an alcove in the wall, inside of which is a small cupola of muqarnas. The wall around the mihrab is decorated with stucco carving and topped by windows with intricate stucco screens. The square space formed by the rows of arches intersecting in front of the mihrab is distinguished by more elaborate arches with lobed or serpentine outlines and decorated spandrels. The arch directly in front of the mihrab and across from it has muqarnas-carved intrados. This square space is covered by an ornate wooden cupola carved with geometric patterns and outlined with more muqarnas. This space is also further marked off from the rest of the mosque by another wooden screen with painted panels and a central door to give access, a feature not typical to most other mosques.
At the northern end of the central aisle, just behind the anaza, is an elaborately ornate ribbed dome, similar to the slightly earlier examples of this type found in front of the mihrabs of the Great Mosque of Taza and the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, ultimately deriving from the domes of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The ribs of the dome form a star pattern, at the middle of which is mini-cupola of muqarnas. Between the ribs are rich arabesques carved in stucco which also form a screen allowing some light in from the outside. The corners of the dome transition into the square space of the walls with the help of muqarnas-carved squinches.
The mosque's main chandelier, according to one source, was installed in 1280, weighs 715 pounds, and has 287 candlesticks. It hangs in the central aisle in front of the mihrab, and is considered by some to be one of the best Marinid-era examples of its kind.
The tomb and funerary annex
At the southwestern corner of the mosque is an annex composed of a rectangular chamber and a square chamber with a dome. The domed chamber is richly decorated with carved stucco and with zellij tile mosaic along its lower walls, and the dome has muqarnas squinches. Beyond the domed chamber is another small rectangular room containing a few tombs. This room is also opens to the outside of the mosque via an archway window or door. Although it has not been fully identified, one of the tombs in this room is assumed to belong to Sultan Abu Inan, the Marinid ruler who also built the Bou Inania Madrasa in Fes el-Bali.The minaret
The minaret rises from the mosque's northwestern corner. Like most Moroccan minarets, it has a square shaft with two sections: a main section rising most of the way, and then a second, much smaller square tower at its summit. The main shaft measures 5.7 meters per side and is 22.8 meters tall. The smaller tower at the top measures 2.9 meters per side and 6.4 meters tall. Inside the minaret is a staircase that wraps around the central core of the tower and leads to the platform at the top of the main shaft, historically allowing the muezzin to ascend to the top for the call to prayer.The four facades of the minaret are decorated similarly with darj wa ktaf motifs carved into the brick. Only the eastern side of the minaret has windows. The motif on the northern and southern facades is slightly different from that on the eastern and western facades, in that the top of each rhombus is split by the start of the one above. Except for the southern facade, the bottom of each facade has blind arches that blend into the rest of the motif above. At the top of the main shaft is a wide band of mosaic tilework with geometric patterns of radiating, almost circular, stars. Above this, crowning the top of the main shaft, are saw-toothed merlons whose surfaces are also covered in mosaic tilework. The small secondary shaft at the top of the minaret has similar decoration as the main shaft. It is topped by a small copula which in turn is topped by a metal pole holding four bronze spheres of decreasing size.
Adjoining the southern base of the minaret, above the gallery of the courtyard, is a chamber for the muezzin which was likely added after the minaret's original construction. Seen from the courtyard, this chamber is marked by a double-arched window, with an alabaster column between the arches, overshadowed by a carved wooden awning. It was similar in form and purpose to a Dar al-Muwaqqit.