Moorish architecture


Moorish architecture is an architectural style which historically developed in the western Islamic world, which included al-Andalus, Morocco, and much of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The term "Moorish" comes from the European designation of the Muslim inhabitants of these regions as "Moors". The style blended influences from Berber culture in North Africa, pre-Islamic Iberia, and contemporary artistic currents in the Islamic Middle East to elaborate a unique style over centuries with recognizable features such as the "Moorish" arch, riad gardens, and elaborate geometric and arabesque motifs in wood, stucco, and tilework. Major centers of this artistic development included the main capitals of the empires and Muslim states in the region's history, such as Cordoba, Kairouan, Fes, Marrakesh, Seville, Granada and Tlemcen.
Even after Muslim rule ended in Spain and Portugal, the legacy of Moorish architecture was carried on in the Mudéjar style in Spain, which made use of Moorish techniques and designs and adapted them to Christian patrons. Much later, particularly in the 19th century, the Moorish style was frequently imitated or emulated in the Neo-Moorish or Moorish Revival style which emerged in Europe and America as part of the Romanticist interest in the "Orient" and also, notably, as a recurring choice for new Jewish Synagogue architecture.

Architecture

Characteristic elements of Moorish architecture include horseshoe or "Moorish" arches, interlacing arches, central courtyards, riad gardens, intricately carved wood and stucco as decoration, muqarnas sculpting, and decorative tile work known as zellij in Arabic or azulejo in Spanish and Portuguese. The architectural tradition is exemplified by mosques, madrasas, palaces, fortifications, hammams, funduqs, and other historic building types common to the Islamic world. Notable examples include the Mezquita in Córdoba ; the ruined palace-city of Medina Azahara ; the church San Cristo de la Luz in Toledo; the Aljafería in Zaragoza; the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada; the Giralda in Seville ; the Kutubiyya Mosque, Hassan Mosque, Andalusian Mosque, and al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Morocco; the Great Mosque of Algiers and the Great Mosque of Tlemcen in Algeria; and the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan, Tunisia.
The term is sometimes used to include the products of the Islamic civilisation of Southern Italy. The Palazzo dei Normanni in Sicily was begun in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo. There is even archaeological evidence of an eighth-century mosque in Narbonne, France, at the limits of Muslim expansion in the region in the 8th century.

By country

Spain

Caliphate of Córdoba :
Period of Taifas :
Nasrid Emirate of Granada :
There is a high concentration of Moorish architecture in the Maghrebi states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya mainly in the cities of Marrakesh, Rabat, Fez, Meknes, Tetouan, Taroudant, Tlemcen, Algiers, Nedroma, Tunis, Tripoli, Derna, and Testour.

Gallery