Masterpieces of Islamic Art in Tlemcen

Tlemcen.. The metropolis of history and the pearl of the Maghreb

The streets in the city of "Tlemcen" tell the story of a glorious history and the pride of this ancient city full of events and personalities that left an indelible imprint on the history of the Central Maghreb and the Arab and Islamic world, it is the pearl of the Arab Amazigh Maghreb and the capital of Islamic history. The city of "Tlemcen", which lived through the most prosperous periods of the Middle Maghreb in the era of the Almoravid and Almohad states alike, and it was the capital of the Znatis and the Ghetoul owners of a clear imprint in the history of North Africa, the story of Tlemcen is still told by grandparents to grandchildren as if it had become yesterday, it was "Tlemcen" center of civilizational and cultural radiation and its features were marked by the features of the high Andalusian Islamic style with a renewed creative touch that left its mark on architecture and construction that many see in palaces, mosques and homes of Tlemcen to erect signs of the city's personality and track Its distinguished urban heritage to appear in the best way and deservedly deserves the title. The pearl of the Maghreb.

Tlemcen.. The metropolis of history and the pearl of the Maghreb

The streets in the city of "Tlemcen" tell the story of a glorious history and the pride of this ancient city full of events and personalities that left an indelible imprint on the history of the Central Maghreb and the Arab and Islamic world, it is the pearl of the Arab Amazigh Maghreb and the capital of Islamic history. The city of "Tlemcen", which lived through the most prosperous periods of the Middle Maghreb in the era of the Almoravid and Almohad states alike, and it was the capital of the Znatis and the Ghetoul owners of a clear imprint in the history of North Africa, the story of Tlemcen is still told by grandparents to grandchildren as if it had become yesterday, it was "Tlemcen" center of civilizational and cultural radiation and its features were marked by the features of the high Andalusian Islamic style with a renewed creative touch that left its mark on architecture and construction that many see in palaces, mosques and homes of Tlemcen to erect signs of the city's personality and track Its distinguished urban heritage to appear in the best way and deservedly deserves the title. The pearl of the Maghreb.

Etymology

The city of Tlemcen was called in the past as "Bomaria" during the Roman era, then Muslims called it "Agadir" or "the city of the wall" in the early Islamic era in the Maghreb, and then it was called "Tlemcen" in the ninth century AD. Historians differed in the reason for the name and its origin into several opinions, some of which we list for you:

The first opinion says that it is Amazigh in origin, consisting of two pieces, the first "Talm" meaning gathering and the other "San" meaning two, because of its combination of two cities that preceded it, the city of "Taqart" founded by "Youssef Ben Tashfin and the city of "Agadir" built by Abu Qurra Al-Yafrini on the ruins of "Bomaria". The second opinion says that its origin is also Amazigh consisting of "Tala" meaning source and "Messan" meaning dry, so that the meaning of Tlemcen becomes "dry source". There is a third opinion that says that it is a corruption of the plural form "Tlemsin", which is the singular "touch" and means the fountain of water, so the name of the city means "city of springs".

What is Islamic architecture?

The name of Islamic architecture is given to all the buildings left by Muslims, whether these buildings are mosques, palaces, castles, schools or houses, it is all that Muslims left behind from the building, and it is the result of the Islamic architectural heritage throughout the ages. Despite the multiplicity of types of Islamic architecture and its differences from one place to another and from time to time, it remains a reflection of the identity of those who built and built it in terms of their ideas, beliefs, psychological composition and social status to be a unique image and a special case for each time and place.

The most important landmarks of the ancient Islamic city of Tlemcen

The city of Tlemcen has gone through many Islamic historical stages since its conquest in the first Islamic era by Uqba bin Nafi in 671 AD until the present era, and perhaps one of the biggest evidence of the richness of that city in Islamic art and architecture is the selection of the city of Tlemcen to be the capital of Islamic culture in 2011 AD, where each era of its Islamic eras left an architectural heritage, perhaps the most important features of which are the following:

Mechouar Palace

It is not possible to visit the city of Tlemcen without passing through the Mechouar Palace, which is located in the city center, as it is one of the landmarks of the heritage city of Tlemcen, which testifies to the splendor and beauty of Islamic architecture at that time, this palace was built by "Yaghmer Assan bin Zayan" in the fourteenth century AD, and it was said that who built it first was "Youssef bin Tashfin" in the eleventh century AD at the time of his siege of the city of Agadir, there may be disagreement over who built it first, but no A dispute over the splendor of that palace with its magnitude, splendid houses and lush gardens.

Some historical references refer to the use of Prince "Abdul Qadir Al-Jazaeri" to that palace and his residence in it for four years at the time of the signing of the Treaty of "Tifna" between the Algerians and the French occupation, and then left it when the French broke the covenant, and the palace turned into a military barracks at the time of the occupation.

Mansoura Mosque

In 1299 AD, Sultan "Abu Yaqoub Yusuf", one of the Marinid sultans, founded a camp for the siege of the city of Tlemcen, so he built a mosque with a palace next to it and attached housing for soldiers to them, so it became an important and central city until its people abandoned it after the assassination of Sultan "Abu Yaqoub", but Sultan "Abu Al-Hassan" came after him and re-besieged Tlemcen until it surrendered and Mansoura and its mosque became a mark in the history of the Marinid state and a center of power.

The mosque consists of 13 entrances and is surrounded by walls on all sides, and one of its most famous features is the square minaret that is filled with Islamic decorations, and the minaret is located in the extended part of the northern wall, and it was designed to be similar to the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, which was inspired by the Roman towers of the Temple of Saturn. The minaret of Mansoura is one of the highest minarets of Algeria.

The Great Mosque of Tlemcen

It is one of the three historical mosques built by the Almoravids in Algeria, and the Great Mosque of Tlemcen takes the architectural style that characterized the Almoravid era, which is similar in its entirety to the Andalusian style. This mosque was built during the reign of Yusuf bin Tashfin in 1082 AD, then renovated and expanded by his son Ali bin Yusuf. The mosque contained some domes that resemble the domes of the mosques of Cordoba, Kairouan and Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, and the most important architectural pieces in the mosque are the "dome of the mihrab" with veins that consist of 16 ribs inside a square structure in four corners that combined architectural art in the Almoravid era with elements of Persian decoration, it is said that they were brought from the east and introduced to the Maghreb in the days of the Almoravids and were said to have been transferred by "Bani Hammad" where they had a close relationship with the Fatimid state.