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Directionality in the Ceremony and Urban Project of Almohad Marrakesh
Abstract
This paper will explore the symbiotic relationship under the early Almohads between the congregational mosque known as the Kutubiyya and the urban expanse of Marrakesh. It will be shown that the Almohad mosque not only served as the ‘foundation stone’ of the city, but also became thoroughly enmeshed in the urban fabric, socializing and centralizing the religious experience in a manner that had not yet occurred in North Africa. This relationship was particularly important during the reign of ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, as he attempted to walk the line between his responsibility as the inheritor of a religious movement and his familial ambitions in creating the hereditary dynasty of the Muʾminids. In his construction of the Kutubiyya, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin embarked upon a massive renovation project that would reorient the city around the city’s new congregational mosque. These new urban spaces were activated through ritual and ceremony rooted in a Western Islamic tradition, which served to remind the city’s inhabitants of the origins of Muʾminid hegemony. The innovation of ʿAbd al-Muʾmin lies in the directionality of his urban project and ritual, which continually looked southwards to the Atlas Mountains and Tinmal, the spiritual home of Almohadism and the Muʾminid’s new dār al-hijra. Through such processional activity connecting the natural and the urban landscapes of Marrakesh, the Almohads actively appropriated symbols of the Prophet and instilled them with references to Ibn Tūmart (the founder of the Almohad movement), their Berber heritage, and their Atlas homeland. By making these visual references in the select spaces of dynastic public appearances, these ceremonies imbued ʿAbd al-Muʾmin’s new caliphate with a highly local identity that built upon ethnic and Islamic traditions in the region. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from recent historical and archaeological scholarship, this paper will reveal how the dynasty exploited the potential inherent in the local landscape to create an urban space reflective of their own tastes and ambitions, as well as the key role the mosque played in this development.
Discipline
Art/Art History
Geographic Area
Maghreb
Mediterranean Countries
Morocco
Sub Area
None