Muhammad Bey mosque

The Muhammad Bey mosque, also called the Sidi Mehrez mosque, is located near Bab Swiqa, in front of the Sidi Mehrez zawiyya, in a commercial district. Its construction was started by Muhammad Bey in 1692 and was only completed after his death by his brother, Ramdhan Bey, en 1696. The building, set more than 4 meters above the neighbouring streets, rests on a platform. The mosque is accessed via a patio containing a mihrâb made up of a niche surmounted by a semi-dome whose arches are embellished with flourishes and three galleries surrounding the prayer hall. Covered by a terrace roof, it leads to the patio via pointed horseshoe arches supported by black marble columns resting on moulded bases and surmounted in most cases by hooked capitals and Hafsid capitals.

The square prayer hall measures 28 by 28 meters. The central dome is 15.80 meters in diameter, and 19 meters under its key. It is made of matched brick laid in horizontal ring courses. The dome, resting on a cylindrical drum pierced by six windows, is covered by a central cupola on pendentifs, flanked by four half-domes and four small cupolas covering the corners of the room. They are relieved by cross-shaped pillars surmounted by round horseshoe arches. The pillars are clad in marble slabs adorned with ceramic tiles imported from Nicaea (Iznik). The mihrâb is made up of a semi-circular niche, surmounted by a semi-dome whose walls are decorated with geometric motifs on plaster and whose front arch is a round horseshoe arch, with arch stones of alternating black and white marble. The whole is set in a rectangular frame clad in marble. The lower part of the walls of this room are also covered in tile panels. These panels are made of imported tiles, and others of Tunisian tiles. The ancient tiles imported from Asia Minor, which have survived restoration, are most interesting. They are beautiful pieces adorned with floral motifs and whose colours, in addition to green and blue, include the famous tomato red characteristic to Iznik faience of this period.

This monument, which clearly breaks away from all the local architectural traditions, is inspired by the Ottoman style. It is, for that matter, the only  Tunisian mosque that is derived from the Turkish prototype. It calls to mind the mosques of Asia Minor and particularly those of Istanbul, such as the Shehzade (1543-1548), Sultan Ahmet (1609-1616) or Yeni Valide (1663) mosques. The patio that surrounds the prayer hall on three sides is a model rarely applied in Tunisian mosques. This is in fact a characteristic specific to certain Ottoman mosques such as the Al-Ahmadiyya mosque in Istanbul, the Muhammad `Alî mosque in the Cairo Citadel, and others in Eastern Europe, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Greece. In Tunisia, the same U shape is found in the mosques of Hammouda Pacha, Youssef Dey, and Sahib at-Taba'. That it belongs to Ottoman architecture is attested in the dome, through passing from the square to the cylindrical plan which is accomplished not by corner squinches, as is the case of Ifriqyian domes, but by pendentifs, as with most of the domes in Constantinople.