The Badi Palace

The Badi Palace is the work of the Saadian sultan Ahmad Al-Mansūr Dahbī (reigned 1578–1603). Several months after he came to power, in commemoration of his astonishing victory over the Portuguese at Wadi al-Makhazin in 1578, he constructed a grand palace next to his private apartments[1]. This palace—that he named ‘Badi’ (the Incomparable)—was intended to be a venue for great ceremonies and feasts[2]. According to the historian al-Ifranī, work began on this grandiose construction began in December 1578 and continued uninterrupted for sixteen years.

The palace is now in ruins. Ancient texts provide us with precious information about its structure, and several plans illustrate its layout, like that of P. Francisco (Portuguese) from S. Juan del Porto in 1585, and the one drawn by Windus (an Englishman) in 1727. The Portuguese plan shows that four corner towers flanked the palace wall. It also had many doors, the main one being in the south-west.

The palace complex was organized around a rectangular courtyard with a long central pool that contained a monumental fountain, composed of two superposed fonts with a water jet. The pool had hollows on either side planted with flowers and trees, and ceramic-paved alleys. The corners of the courtyard contained rectangular basins.

In the middle of the two shorter sides of the courtyard stood two large projecting pavilions—today only one remains, in ruins. They were almost square in plan, and were covered with a dome supported by twelve sturdy columns. Their layout is similar to the great hall of the Saadian tombs in Marrakech. Small basins and water supply canals brought refreshment to the inside of the building, which was paved with ceramics.

On the longer sides stood rectangular, open pavilions with arcades with traditional wooden roofs. Chronicles refer to grandiose pavilions: the golden pavilion, the crystal pavilion, and that of al-Khayzuran[3], which was next to the baths. The pavilion of fifty columns, which was used as a reception hall, is still standing in the east, near the main door.

Little remains of the decorations that adorned the Badi palace, whose name alone would indicate a magnificent building. Sources refer to onyx in every colour, marble, gold-covered capitals, walls adorned in polychrome ceramics, wooden ceilings inlaid with gold, carved and painted plaster, with fountains and basins throughout the complex. The only way to get a good idea of what the palace’s decorations were like is to look at those of the Saadian tombs and the Ibn Yūsuf madrasah.

The entire palatial complex provides us with an excellent idea about sixteenth-century Moroccan architecture. Foreign contribution and influence can be seen everywhere: the palace’s plan and layout is Andalusian in origin. In the courtyard of the Lions in Granada, similar pavilions can be seen standing in the middle of the shorter sides, and the same system of canals and refreshment basins exists. The courtyards of the Myrtles also house an example of a rectangular basin similar to the one in the Badi palace. It is to be noted that this Alhambran influence can be seen in other Moroccan monuments, for example in the courtyard of the al-Qarawīyīn Mosque in Fez[4]. Indeed, thanks to the Granadine refugees, Nasrid art continued to reach and influence Morocco. The historian al-Ifranī also mentioned other sources of inspiration and the origins of the materials used on the palace. He described how Al-Mansūr recruited workers and artisans from every country, including Europe, and that marble was imported from Pisa in Italy: this was common practice in the Middle Ages, and can be seen in a number of Islamic monuments, attesting to a rich multicultural collaboration[5].

[1] Located in the north-east corner of the Marrakech qasaba

[2] It seems that Al-Manṣūr Dahbi did not, in fact, invent the name, which was already the name of a wing of the Umayyad palace at Córdoba and a pavilion constructed by Bani-Hammad at Bougie.

[3] The first name of one of the wives of Al-Manṣūr, mother of al-Shaykh and Abū Faris who both reigned after their father’s death.

[4] The mosque underwent several construction phases, the first in 859, then in 956, and it was significantly enlarged in 1135. The courtyard dates back to the Saadian era (sixteenth century).

[5] This had already been practised in the tenth century by the Caliph of Córdoba, during the construction of the caliphal city of Madinat-al-Zahra.