The al-Tawfīq Mosque

The Mosque stands on the Maaqal Az-zaim square, south-west of the Medina of Tunis.

It appears to have preserved much of its original appearance and shape when founded by Princess ‘Atf in the mid thirteenth century.

The plan of this building—its prayer hall has no preceding courtyard—resembles that of the Qasaba Mosque. In fact, an extensive, truncated trapezoidal enclosure in the south-western corner contains an open area around the prayer hall, excluding the façade that corresponds to the qibla wall. The north-western corner of the trapeze contains the single-storey tower, topped with a lantern.

The prayer hall is rectangular in plan. The substantial buttresses that support the robust outer walls distinguish it from the Almohad Mosque.

The trapezoidal shape of its buttresses, with their sloping roofs, is reminiscent of those on the Great Mosque and the Zaytuna Mosque at Kairouan, which is generally accepted as dating from the same era. Similarly, at Tunis, near Bab al-Bahr, another Hafsid foundation, the Zrar’iya or Zituna al-Barrani (meaning ‘exterior’) Mosque was built with the same features. It would also be interesting to discover whether this architectural specificity, which to our knowledge has no precedent in Ifriqiyan architecture, is not, in fact, a Hafsid innovation.

The external impression of robustness and solidity is echoed inside the sanctuary. The prayer hall, divided into seven naves and six bays, is entirely roofed with groined vaulting reinforced with transverse ribs. The distinguishing feature of the principal nave, which is equal in width to the others, is its dome near the mihrāb. The bays are slightly less wide than the naves, which explains the rectangular form of the groined vaults and the oval shape of the dome.

The dome preceding the mihrāb, whose prototype probably exists in the mosques established in the ninth century at Kairouan and Tunis, is very similar to the dome of the portico of the prayer hall of the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis. Here, however, the dome is oval, and this distinguishes it from the classical type.

As for the mihrāb itself, its difference with that of the Qasaba Mosque lies in the absence (around the niche) of marble panels positioned vertically and decorated with arcatures.

The minaret is also noteworthy. The building has undergone major transformations, both in terms of materials and construction methods, with regard to its architectural and decorative style. However, the minaret’s general morphology and structure remain faithful to the Almohad minaret style, and those of the Qasaba Mosque are Ifriqiyan in prototype. It is, in fact, an elevated, single-storey minaret with a square plan topped with a lantern.

This second khutba (sermon) mosque, constructed in Tunis by the Hafsids, attests to the architectural continuity of the Ifriqiyan tradition. Its dome imitates the Fatimid Zaytuna dome, with its solid construction and austere decorations, and is similar to the old Ifriqiyan sanctuaries of the High Middle Ages, which are characterized by their plain decorations. It does, however, lack the distinctive T-shaped plan, and therefore resembles certain Hispanic-Moresque mosques.