Mosque of Old Ténès

According to R. Bourouiba, this mosque, which is the oldest mosque in Algeria still intact, was supposedly built by the Idrissids, the descendants of the Prophet. Its style was inspired by the Great Mosque of Damascus.By virtue of naves running parallel to the qibla wall, the mosque of old Ténès resembles the first mosque in Medina, which the Prophet is said to have helped build with his own hands, the model of which was reproduced in Damascus (705-715). This mosque is thus said to be a North African example of a type that was created in Egypt (mosque of ‘Amr in Fostat, seventh century) or Syria and was also used in the oldest sanctuary in Fez (mosque al-Qarawiyyīn, ninth century).

Adjoining the northern facade of the mosque is an ablution room and a small courtyard where a tomb, which according to legend is that of the holy Sisi M’ammar, lies under an octagonal dome. The prayer hall is hypostyle like the mosques of Damascus, Cordoba and Kairouan and the al-Hasan Mosque in Rabat. The door leading into it is on the wall opposite the mihrāb but slightly off kilter. The prayer hall has five naves parallel to the qibla wall, divided into eleven bays, four of which support arches perpendicular to the qibla wall – a cross between the parallel nave plan (as in Damascus) and the perpendicular nave plan (in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa and Cordoba). Initially this hall had terrace roofs, a kind of roof covering that some authors trace back to the Roman period, while others see in it the influence, albeit not always direct, of the mosques of Ifriqiya (Tunisia).

The mosque of Old Ténès offers the oldest example of a mihrāb on a polygonal plan with an octagonal niche. This model was used thereafter in all the medieval mosques in western Algeria under the influence of the Great Mosques of Kairouan and Cordoba, which abandoned the traditional curvilinear shape. The mihrāb in Ténès is displaced one nave to the east and is preceded by a dome with a flattened calotte and four corner merlons, which emerges from the roof. According to R. Bourouiba, the mihrāb was reportedly shifted sideward intentionally for the sake of respecting the Medina type of layout.

The introduction of imposts between arches and capitals was first tried out in Egypt (mosque of ‘Amr) and then used in Ifriqiya in the ninth century, in Tunis and Kairouan. The fact that imposts were adopted in Ténès testifies to the obvious influence of Egypt. In its 39 cylindrical columns surmounted by ancient capitals in various shapes and sizes, the regularity of its arches, and its square or rectangular imposts, the mosque of Ténès strongly resembles the mosque of Kairouan. Several shapes can be recognised, such as the pointed horseshoe arch whose peak sometimes tapers off in an outline typical of ninth- and tenth-century Ifriqiya (Great Mosque of Kairouan, ribāt of Sousse, mosque of Mahdia in Tunisia, mosque of Sfax).

This mosque boasts the oldest known mihrāb with a horizontal register, adorned with two vertical string-courses and featuring three stilted arches, like the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The arches used in the mosque of Ténès have a very pure curve; the effect is one of harmony with the cylindrical columns topped with capitals, most of which were borrowed from Roman monuments in the region (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles), along with two types of Muslim styles (Zirid and Hammadid) belonging to the stylised vegetal and floral decoration known as “leaves with carnations”. Another technique used here is the incised floral decoration and epigraphic decoration adorning the imposts.