Mosque and minaret of al-Méchouar (al-Mishwār)

Mishwār was the former citadel erected by Yaghmurāsan[1] (1234/35–1282); later, it became the official residence of the Abd al-Wadids, the kings of Tlemcen. Muhammad al-Tenesi speaks of its “splendid edifices, very high houses, gardens bedecked with greenery”. In the sixteenth century Leo Africanus mentioned the “buildings’ magnificent architecture”[2]. A fortified wall, situated in the centre of Tlemcen, forms a quadrilateral about four hectares in area. Roughly five metres high, it was originally made of rammed earth, but was restored in stone under colonisation. It is surmounted by a parapet walk.

The mosque, built without a courtyard nearly a century later by Abū Hammū Mūsā I, is all that is left aside from the ramparts. Completely modified during the Turkish period, the mosque was turned into a church during colonisation. It reverted to its original function when Algeria became independent. All that remains of its Abd al-Wadid origin is the minaret.

The quadrangular minaret is crowned with a lantern-turret; its four sides are covered with brick decoration embellished with ceramic mosaic. The lower part has a large rectangular panel bordered by ceramic tiles with lustre decoration, which frames an arch with intertwined cusps whose spandrels have ceramic mosaic decoration. In Tlemcen, the only monument that features lustre ceramic is this minaret. Many fragments of lustre ceramic have been found in Qal‘at Bani Hammad; perhaps the Abd al-Wadids were inspired by Hammadid art. The southern facade of the tower has a six-lobed arch with lambrequins surmounted by a second panel with a cusped arch that fits inside a panel with a similar frame (lustre ceramic tiles) circumscribing two inscriptions. One is “al-yūmn wa'l-iqbāl” (happiness and success), a standard expression found on a host of supports, such as the famous vase from the Alhambra and the crown that surmounted the hip knob of the minaret of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, on display at the Musée national des Antiquités et des Arts islamiques in Algiers. It is also found engraved on a girl’s silver bracelet discovered in Qal‘at Bani Hammad[3]. The upper part of the tower is decorated on all sides with a rectangular frame containing two superimposed arcatures made up of five large interlaced arches. The shaft of the minaret culminates in stepped merlons and the lantern-turret is adorned with a blind horseshoe arch.

The minaret has two storeys, not three like those of the Great Mosques of Kairouan and Sfax. The Abd al-Wadids took their inspiration for the profile and location of their minarets from Almohad minarets. However, they were not only the successors to these forms; they also contributed to the enrichment of Islamic art, in particular by giving epigraphic decoration and ceramic mosaic their place.

[2] Leo Africanus. The History and Description of Africa. trans .Robert Brown, John Pory. London: Hakluyt Soc., 1896.

[3] Bourouiba, R., « Note sur les bijoux trouvés à la qal'a des Banu Hammad », in Bulletin d'archéologie algérienne, T III.