The tinmal Mosque is the cradle of the almohad State
The Tinmel Mosque is a 12th-century mosque situated in the village of Tinmel hidden in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
Definition of the city of Tinmel.
Tinmel is a historical Moroccan city, associated with the religious reformer Al-Mahdi bin Tumart, the founder of the Almohad dynasty. The Marinids entered it and destroyed it completely, except for its greatest mosque. The site of the city, its mosque, and the present village still bear the old name (Tinmel). It is 100 km southeast of Marrakesh, on the road to Taroudant, through the Tizi-Natast pass. Its ruins are spread on the left bank of Wadi Nafis in the middle of the High Atlas Mountains, at an altitude of about 1230 m.
History of Tanmal Mosque
At the beginning of the twelfth century AD, a religious, reformist, monotheistic movement appeared in the high Atlas Mountains, led by al-Mahdi ibn Tumart, who has appointed as the spiritual leader of the Almohads in the year 1121 AD. After four years of his rule, he ordered the construction of the city of Tinmel and made it his capital and a military base for his armies. After his death, and in commemoration of his memory, his successor, Abd al-Mumin bin Ali al-Komi, ordered the construction of the Tinmel Mosque in 1153 AD, and the site was subsequently turned into a royal cemetery for the Almohad caliphs. During the Marinid era, the city was subjected to demolition and vandalism by the Marinid soldiers, except for the Great Mosque, which became an important landmark considered by the locals to be a holy shrine, in addition to the remains of its security wall on the eastern side and scattered ruins of the Kasbah of Orir Nettadhaf, which was singled out on the top of a mountain.
Tinmal Mosque
In memory of al-Mahdi ibn Tumart, his successor Sultan Abd al-Mumin ibn Ali al-Kawmi ordered in the year 1153AD to build the Tinmel Mosque.
The mosque was built with a rectangular design on an area of 48.10 meters in length and 43.60 meters in width, and it is surrounded by a high wall surmounted by balconies. The prayer hall consists of nine galleries oriented towards the qiblah, and the meeting of the axial tiles and the arcade parallel to the qibla wall forms a geometric shape in the manner of the Latin letter (T). As for the three domes, they are distributed regularly along the qibla portico, but only one of them remains in the southwestern corner. The corridors of the mosque are based on brick pillars with arches of various shapes, which contribute to giving a special aesthetic to the prayer hall. The courtyard extends northwest of the prayer hall and is surrounded by porticos. In terms of decoration, the mihrab of Tinmel is one of the masterpieces of Islamic art in Morocco. To sum up, the Tinmel Mosque is characterized by balanced volumes and a gradual structural symmetry for its facilities, all of which focus on the mihrab element, not only at the level of decoration but even at the level of geometric and volumetric connections.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]