The Kutubiyya Mosque, or the Mosque of the Booksellers, was built around 1160 by the Almohad ruler 'Abd al-Mu'min, mirroring an earlier, slightly smaller, incarnation that it eventually replaced. Its name refers to the booksellers' shops which were once located around its entrance.
The plan of the mosque is slightly irregular to accommodate a correction to qibla orientation, but forms a traditional rectangular hypostyle hall with aisles perpendicular to the qibla wall and a rectangular courtyard.
The Kutubiyya's 230 foot minaret, which was completed in 1195 during the reign of 'Abd al-Mu'min's grandson Ya'kub al-Mansur, towers above the low roof of the prayer hall. It is square in plan, constructed of stone, and ornamented on each façade with polylobed, horseshoe arches and decorative motifs based on interlacing polylobed arches.
The combination of austerity and the enframing of lavish ornament seen first in this minaret appears in the other extant Almohad minarets: the Giralda in Seville, Spain and the minaret of the Mosque of Hassan at Rabat.
Sources:
Hoag, John. 1987. Islamic Architecture. NY: Rizzoli, 57-59.
Marçais, Georges. 1955. L'Architecture Musulmane d'Occident. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques.
Michell, George, ed. 1996. Architecture of the Islamic World. London: Thames & Hudson.
Pickens et al. 1995. Maroc: Les Cites Imperiales. Paris: ACR Edition.
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