Gallery
Description
Property Name: Mosque and University Karaouiyn
Inventory No: 212-5-1
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2007-10-24
Country (State party): Morocco
Province: Fez
Town:
Geographic coordinates: 34° 3′ 45″ N
4° 58′ 30″ W
Historic Period:
Year of Construction: 859-60; 956; 1135; 17th century
Style: Sa’dian
Orginal Use: Mosque
Current Use: Mosque
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The Qarawiyyin Mosque is the largest mosque in Africa, one of the world’s oldest universities and the congregational mosque of the quarter of al- Qarawiyyin since 10th century. The by madrasas surrounded mosque was an important intellectual center in the medieval Mediterrenean.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
Founded by a Muslim woman Fatima al-Fihri, with an associated madrasa, the University of Al Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, opened its doors in 859. Its library has been restored during 2013-2016 by another woman, Canadian-Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni.
The mosque was expanded, renovated and restoreted several times through out the history.
References
Grube, Ernst J. Architecture of the Islamic world: its history and social meaning: with a complete survey of key monuments and 758 illustrations, edited by George Michell, Thames and Hudson, London, 2002.
Hattstein M., Delius, P. (Ed.), Islam: Art and Architecture; Köln, Könemann, 2000.
Michell, George, ed. 1996. Architecture of the Islamic World. London: Thames & Hudson, 216.
Archnet Web Site: http://archnet.org/