The Great Mosque of Mahdia

The construction of this mosque coincides with the building of the city in the early 10th century.
This is the main mosque reserved for the caliph and his entourage. Changes have been made to
half of the 16th century. It was converted into a church and cemetery for the military leaders

In 1960 and 1961, the mosque has been important work of clearing and excavation that brought a whole new account information while respecting its original area and keeping its main facade and entrance resembling a Roman triumphal arch. Its uniqueness is that it has no minaret. Its uniqueness is that it has no minaret.

Place the Fatimid mosque was directly inspired by the Great Mosque of Kairouan. It provides us the missing link of parentage that is sensed between the North African mosques dominated central nave and the first achievements of the Fatimids in Egypt.

The monumental porch, however, is an innovation. It follows a peculiarity of the Shiite doctrine. This mosque is essentially different from the others in that it is, first, built for one man. This is the "mosque of Imam", the leader of the believers and the Mahdi.

The stately or triumphal character of the input is directly related to the quality of such a character. The monumental porch occupies the central positon which is that the minaret of Kairouan. The minaret will reappear in the same place in mosques, after the return of Zirides to "orthodoxy." This suggests that the call to prayer was launched in Mahdia, down from the terrace of the porch, which was the highest point of the facade. No more in the great mosque in Mahdia other Fatimid monuments, we find the slightest arch neighborhoods. Everywhere wooden ceilings or barrel vaults on doubleaux in all respects similar to that of monuments Ifriqiyan the previous two centuries. Fatimid architecture, very sober in the field of decoration, continues, even more than previously thought, that of the previous century. It is essentially an art of transition.

source:http://www.mahdiaonline.com/