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Almohad Reforms to Architecture
Almohad Reforms to Architecture
Early mosques like Tinmal were built mainly in brick and stone with relatively restrained surfaces, matching their concern for strict doctrine. At Tinmal, strong pillars, pointed horseshoe arches, and focused decoration around the mihrab and the qibla aisle created a clear T-shaped emphasis in the plan. That layout influenced later Almohad mosques (González Cavero, 2018). The Great Mosque of Taza shows an early Almohad hypostyle hall with a T-plan: the central nave to the mihrab and the qibla aisle are slightly wider, so the prayer space reads as a T inside a grid of arches. This plan became standard in later Maghrebi and Andalusi mosques (Mosqpedia, n.d.).
Great Mosque of Tinmal, an early Almohad mosque in the Atlas Mountains, built for ‘Abd al-Muʾmin in 1153 and remembered as the spiritual center of the movement (Archnet, n.d., https://www.archnet.org/sites/1745).
The Great Mosque of Taza, with shapes seen in later designs.
Early Almohad Footholds in Morocco
Early Almohad Footholds in Morocco
The Almohads first tested their mosque designs at Tinmal in the High Atlas and at Taza on the road between Fes and the eastern plains (Mosqpedia, n.d., Archnet, n.d.). The Great Mosque of Taza, founded by caliph ʿAbd al-Muʾmin after 1142, has a nearly square hypostyle plan with a slightly wider central nave and qibla aisle that create a T-shaped emphasis in the prayer hall (Archiqoo, n.d., Aroundus, 2025). Tinmal’s mosque uses the same T-plan and pointed horseshoe arches to lead worshippers toward the mihrab, a layout that later Almohad builders echoed in larger congregational mosques in Marrakesh and Seville (Archnet, n.d., González Cavero, 2018).
The Almohad Giralda in Seville reuses Umayyad capitals from Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ.
Almohad Echoing of Umayyad Córdoba
Almohad Echoing of Umayyad Córdoba
Almohad builders created new monuments that "quoted" famous caliphal art from Córdoba. In Seville, the Almohad Friday mosque’s minaret—now La Giralda—uses patterned brick façades over marble shafts that incorporate reused pink and blue marble columns and capitals taken from the ruined palatial city of Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ outside Córdoba (Archnet, n.d., Madain Project, n.d., Westwards, 2022). Ignacio González Cavero argues that this reuse of Andalusi forms and materials was part of a broader Almohad strategy to appropriate the memory of Umayyad Córdoba and present their own caliphate as its rightful western successor (2018).
Key Features of Almohad Architecture -
Key Features of Almohad Architecture -
What do You Look For?
What do You Look For?
Bab Agnaou Marrakech - Renovation Works 2020
Tinmal Mosque - Madainproject 2025
Fortress-Like Exteriors
Fortress-Like Exteriors
Almohad builders liked buildings that looked strong from the outside, like small fortresses: thick walls, few openings, and limited decoration focused around key points like gates and doorways (Archnet, n.d.; Visit Marrakech Medina, 2025). In the photo of Bab Agnaou in Marrakech, notice the main ceremonial entrance to the Almohad kasbah, the heavy masonry frame and carved stone arch set into the red city ramparts. The Tinmal Mosque in the High Atlas has the same “compact block” feel: a nearly windowless shell of rammed earth and stone that feels like a castle overlooking the valley (Madainproject, 2023; Archnet, n.d.).
Column Halls and the T Shape
Column Halls and the T Shape
Inside, many Almohad mosques use a forest of columns and aisles that guide worshippers through a main route to the mihrab (Mosqpedia, n.d.). At Taza, rows of pillars and slightly pointed arches divide the hall into straight ailes that pull the eye and the body toward the qibla wall. In Tinmal, a wider central nave and a deeper band along the mihrab turn that axis into a clear “T” shape in the middle of the hypostyle hall that became a standard layout for later Maghribi mosques (Archnet, n.d. Great Desert Tours, 2023).
Great Mosque of Taza Interior - Mosqpedia 2024
Hypostyle Prayer Hall - Madainproject 2025
Unfinished Hassan Tower - Morrocan Way n.d.
Square Minarets with Geometric Faces
Square Minarets with Geometric Faces
Another feature to watch for is the tall square minaret with stacked decorative panels. Towers like the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Almohad core of the Giralda in Seville share the same basic recipe: a solid square shaft, an internal ramp instead of a staircase, and brick or stone façades divided into arches, little windows, and sebka (net-like) patterns near the top (Department of Islamic Art, n.d., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.).
Giralda Tower in Seville - Seville Traveller 2025
How to Read Almohad Structures Like a Pro
How to Read Almohad Structures Like a Pro
Giralda Facade Sebka Windows - Notes Plus Ultra 2011
Madinat al Zahra Marble Capital - Metropolitan Museum 2022
Madinat al Zahra Horseshoe Arches - Archnet n.d.
Long before the Almohads, Umayyad rulers near Córdoba filled their palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra with carved marble capitals and horseshoe arches that became a visual signature of Andalusi power (Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Vallejo Triano, 2024). Excavations and studies of the site show reception halls framed by repeated horseshoe arches and richly ornamented capitals, setting a model later dynasties could reference (Archnet, n.d., Max van Berchem Foundation, 2022). In Seville, the Almohad builders of the Giralda reused Umayyad-style capitals and combined them with new brick sebka patterns, a deliberate choice that scholars like Mariam Rosser-Owen read as a way of claiming the memory and prestige of Córdoba while stamping it with a stricter Almohad geometry (Rosser-Owen, 2014, Madainproject, n.d.)
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