Great Mosque of Sfax

File / Documentation

Name

142147_sv.jpg

Size

576.92 KB

Format

JPEG

Checksum (MD5)

34f15b25a3ffc6d4a5e3a55e1bf82145

Creator(s)

Algerian, Islamic

Time period

creation date: original mosque, 850, alteration date: enlarged, 10th century, alteration date: enlarged, 11th century, alteration date: enlarged, 18th century

Location

Site: Sfax (Tunisia)

Cultural context

Algerian

Islamic

Description

"Renovated twice during the Zirid period, little remains of the original mosque, which was modelled on that at Qairouan. The Aghlabid prayer hall was reduced in width creating a narrow sanctuary of five aisles perpendicular to the qibla wall, and six aisles parallel to the wall. Two cupolas surmount the extremities of the central aisle. Doubtless originally roofed in timber, the sanctuary was later covered with vaults rising from elongated imposts on the capitals of reused Antique columns. The minaret is richly decorated with arched openings and friezes of dentils, circular bosses and inscriptions. The facade is broken up by slightly pointed horseshoe-arched niches and semicircular recessed linked by dentil moldings. The sanctuary was enlarged in Ottoman times, the builders restoring the mosque to its original Aghlabid dimensions." [Michell]

plan (drawing), Keith Turner after George Michell

Work type

Mosque

Medium

stone

Keywords