Description of the attraction
The Karaouin Mosque is one of the main monuments of Islamic religious architecture in Fez. The mosque, founded in 859 at the expense of a wealthy woman Fatima, a refugee from Kairouan, has become the most magnificent monument of this city.
The mosque with a total area of about 1600 sq. m can accommodate more than 20 thousand believers at the same time. Throughout its history, the building has been repeatedly rebuilt and enlarged. The most significant reconstruction of the mosque took place in 1135-1142. during the reign of Sultan Ali, who donated one of the best minbar in the Arab world to the mosque.
The Karaouin Mosque is a columned mosque. Seventeen doors of the mosque lead out onto a spacious courtyard paved with black and white stone tiles. In the very center of the courtyard there is a beautiful marble pool for ritual ablutions, along the edges you can see gazebos decorated with carved marble columns. The prayer hall is divided by columns into seventeen even naves. It is large enough and well organized. As for the ceiling of the mosque, it was made in a very complex and unique technique of honeycomb - "mukarna".
Of the domes, the most noteworthy is the small and surprisingly beautiful dome-tent located in front of the mihrab and built in 1136-1143. Another, no less beautiful stalactite dome serves as an adornment of the memorial part of the mosque, connected to the prayer hall by three doors.
Near the memorial hall is the famous Jamiat al-Karawiyin library, created in 1349 at the initiative of the Marinid sultan Abu Inan. The library has attracted scholars from many countries for several centuries with its rich collection of manuscripts.
The Karaouin Mosque has become famous also thanks to one of the oldest universities in the world located here. In the XII Art. it had 8 thousand students, thanks to which the university is still the largest intellectual center of the Arab East.
