To the brief sway of the Merinides (1337–59) Tlemcen is indebted for almost all the important buildings outside of its walls. The chief residence of Abû’l-Hasen Ali (d. 1348), next to Fez, was Mansura, where he erected a new ‘palace of victory’ as his kasba; but the place was abandoned under Abû Inân Fâres (1348–58), and from that time down to the French period it merely served as a stone-quarry.
During the brilliant reign of Abû Hammu Mûsa II. (1359–89), the first of the Ziyanides (1359–1517), the younger Abdelwadite dynasty, his court vied with that of Granada as a resort of artists, poets, and scholars; but from that time onwards Tlemcen shared the general decadence of Barbary. It was not only the chief scene of all the conflicts between the Merinides and Hafsides (p. [323]), but was grievously torn by internal dissensions also, so that it soon lost all importance. After the overthrow of the Ziyanides by Horuk Barbarossa (p. [221]), and after a short occupation by the Spaniards (1518), Tlemcen became a poor provincial town in the beylic of Oran. The present town-walls (1855–6) and a whole new quarter are creations of the French régime, under which, in 1842, Tlemcen was incorporated with their new colony of Algeria.
Comp. Marçais’s book on Tlemcen mentioned at p. [175] and A. Bel’s ‘Tlemcen et ses Environs’ (Oran, 1909).
From the Porte de Sidi Bou-Médine (Pl. D, 2, 3), the chief gate of the town, the Rue de Sidi Bel-Abbès leads in 2 min. to the Esplanade du Méchouar (Pl. C, 3), planted with fine plane-trees. On the left rises the—
Méchouar (Arabic meshwâr, the king’s castle), the residence of the Abdelwadites and Ziyanides, erected by Yarmorâsen about 1255, a great quadrangular pile, forming like the Alhambra a complete quarter of the town. The building was largely destroyed during a revolt against Hassan, Bey of Mascara, in 1670, and in 1842 was replaced by French barracks. The only relics of the original edifice are the Castle Wall, built by Abû’l-Abbâs Ahmed, the thirteenth Ziyanide, with its modern clock-tower of 1843, and the Castle Mosque, founded in 1317, which was long used as a storehouse. The latter, having been converted into a chapel for the military hospital, has lost its original character in the interior (adm. on application).
From the E. end of the Esplanade the Rue du Théâtre leads to the Place des Victoires (Pl. C, D, 2), planted with trees, from the parapet of which we look down on the E. Mohammedan quarter (p. [191]) and the hills of the Safsaf valley.
A little to the N.W. is the Place de la Mairie (Pl. C, 2), which, together with the Place d’Alger (p. [190]) on its W. side, forms the business centre of the town. On its S. side rises the Mairie (Pl. C, 2), erected in 1843. In the court are two onyx columns from Mansura, bearing two huge stone balls which were thrown into the town during one of the Merinide sieges.
The *Great Mosque (Pl. C, 2; Arabic Jâma el-Kebîr), the back of which bounds the N. side of the square, now the only edifice of the Almoravide period at Tlemcen, is very important in art-history as one of the few Moorish buildings of the 12th cent. that have survived without alteration. The inscription on the frieze of the drum of the mihrâb dome records the name of the founder, the caliph Ali ibn Yûsuf, who with the aid of Andalusian artists erected the court and the house of prayer adjacent to the Kasr el-Kadîm, or royal castle, in 1135–8. The minaret was not added till the reign of Yarmorâsen (after 1250). The kubba at the S.W. angle, adjoining the Rue de France, once perhaps the tomb of Yarmorâsen and several of the Ziyanides, now contains the vault of Mohammed ben-Merzûg. On the E. side of the mosque, near the old vine in the side-street, is a second saint’s tomb, the kubba of Ahmed Bel-Hasen el-Ghomari (d. 1466). The library, a later addition next to the minaret, has been removed by the French.
The square court of the mosque, which we enter on the E. side, is flanked on three sides by triple or quadruple arcades; the two aisles of the N. arcade, which precede the minaret, are of later date. The irregular plan of the arcades and of the main portal leading into the nave of the mosque was probably due to the situation of the castle. The onyx pavement of the court is preserved in part only.
The Interior, consisting of a central nave (15 by 10½ ft.) with twelve narrower aisles, is entered by five portals on the S. side of the court, whose arches are of round or pointed horseshoe form or multifoil, and also by two E. portals. The arcades, whose arches are mostly horseshoe-shaped, but in a few cases pointed, rest on short pillars. The open roof is well preserved. The nave is crowned with two domes, the nearer rising behind the sedda (p. [180]), while the second, over the mihrâb chapel, shows beginnings of stalactite vaulting. The great candelabrum under the central dome is modern and is for the most part an imitation of the old one said to have been presented by Yarmorâsen and now in the Museum (see below). The mimbar and kursi (p. [451]) are of no artistic value, and the maksûra (p. [71]) has disappeared. The elegant stucco ornamentation of the *Mihrâb, which even extends to the exterior, where the stone slabs are framed with multifoil arches, recalls the mosque of Cordova. The prayer-niche is lighted by three perforated windows of plaster. Behind the mihrâb is the sacristy.