Hassan II Mosque

The construction of the two Fassi shrines mentioned above marks the birth of a specifically Moroccan art which developed, from the different Andalusian and eastern influences, local characteristics that became its own proper. The vestiges of this era testify to the excellent skill of Moroccan craftsmen and artists who, getting inspired from the East as well as from Andalusia, managed to derive from the local traditions what was necessary to create an original Moroccan style. Henceforth, this capacity to integrate external contributions to enrich the local creation will ceaselessly characterize Moroccan art in general and architecture in particular. Even under the reign of the Almoravids, who were charmed by Andalusian

culture, and even more under the Merinid dynasty this tradition of faithfulness to the ancient heritage will never be failing. If the Almohad Sovereigns, especially 'Abd el-Moumen and his son Yacoub al-Mansour, were the greatest builders of religious shrines in the Muslim west, their works were nonetheless stamped by a kind of serenity and austerity matching their ideas system.

Thus, the mosques of Tinmel and Marrakesh, like the Hassan Mosque in Rabat, The Grand Mosque of Taza and the Giralda of Sevilla, which was built by Abou Yacoub in 1171, are clear evidence to the greatness and force of this architecture expressed by specific forms. They testify to a steady sense of volumes and a great mastery of the line. This sobriety characterizes the large decorum that befits the austerity characterizing the Almohad Dynasty. These buildings and their ornamental characteristics will be a source of inspiration to the works achieved later on. After the Almohad Dynasty Morocco witnessed several monumental works: in this vein, lets mention the Merinid madrassas and mosques in Fez, Salé and Oujda, or the Saâdian mausoleums of Marrakesh and finally the magnificent Alaouite mosques and palaces in Fez, Marrakesh and Meknès. All these works consecrate a style become classical. With the reign of His Majesty King Hassan II, we witness a profusion of audacious projects that enable to recover, not to say to go beyond the ambitions of the greatest builders of the stature of the Omeyyads: al-Walid in the East or Abd al-Rahmân I in Andalusia and of the Ottoman Ahmed I, founder of the blue Mosque, or the Almohad Yacoub al-Mansour. The Hassan II Mosque today testifies more than ever to this capacity to assimilate external influences and at the same time reflects a new proclivity in harmony with the technological know how that is called to make more effective, more present a past that was so far passively copied because, more respected than mastered, it was with nostalgia considered. While remaining faithful to the traditional inspiration, The Hassan II Mosque uses all the sophisticated technological gains and thus reflects the personality of His Majesty The King who is tightly attached to the spirit of contemporary civilization as well as to the teaching of Islam. The Hassan II Mosque thus operates a genuine return to the sources. The quotation of Al-Idrîssî about the Grand Mosque of Damascus seems, oddly enough, still valid in this last decade of the twentieth century: "There is a mosque and there is not a similar one in the world. There is no other mosque with so beautiful proportions, nor is there one which is so solidly constructed, nor is there one which is so surely arched, nor is there one which is so marvelously drawn, nor is there one which is so admirably decorated with mosaics of gold and varied designs, with enamelled tiles and polished marbles". One must not forget however that Hassanian architecture begins mainly with the edification of the Mohammed V Mausoleum and of a set of great projects that enabled the refurbishing of royal palaces in Fez, in Marrakesh, in Rabat, in Casablanca as well as the construction of new royal palaces in Agadir and Nador. Thus, the Almoravid-inspired foiled arches, the wood, turned, assembled, painted and engraved, cherished by the Merinids: the floral ornamentations and inscriptions on chiselled plaster are harmoniously interlaced with new designs and original chromes in our tradition. The Hassan II Mosque undeniably marks the continuity of a Modernized ancestral art and bears the sign of innovations that are due not only to technical reasons but also to a fertile exploration of new aesthetic possibilities.