Rabat -
In his eighties, Hajj Ali smiles, his face open, expressing his connection to the Sunni mosque in the capital, Rabat. “As soon as I enter this space, my chest becomes relaxed,” he says, pointing with an overwhelming look and an outstretched palm to a wide courtyard open to the sky, which is called the mosque’s courtyard. whose bright green mosaic was sparkling in the mild spring sun.
Jama’ al-Sunna is the fourth largest mosque in Morocco. It is an Alawi mosque from the 18th century. It was abandoned 20 years ago, its roof was moved, it was restored and its minaret was transformed, to become one of the distinctive urban landmarks of the capital, Rabat. What is its story?
The courtyard of the Sunna Mosque is a beautiful open space, showing one of the fountains and green tiled roofs (the island)
special location
As the middle of the contract, the Sunni Mosque fills the intersection of Mohammed V Street, the main street of the capital, where the Parliament building is located, and Hassan I Street, near the Royal Palace, along the Tawarka wall.
Behind it is the administrative district, where the headquarters of the most important ministries and major administrative and cultural institutions are gathered, such as the headquarters of the National Radio, and not far from it is the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Ancient History, which makes its call to prayer for it. "Al-Balagha", despite working hours.
The area of the Sunni mosque is 5565 square meters, making it the fourth largest mosque in the Kingdom, and the second largest mosque in the capital after Hassan, and it has 6 doors.
From the middle of Mohammed V Street, the mosque of the Sunna appears in its axis (Al-Jazeera)
interactive architecture
From the outside, its copper door shines, and it has beautiful decorations, green tiled roofs, and a four-way silo with similar faces, and history researcher Hisham Lahrash tells Al Jazeera Net, "The shape of the silos is inspired by the shape of the Kaaba, which symbolizes the four directions north, southeast, west, similar to The Umayyad Mosque, the silos of Hassan, Seville, and the Koutoubia.” The silo consists of a body, a stallion or a small minaret, and a jamour consisting of 3 apples (balls), which symbolize the sun, the earth and the moon.
It is a graceful hermitage that respects the golden geometric equation so that the diameter is one-fifth of the length, according to Harsh.
Outside the mosque, a public square is also filled with worshipers during Friday prayers and Tarawih prayers.
At its main entrance, you will be greeted by a hall parallel to the qiblah, in which there were rooms to accommodate students of knowledge in the past, and a square courtyard with a beautiful floor.
Before you pass the courtyard towards the inner door of the mosque covered with engraved plaster, two marble fountains stop you, one to the left and the other to the right covered with carved wooden domes.
From the entrance to the prayer hall door, the mihrab tiles appear through a wide entrance with a rectangular wooden ceiling from which large chandeliers hang, and on its sides are arches and arches.
From inside the mosque, the researcher in the history of Rabat, Hisham Lahrash, explains to us that the long rectangular corridors parallel to the mihrab are called the ascob, and there are 4 bays, and their rectangular wooden roof is called “Barcelona”, and the vertical roofed spaces are called “tiles.”
While the arches between them are made of engraved gypsum and masts of mosaics with metallic luster (made of porcelain and painted from metal), Hesham Lahrash adds that the rectangular wooden ceiling with links is a “julmoni” (pyramidal) ceiling inspired by European architecture, which makes the architecture of the Sunni mosque interactive and stores many Characteristics and historical epochs.
In the courtyard of the mosque are two fountains decorated with mosaics, zellij and marble (the island)
Moloki Alawi Mosque
Al-Hajj Ali - who is a volunteer after his retirement for more than 20 years to serve the mosque and supervise the Quran - lived some of the changes that took place in the mosque, describing it as the Mosque of the Kings, and remembering how the current courtyard of the mosque used to be trees and orchards through which a waterwheel passes.
The Al-Sunnah Mosque was founded by the Alawi Sultan Muhammad bin Abdullah in Jumada 1199 AH (March 1785 AD), and it was stated in the specialized Da’wa al-Haq magazine that Sultan Muhammad bin Abdullah spent a lot of money on the mosque.
Hisham Lahrash says in his interview with Al Jazeera Net, when Sultan Muhammad bin Abdullah became king in 1755, he entered Rabat and built the royal house, also called the Royal House, in an area that was called Agdal;
ie gardens and orchards.
He adds that Muhammad bin Abdullah built the Al-Sunnah Mosque to be a mosque in which the Sultan prays, unlike those before him, when the Alawi sultans, when they visited Rabat, resided in the Amiri House in the Udayas and prayed at the Udaya Mosque.
According to Harsh, the mosque witnessed the reception of the Turkish ambassador, Ismail Efendi (the ambassador of Sultan Abdul Hamid I).
Wooden ceilings carved with ties (Al-Jazeera)
Its roof was abandoned and moved to Marrakesh
After the death of Sultan Muhammad bin Abdullah, and according to identical historical sources, he abandoned the mosque for 20 years, due to its distance from the city and the small population around it, which prompted Sultan Moulay Suleiman to transfer the timber of its roofs to roof the Ali bin Youssef Mosque in Marrakesh, and later restored by Sultan Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman.
Inside the Sunni mosque, a marble plaque presents a summary of its history and most important stages through its door.
The plaque reads, "... Sultan Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman restored it by renewing the Sunni mosque, in which the five daily prayers are held regularly with Friday prayers, after the reconstruction of Tawarka and the establishment of the storehouse, and he did not change the original layout of the mosque, but added a wing and a new door behind the cabin and a place for ablution near the hermitage And in the year 1325 AH corresponding to the year 1907 AD, Sultan Abdul Aziz renovated the mosque and added in it a rectangular cloister behind the mihrab.
Corridors parallel to the direction of the qiblah, there are 4 of them in the Sunna Mosque (Al-Jazeera)
moving the silo
In 1969, King Hassan II ordered the restoration and renovation of the mosque, and the transfer of its minaret (his cell) from the northern end to the southern end of the mosque. Thus, the new hermitage became in its huge structure, which the beholder sees in a tight geometric axis on the largest street in the capital, Mohammed V Street.
Hisham Lahrash says that the Sunni mosque renewed its architecture by King Hassan II, in addition to the fact that the transfer of the hermitage restored consideration to the Almohad architecture, and made the “Barcelona” oriented towards the mihrab or the so-called middle court or the mihrab tiles, while the rest of the upper parts of the mosque were all “saquibs.” And “Barchalat” parallel to the qiblah.
Lahrash adds that the Sunni mosque combines the architectural characteristics of the Almohad and Alawi mosques.
The entrance to the prayer hall is decorated with engraved plaster, wood and mosaics (Al-Jazeera)
Aesthetic and scientific status
The Sunna Mosque is considered one of the most beautiful mosques. It combines luxury, spaciousness, simplicity, cleanliness, aesthetic architecture, carpet quality, traditional craftsmanship, and sustainability, part of which is lit by green energy.
The Al-Sunnah Mosque embraced the scientific chairs, witnessed religious lessons from the guest scholars of Morocco, and the princesses commemorated the death of King Mohammed V in Ramadan each year.
And we called Hajj Ali, and he says, full of longing to receive the delegations of worshipers, "When the mosque was closed due to the pandemic, my heart was clouded, and my longing increased with Ramadan to embrace the mosque for Tarawih."