The Twin Towers
How a prayer error created a masterpiece
The minaret rises seventy-seven meters above the palms, visible twenty-five kilometers away on a clear day.
The Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh was built twice. The first version, completed around 1157, had a flaw: the qibla pointed roughly five degrees east of true. Abd al-Mu'min razed it and started again.
The minaret was completed around 1195 under Ya'qub al-Mansur. He commissioned identical minarets elsewhere: the Giralda in Seville, the Hassan Tower in Rabat. The Giralda survives as a cathedral bell tower. The Hassan Tower stands incomplete. The Koutoubia alone remains as intended.
The name comes from kutubiyyin—'booksellers.' Up to one hundred vendors once clustered at the minaret's base.
Marrakesh building codes now prohibit any structure from exceeding the Koutoubia's height.
Sources
- Bloom, Jonathan, Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt (Yale University Press, 2007) Marçais, Georges, L'architecture musulmane d'Occident (Arts et metiers graphiques, 1954) Deverdun, Gaston, Marrakech des origines a 1912 (Editions Techniques Nord-Africaines, 1959) UNESCO World Heritage nomination file, Medina of Marrakesh
