Module 062 · Architecture & Empire

The Almohad Atlas

Every surviving monument of an empire that built in stone what it preached in scripture

Between 1130 and 1269, the Almohad caliphate controlled everything from the Sahara to the Tagus, from the Atlantic to Tripoli. They rejected the ornamental excess of their Almoravid predecessors and built instead with monumental restraint — enormous minarets, austere facades, horseshoe arches that framed emptiness as deliberately as they framed stone. Their three sister minarets — the Kutubiyya in Marrakech, the Giralda in Seville, the Hassan Tower in Rabat — still define the skylines of three cities in two countries on two continents.

26

monuments mapped

4

countries

139

years of empire

3

sister minarets

The Empire in Stone

Dashed line = approximate empire extent at peak (c. 1200). Click any site. Filter by type or region.

The Builder-Caliphs

Abd al-Mu'min

1130–1163

1st Caliph. Conquered Marrakech 1147. Founded the empire.

Abu Ya'qub Yusuf I

1163–1184

2nd Caliph. Builder of Seville as second capital.

Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur

1184–1199

3rd Caliph. "The Victorious." Greatest builder.

Muhammad al-Nasir

1199–1213

4th Caliph. Completed Fes walls. Defeated at Las Navas 1212.

Complete Inventory

Morocco (16)

Al-Andalus (Spain) (8)

Portugal (1)

Ifriqiya (Tunisia) (1)

Reading Notes

The three sisters

The Kutubiyya minaret (Marrakech, before 1195), the Giralda (Seville, 1184–1198), and the Hassan Tower (Rabat, begun 1191) were designed as a set — three minarets for three capitals across two continents. All follow the same proportional system: square shaft, internal ramp, decorative blind arcading. The Giralda is the tallest survivor. The Hassan Tower is the grandest unfinished project. The Kutubiyya is the prototype that generated both.

Construction became an industry

Scholar Felix Arnold observed that under the Almohads, construction reached a scale unseen since the Romans. Rammed earth and brick were their primary materials — cheap, available, and fast. They refined manufacturing processes that allowed them to build an entire city wall in months. The Marrakech ramparts — 19 kilometres — went up in eight months (though under the Almoravids). The Almohads replicated this speed across an empire.

Austerity as ideology

Ibn Tumart founded the Almohad movement on religious reform — the rejection of Almoravid decadence. This translated directly into architecture. Early Almohad buildings stripped back the ornamental excess of the Almoravid period, replacing intricate surface decoration with bold proportions and deliberate emptiness. The balance between carved stone and bare wall became itself a statement of faith. Later Almohad buildings — particularly under al-Mansur — gradually reintroduced ornament, but always within this framework of restraint.

The gate trilogy

Bab Agnaou (Marrakech), Bab Oudaia (Rabat), and Bab er-Rouah (Rabat) are three variations on a single theme: a monumental horseshoe arch framed by concentric decorative bands, with shell motifs filling the spandrels and Quranic inscriptions in Kufic script running along the outer frame. The bent interior passage — forcing a 90-degree turn — is both defensive and psychological: you enter the caliph's domain by submitting to his architecture.

Sources: Wikipedia: "Almohad architecture," "Almohad Caliphate," "Moorish architecture," "Kutubiyya Mosque," "Tinmal Mosque," "Hassan Tower," "Giralda," "Torre del Oro," "Bab Agnaou," "Kasbah of the Udayas," "Alcázar of Seville," "Walls of Marrakesh." Metropolitan Museum of Art: "The Art of the Almoravid and Almohad Periods." Archnet: "Timeline: Almohad (1130–1269)." Deverdun, Gaston. Marrakech: des origines à 1912. 1959. Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture. Edinburgh University Press, 1999. Petersen, Andrew. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. Routledge, 1999. Bennison, Amira K. The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Barakat Trust: "Documenting the Mosques of Tinmal and Taza." Dr. Íñigo Almela, Ataral digital atlas: 70+ Almohad buildings documented. Coordinates via Google Earth, OpenStreetMap, and Archnet.