Architecture & Art of the Almohad Caliphate

By: Caterina Newman

“There is perhaps no better representation of the power of Almohad civilization than its architecture. Three major Almohad religious structures, the Kutubiyya of Marrakech, the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Mosque of Rabat, remain defining symbols of the cities in which they were built.” (Fromherz 53)

Art & Architecture from the Almohad Caliphate (12th c.) was a revolutionary blend of two cultural styles: Andalusi & Maghrebi. Andalusi refers to Andalusia or Al-Andalus, the peninsula of lower Muslim Spain. The Maghreb is Muslim North Africa, which consists of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, & Tunisia. The Andalusian style was decorative and Maghrebi was austere and simple. This revolutionary blend is not only present in art & architecture, but as well in philosophy.

The revolutionary Almohad Architecture and Philosophy both embodied the doctrine of Tawhid which means the “unification or oneness of God”. “The architecture was meant to be a massive statement of unity, embodying the revolutionary doctrine of tawhid, or divine unity.”(Fromherz 53)

This is a central theme of Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. “Hayy saw that while physical things differed in some respects they were alike in others and after some study and thought, he concluded that inasmuch as things differ they are many, but inasmuch as they correspond they are one.” (119). The continuous philosophizing of plurality versus oneness, the body versus the mind, material versus spiritual is what Fromherz refers to as, “The most striking achievement of the Almohad intellectual tradition was the attempt to reconcile faith and reason, religion and philosophy. A true sign of intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in one’s mind simultaneously.” (54)

The Almohad doctrine of Tawhid had an immense presence physically as well as mentally throughout the Caliphate: physically through architecture and mentally through philosophy and doctrine. This context allows me to understand the cultural relevance of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan during the Almohad Caliphate, and how it was a powerful force beyond the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. “The fusion of Andalusi philosophy and the doctrine of the Almohads produced a revolution in ideas, a revolution that has had an immeasurable influence on the Western intellectual tradition.” (Fromherz 53)

References:

Bennison, Amira K. “The Almoravid and Almohad Empires, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2016, pp. 1–23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvhrczbp.7. Accessed 8 Nov. 2020.

Department of Islamic Art. “The Art of the Almoravid and Almohad Periods (ca. 1062–1269).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/almo/hd_almo.htm (October 2001)

Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. “Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tsis/hd_tsis.htm (October 2001)

Fromherz, Allen James. “North Africa and the Twelfth-Century Renaissance: Christian Europe and the Almohad Islamic Empire.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 20, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 43–59. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09596410802542128.

Ignacio González Cavero. “The Almohad Caliphate: A Look at Al-Andalus through Arabic Documentation and Their Artistic Manifestations.” Arts, vol. 7, no. 3, Aug. 2018, p. 33. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/arts7030033.

“Museo Arqueológico De Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, artsandculture.google.com/partner/museo-arqueologico-de-cordoba.

“Museo Arqueológico Municipal De Jerez De La Frontera, Jerez De La Frontera, Spain - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, artsandculture.google.com/partner/museo-arqueologico-municipal-de-jerez-de-la-frontera.

“Museo De Almería, Almería, Spain - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/partner/museo-de-almeria.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Ibn Tufayl” Encyclopædia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Tufayl

Ṭufayl, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Malik Ibn, and Lenn Evan Goodman. Ibn Ṭufayl's Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān: a Philosophical Tale. The University of Chicago Press, 2009.