Mosque of Sidi Bou Medine, Tlemcen

The mosque of Sidi Bou Medine stands about a mile south-east of Tlemcen. Newcomb calls it a very beautiful specimen of Moorish art and says it was founded in 1337 by a ruler he names "Ali V of Tlemcen, known in history as the black sultan". ¹

The main entrance is decorated with faience mosaic, and its pointed horseshoe arch is echoed in the lacelike arcades carrying the roof; a side doorway, restored in the eighteenth century, is entirely plated with tiles. The cedar doors are covered with repoussé bronze in a geometric interlace, which Newcomb compares with Ghiberti's doors at the Florence baptistery. He quotes Saladin's view that the likeness of its ornament to Spanish work is explained by the exodus of Andalusian Muslims from Cordoba and Seville after their fall in 1236 and 1248, and notes a tradition that the tile mosaics came from Morocco. ¹