December 2016
The Saadian tombs are located north of the Almohad qasba in Marrakech. This sumptuous funeral complex was restored in 1917 by the Department of Fine Arts and Historical Monuments.
The main access to this necropolis of the Saadian royal family communicated with the neighboring mosque founded by Yaaqub al-Mansur. Since 1917 a new entrance has been fitted out in the southwest flank which leads to an open-air space occupied by a cemetery and a garden bounded on the east and south by an interior wall flanked by towers.
The nucleus of this necropolis was erected by the sultanAbdallah Al-ghalib in 1557 to shelter his father's graveMuhammad Shaykh founder of the Saadian dynasty. Later, the sultanAhmad Al-mansur Dahbi (1578-1603) carried out works of enlargement and embellishment of this necropolis following the example of the Mamlouk of Egypt; to welcome his own remains and those of various members of his family including his mother Lalla Massouda.
The necropolis consists of two architectural ensembles: the first is divided into three rooms. It opens onto an oratory with three naves in which tombs have been added from the 18th century. A mihrab traces a pentagonal niche topped with a pointed horseshoe arch which rests on four half columns of gray marble framed by four other similar columns and surmounted by a cupola with muqarnas.
Exhibition catalog : The Saadian tombs of Marrakech.
This set also includes a middle room called thetwelve columns. Sumptuous space in the form of a dome resting on four groups of three cararre marble columns which support a carved wooden ceiling decorated with large arched arches with muqarnas recalling by their order the oriental pavilion of the probably contemporary qarawiyyin. The most luxurious part of this room houses the remains of the builder of this funeral complex Ahmed al Mansour, of his son Zidane as well as those of his immediate successors.
This first set ends with an inground room ofthree niches and covered with a succession of cedar wood ceilings. On two of the four existing tombstones we can read the commemorative inscriptions of the tombs of Abdallah al Ghalib and his father Muhammad Shykh.
The alley through the open-air cemetery leads to the second set known as "qubba lalla mesaouda ». The first room containing his tomb constitutes the initial nucleus of the necropolis.. Indeed, during the reign of Ahmed al Mansur, it was equipped to the south with a large room covered with a cedar ceiling with unfinished decoration and two loggias to the east and to the west, the porticoes of which are each supported by two white marble columns surmounted by a muqarnas console. and cedar wood lintels.
This masterpiece of funerary architecture, draws, unquestionably, its source in the necropolises of previous dynasties in particular those of the Marinids in Fez and Chella.
All the more, the know-how related to the work of stucco, ceramic (ceramic mosaic with excised glaze) of sculpture of the cedar ceilings are probably related to Hispano-Maghrebian productions, in particular those immortalizing the Nasrid art that can be recognized in the Alhambra in Granada.
Partnership with the Regional Delegation of the Ministry of Culture of Morocco.