Bab Oudaya

Bab Oudaya (also spelled Bab Oudaia or Bab Udaya; Arabic: باب الوداية, romanized: gate of the Udayas),[1][2][3][4] also known as Bab Lakbir or Bab al-Kabir (Arabic: باب الكبير, lit. 'great gate'),[5][6] is the monumental gate of the Kasbah of the Udayas in Rabat, Morocco. The gate, built in the late 12th century, is located at the northwest corner of the Kasbah, uphill from the medina of Rabat. It is often cited as one of the most beautiful gates of Almohad and Moroccan architecture.[7][6][8][9]

Bab Oudaya
باب الوداية
The outer façade of the gate
Alternative namesBab Lakbir (باب الكبير)
General information
TypeCity Gate
Architectural styleAlmohad, Moroccan
LocationRabat, Morocco
Coordinates34°01′51.7″N 6°50′12.3″W

Historical background
View of the Kasbah of the Udayas from the city-facing side: the great gate is located uphill on the left

In 1150 or 1151 the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min built a new kasbah (citadel) over the site of a former Almoravid ribat on the southwest shore of the Bou Regreg River, within which he included a palace and a mosque.[9][10][11] His successor, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (ruled 1184–1199), embarked on a huge project to construct a new fortified imperial capital, called al-Mahdiyya or Ribat al-Fath, on the site of what is now the old city of Rabat, with new walls extending over a vast area beyond the old kasbah.[12] This project also included the construction of an enormous mosque (the remains of which include the Hassan Tower) and of new grand gateways including Bab er-Rouah. At the Kasbah, Al-Mansur added a monumental new gate, Bab al-Kbir, which was inserted into the previous walls of the kasbah built by Abd al-Mu'min around 1150.[9][8] The gate was built some time between 1195 and 1199.[9][8]

After Abu Yusuf Ya'qub's death in 1199 the mosque and the capital remained unfinished and his successors lacked the resources or the will to finish it.[12] The kasbah itself became essentially abandoned.[10] The name "Oudaya" or "Oudaia", which is now associated with the Kasbah, dates from the 19th century, after the Udayas tribe, a guich tribe ("Army" tribe serving in the sultan's military) that was expelled from Fez by the Alaouite sultan Abd ar-Rahman in the late 18th century and whose remnants then settled in the kasbah.[13][14][15]

Architecture

The gate has both an outer façade (facing southeast towards the city) and an inner façade (facing northeast onto the Street of the Mosque), both richly decorated. The massive gate was largely ceremonial and had little defensive value, given its position already inside the city walls; unlike Bab er-Rouah, the ornate western gate in Rabat's city walls, built around the same time, it was not flanked by true defensive towers.[9][16]

The carved decoration around the horseshoe arch entrance features a curved band of interlacing geometric forms (specifically, a pattern known as darj wa ktaf, commonly seen in Moroccan architecture), set inside a rectangular frame outlined by a Qur'anic inscription frieze in Kufic Arabic script. The inscription includes the Surat As-Saff (61:9-13), which contains references to jihad, as befitting the kasbah's role as a symbol of Almohad military might.[11] In the corners between this curved band and the inscription are carved arabesque or floral patterns with a palmette or scallop shell at their middle, and above these is another carved frieze of palmettes.[9] Further above all this is another band of geometric carving, at either side of which are two ornate corbels, set above decorative engaged columns, which probably once supported a shallow roof or canopy covered in green tiles.[9] At both corners of the horseshoe arch (at the bottom of the curved band of geometric carvings) are serpentine "S"-like forms, probably representing eels, which are a very rare motif in Almohad or Moroccan architecture.[10][8] The external façade of the inner gate, facing towards the kasbah, has carved decoration very similar to that of the outer gate, but with minor differences in the choice of geometric forms.[8]

Inside, the gate has three chambers which form a bent passage: two square chambers covered by domes and a third chamber covered by a barrel vault.[9][8][16] Entering through the main outer gate, each chamber is reached by a short flight of stairs. The second chamber opens to the inner gate, while the third chamber (rarely open to visitors) can be accessed by a smaller doorway from the second chamber.[9][8] The archways inside the two first chambers feature decorative geometric carvings similar to the outline of the outer gates, but without the rest of the extensive decoration around them.[8]

  • The outer façade of the gate
    The outer façade of the gate
  • Details of the outer façade
    Details of the outer façade
  • The eel motif at the base of the arches
    The eel motif at the base of the arches
  • The chambers inside the gate (seen at night)
    The chambers inside the gate (seen at night)
  • The inner façade of the gate
    The inner façade of the gate
  • Details of the inner façade of the gate
    Details of the inner façade of the gate

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bab Oudaia.
  1. "Bab Oudaia | Rabat, Morocco Attractions". www.lonelyplanet.com. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  2. "Bab Oudaia". Archnet. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  3. Niane, Djibril Tamsir, ed. (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. UNESCO. p. 59. ISBN 978-92-3-101710-0.
  4. Métalsi, Mohamed; Tréal, Cécile; Ruiz, Jean-Michel (2000). The Imperial Cities of Morocco. Terrail. ISBN 978-2-87939-224-0.
  5. "Rabat, modern capital and historic city (Morocco)". UNESCO.
  6. "Qantara - Rampart and door in the Qasaba of the Udayas". www.qantara-med.org. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  7. Terrasse, Henri (1932). L'art hispano-mauresque des origines au XIIIème siècle. Paris: Les Éditions G. van Oest.
  8. Salmon, Xavier (2018). Maroc Almoravide et Almohade: Architecture et décors au temps des conquérants, 1055-1269. Paris: LienArt. pp. 268–276.
  9. Parker, Richard (1981). A practical guide to Islamic Monuments in Morocco. Charlottesville, VA: The Baraka Press. pp. 75–85.
  10. Touri, Abdelaziz; Benaboud, Mhammad; Boujibar El-Khatib, Naïma; Lakhdar, Kamal; Mezzine, Mohamed (2010). Le Maroc andalou : à la découverte d'un art de vivre (2 ed.). Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Royaume du Maroc & Museum With No Frontiers. ISBN 978-3902782311.
  11. Lintz, Yannick; Déléry, Claire; Tuil Leonetti, Bulle (2014). Le Maroc médiéval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne. Paris: Louvre éditions. pp. 306–308. ISBN 9782350314907.
  12. Bennison, Amira K. (2016). The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 309–10, 322–25.
  13. Le Tourneau, Roger (1949). Fès avant le protectorat: étude économique et sociale d'une ville de l'occident musulman. Casablanca: Société Marocaine de Librairie et d'Édition. p. 89.
  14. Mouline, Saïd (2008). "Rabat, Salé – Holy Cities of the Two Banks". In Jayyusi, Salma K. (ed.). The City in the Islamic World. Brill. p. 645. ISBN 9789047442653.
  15. Lintz, Yannick; Déléry, Claire; Tuil Leonetti, Bulle, eds. (2014). Maroc médiéval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne. Paris: Louvre éditions. p. 308. ISBN 9782350314907.
  16. Bloom, Jonathan M. (2020). Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700-1800. Yale University Press. pp. 135–136. ISBN 9780300218701.
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