page_title: Moorish architecture
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Moorish architecture / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Paderne Castle Algarve Portugal 26th November 2007 by Beechgrove
context_page_description: Moorish architecture is an architectural style which historically developed in the western Islamic world, which included al-Andalus, Morocco, and much of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The term "Moorish" comes from the European designation of the Muslim inhabitants of these regions as "Moors". The style blended influences from Berber culture in North Africa, pre-Islamic Iberia, and contemporary artistic currents in the Islamic Middle East to elaborate a unique style over centuries with recognizable features such as the "Moorish" arch, riad gardens, and elaborate geometric and arabesque motifs in wood, stucco, and tilework. Major centers of this artistic development included the main capitals of the empires and Muslim states in the region's history, such as Cordoba, Kairouan, Fes, Marrakesh, Seville, Granada and Tlemcen.
  Even after Muslim rule ended in Spain and Portugal, the legacy of Moorish architecture was carried on in the Mudéjar style in Spain, which made use of Moorish techniques and designs and adapted them to Christian patrons.
context_section_description: Characteristic elements of Moorish architecture include horseshoe or "Moorish" arches, interlacing arches, central courtyards, riad gardens, intricately carved wood and stucco as decoration, muqarnas sculpting, and decorative tile work known as zellij in Arabic or azulejo in Spanish and Portuguese. The architectural tradition is exemplified by mosques, madrasas, palaces, fortifications, hammams (bathhouses), funduqs (caravanserais), and other historic building types common to the Islamic world. Notable examples include the Mezquita in Córdoba (784–987, in four phases); the ruined palace-city of Medina Azahara (936–1010); the church (former mosque) San Cristo de la Luz in Toledo; the Aljafería in Zaragoza; the Alhambra (mainly 1338–1390) and Generalife (1302–9 and 1313–24) in Granada; the Giralda in Seville (1184); the Kutubiyya Mosque, Hassan Mosque, Andalusian Mosque, and al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Morocco; the Great Mosque of Algiers and the Great Mosque of Tlemcen in Algeria; and the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan, Tunisia.
  The term is sometimes used to include the products of the Islamic civilisation of Southern Italy. The Palazzo dei Normanni in Sicily was begun in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo. There is even archaeological evidence of an eighth-century mosque in Narbonne, France, at the limits of Muslim expansion in the region in the 8th century.
caption: Paderne Castle, Portugal
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