Bab al-Barda'in or Bab Berdaïne is the northern gate of the historic
''medina'' of
Meknes
Meknes ( ar, مكناس, maknās, ; ber, ⴰⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ, amknas; french: Meknès) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th c ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
.
History
Bab al-Barda'in existed as one of the original gates of the 11th-century city fortified by the
Almoravids
The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...
. This original medieval gate is partly preserved to the south of the present-day gate.
[El Khammar, Abdeltif (2005). "Mosquées et oratoires de Meknès (IXe-XVIIIe siècle) : géographie religieuse, architecture et problème de la Qibla". PhD Thesis. Université Lumière-Lyon 2.] The current gate at the northern end of the medina was built under the
Alaouite
The Alawi dynasty ( ar, سلالة العلويين الفيلاليين, translit=sulālat al-ʿalawiyyīn al-fīlāliyyīn) – also rendered in English as Alaouite, Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Moroccan royal family and reigning d ...
sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
Moulay Isma'il (ruled 1672–1727). Isma'il made Meknes his capital and refortified the city while building a new imperial palace complex to the southeast. According to
Ibn Zaydan
Abd al-Rahman ibn Zaydan () (June 1873 – 1946) was a Moroccan historian and literary author.E. J. van Donzel, ''Islamic Desk Reference: Compiled from the Encyclopaedia of Islam'', ed. BRILL, 1994 , p. 163 "His works may be considered as the bes ...
the new gate was completed in 1695,
though other sources cite 1687
1720
as the completion date. Around the same period, the nearby
Bab al-Barda'in Mosque, named after the gate, was completed in 1709.
Moulay Isma'il also built a public fountain near the gate.
The gate historically had great importance for the city, being the entry point for all trade and communications with the north of the country.
The name of the gate likely derives from a historic market for vendors of
packsaddles (, but locally pronounced as ''berda'in'') which existed nearby.
Description
Architecture
The gate is one of the most impressive in the city.
It bears strong architectural similarities to
Bab el-Khemis to the southwest, which dates from the same era. The gate has a simple straight passage (as opposed to the bent entrances of medieval Moroccan gates) opening through a
horseshoe archway and is flanked by two large square
bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
towers. On the gate's inner (southeastern) side, the entrance passage projects outwards from the surrounding wall. Like Bab el-Khemis, the archway of the gate is set within a square space (measuring per side) which is covered in decoration. The
spandrels of the arch are filled with tiles painted with an
arabesque
The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...
floral motif and two
mandorla-like shapes. Around this is a semi-rectangular frame or
frieze filled with a ''
darj-wa-ktaf'' pattern, with ''
zellij'' tiling filling the space between the lines of the pattern. Above this runs a horizontal frieze filled with a
geometric pattern
A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...
which in turn is filled with more ''zellij''. The decorated space is bordered on the left and right by two
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s topped by
consoles. Above all this in turn is a frieze of sawtooth-shaped
merlons.
Cemetery
A cemetery exists right outside the gate. According to Ibn Zaydan, a cemetery had existed here since the
Almohad conquest of the city (12th century), dedicated to the martyrs who were killed in the siege.
The vast cemetery present here today, also known as the Bab al-Siba Cemetery, still includes the ''Shuhada'' or ''Chouhada'' Cemetery (Martyrs' Cemetery), the Mausoleum of Moulay Abdallah Ben Ahmed (or Abdallah ibn Hamad: a celebrated ''
faqih'' who died in 1429), the mausoleum and
Zawiya of
Sidi Mohammed Ben Aissa, as well as the tombs of numerous other Muslim saints.
References
{{Reflist
Gates of Meknes
'Alawi architecture