Dar Moulay Ali (cropped from old photograph)

Dar Moulay Ali is a historic residence and riad in Marrakesh,

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 t ...

. It is located right next to the

Kutubiyya Mosque The Kutubiyya Mosque ( ; Berber: ⵜⵉⵎⵣⴳⵉⴷⴰ ⵏ ⵍⴽⵓⵜⵓⴱⵉⵢⵢⴰ, french: Mosquée Koutoubia) or Koutoubia Mosque is the largest mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco. The mosque's name is also variably rendered as Jami' al-Ku ...

. It currently houses the French

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth c ...

History

The residence was built in the 1820s, during the reign of Sultan Moulay Abd ar-Rahman, by Sulayman as-Siyadmi, a ''

qaid Qaid ( ar , قائد ', "commander"; pl. '), also spelled kaid or caïd, is a word meaning "commander" or "leader." It was a title in the Norman kingdom of Sicily, applied to palatine officials and members of the ''curia'', usually to those ...

'' of the

Chiadma The Chiadma () are an Arab or Arabized Berber tribe located on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the region between Safi and Essaouira. Territory The Chiadma territory is divided into two regions. The western portion lies between the sacred mou ...

tribe. Moulay Abd ar-Rahman's son and successor, Muhammad IV, confiscated the residence and gifted it to his brother Ali (Moulay Ali), after whom the residence is now named. During the

French Protectorate in Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prote ...

(1912-1956), it was used as the residence of various military officials. Today it remains in use as the official office and residence of the French consulate. The building was most recently restored in 2015.

Architecture

The residence is located directly east of the Kutubiyya Mosque, between the mosque and the main road today. It consists of a large house centered around a small courtyard garden, off which ornate salons opened. The house was decorated with painted

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 ...

motifs, ''

zellij ''Zellij'' ( ar, الزليج, translit=zillīj; also spelled zillij or zellige) is a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces. The pieces were typically of different colours and fitted together to form various pa ...

'' tilework, and epigraphic

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

inscriptions. An imposing ''menzeh'' or viewing pavilion originally stood on its southwestern side, next to the mosque, but this was demolished in the 1920s. The residence's original main entrance was on its northeast side, where a large rectangular riad garden (a garden divided into four parts by two crossing paths, with a central fountain at the intersection of the paths) led up to a decorated

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

in front of the entrance doorway. The riad garden had two small outer entrances on its east side but the main entrance to the compound was through another courtyard on its south side. This courtyard and the riad garden, however, were mostly demolished in the 20th century when the main road on its east side was enlarged, although traces of it have been preserved and can be seen outside the present-day walls of the residence. An even larger garden park was stretched out on the south side of the residence and still exists today.

References

{{Coord, 31, 37, 25.9, N, 7, 59, 33.5, W, display=title Palaces in Marrakesh Diplomatic missions in Morocco

History

Architecture

See also

References