title: Kostas Manolas

text: Following a continued stretch of form from Manolas, former Greece national team manager Otto Rehhagel called Manolas up for the 30-man provisional World Cup squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, though he failed to make the final 23-man squad. Manolas would wait roughly three more years before eventually making his international debut against Switzerland in a friendly. Leading up to the 2014 World Cup, Manolas' strong 2013–14 season with Olympiacos earned him a spot in manager Fernando Santos' final 23-man squad for the tournament. It was in Brazil where the centre-back really caught the attention of the watching world, with a string of imperious displays that carried Greece into the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time in its history. He was named by "The Independent" as being among the 50 best players at the World Cup as the Greeks ultimately fell to Costa Rica.


title: Kostas Manolas

text: On 9 June 2017, Manolas and his Roma teammate Edin Dzeko came to blows during an ugly brawl in World Cup qualifier game between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece. The game ended 0–0 and descended into chaos after the final whistle, when numerous players and members of staff clashed.


title: Kostas Manolas

text: On 12 September 2018, Manolas netted his first goal with Greece, leaping over his marker to head a free kick through the goalkeeper's hands in a 2–1 away loss against Hungary for the Nations League.


title: Kostas Manolas

text: Manolas possesses the speed to keep track of smaller, quicker attackers, while also possessing the strength and aggression needed to battle with more physical opponents. Without the ball, he is both assertive and attentive in his marking of opponents, never neglecting his defensive duties, and always keen for a challenge. He is also a deceptively quick footballer, given his size, able to sweep up behind a high-line but also having the versatility and discipline to play deeper. Although he is primarily known as a "stopper", he is also a solid passer; indeed, few players better combine the virtues of an old-fashioned centre-half with the modern need to build play from the back. He is also known for his tackling and ability in the air.


title: Kostas Manolas

text: Manolas is the nephew of the legendary Greek footballer Stelios Manolas and the cousin of Konstantinos Manolas.


title: Global village

text: Global village describes the phenomenon of the entire world becoming more interconnected as the result of the propagation of media technologies throughout the world. The term was coined by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his books "" (1962) and "Understanding Media" (1964). Literary scholar Sue-Im Lee describes how the term global village has come to designate “the dominant term for expressing a global coexistence altered by transnational commerce, migration, and culture” (as cited in Poll, 2012). Economic journalist Thomas Friedman's definition of the global village as a world “tied together into a single globalized marketplace and village” is another contemporary understanding of the term (as cited in Poll, 2012).


title: Global village

text: Marshall McLuhan, who was a Canadian thinker, coined the term 'global village' in the 1960s. It indicates the daily production and consumption of media, images, and content by global audiences. McLuhan's views on the retribalization of Western society are prefigured in American anthropologist Edward Sapir's 1933 article on "Communication", in which he wrote:


title: Global village

text: "The multiplication of far-reaching techniques of communication has two important results. In the first place, it increases the sheer radius of communication, so that for certain purposes the whole civilized world is made the psychological equivalent of a primitive tribe."


title: Global village

text: McLuhan based his concept on the understanding of people moving towards involving personal interactions worldwide and the consequences, as they ensue and operate simultaneously with their causes. The term "global village" means all parts of the world as they are being brought together by the internet and other electronic communication interconnections. Other forms of communication such as Skype allows easier communication and connection with others, especially in other countries. The new reality of the digital age has implications for forming new socially meaningful structures within the context of culture. Interchanging messages, stories, opinions, posts, and videos through channels on telecommunication pathways can cause miscommunication. Contemporary analysts question the causes of changes in community, through speculating about whether or not the consequences of these changes could lead to some new sociological structure. For example, the increased velocity of transactions has fostered international density, making social networks a catalyst for social change.


title: Global village

text: Within the global village framework, individuals transcend the micro-, meso- and macro-dynamics of their life on a daily basis. Individuals tend to get involved in complex communities of networks stretching worldwide. The increasing density of electronically established and maintained human interconnections can form new socially significant clusters. The global village's implications on human relations are yet to be comprehensively studied primarily in terms of pattern recognition and discrimination techniques. Electronic media have the ability to impact individuals differently for various reasons, such as their religion, politics, beliefs, business, money etc. The time in which messages are received also affects how a message is understood.


title: Global village

text: McLuhan's approach is a seminal way to grasp what should be happening to the world at large and, correspondingly, what should be done with this in mind. For the Marshall McLuhan approach, the best way is to follow globally the maxims of electronically introduced "ecological thinking" taking into account that "the global village absolutely ensures maximal disagreement on all points".


title: Global village

text: People use technology to fit into a digital community to which they are not physically connected, but mentally connected. Each social media platform acts as a digital home for individuals, allowing people to express themselves through the global village. A Review of General Semantics argues that media ecology and new media have expanded who has the ability to create and view media texts. Since mass media began, it has called for the westernisation of the world. Without the mass media in effect, other countries may not have the knowledge of what the acquisitions of the other nations of the world constitute. Since most of the developing countries acquired the news and entertainment from developed nations like the U.S, the information received can be biased in favour of developed nations which connects the world in similarities within the media.


title: Global village

text: On the Internet, physical distance is even less of a hindrance to the real-time communicative activities of people. Social Spheres are greatly expanded by the openness of the web and the ease at which people can search for online communities and interact with others who share the same interests and concerns. According to McLuhan, the enhanced "electric speed in bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree." Increased speed of communication and the ability for people to read about, spread, and react to global news quickly, enables individuals to become more involved with others from various social groups and countries around the world and to be more aware of our global responsibilities. Similarly, web-connected computers enable people to link their web sites together.


title: Global village

text: No chapter in "Understanding Media", later books, contains the idea that the global village and the electronic media create unified communities. In an interview with Gerald Stearn, McLuhan says that it never occurred to him that uniformity and tranquility were the properties of the global village. McLuhan argued that the global village ensures maximal disagreement on all points because it creates more discontinuity and division and diversity under the increase of the village conditions; the global village is far more diverse.


title: Global village

text: After the publication of "Understanding Media", McLuhan starts using the term "global theater" to emphasise the changeover from consumer to producer, from acquisition to involvement, from job holding to role-playing, stressing that there is no more community to clothe the naked specialist.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Bobby Lee Eaton (August 14, 1958 – August 4, 2021) was an American professional wrestler best known as "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. He was most famous for his work in tag teams, especially as one-half of The Midnight Express. Under the management of Jim Cornette, he originally teamed with Dennis Condrey and, later on, with Stan Lane. He also worked with a number of other tag team partners, including Arn Anderson, Koko B. Ware, Steve Keirn, and Lord Steven Regal.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Over the course of his career, which lasted from 1976 to 2015, Eaton wrestled for extended periods of time for various wrestling promotions: NWA Mid-America, Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling, and Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He also made brief guest appearances for Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and a considerable number of independent wrestling promotions over the years. He held a large number of championships, including the NWA/WCW World Tag Team Championship on three occasions. Eaton was inducted into the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2019.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton grew up in Huntsville, Alabama where he attended Chapman Middle School and Lee High School. As a youth, he was a fan of professional wrestling, especially the NWA Mid-America promotion. This promotion was operated by Nick Gulas, who staged wrestling shows in the Alabama and Tennessee region. Eaton's first involvement in the sport came at the age of 13 when he helped set up wrestling rings in his hometown. He later trained under Tojo Yamamoto to become a professional wrestler.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In May 1976, at the age of 17, Eaton made his debut in NWA Mid-America. He entered his first match, a loss to Bearcat Wright, as a last-minute substitute for Wright's absent opponent. He quickly became a regular in Mid-America and continued to train with the more experienced wrestlers. Before long, fans, as well as promoter Nick Gulas, noticed Eaton's athleticism and showmanship. Gulas decided to "promote" Eaton up the ranks of NWA Mid-America, giving him matches later in the show, closer to the main event. The angle that helped elevate Eaton's name up the card in the promotion took place after the introduction of the tag team The Hollywood Blonds (Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts). Eaton fought the Blonds with a variety of partners, including his old trainer Yamamoto and "Pistol" Pez Whatley. When the Blonds decided to move to a different wrestling promotion, the storyline maintained that Eaton was responsible for driving them out of NWA Mid-America.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In 1978, Eaton teamed with Leapin' Lanny Poffo, and together they won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship from Gypsy Joe and Leroy Rochester. It was Eaton's first title win, and he and Poffo held it for a little over a month. Eaton went on to form a team, known as The Jet Set, with George Gulas, Nick Gulas's son. Together, Eaton and Gulas held the tag team title three times. During their time as a team, the two were involved in a storyline feud with Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes before Gordy and Hayes became famous under the name The Fabulous Freebirds.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In the spring of 1979, Eaton started a feud with Chris Colt, designed to establish Eaton as more than just a good tag team competitor. The feud between the two was so heated that it saw Colt suspended for piledriving Eaton on the concrete floor, making it appear Eaton had been seriously injured. Eaton suffered no injuries, however. At that time, the piledriver was banned in most federations and treated as a move that could potentially paralyze a wrestler. This was done to give the move more "shock value". Eaton conclusively defeated Colt, earning a place as one of the top faces (good guys) in NWA Mid-America. During 1979 and 1980, Eaton worked a series of singles matches against Dennis Condrey, a man he would later team up with to gain worldwide fame.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: At the end of 1979, Eaton turned heel (bad guy) for the first time in his career by joining Tojo Yamamoto's group of wrestlers, whom the fans hated. Although Eaton is now thought of mainly as a heel, his fans were surprised at the time. Eaton's heel run did not last long before he rescued his former Jet Set partner, George Gulas, from a two-on-one attack by The Blond Bombers (Larry Latham and Wayne Ferris) to return to the fan-favorite side once more. After reuniting the team, Eaton and Gulas had one final run with tag team champions and worked an intense feud with Latham and Ferris.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: When Nick Gulas' wrestling promotion closed due to dwindling ticket sales, Eaton briefly wrestled for Georgia Championship Wrestling, even capturing the National Television Championship. Before long Eaton returned closer to home, working for promoter Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), which was centered in Memphis, Tennessee. During his early days in the promotion, Eaton faced Stan Lane several times in tag team competition. Eaton's most successful partnership in the CWA, in terms of title wins, was with Sweet Brown Sugar, named "the New Wave". The two wrestlers blended their athleticism and high flying abilities to form a very successful team. The New Wave held the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship three times (twice with manager Jimmy Hart in their corner).


title: Bobby Eaton

text: After achieving success as a tag team, it was decided that Eaton and Sugar should split up and feud with each other. This storyline resulted in Eaton "forcing" Sugar out of the promotion via a Loser Leaves Town match. Sugar's disappearance was soon followed by the appearance of a masked man called Stagger Lee, who was virtually identically to Sugar. Eaton, along with the rest of Jimmy Hart's stable "the First Family", tried in vain to unmask Stagger Lee.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton turned face when Lee saved him from an attack by The Moondogs, and the team reunited, although Sugar continued to use the Stagger Lee gimmick. The team regained the tag team title before losing it to The Fabulous Ones (Stan Lane and Steve Keirn). Afterward, Eaton teamed up with The Moondogs (Rex and Spot) to face Jerry Lawler and the Fabulous Ones. During the match, one of the Moondogs accidentally hit Eaton with their trademark bone, costing their side the match. After the match ended, the Moondogs, as well as Jimmy Hart, turned on Eaton, beating him down until he was saved by Stagger Lee.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Soon after Eaton joined Mid-South Wrestling under promoter Bill Watts, he became part of the Midnight Express. Eaton teamed with former rival Dennis Condrey under the management of Jim Cornette to form a new version of the tag team. The Express had previously been a group of wrestlers consisting of Condrey, Randy Rose and Norvell Austin, but with Eaton's arrival, the Midnight Express worked exclusively as a two-man team. To complement the nickname "Lover Boy" Dennis, Eaton was nicknamed "Beautiful" Bobby (a reference to the phrase "Alabama the Beautiful"). At first, The Express was booked in an angle with the Mid-South Tag Team Champions Magnum T. A. and Mr. Wrestling II. The highlight of the angle saw Eaton and Condrey tarring and feathering Magnum T. A. in the middle of the ring. The Express first won the tag team title when Mr. Wrestling II turned on Magnum T. A., attacking him during the title match and allowing Eaton and Condrey to win the title without much opposition.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: With Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum T. A. splitting up, the Midnight Express needed a new team to defend their newly won title against. They began a long series of matches against The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) which ran well into the 1990s and spanned several wrestling promotions. The two teams feuded throughout 1984 in Mid-South Wrestling before the Midnight Express left the promotion. The Midnight Express versus Rock 'n' Roll Express series of matches were so well received by the fans that independent promoters continued to book them over a span of three decades and concluded with them wrestling the final match of the feud; Eaton against Ricky Morton. Morton won the match.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: From December 1984 to June 1985, The Midnight Express had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas, where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers).


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In 1985, Eaton, Condrey and Cornette signed with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and were given national exposure on JCP's televised programs on SuperStation TBS. Shortly after joining JCP, the Midnight Express reignited their feud with the Rock 'n' Roll Express and won the NWA World Tag team title from them in February 1986 during "Superstars on the Superstation". During the course of their heated angle, Eaton and Condrey re-lost the title to the Rock 'n' Roll Express six months later. Eaton and Condrey also had long running feuds with The New Breed (Chris Champion and Sean Royal) as well as The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk). The feud with the Road Warriors included a Scaffold match at Starrcade 1986, which the Midnight Express lost.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In early 1987, Condrey left JCP for undisclosed reasons, and "Sweet" Stan Lane took his place as part of the Midnight Express. In May 1987, after teaming for only a few months, Eaton and Lane became champions when they won the NWA United States Tag team title for the first time, a title they would win three times during their time together. A year later the team was cheered on despite being heels, as the Midnight Express won the NWA World Tag Team Title from Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard on September 10, 1988. This feud was cut short when Anderson & Blanchard signed with the WWF over money issues. The Midnight Express' run with the title lasted a little over a month and a half before the Road Warriors took the gold from them in a brutal match up, which saw the heel Road Warriors brutalize the now-popular Midnight Express.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Now the fan favorites, the Midnight Express had to contend with a team thought to be disbanded forever: the Original Midnight Express, which consisted of Condrey and Randy Rose, who joined JCP after a brief run in the AWA. The duo was led by long-time Jim Cornette nemesis Paul E. Dangerously, in a storyline that saw them trying to prove the originals were better than the new version. The surprise appearance of the Original Midnight Express gave Dangerously's team the initial momentum in the feud, but soon after, Condrey left the promotion once more. This forced the bookers to bring in Jack Victory as a replacement as Condrey's disappearance cut the promising feud short.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: The Midnight Express then turned their attention to Paul E.'s new team, The Samoan S.W.A.T. Team as well as a new version of The Fabulous Freebirds. Eaton and Lane were defeated by the Freebirds in the finals of a tournament for the vacated World Tag Team Titles. Following this loss, the Midnight Express teamed with their former enemies The Road Warriors and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams to defeat the SST and the Freebirds in a WarGames match at The Great American Bash. Following this feud, Lane and Eaton began having issues with a young new team in the NWA known as "the Dynamic Dudes" (Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace). The Dudes admitted that the Midnight Express was one of their favorite teams and asked if Cornette would be their manager as well. Cornette agreed to manage the young team, to the displeasure of the Midnight Express. After arguing with the Express, Jim Cornette stopped accompanying Eaton and Lane to the ring, choosing to only actively manage the Dudes. At Clash of Champions IX, the two teams met with Jim Cornette appearing in a neutral corner, forced to choose between the teams. The Express started out very aggressively, especially for a team that was supposed to be fan favorites, and when the night was over, the Midnight Express had once again established themselves as heels with Jim Cornette in their corner; Cornette had never stopped siding with the Express.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: After returning to their cheating ways, the Midnight Express started a storyline with the up-and-coming team of Flyin' Brian and "Z-Man" Tom Zenk over the United States Tag team title. The Express won the title from the young team in early 1990, but lost the belts to The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) three months later. After a loss at the WCW pay-per-view Halloween Havoc 1990, the Midnight Express split up, as Jim Cornette and Stan Lane left the federation, while Eaton chose to remain in WCW. For the first time in almost a decade, there was no Midnight Express.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: For the first time since 1979, Eaton was a singles competitor, and he faced an uphill struggle to establish himself. He wrestled his former opponents in tag team competition such as Brad Armstrong (whom he defeated at WrestleWar '91), Ricky Morton and "Z-Man" Tom Zenk (whom he defeated at Starrcade '90, but lost to at Clash of the Champions XIV), but it was not until he turned face during the early parts of 1991 that he started to move up the rankings. Per a Wrestling Observer Newsletter report, Eaton signed a two-year contract worth $170,000 a year in January 1991. At SuperBrawl I, Eaton defeated Arn Anderson to win the World Television Championship. Eaton's highest profile match as a singles wrestler came when he faced off against the World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions XV in a two-out-of-three falls match. Eaton pinned Flair in the first fall, but ultimately lost to Flair two falls to one. His World Television Championship reign was short-lived losing the title to newcomer "Stunning" Steve Austin, who leveraged his manager and Eaton's tights to get the pinfall victory. The match aired on tape delay on June 29, 1991, though was taped on June 3, nine days before the Clash, so Eaton was only mentioned as champion during the Top 10 rankings segment at that event.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Late in 1991, Paul E. Dangerously formed the faction the Dangerous Alliance. Eaton joined the group when he assisted Rick Rude, with the storyline being that Dangerously had brought Rude to WCW, in defeating Sting for the United States Championship. In joining the group, Eaton became allies with Rude, Larry Zbyszko, and his two former rivals for the World Television Championship in Arn Anderson and Steve Austin. Shortly after the group was formed, Anderson and Eaton became its tag team specialists as both men had been successful tag team wrestlers in their careers; Anderson himself had been a two-time world champion teaming with Tully Blanchard in the Four Horsemen and had also won the belts with Zbyszko earlier in the year. Eaton and Anderson quickly won the WCW World Tag Team Championship by defeating Ricky Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes, the team to whom Anderson and Zbyszko lost the belts, for the championship and held on to the belts for five months before they lost them to the Steiner Brothers.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: At one point during 1992, the Dangerous Alliance held every title except the WCW World Title, which was held by their main opponent and arch enemy Sting. The war between the Dangerous Alliance and Sting and friends escalated until it was decided to settle it in a double-ring War Games match at WrestleWar 1992. Sting's team won when Sting forced Eaton to give up after Larry Zbyszko accidentally struck Eaton in the arm with a metal rod. This match would be given a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter".


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In the aftermath of the War Games match, Zbyszko was kicked out of the Alliance for causing the Alliance loss. Soon after the Alliance disintegrated, Paul E. Dangerously left WCW. Eaton and Anderson continued to team after the Alliance fell apart, now managed by Michael Hayes. Eaton and Anderson worked in the tag team division until new WCW booker Bill Watts fired Eaton along with a number of other WCW regulars in a cost-cutting measure.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: When Eaton found himself without a job, he reached out to former manager Jim Cornette. Cornette had started his own wrestling promotion, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), and welcomed Eaton with open arms. Eaton joined up with the Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard), and the three were booked as the company's top heels for a while. Eaton also won the SMW version of the TV title, known as the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton first toured through Japan with New Japan Pro-Wrestling in May 1993 during their "Explosion Tour", teaming with Tony Halme and in various tag team matches, facing teams such as Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh, Manabu Nakanishi and Masa Saito, Shinya Hashimoto and Michiyoshi Ohara, Riki Choshu and Takayuki Iizuka and even Hawk Warrior and Power Warrior, known as the Hellraisers, with the latter putting their IWGP Tag Team Championships on the line on June 14, in which Eaton and Halme lost. In January 1994, Eaton went back to Japan during their "Fighting Spirit" tour, wrestling only in tag team matches (with the exception of a singles match against Black Cat and another against Power Warrior) teaming with Rambo and Mike Enos. In November 1995 during their "NJPW/WCW World in Japan" tour, Eaton, now under the "Earl Robert Eaton" character, toured with New Japan for the last time, wrestling only two tag team matches in two days, teaming with Johnny B. Badd (the announcers mistakingly and constantly referred him as Bobby instead of Robert) in a losing effort against the Ookami Gundan (Masahiro Chono and Hiroyoshi Tenzan) and another losing effort alongside Lord Steven Regal against Kensuke Sasaki and Osamu Nishimura.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: When Bill Watts was ousted from his position in WCW in favor of Eric Bischoff in 1993, Eaton was rehired. Once back on the roster, Eaton teamed up with a young Chris Benoit in Benoit's first stint with WCW. Together they were mainly used to help establish rising teams or give established teams opposition. After Benoit left to return to Japan, in Eaton's next venture in tag teaming, under the name "Bad Attitude", he teamed up with Steve Keirn, formerly of the Fabulous Ones. Bad Attitude's single noteworthy moment together came when they were present as Arn Anderson turned on tag team partner Dustin Rhodes. Otherwise, the team did not get much exposure. During this time, Eaton also made a couple of appearances in ECW due to a talent trade arrangement between WCW and ECW. At the When Worlds Collide show on May 14, 1994, he teamed with Sabu to beat Arn Anderson and Terry Funk.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: After Bad Attitude quietly ended, Eaton was placed with British snob Lord Steven Regal. A series of vignettes followed, in which Regal educated Eaton on how to be a man of class and sophistication. Eaton became "Earl Robert Eaton" and along with Regal and "Squire" David Taylor, formed The Blue Bloods. The team initially feuded with the Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags), their complete opposites in terms of "sophistication" and presentation. They also feuded with Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) over the World Tag Team Championship, but never took the belts. In all of 1996 the team members made only one pay-per-view (PPV) appearance, as individuals in the "Lethal Lottery" during May's Slamboree. Later that year, Regal won the World Television Championship. Not long after, Eaton was moved out of the group, turning on his partners, and wrestled Regal for the television championship on two occasions.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: The Blue Bloods storyline represented the last serious push that Eaton was given by the WCW booking team. After the run with Regal and Taylor ended, Eaton was simply known as Bobby Eaton and wrestled mainly on "WCW Saturday Night" and "WCW WorldWide" and at house shows, occasionally winning against wrestlers lower on the card and losing to wrestlers above him. Eaton helped train wrestlers at the WCW Power Plant. In early-1999, Eaton carried out motion capture work for the video game "WCW Mayhem". Eaton was released from WCW in March 2000, ending a 15-year run with the company, just before the regime under Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo kicked in.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: After his release from WCW, Eaton began working in the independent circuit. In July 2000, he made a brief return to ECW. By November 2000, he mainly wrestled for NWA Mid-Atlantic where he feuded with Ricky Morton. In January 2001, Eaton signed with the World Wrestling Federation as a trainer for their developmental territories. In February 2001, he went to the WWF's Memphis developmental system, Power Pro Wrestling, where he aligned himself with Brandon Baxter and Victoria against Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler and The Kat. However, the intense feud was cut short, as a month later, WWF cut ties with Power Pro, due to Lawler quitting the promotion over the Kat's firing in late February. Power Pro would eventually fold and Eaton moved on to Louisville for Ohio Valley Wrestling. He would also go to Cincinnati for Heartland Wrestling Association, most notably appearing on the 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial Show. Accompanied by Cornette, he wrestled Terry Taylor in a Legends match with Ricky Steamboat as the special guest referee. Eventually, Eaton would be released in 2002.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: After his WWF release, Eaton returned to the independents, returning to NWA Mid-Atlantic and also wrestled for IWA Mid-South. Eaton made a one-night only appearance for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) on August 13, 2003, as a part of a Kid Kash storyline where Kash faced off against a series of 1980s wrestling stars such as Larry Zbyszko and Ricky Morton. Eaton lost to Kid Kash in his only TNA appearance. Eaton wrestled his last match on March 19, 2016 of his nearly 40-year career, competed in a 15 man battle royal won by PoPo Da Klown at RWC Seek 2 Destroy Cancer in Fayetteville, North Carolina..


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In 2003, Eaton formed a new version of the Midnight Express with Rikki Nelson, whom he previously teamed with in 2000. This Midnight Express version was very short-lived, and Eaton instead began touring with Dennis Condrey (and sometimes Stan Lane) as the Midnight Express in 2004. This version of the Midnight Express performed together on select independent wrestling cards in the United States until 2011 when Condrey worked his last match. On October 23, 2015, Eaton wrestled his last match of his nearly 40-year career, losing to Ricky Morton, also ending the 30-plus year feud between The Rock 'n' Roll Express and The Midnight Express. Eaton wrestled his last match on March 19, 2016 of his nearly 40-year career, competed in a 15 man battle royal won by PoPo Da Klown at RWC Seek 2 Destroy Cancer in Fayetteville, North Carolina..


title: Bobby Eaton

text: At the outset of his career, Eaton wrestled as a babyface. After joining The Midnight Express, he adopted the villainous persona of "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. In the mid-1990s, upon teaming with Lord Steven Regal, Eaton became Earl Robert Eaton, a haughty supposed aristocrat.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton wrestled in a technical style. His principal finishing move was the "Alabama Jam", a diving legdrop. During his stint as Earl Robert Eaton, he renamed it the "Tower of London". His signature moves included a spinning neckbreaker and an armbar DDT known as the "Divorce Court" for its purported ability to cause a shoulder separation.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton was highly regarded for his psychology and timing. Former tag team partner William Regal noted Eaton's "incredible precision to everything he did", timing, control, and ability to improvise. Writing in 2006, ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta described Eaton as "one of the most flawless workers still active in the business". Fellow wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin described wrestling Eaton as "a night off" due to Eaton's in-ring offense that looked convincing but did not hurt his opponents.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: For much of his career, Eaton was a tag team wrestler. As one-half of The Midnight Express, he utilized "quick tags" and "innovative double-team maneuvers". Missy Hyatt described The Midnight Express as being able to "go forty-five minutes in the ring and never repeat a move".


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton was often regarded as one of the nicest people in the wrestling business, even though he wrestled as a heel for a majority of his career. In his 1999 book "", Mick Foley praised Eaton as being one of the most underrated superstars in the business, and its nicest, commenting: "It was damn near impossible to pay for anything with Bobby around, though I will confess to not trying that hard." Jim Cornette and Sean Waltman noted that Eaton would regularly travel with an extra suitcase filled with toiletries, socks, and other oft-forgotten items that he would give to anyone who needed them, which Steve Austin recalled in his 2001 autobiography "The Stone Cold Truth".


title: Bobby Eaton

text: Eaton was married to Bill Dundee's daughter Donna (born October 2, 1963). When they first started dating, they had to keep the relationship secret from her father, as her father had forbidden her from dating the wrestlers he was booking. When Dundee found out she was dating Eaton, he relented because Eaton was such a nice man. Married in 1981, Eaton and Donna had four children: Jason (born 1982), Dustin (born 1984), Taryn (born 1986), and Dylan (born 1988); Dylan is also a professional wrestler.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: In September 2006, it was reported that Eaton was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Eaton later released a statement saying that he did not have a heart attack, but was instead diagnosed with high blood pressure with "a hint of" diabetes. After that, he suffered with several health issues, especially cardiac problems which saw him hospitalized on several occasions. In June 2013, Eaton underwent successful surgery to have a pacemaker inserted. On July 24, 2021, it was reported that Eaton suffered a fall at his home in Nashville, breaking several fingers and injuring his hip.


title: Bobby Eaton

text: On August 4, 2021, just over a month after his wife's death, Eaton died in his sleep at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was found dead by his daughter Taryn, who had recently moved in with him to monitor his health.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture which developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (on the Iberian peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). The term "Moorish" comes from the historical Western European designation of the Muslim inhabitants of these regions as "Moors". Scholarly references on Islamic architecture often refer to this architectural tradition by a more geographic designation, such as architecture of the Islamic West or architecture of the Western Islamic lands, and some references on Islamic art and architecture consider use of the term "Moorish" to be outdated or contested.


title: Moorish architecture

text: This architectural style blended influences from Berber culture in North Africa, pre-Islamic Iberia (Roman, Byzantine, and Visigothic), and contemporary artistic currents in the Islamic Middle East to elaborate a unique style over centuries with recognizable features such as the horseshoe arch, "riad" gardens (courtyard gardens with a symmetrical four-part division), square (cuboid) minarets, and elaborate geometric and arabesque motifs in wood, stucco, and tilework (notably "zellij"). Over time, this western style made increasing use of surface decoration while also retaining a tradition of focusing attention on the interior of buildings rather than their exterior. Unlike Islamic architecture further east, this style did not make prominent use of large vaults and domes. Major centers of this artistic tradition 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. Within this wider region, there was also a certain difference between architectural styles in the more easterly region of Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia) and a more specific style shared by the western Maghreb (present-day Morocco and western Algeria) and al-Andalus, sometimes referred to as Hispano-Moresque or Hispano-Maghrebi.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Even as Muslim rule ended on the Iberian Peninsula, the traditions of Moorish architecture continued in North Africa as well as in the Mudéjar style in Spain, which made use of Moorish techniques and designs and adapted them to Christian patrons. Much later, particularly in the 19th century, the Moorish style was frequently imitated or emulated in the Neo-Moorish or Moorish Revival style which emerged in Europe, North African colonies and America as part of the Romanticist interest in the "Orient" and also, notably, as a recurring choice for new Jewish Synagogue architecture. Some scholarly references associate the term "Moorish" or "Moorish style" more narrowly with this 19th-century trend in Western architecture. Similarly, Néo-Mudéjar was a revivalist style evident in late 19th and early 20th-century Spain and in some Spanish Colonial architecture in northern Morocco.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In the 7th century the region of North Africa became steadily integrated into the emerging Muslim world during the Early Arab-Muslim Conquests. The territory of Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia), and its newly-founded capital city of Kairouan (also transliterated as "Qayrawan") became an early center of Islamic culture for the region. According to tradition, the Great Mosque of Kairouan was founded here by Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, although the current structure dates from later.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In 711 most of the Iberian Peninsula, part of the Visigothic Kingdom at the time, was conquered by a Muslim (largely Berber) army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad and became known as Al-Andalus. The city of Cordoba became its capital. In 756 Abd ar-Rahman I established the independent Emirate of Cordoba here and in 785 he also founded the Great Mosque of Cordoba, one of the most important architectural monuments of the western Islamic world. The mosque was notable for its vast hypostyle hall composed of rows of columns connected by double tiers of arches (including horseshoe arches on the lower tier) composed of alternating red brick and light-colored stone. The mosque was subsequently expanded by Abd ar-Rahman II in 836, who preserved the original design while extending its dimensions. The mosque was again embellished with new features by his successors Muhammad, Al-Mundhir, and Abdallah. One of the western gates of the mosque, known as "Bab al-Wuzara"' (today known as "Puerta de San Esteban"), dates from this period and is often noted as an important prototype of later Moorish architectural forms and motifs: the horseshoe arch has voussoirs that alternate in colour and decoration and the arch is set inside a decorative rectangular frame ("alfiz"). The influence of ancient Classical architecture is strongly felt in the Islamic architecture during this early Emirate period of the peninsula. The most obvious example of this was the reuse of columns and capitals from earlier periods in the initial construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. When new, richly-carved capitals were produced for the mosque's 9th-century expansion, they emulated the form of classical Corinthian capitals.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Seville, the Mosque of Ibn Adabbas was founded in 829 and was considered the second-oldest Muslim building in Spain (after the Great Mosque of Cordoba) until it was demolished in 1671. This mosque had a hypostyle form consisting of eleven aisles divided by rows of brick arches supported on marble columns. Of the brief Muslim presence in southern France during the 8th century, only a few funerary stelae have been found. In 1952 French archaeologist Jean Lacam excavated the "Cour de la Madeleine" ('Courtyard of Madeline') in the in Narbonne, where he discovered remains which he interpreted as the remains of a mosque from the 8th-century Muslim occupation of Narbonne.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Ifriqiya, the Ribat of Sousse and the Ribat of Monastir are two military structures dated to the late 8th century, making them the oldest surviving Islamic-era monuments in Tunisia – although subjected to later modifications. The Ribat of Sousse contains a small vaulted room with a "mihrab" (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) which is the oldest preserved mosque or prayer hall in North Africa. Another small room in the fortress, located above the front gate, is covered by a dome supported on squinches, which is the oldest example of this construction technique in Islamic North Africa. The tall cylindrical tower inside the ribat, most likely intended as a lighthouse, has a marble plaque over its entrance inscribed with the name of Ziyadat Allah I and the date 821, which in turn is the oldest Islamic-era monumental inscription to survive in Tunisia.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In the 9th century Ifriqiya was controlled by the Aghlabid dynasty, who ruled nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad but were "de facto" autonomous. The Aghlabids were major builders and erected many of Tunisia's oldest Islamic religious buildings and practical infrastructure works like the Aghlabid Reservoirs of Kairouan. Much of their architecture, even their mosques, had a heavy and almost fortress-like appearance, but they nonetheless left an influential artistic legacy.


title: Moorish architecture

text: One of the most important Aghlabid monuments is the Great Mosque of Kairouan, which was completely rebuilt in 836 by the emir Ziyadat Allah I (r. 817–838), although various additions and repairs were effected later which complicate the chronology of its construction. Its design was a major reference point in the architectural history of mosques in the Maghreb. The mosque features an enormous rectangular courtyard, a large hypostyle prayer hall, and a thick three-story minaret (tower from which the call to prayer is issued). The prayer hall's layout reflects an early use of the so-called "T-plan", in which the central nave of the hypostyle hall (the one leading to the mihrab) and the transverse aisle running along the "qibla" wall are wider than the other aisles and intersect in front of the mihrab. The mihrab of the prayer hall is among the oldest examples of its kind, richly decorated with marble panels carved in high-relief vegetal motifs and with ceramic tiles with overglaze and luster. Next to the mihrab is the oldest surviving "minbar" (pulpit) in the world, made of richly-carved teakwood panels. Both the carved panels of the minbar and the ceramic tiles of the mihrab are believed to be imports from Abbasid Iraq. An elegant dome in front of the mihrab with an elaborately-decorated drum is one of architectural highlights of this period. Its light construction contrasts with the bulky structure of the surrounding mosque and the dome's drum is elaborately decorated with a frieze of blind arches, squinches carved in the shape of shells, and various motifs carved in low-relief. The mosque's minaret is the oldest surviving one in North Africa and the western Islamic world. Its form was modeled on older Roman lighthouses in North Africa, quite possibly the lighthouse at Salakta (Sullecthum) in particular.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Great Mosque of al-Zaytuna in Tunis, which was founded earlier around 698, owes its overall current form to a reconstruction during the reign of the Aghlabid emir Abu Ibrahim Ahmad (r. 856–863). Its layout is very similar to the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Two other congregational mosques in Tunisia, the Great Mosque of Sfax (circa 849) and the Great Mosque of Sousse (851), were also built by the Aghlabids but have different forms. The small Mosque of Ibn Khayrun in Kairouan (also known as the "Mosque of the Three Doors"), dated to 866 and commissioned by a private patron, possesses what is considered by some to be the oldest decorated external façade in Islamic architecture, featuring carved Kufic inscriptions and vegetal motifs. Apart from its limestone façade, most of the mosque was rebuilt at a later period. Another small local mosque from this period is the Mosque of Bu Fatata in Sousse, dated to the reign of Abu Iqal al-Aghlab ibn Ibrahim (r. 838–841), which has a hypostyle prayer hall fronted by an external portico of three arches. Both the Ibn Khayrun and Bu Fatata mosques are early examples of the "nine-bay" mosque, meaning that the interior has a square plan subdivided into nine smaller square spaces, usually vaulted, arranged in three rows of three. This type of layout is found later in al-Andalus and as far as Central Asia, suggesting that it may be a design that was disseminated widely by Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Further west, the Rustamid dynasty, who were Ibadi Kharijites and did not recognize the Abbasid Caliphs, held sway over much of the central Maghreb. Their capital, Tahart (near present-day Tiaret), was founded in the second half of the 8th century by Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam and was occupied seasonally by its semi-nomadic inhabitants. It was destroyed by the Fatimids in 909 but its remains were excavated in the 20th century. The city was surrounded by a fortified wall interspersed with square towers. It contained a hypostyle mosque, a fortified citadel on higher ground, and a palace structure with a large courtyard similar to the design of traditional houses.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Islamization of present-day Morocco, the westernmost territory of the Muslim world (known as the Maghreb al-Aqsa), became more definitive with the advent of the Idrisid dynasty at the end of the 8th century. The Idrisids founded the city of Fes, which became their capital and the major political and cultural center of early Islamic Morocco. In this early period Morocco also absorbed waves of immigrants from Tunisia and al-Andalus who brought in cultural and artistic influences from their home countries. The well-known Qarawiyyin and Andalusiyyin mosques in Fes, founded in the 9th century during, were built in hypostyle form but the structures themselves were rebuilt during later expansions. The layout of two other mosques from this era, the Mosque of Agadir and the Mosque of Aghmat, are known thanks to modern archeological investigations. The Mosque of Agadir was founded in 790 by Idris I on the site of the former Roman town of Pomeria (present-day Tlemcen in Algeria), while the Mosque of Aghmat, a town about 30 km southeast of present-day Marrakesh, was founded in 859 by Wattas Ibn Kardus. Both of them were also hypostyle mosques with prayer halls supported by rows of pillars.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In the 10th century Abd ar-Rahman III declared a new Caliphate in al-Andalus and inaugurated the height of Andalusi power in the region. He marked this political evolution with the creation of a vast and lavish palace-city called Madinat al-Zahra, located just outside Cordoba on the lower slopes of the Sierra Morena. Its construction started in 936 and continued for decades during his reign and that of his son. The site was later destroyed and pillaged after the end of the Caliphate, but its remains have been excavated since 1911. The site covers a vast area divided into three terraced levels: the highest level contained the caliph's palaces, the level below this contained official buildings and dwellings of high officials, and the lowest and largest level was inhabited by common workers, craftsmen, and soldiers. The most lavish building discovered so far, known today as the "Salón Rico" ("Rich Hall" in Spanish), is the reception hall of Abd ar-Rahman III, which is fronted by sunken gardens and reflective pools on a terrace overlooking the landscape below. Its main hall is a rectangular space divided into three naves by two rows of horseshoe arches and nearly every wall surface is covered in exceptional stone-carved decoration with geometric and tree of life motifs. While garden estates were built by the Umayyad rulers and elites of Cordoba before this, the gardens of Madinat al-Zahra are the oldest archeologically documented example of geometrically-divided gardens (related to the "chahar bagh" type) in the western Islamic world, among the oldest examples in the Islamic world generally, and the oldest known example to combine this type of garden with a system of terraces.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Andalusi decoration and craftsmanship of this period became more standardized. While Classical inspirations are still present, they are interpreted more freely and are mixed with influences from the Middle East, including ancient Sasanian or more recent Abbasid motifs. This is seen for example in the stylized vegetal motifs intricately carved onto limestone panels on the walls at Madinat al-Zahra. It is also at Madinat al-Zahra that the "caliphal" style of horseshoe arch was formalized: the curve of the arch forms about three quarters of a circle, the voussoirs are aligned with the imposts rather than the center of the arch, the curve of the extrados is "stilted" in relation to that of the intrados, and the arch is set within a decorative "alfiz". Back in Cordoba itself, Abd ar-Rahman III also expanded the courtyard ("sahn") of the Great Mosque and built its first true minaret. The minaret, with a cuboid shape about tall, became the model followed for later minarets in the region. Abd ar-Rahman III's cultured son and successor, al-Hakam II, further expanded the mosque's prayer hall, starting in 962. He endowed it with some of its most significant architectural flourishes and innovations, which included a "maqsura" enclosed by intersecting multifoil arches, four ornate ribbed domes, and a richly-ornamented mihrab with Byzantine-influenced gold mosaics.


title: Moorish architecture

text: A much smaller but notable work from the late caliphate period is the Bab al-Mardum Mosque (now known as the Church of San Cristo de la Luz) in Toledo, which has a nine-bay layout covered by a variety of ribbed domes and an exterior façade with an Arabic inscription carved in brick. Other monuments from the Caliphate period in al-Andalus include some of Toledo's old city gates (e.g. Puerta de Bisagra), the former mosque (and later monastery) of Almonaster la Real, the Castle of Tarifa, the Burgalimar Castle, the Caliphal Baths of Cordoba, and, possibly, the Baths of Jaen.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In the 10th century much of northern Morocco also came directly within the sphere of influence of the Ummayyad Caliphate of Cordoba, with competition from the Fatimid Caliphate further east. Early contributions to Moroccan architecture from this period include expansions to the Qarawiyyin and Andalusiyyin mosques in Fes and the addition of their square-shafted minarets, carried out under the sponsorship of Abd ar-Rahman III and following the example of the minaret he built for the Great Mosque of Cordoba.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Ifriqiya, the Fatimids also built extensively, most notably with the creation of a new fortified capital on the coast, Mahdia. Construction began in 916 and the new city was officially inaugurated on 20 February 921, although some construction continued. In addition to its heavy fortified walls, the city included the Fatimid palaces, an artificial harbor, and a congregational mosque (the Great Mosque of Mahdia). Much of this has not survived to the present day. Fragments of mosaic pavements from the palaces have been discovered from modern excavations. The mosque is one of the most well-preserved Fatimid monuments in the Maghreb, although it too has been extensively damaged over time and was in large part reconstructed by archeologists in the 1960s. It consists of a hypostyle prayer hall with a roughly square courtyard. The mosque's original main entrance, a monumental portal projecting from the wall, was relatively unusual at the time and may have been inspired by ancient Roman triumphal arches. Another unusual feature was the absence of a minaret, which may have reflected an early Fatimid rejection of such structures as unnecessary innovations.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In 946 the Fatimids began construction of a new capital, al-Mansuriyya, near Kairouan. Unlike Mahdia, which was built with more strategic and defensive considerations in mind, this capital was built as a display of power and wealth. The city had a round layout with the caliph's palace at the center, possibly modeled on the Round City of Baghad. While only sparse remains of the city have been uncovered, it appears to have differed from earlier Fatimid palaces in its extensive use of water. One excavated structure had a vast rectangular courtyard mostly occupied by a large pool. This use of water was reminiscent of earlier Aghlabid palaces at nearby Raqqada and of contemporary palaces at Madinat al-Zahra, but not of older Umayyad and Abbasid palaces further east, suggesting that displays of waterworks were evolving as symbols of power in the Maghreb and al-Andalus.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The collapse of the Cordoban caliphate in the early 11th century gave rise to the first "Taifas" period, during which al-Andalus was politically fragmented into a number of smaller kingdoms. The disintegration of central authority resulted in the ruin and pillage of Madinat al-Zahra. Despite this political decline, the culture of the Taifa emirates was vibrant and productive, with the architectural forms of the Caliphate period continuing to evolve. A number of important palaces or fortresses, in various cities, were begun or expanded by local dynasties. The Alcazaba of Malaga, begun in the early 11th century and subsequently modified, is one of the most important examples. The earliest part of the palace features horseshoe arches with carved vegetal decoration that appear to imitate, with less sophistication, the style of Madinat al-Zahra. Another part contains intersecting multifoil arches that resemble those of al-Hakam II's "maqsura" in the Cordoba mosque, though serving a purely decorative and non-structural purpose here. The Alcazar of Seville and the Alcazaba of the Alhambra were also the site of earlier fortresses or palaces by the Abbadids (in Seville) and the Zirids (in Granada), respectively. The Alcazaba of Almería, along with a preserved section of Almería's defensive walls, dates from the 11th century, though little remains of the palaces built inside the Alcazaba. The Bañuelo of Granada, another historic Islamic bathhouse, is also traditionally dated to the 11th century, though recent studies suggest it may date from slightly later, the 12th century.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza, though much restored in modern times, is one of the most significant and best-preserved examples of this period, built during the second half of the 11th century by the Banu Hud. Inside its enclosure of fortified walls, one courtyard has been preserved from this period, occupied by pools and sunken gardens and wide rectangular halls fronted by porticos at either end. The arches of this courtyard have elaborate intersecting and mixed-linear designs and intricately-carved stucco decoration. The carved stucco of the southern portico, enveloping a simple brick core, is especially dizzying and complex, drawing on the forms of plain and multifoil arches but manipulating them into motifs outside their normal structural logic. Next to the northern hall of the courtyard, which was probably al-Muqtadir's audience hall, is an unusual small octagonal room with a mihrab, most likely a private oratory for the ruler. The designs and decoration of the palace appear to be a further elaboration of 10th-century Cordoban architecture, in particular al-Hakam II's extension in the Mosque of Cordoba, and of the "Taifa"-period aesthetic that followed it. Remains of another palace at Balaguer, further east in Catalonia today, are contemporary with the Aljaferia. Fragments of stucco decoration found here show that it was built in a very similar style. However, they also include rare surviving examples of figural sculpture in western Islamic architectural decoration, such as the carved image of a tree occupied by birds and harpies.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In North Africa, new Berber dynasties such as the Zirids ruled on behalf of the Fatimids, who had moved their base of power to Cairo in the late 10th century. The Zirid palace at 'Ashir (near the present town of Kef Lakhdar in Algeria) was built in 934 by Ziri ibn Manad while in the service of the Fatimid caliph al-Qa'im. It is one of the oldest palaces in the Maghreb to have been discovered and excavated. It was built in stone and has a carefully-designed symmetrical plan which included a large central courtyard and two smaller courtyards in each of the side wings of the palace. Some scholars believe this design imitated the now-lost Fatimid palaces of Mahdia. As independent rulers, however, the Zirids of Ifriqiya built relatively few grand structures. They reportedly built a new palace at al-Mansuriyya, a former Fatimid capital near Kairouan, but it has not been found by archeologists. In Kairouan itself the Great Mosque was restored by Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis. The wooden "maqsura" within the mosque today is believed to date from this time. It is the oldest "maqsura" in the Islamic world to be preserved "in situ" and was commissioned by al-Mu῾izz ibn Badis in the first half of the 11th century (though later restored). It is notable for its woodwork, which includes an elaborately carved Kufic inscription dedicated to al-Mu'izz. The "Qubbat al-Bahw", an elegant dome at the entrance of the prayer hall of the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis, dates from 991 and can be attributed to Al-Mansur ibn Buluggin.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Hammadids, an offshoot of the Zirids, ruled in the central Maghreb (present-day Algeria) during the 11th and 12th centuries. They built an entirely new fortified capital known as Qal'at Bani Hammad, founded in 1007. Although abandoned and destroyed in the 12th century, the city has been excavated by modern archeologists and the site is one of the best-preserved medieval Islamic capitals in the world. It contains several palaces, various amenities, and a grand mosque, in an arrangement that bears similarities to other palace-cities such as Madinat al-Zahra. The largest palace, "Qasr al-Bahr" ("Palace of the Sea"), was built around an enormous rectangular water basin. The architecture of the site has been compared to Fatimid architecture, but bears specific resemblances to contemporary architecture in the western Maghreb, Al-Andalus, and Arab-Norman Sicily. For example, while the Fatimids usually built no minarets, the grand mosque of Qal'at Bani Hammad has a large square-based minaret with interlacing and polylobed arch decoration, which are features of architecture in al-Andalus. Various remnants of tile decoration have been discovered at the site, including the earliest known use of glazed tile decoration in western Islamic architecture. Archeologists also discovered fragments of plaster which have been identified by some as the earliest appearance of "muqarnas" ("stalactite" or "honeycomb" sculpting) in the western Islamic world, but their identification as true "muqarnas" has been questioned or rejected by some other scholars.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The late 11th century saw the significant advance of Christian kingdoms into Muslim al-Andalus, particularly with the fall of Toledo to Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085, and the rise of major Berber empires originating in Morocco. The latter included first the Almoravids (11th–12th centuries) and then the Almohads (12th–13th centuries), both of whom created empires that stretched across large parts of western and northern Africa and took over the remaining Muslim territories of al-Andalus in Europe. This period is considered one of the most formative stages of Moorish architecture in al-Andalus and especially in the Maghreb, establishing many of the forms and motifs that were refined in subsequent centuries. The two empires were responsible for establishing a new imperial capital at Marrakesh in Morocco and the Almohads also began construction of a monumental capital in Rabat. The Almoravids adopted the architectural developments of al-Andalus, such as the complex interlacing arches of the Great Mosque in Cordoba and of the Aljaferia palace in Zaragoza, while also introducing new ornamental techniques from the east such as "muqarnas". Stucco-carved decoration, which would become much more elaborate in subsequent periods, began to appear more and more as part of these compositions.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Some of the oldest and most significant surviving examples of Almoravid religious architecture, although with later modifications, are the Great Mosque of Algiers (1096–1097), the Great Mosque of Tlemcen (1136), and the Great Mosque of Nedroma (1145), all located in Algeria today. The highly ornate, semi-transparent plaster dome in front of the mihrab of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, dating from the reign of Ali ibn Yusuf (r. 1106–1143), is one of the highlights of this period. The design of the dome traces its origins to the earlier ribbed domes of Al-Andalus and, in turn, it probably influenced the design of similar ornamental domes in later mosques in Fez and Taza. In Morocco, the only notable remnants of Almoravid religious architecture are the "Qubba Ba'adiyyin", a small but highly ornate ablutions pavilion in Marrakesh, and the Almoravid expansion of the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez. These two monuments also contain the earliest clear examples of "muqarnas" decoration in the region, with the first complete "muqarnas" vault appearing in the central nave of the Qarawiyyin Mosque. The Almoravid palace of Ali Ibn Yusuf in Marrakesh, excavated in the 20th century, contains the earliest known example of a riad garden (an interior garden symmetrically divided into four parts) in Morocco.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In present-day Spain, the oldest surviving "muqarnas" fragments were found in a palace built by Muhammad Ibn Mardanish, the independent ruler of Murcia (1147–1172). The remains of the palace, known as "al-Qasr al-Seghir" (or "Alcázar Seguir" in Spanish) are part of the present-day Monastery of Santa Clara in Murcia. The muqarnas fragments are painted with images of musicians and other figures. Ibn Mardanish also constructed what is now known as the Castillejo de Monteagudo, a hilltop castle and fortified palace outside the city that is one of the best-preserved examples of Almoravid-era architecture in the Iberian Peninsula. It has a rectangular plan and contained a large riad garden courtyard with symmetrical reception halls facing each other across the long axis of the garden.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Almohad Kutubiyya and Tinmal mosques are often considered the prototypes of medieval mosque architecture in the region. The so-called "T-plan", combined with a hierarchical use of decoration that emphasizes the wider central and transverse "qibla" aisles of the mosque, became an established feature of this architecture. The monumental minarets of the Kutubiyya Mosque, the Giralda of the Great Mosque of Seville (now part of the city's cathedral), and the Hassan Tower of Rabat, as well as the ornamental gateways of Bab Agnaou in Marrakesh and Bab Oudaia and Bab er-Rouah in Rabat, were all models that established the overall decorative schemes that became recurrent in these architectural elements from then on. The minaret of the Kasbah Mosque of Marrakesh was particularly influential and set a style that was repeated, with minor elaborations, in the following period under the Marinids and other dynasties.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Almohad caliphs constructed their own palace complexes in several cities. They founded the Kasbah of Marrakesh in the late 12th century as their main residence, imitating earlier examples of self-contained palace-cities such as Madinat al-Zahra in the 10th century. The Almohads also made Tunis the regional capital of their territories in Ifriqiya (present-day Tunisia), establishing the city's own kasbah (citadel). The caliphs also constructed multiple country estates and gardens right outside some of these cities, continuing a tradition that existed under the Almoravids. These estates were typically centered around a large artificial water reservoir that sustained orchards of fruit trees and other plants, while small palaces or pleasure pavilions were built along the water's edge. In Marrakesh, the present-day Agdal and Menara gardens both developed from such Almohad creations. In Seville, the remains of the Almohad "al-Buḥayra" garden, founded in 1171, were excavated in the 1970s. Sunken gardens were also part of Almohad palace courtyards. In some cases the gardens were divided symmetrically into four parts, much like a riad garden. Examples of these have been found in some courtyards of the Alcázar of Seville, where the former Almohad palaces once stood.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Sicily was progressively brought under Muslim control in the 9th when the Aghlabids conquered it from the Byzantines. The island was subsequently settled by Arabs and Berbers from North Africa. In the following century the island passed into the control of the Fatimids, who left the island under the governorship of the Kalbids. By the mid-11th century the island was fragmented into smaller Muslim states and by the end of that century the Normans had conquered it under the leadership of Robert Guiscard and Roger de Hauteville (Roger I).


title: Moorish architecture

text: Virtually no examples of architecture from the period of the Emirate of Sicily have survived today. However, the following period of Norman domination, especially under Roger II in the 12th century, was notable for its unique blending of Norman, Byzantine and Arab-Islamic cultures. Multiple examples of this "Arab-Norman" architecture – which was also heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture – have survived today and are even classified together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2015). While the Arab-Islamic elements of this architecture are closely linked to Fatimid architecture, they also come from Moorish architecture and are stylistically similar to the preceding Almoravid period.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Palazzo dei Normanni (Palace of the Normans) in Palermo contains the Cappella Palatina, one of the most important masterpieces of this style, built under Roger II in the 1130s and 1140s. It combines harmoniously a variety of styles: the Norman architecture and door decor, the Arabic arches and scripts adorning the roof, the Byzantine dome and mosaics. The central nave of the chapel is covered by a large rectangular vault ceiling made of painted wood and carved in "muqarnas": the largest rectangular "muqarnas" vault of its kind.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The eventual collapse of the Almohad Empire in the 13th century was precipitated by its defeat at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) in al-Andalus and by the advance of the Berber Marinid dynasty in the western Maghreb, the Zayyanids in the central Maghreb, and the Hafsids in Ifriqiya. What remained of the Muslim-controlled territories in al-Andalus was consolidated by the Nasrid dynasty into the Emirate of Granada, which lasted another 250 years until its final conquest by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, at the end of the "Reconquista". Both the Nasrids in al-Andalus to the north and the Marinids in Morocco to the south were important in further refining the artistic legacy established by their predecessors. When Granada was conquered in 1492 by Catholic Spain and the last Muslim realm of al-Andalus came to an end, many of the remaining Spanish Muslims (and Jews) fled to Morocco and other parts of North Africa, further increasing the Andalusian influence in these regions in subsequent generations.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Marinids, who chose Fes as their capital, built monuments with increasingly extensive and intricate decoration on every surface, particularly in wood and stucco. They were also the first to deploy extensive use of "zellij" (mosaic tilework in complex geometric patterns) in North Africa. Notably, they were also the first to build madrasas in this region, a type of institution which originated in Iran and had spread west. The madrasas of Fes, such as the Bou Inania, al-Attarine, and as-Sahrij madrasas, as well as the Marinid madrasa of Salé and the other Bou Inania in Meknes, are considered among the greatest architectural works of this period. The Marinids also imitated previous dynasties by founding their own fortified palace-city to the west of Fes, known afterwards as Fes el-Jdid ("New Fez"), which remained a frequent center of power in Morocco even during later dynasties such as the 'Alawis. The Great Mosque of Fes el-Jdid is one of the major Marinid mosques that is still well-preserved today, though numerous other mosques were built throughout Fes and in other cities during this period (e.g. the Lalla az-Zhar Mosque in Fes, the Ben Salah Mosque in Marrakesh, the Zawiya an-Nussak in Salé, the Great Mosque of Oujda, etc).


title: Moorish architecture

text: The architectural style under the Nasrid dynasty in Granada was very closely related to that of the Marinids and the two kingdoms likely influenced each other's artistic styles. The architecture of Nasrid Granada likewise embraced extensive surface decoration and made use of elaborate "muqarnas" sculpting in many buildings. The Nasrids' most famous architectural legacy is the Alhambra, a hilltop palace district protected by heavy fortifications and containing some of the most famous and best-preserved palaces of western Islamic architecture. Initially a fortress built by the Zirids in the 11th century (corresponding to the current "Alcazaba"), it was expanded into a self-contained and well-fortified palace district complete with habitations for servants and workers. The oldest remaining palace there today, built under Muhammad III (ruled 1302–1309), is the Palacio del Partal which, although only partly preserved, demonstrates the typical layout which would be repeated in other palaces nearby: a courtyard centered on a large reflective pool with porticos at either end and a "mirador" (lookout) tower at one end which looked down on the city from the edge of the palace walls. The most famous palaces, the Comares Palace and the Palace of the Lions, were added afterwards. The Comares Palace, which includes a lavish hammam (bathhouse) and the Hall of the Ambasadors (a throne room), was begun under Isma'il I (ruled 1314–1325) but mostly constructed under Yusuf I (1333–1354) and Muhammad V (ruled 1354–1359 and 1362–1391). The Palace of the Lions was built under Muhammad V and possibly finished around 1380. It features a courtyard with a central marble fountain decorated with twelve lion sculptures. The galleries and chambers around the courtyard are notable for their extremely fine stucco decoration and some exceptional "muqarnas" vault ceilings. Four other nearby palaces in the Alhambra were demolished at various points after the end of the "Reconquista" (1492). The summer palace and gardens known as the Generalife were also created nearby – at the end of the 13th century or in the early 14th century – in a tradition reminiscent of the Almohad-era Agdal Gardens of Marrakesh and the Marinid Royal Gardens of Fes. The Nasrids also built other structures throughout the city – such as the Madrasa and the Corral del Carbón – and left their mark on other structures and fortifications throughout their territory, though not many significant structures have survived intact to the present-day.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Meanwhile, in the former territories of al-Andalus under the control of the Spanish kingdoms of Léon, Castile and Aragon, Andalusi art and architecture continued to be employed for many years as a prestigious style under new Christian patrons, becoming what is known as Mudéjar art (named after the Mudéjars or Muslims under Christian rule). This type of architecture, created by Muslim craftsmen or by other craftsmen following the same tradition, continued many of the same forms and motifs with minor variations. Numerous examples are found in the early churches of Toledo (e.g. the Church of San Román, 13th century), as well as other cities in Aragon such as Zaragoza and Teruel. Among the most famous and celebrated examples is the Alcazar of Seville, which was the former palace of the Abbadids and the Almohads in the city but was rebuilt in by Christian rulers, including Peter the Cruel who added lavish sections in Moorish style starting in 1364 with the help of craftsmen from Granada and Toledo. Other smaller but notable examples in Cordoba include the Chapel of San Bartolomé and the Royal Chapel ("Capilla Real") in the Great Mosque (which was converted to a cathedral in 1236). Some surviving 13th and 14th-century Jewish synagogues were also built (or rebuilt) in Mudéjar Moorish style while under Christian rule, such as the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca in Toledo (rebuilt in its current form in 1250), Synagogue of Cordoba (1315), and the Synagogue of El Tránsito (1355–1357).


title: Moorish architecture

text: Further east, in Algeria, the Berber Zayyanid or Abd al-Wadid dynasty controlled their own state and built monuments in their main capital at Tlemcen. Yaghmorasan (r. 1236–1283), the founder of the dynasty, added minarets to the earlier Mosque of Agadir and the Great Mosque of Tlemcen while his successor, Abu Sa'id 'Uthman (r. 1283–1304), founded the Mosque of Sidi Bel Hasan in 1296. The Zayyanids built other religious foundations in the area, but many have not survived to the present day or have preserved little of their original appearance. In addition to mosques, they built the first madrasas in Tlemcen. The Madrasa Tashfiniya, founded by Abu Tashfin I (r. 1318–1337), was celebrated for its rich decoration, including "zellij" tile decoration with sophisticated arabesque and geometric motifs whose style was repeated in some subsequent Marinid monuments. The Marinids also intermittently occupied Tlemcen in the 14th century and left their mark on the area. During his siege of the city at the beginning of the century, the Marinid leader Abu Ya'qub built a fortified settlement nearby named al-Mansurah, which includes the monumental Mansurah Mosque (begun in 1303, only partly preserved today). Further east, Abu al-Hasan founded the Mosque of Sidi Bu Madyan in the city in 1338–39.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Ifriqiya (Tunisia), the Hafsids, a branch of the Almohad ruling class, declared their independence from the Almohads in 1229 and developed their own state which came to control much of the surrounding region. They were also significant builders, particularly under the reigns of successful leaders like Abu Zakariya (ruled 1229–1249) and Abu Faris (ruled 1394–1434), though not many of their monuments have survived intact to the present-day. While Kairouan remained an important religious center, Tunis was the capital and progressively replaced it as the main city of the region and the main center of architectural patronage. Unlike the architecture further west, Hafsid architecture was built primarily in stone (rather than brick or mudbrick) and appears to have featured much less decoration. In reviewing the history of architecture in the region, scholar Jonathan Bloom remarks that Hafsid architecture seems to have "largely charted a course independent of the developments elsewhere in the Maghrib [North Africa]".


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Kasbah Mosque of Tunis was one of the first works of this period, built by Abu Zakariya (the first independent Hafsid ruler) at the beginning of his reign. Its floor plan had noticeable differences from previous Almohad-period mosques but the minaret, completed in 1233, bears very strong resemblance the minaret of the earlier Almohad Kasbah Mosque in Marrakesh. Other foundations from the Hafsid period in Tunis include the Haliq Mosque (13th century) and the al-Hawa Mosque (1375). The Bardo Palace (today a national museum) was also begun by the Hafsids in the 15th century, and is mentioned in historical records for the first time during the reign of Abu Faris. The Hafsids also made significant renovations to the much older Great Mosque of Kairouan – renovating its ceiling, reinforcing its walls, and building or rebuilding two of its entrance gates in 1293 – as well as to the al-Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Hafsids also introduced the first madrasas to the region, beginning with the Madrasa al-Shamma῾iyya built in Tunis in 1238 (or in 1249 according to some sources). This was followed by many others (almost all of them in Tunis) such as the Madrasa al-Hawa founded in the 1250s, the Madrasa al-Ma'ridiya (1282), and the Madrasa al-Unqiya (1341). Many of these early madrasas, however, have been poorly preserved or have been considerably modified in the centuries since their foundation. The Madrasa al-Muntasiriya, completed in 1437, is among the best preserved madrasas of the Hafsid period.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Hafsids were eventually supplanted by the Ottomans who took over most of the Maghreb in the 16th century, with the exception of Morocco, which remained an independent kingdom. This resulted in an even greater divergence between the architecture of Morocco to the west, which continued to follow essentially the same Andalusi-Maghrebi traditions of art as before, and the architecture of Algeria and Tunisia to the east, which increasingly blended influences from Ottoman architecture into local designs.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Morocco, after the Marinids came the Saadian dynasty in the 16th century, which marked a political shift from Berber-led empires to sultanates led by Arab sharifian dynasties. Artistically and architecturally, however, there was broad continuity and the Saadians are seen by modern scholars as continuing to refine the existing Moorish-Moroccan style, with some considering the Saadian Tombs in Marrakesh as one of the apogees of this style. Starting with the Saadians, and continuing with the 'Alawis (their successors and the reigning monarchy of Morocco today), Moroccan art and architecture is portrayed by modern scholars as having remained essentially "conservative"; meaning that it continued to reproduce the existing style with high fidelity but did not introduce major new innovations.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Saadians, especially under the sultans Abdallah al-Ghalib and Ahmad al-Mansur, were extensive builders and benefitted from great economic resources at the height of their power in the late 16th century. In addition to the Saadian Tombs, they also built several major mosques in Marrakesh including the Mouassine Mosque and the Bab Doukkala Mosque, which are notable for being part of larger multi-purpose charitable complexes including several other structures like public fountains, hammams, madrasas, and libraries. This marked a shift from the previous patterns of architectural patronage and may have been influenced by the tradition of building such complexes in Mamluk architecture in Egypt and the "külliye"s of Ottoman architecture. The Saadians also rebuilt the royal palace complex in the Kasbah of Marrakesh for themselves, where Ahmad al-Mansur constructed the famous El Badi Palace (built between 1578 and 1593) which was known for its superlative decoration and costly building materials including Italian marble.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The 'Alawis, starting with Moulay Rashid in the mid-17th century, succeeded the Saadians as rulers of Morocco and continue to be the reigning monarchy of the country to this day. As a result, many of the mosques and palaces standing in Morocco today have been built or restored by the 'Alawis at some point or another in recent centuries. Ornate architectural elements from Saadian buildings, most infamously from the lavish El Badi Palace, were also stripped and reused in buildings elsewhere during the reign of Moulay Isma'il (1672–1727). Moulay Isma'il is also notable for having built a vast imperial capital in Meknes, where the remains of his monumental structures can still be seen today. In 1765 Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah (one of Moulay Isma'il's sons) started the construction of a new port city called Essaouira (formerly Mogador), located along the Atlantic coast as close as possible to his capital at Marrakesh, to which he tried to move and restrict European trade. He hired European architects to design the city, resulting in a relatively unique historic city built by Moroccans but with Western European architecture, particularly in the style of its fortifications. Similar maritime fortifications or bastions, usually called a "sqala", were built at the same time in other port cities like Anfa (present-day Casablanca), Rabat, Larache, and Tangier. Late sultans were also significant builders. Up until the late 19th century and early 20th century, both the sultans and their ministers continued to build beautiful palaces, many of which are now used as museums or tourist attractions, such as the Bahia Palace in Marrakesh, the Dar Jamaï in Meknes, and the Dar Batha in Fes.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Over the course of the 16th century the central and eastern Maghreb – Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya – came under Ottoman control. Major port cities such as Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli also became centers of pirate activity, which brought in wealth to local elites but also attracted intrusions by European powers, who occupied and fortified some coastal positions. In the late 17th century and early 18th century, Ottoman control became largely nominal: the Regency of Algiers (Algeria) was "de facto" ruled by the local "dey"s until the French conquest of 1830, Tunisia was ruled by the Muradid dynasty (after 1602) and the Husaynid dynasty (after 1705), and Libya was ruled by the Qaramanli dynasty until the return of direct Ottoman control in 1835. Whereas architecture in Morocco remained largely traditional during the same period, architecture in Algeria and Tunisia was blended with Ottoman architecture, especially in the coastal cities where Ottoman influence was strongest. Some European influences were also introduced, particularly through the importation of materials from Italy such as marble.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Tunis, the Mosque complex of Yusuf Dey, built or begun around 1614–15 by Yusuf Dey (r. 1610–1637), is one of the earliest and most important examples that imported Ottoman elements into local architecture. Its congregational mosque is accompanied by a madrasa, a primary school, fountains, latrines, and even a café, many of which provided revenues for the upkeep of the complex. This arrangement is similar to Ottoman "külliye" complexes. It was also the first example of a "funerary mosque" in Tunis, as the complex includes the founder's mausoleum, dated to 1639. While the hypostyle form of the mosque and the pyramidal roof of the mausoleum reflect traditional architecture in the region, the minaret's octagonal shaft reflects the influence of the "pencil"-shaped Ottoman minarets. In this period, octagonal minarets often distinguished mosques following the Hanafi "maddhab" (which was associated with the Ottomans), while mosques which continued to follow the Maliki "maddhab" (predominant in the Maghreb) continued to employ traditional square-shaft minarets.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The Mosque of Hammuda Pasha, built by Hammuda Pasha (r. 1631–1664) between 1631 and 1654, reprises many of these same elements as the Yusuf Dey Mosque. Both mosques make use of marble columns and capitals that were imported from Italy and possibly even carved by Italian craftsmen in Tunis. Hammuda Pasha was also responsible for starting in 1629 a major restoration and expansion of the Zawiya of Abu al-Balawi or "Mosque of the Barber" in Kairouan. While the Zawiya has been further modified since, one of its characteristic 17th-century features is the decoration of underglaze-painted Qallalin tiles on many of its walls. These tiles, generally produced in the Qallalin district of Tunis, are painted with motifs of vases, plants, and arches and use predominant blue, green, and ochre-like yellow colours which distinguish them from contemporary Ottoman tiles. The artistic height of these tiles was in the 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Moorish architecture

text: It wasn't until the end of the 17th century that the first and only Ottoman-style domed mosque in Tunisia was built: the Sidi Mahrez Mosque, begun by Muhammad Bey and completed by his successor, Ramadan ibn Murad, between 1696 and 1699. The mosque's prayer hall is covered by a dome system typical of Classical Ottoman architecture and first employed by Sinan for the Şehzade Mosque (c. 1548) in Istanbul: a large central dome flanked by four semi-domes, with four smaller domes at the corners and pendentives in the transitional zones between the semi-domes. The interior is decorated with marble paneling and Ottoman Iznik tiles.


title: Moorish architecture

text: During this period Algiers developed into a major town and witnessed regular architectural patronage, and as such most of the major monuments from this period are concentrated there. By contrast, the city of Tlemcen, the former major capital of the region, went into relative decline and saw far less architectural activity. Mosque architecture in Algiers during this period demonstrates the convergence of multiple influences as well as peculiarities that may be attributed to the innovations of local architects. Domes of Ottoman influence were introduced into the design of mosques, but minarets generally continued to be built with square shafts instead of round or octagonal ones, thus retaining local tradition, unlike contemporary architecture in Ottoman Tunisia and other Ottoman provinces, where the "pencil"-shaped minaret was a symbol of Ottoman sovereignty.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The oldest surviving mosque from the Ottoman period in Algeria is the Ali Bitchin (or 'Ali Bitshin) Mosque in Algiers, commissioned by an admiral of the same name, a convert of Italian origin, in 1622. The mosque is built on top of a raised platform and was once associated with various annexes including a hospice, a hammam, and a mill. A minaret and public fountain stand on its northeast corner. The interior prayer hall is centered around a square space covered by a large octagonal dome supported on four large pillars and pendentives. This space is surrounded on all four sides with galleries or aisles covered by rows of smaller domes. On the west side of the central space this gallery is two bays deep (i.e. composed of two aisles instead of one), while on the other sides, including on the side of the "mihrab", the galleries are just one bay deep. Several other mosques in Algiers built from the 17th to early 19th centuries had a similar floor plan. This particular design was unprecedented in the Maghreb. The use of a large central dome was a clear connection with Ottoman architecture. However, the rest of the layout is quite different from the mosques of metropolitan Ottoman architecture in cities like Istanbul. Some scholars, such as Georges Marçais, suggested that the architects or patrons could have been influenced by Ottoman-era mosques built in the Levantine provinces of the empire, where many of the rulers of Algiers had originated.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The most notable monument from this period in Algiers is the New Mosque (Djamaa el Djedid) in Algiers, built in 1660–1661. The mosque has a large central dome supported by four pillars, but instead of being surrounded by smaller domes it is flanked on four sides by wide barrel-vaulted spaces, with small domed or vaulted bays occupying the corners between these barrel vaults. The barrel-vaulted space on the north side of the dome (the entrance side) is elongated, giving the main vaulted spaces of the mosque a cross-like configuration resembling a Christian cathedral. The mosque's minaret has a traditional form with a square shaft surmounted by a small lantern structure. Its simple decoration includes tilework; the clock faces visible today were added at a later period. The "mihrab" has a more traditional western Islamic form, with a horseshoe-arch shape and stucco decoration, although the decoration around it is crowned with Ottoman-style half-medallion and quarter-medallion shapes. The mosque's overall design and its details thus attest to an apparent mix of Ottoman, Maghrebi, and European influences. As the architect is unknown, Jonathan Bloom suggests that it could very well have been a local architect who simply took the general idea of Ottoman mosque architecture and developed his own interpretation of it.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The architecture of the western Islamic world is exemplified by mosques, madrasas, palaces, fortifications, hammams (bathhouses), "funduq"s (caravanserais), and other historic building types common to Islamic architecture. Characteristic elements of the western regional style include horseshoe-shaped, intersecting, and polylobed arches, often with voussoirs of alternating colors or patterns, as well as internal courtyards, riad gardens, ribbed domes, and cuboid (square-base) minarets. Decoration typically consists of vegetal arabesques, geometric motifs, "muqarnas" sculpting, Arabic inscriptions, and epigraphic motifs. These motifs were translated into woodwork, carved stucco, and mosaic tilework known as "zellij". The nature of the medieval Islamic world encouraged people to travel, which made it possible for artists, craftsmen, and ideas from other parts of the Islamic world to be transmitted here. Some features, such as "muqarnas" and tile revetments, were transmitted from the east but were realized differently in this region.


title: Moorish architecture

text: As scholar Jonathan Bloom remarks in his introduction to this topic, traditional Islamic-era architecture in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus was in some respects more "conservative" than other regional styles of Islamic architecture, in the sense that these buildings were less structurally ambitious than, for example, the increasingly audacious domed or vaulted structures that developed in Ottoman architecture and Iranian architecture. With the exception of minarets, Moorish monuments were rarely very tall and Moorish architecture persisted in using the hypostyle hall – one of the earliest types of structures in Islamic architecture – as the main type of interior space throughout its history. Moreover, Moorish architecture also continued an early Islamic tradition of avoiding ostentatious exterior decoration or exterior monumentality. With the important exception of gateways and minarets, the exteriors of buildings were often very plain, while the interiors were the focus of architectural innovation and could be lavishly decorated. By contrast, architectural styles in the eastern parts of the Islamic world developed significantly different and innovative spatial arrangements in their construction of domed halls or vaulted iwans and featured increasingly imposing and elaborate exteriors that dominated their surroundings.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Perhaps the most characteristic arch type of western Islamic architecture generally is the so-called "Moorish" or "horseshoe" arch. This is an arch where the curves of the arch continue downward past the horizontal middle axis of the circle and begin to curve towards each other, rather than just forming a half circle. This arch profile became nearly ubiquitous in the region from the very beginning of the Islamic period. The origin of this arch appear to date back to the preceding Byzantine period across the Mediterranean, as versions of it appear in Byzantine-era buildings in Cappadocia, Armenia, and Syria. They also appear frequently in Visigothic churches in the Iberian peninsula (5th–7th centuries). Perhaps due to this Visigothic influence, horseshoe arches were particularly predominant afterwards in al-Andalus under the Umayyads of Cordoba, although the "Moorish" arch was of a slightly different and more sophisticated form than the Visigothic arch. Arches were not only used for supporting the weight of the structure above them. Blind arches and arched niches were also used as decorative elements. The mihrab of a mosque was almost invariably in the shape of horseshoe arch.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Starting in the Almoravid period, the first pointed or "broken" horseshoe arches began to appear in the region and became more widespread during the Almohad period. This arch is likely of North African origin, since pointed arches were already present in earlier Fatimid architecture further east.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Polylobed (or multifoil) arches, have their earliest precedents in Fatimid architecture in Ifriqiya and Egypt and had also appeared in Andalusi "Taifa" architecture such as the Aljaferia palace and the Alcazaba of Malaga, which elaborated on the existing examples of al-Hakam II's extension to the Great Mosque of Cordoba. In the Almoravid and Almohad periods, this type of arch was further refined for decorative functions while horseshoe arches continued to be standard elsewhere. Some early examples appear in the Great Mosque of Tlemcen (in Algeria) and the Mosque of Tinmal.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The so-called "lambrequin" arch, with a more intricate profile of lobes and points, was also introduced in the Almoravid period, with an early appearance in the funerary section of the Qarawiyyin Mosque (in Fes) dating from the early 12th century. It then became common in subsequent Almohad, Marinid, and Nasrid architecture, in many cases used to highlight the arches near the mihrab area of a mosque. This type of arch is also sometimes referred to as a "muqarnas" arch due to its similarities with a "muqarnas" profile and because of its speculated derivation from the use of muqarnas itself. Moreover, this type of arch was indeed commonly used with "muqarnas" sculpting along the intrados (inner surfaces) of the arch.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Although domes and vaulting were not extensively used in western Islamic architecture, domes were still employed as decorative features to highlight certain areas, such as the space in front of the "mihrab" in a mosque. In the extension of the Great Mosque of Córdoba by al-Hakam II in the late 10th century, three domes were built over the maqsura (the privileged space in front of the mihrab) and another one in the central nave or aisle of the prayer hall at the beginning of the new extension. These domes were constructed as ribbed vaults. Rather than meeting in the centre of the dome, the "ribs" intersect one another off-center, forming a square or an octagon in the centre.


title: Moorish architecture

text: The ribbed domes of the Mosque of Córdoba served as models for later mosque buildings in Al-Andalus and the Maghreb. At around 1000 AD, the Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo was constructed with a similar, eight-ribbed dome, surrounded by eight other ribbed domes of varying design. Similar domes are also seen in the mosque building of the Aljafería of Zaragoza. The architectural form of the ribbed dome was further developed in the Maghreb: the central dome of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, a masterpiece of the Almoravids founded in 1082 and redecorated in 1136, has twelve slender ribs, the shell between the ribs is filled with filigree stucco work.


title: Moorish architecture

text: In Ifriqiya, certain domes from the 9th and 10th centuries, of a quite different style, are also particularly accomplished in their design and decoration. These are the 9th-century (Aghlabid) dome in front of the mihrab in the Great Mosque of Kairouan and the 10th-centuy (Zirid) "Qubbat al-Bahw" dome in the Al-Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis. Both are elegant ribbed domes with stonework flourishes such as decorative niches, inscriptions, and shell-shaped squinches.


title: Moorish architecture

text: Arabesques, or stylized floral and vegetal motifs, derive from a long tradition of similar motifs in Syrian, Hellenistic, and Roman architectural ornamentation. Early arabesque motifs in Umayyad Cordoba, such as those seen at the Great Mosque or Madinat al-Zahra, continued to make use of acanthus leaves and grapevine motifs from this Hellenistic tradition. Almoravid and Almohad architecture made more use of a general striated leaf motif, often curling and splitting into unequal parts along an axis of symmetry. Palmettes and, to a lesser extent, seashell and pine cone images were also featured. In the late 16th century, Saadian architecture sometimes made use of a mandorla-type (or almond-shaped) motif which may have been of Ottoman influence.