1
Jorge Correia
DAAUM Department of Architecture / University of Minho, Portugal
The Muslim City: Continuity and Change
Session Chair: Dr. Hicham Mortada, King Abdul Aziz University
Ceuta, Tangier and El Jadida: Muslim cities “interrupted”
Historical background
Both shores of the Strait of Gibraltar share a long past of social, military and
cultural interactivity between north and south. In 1415 Portugal initiated its
Overseas Expansion. The conquest of Ceuta began a settling process that
comprised several towns in Northern Africa which would last until 1769, with the
evacuation of Mazagão. Beyond the evident economical and commercial
benefits, Europe’s recognition and religious Reconquest were also aimed. This
aspect of the colonial history in Atlantic Northern Africa, which corresponds today
to the Kingdom of Morocco, has introduced decisive urban factors.
One can speak of two kinds of establishment in the territory: conquest and
foundation. The conquest was a much advantageous process to Portugal, not
only for providing an existing urban and commercial fabric, but also for the
average duration of these possessions
1
: Ceuta (1415-1640), Qsar es-Seghir
(Alcácer Ceguer) (1458-1550), Tangier (Tânger) (1471-1661), Asylah (Arzila)
(1471-1550), in the north, and also Azemmour (1513-1541) and Safi (1508-
1541), in the south.
The foundation was another form of approaching the territory, seeking strategic
points of establishment, but less fortunate for the Portuguese crown. New fortified
positions in geographically relevant sites allowed an ephemeral effect of
Portuguese pulverisation in the Northern African coast. The hostility of the local
tribes prevented these positions from a longer staying. The exception was
Mazagão (1514-1769), today’s city of El Jadida. Looking to the dates presented
in the picture, we can see a crisis period between 1541 and 1550, after which
only three places were kept under the Portuguese crown: Ceuta, Tangier and
2
Mazagão, which eventually would change hands again during the 17
th
and 18
th
centuries.
Ceuta, Tangier and El Jadida present three different case studies of how the
urban morphology has been conducted by the political changes. This paper
wishes to analyze the urban strata of these cities in order to point out traces of
continuity and rupture between Muslim and Christian rule. Three different urban
processes where the Muslim stratum, either suspended, interrupted or present,
has been the longest. This paper relies on both historical cartography and new
drawn proposition to present this parallel evolution.
Ceuta
Medieval Muslim Ceuta was formed by an urban nucleus, called medina, in the
narrowest part of the peninsula. To the east, several adjacent suburbs spread
until one gets to the largest suburb, the Almina that corresponds nowadays to
mount Acho. Westwards, the Out suburb and the later Afrag suburb extended the
city into mainland. The Portuguese apprehended this territorial division during the
conquest, crossing different walls or moats, later described in the chronicle by
Zurara
2
.
This was definitely a too large territory for the Portuguese to defend. Moreover,
being the solitary intrusion in Northern Africa for some decades, it suffered from
two bigger handicaps: object of constant attack from Fez and total dependence
from the metropolis. A shortening of the perimeter reduced the whole area to
14%, concentrated in the former medina area, in a procedure called atalho.
Within the walls, a central square connected the major spots: the castle (former
kasbah), the cathedral (former main mosque), the church Our Lady of Africa and
rua Direita (main street). This one ran east towards the wall and parallel to the
northern and southern maritime limits, organizing the whole east area of the main
square.
3
The course of the city was confined to those limits for more than two centuries,
when the Spanish took over in 1640. With the following arrival of Muley Ismail to
Moroccan power, with his new capital in Méknés, a long siege was imposed to
Ceuta in order to recapture the city to Muslim hands, but in vain. Spanish Ceuta
began to expand towards Almina, the former suburbs over the peninsula. To the
present, the city has been recovering much of its medieval area and extended
towards mainland, beyond its continental walls, in a process that reoccupied the
ancient Islamic domains. Curiously, a majority of Moroccan emigrants live in
these new neighborhoods nowadays.
Tangier
Tangier was the main urban settlement of the Strait of Gibraltar to gather a
classical mythology still present in the mid 15
th
century imaginary, giving to the
city a special appetite for its possession. Apart from being a Muslim stronghold in
Northern Africa or a strategic point between the Mediterranean Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean, Tangier was also a recognizable symbol of power, glory and
greatness and the king of Portugal was aware of the upcoming fame. 1471 would
definitely put the city into Portuguese hands.
The first level of speculation concerns the reconstitution of the former Merínid
perimeter of Tangier, in the 15
th
century, previous to 1471, of course. The city
was much bigger than the actual medina surface and the inland wall should have
run from the Kasbah, parallel to what it’s today the Hassan II Avenue, Place de
France and Khalid Ibn Qualid Street, down to the beach.
Nowadays, Tangier urban fabric still shows evidence of some layers of the
different inputs, either by addition or subtraction. And that’s exactly a subtraction
exercise which we are going to assist in the first period of occupation. The city
was too big for the Portuguese to keep as a sustainable settlement and the king
clearly refers the intention of reducing the surface of the city to a quarter (Fig. 3).
So, we are in presence of an effective perimeter and surface reduction
established by new short cut walls that can be clearly detected by its linearity,
4
very different from the more organic Islamic typology. The atalho, a dimensional
and military readjustment, was about to become a routine in Northern Africa.
This perimeter contraction led to a profound change in the sense of the city,
pushing Tangier to the sea, for defence and accessibility purposes. The sea was
the gate to Portugal whereas the hinterland was the enemy territory. The new
geometry housed the two major civil and religious equipments: the castle and the
cathedral.
From late 15
th
to mid 16
th
centuries, the urban nucleus suffered a public space
definition based on the street and square and inducing residential tissue
regularization. In Islamic cities perspective and alignment are fought in the street
layout, privileging privacy and, thus, originating a labyrinth of street ramification
from main axis to the house door. The Portuguese transformations, in this aura of
European first abolishment of medieval obstacles, searched exactly the opposite:
the street as the main element of the city, place of reunion, meeting and
exchange, sided by representative façades, and linking important equipments.
In 1661, Tangier was given to the British as a princess dowry, along with
Bombay, by the way. During this short occupation (around two decades), the city
kept its main shape, investing on a new mole and opening private gardens
among its residential tissue, until it was abandoned to the pressuring Moroccan
king.
Since Moulay Ismail times, from 1684 on, the labyrinth is back, interrupting
canals and “eating” the interior of semi-geometrical blocks. So, present medina is
still the result of the stretching of two walls opened in a ninety-degree angle back
in late 15
th
century. The notable buildings were once more replaced: a new
Sultan’s palace over the Portuguese castle and a new main mosque erasing the
Christian adaptation of the original Islamic temple.
Nevertheless, Tangier evolved to be one of the biggest and most important cities
in Morocco and its growth was first felt beyond a virtual line, as if the territory
between the present walls and the original Muslim ones was a no man’s land for
a long time, as the aerial photos of 1925 still indicate. That line wasn’t
unreasonably built in first place by the Caliphal dynasty but corresponded to an
5
important defence limit, later used by Portuguese and British to put advanced
control barriers, watch towers or forts.
Mazagão or El Jadida
In 1514 the Portuguese established a castle, over a former watchtower, in an
almost non-inhabited bay. A quadrangular plan was composed with wall curtains
linking four cylindrical towers, being one of them the primitive. The subsequent
decades are quite uncertain though the existence of some works in the interior of
this castle, willing to respond to a each day more demanding pressure from a
spontaneous growing urban assemblage around it, is predictable.
By 1541, the Portuguese decided to build a modern bastioned fortification, with
the foundation of a town in its interior, submitted to a grid project (Fig. 4). The
royal initiative was managed by a team of architects lead by Benedetto da
Ravenna and put into practise in loco by João de Castilho
3
. For more than two
centuries and a half, the inexpugnable Mazagão stood in the hand of the
Portuguese crown. Until 1769, we assisted to the consolidation of this project: the
fortified perimeter was defined by five big bastions, long inflected wall curtains
and a surrounding moat; in the centre, the former 1514 castle was adapted to
administrative headquarters housing a church, a hospital, store houses for
cereals and munitions, a jail and a huge water reservoir.
1769 marks the evacuation of the place due to sustainability problems and
another siege by Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah sultan. The departure lead to the
destruction of the walls and bastions when leaving, so that it couldn’t be
appropriated by the besiegers, and conducted the 2000 inhabitants to Brazil,
where New Mazagão was founded
4
. Al-mahdouma, “the destroyed”, was the
local denomination for those ruins after the Portuguese abandonment. For almost
half a century, the once Christian stronghold rested empty of life and this period
accentuated the decay.
Eventually, after the 1820s reconstruction, mellah, or jewish neighbourhood
became the designation for the in wall area, as they were the first occupants.
6
Nevertheless, by 1861, descriptions mention 1500 souls divided into European,
Arab and Jew population, showing that the reconstructed fortress started slowly
to house a synagogue, a zawia and a mosque
5
. One of the four corners of the
primitive castle was replaced by the minaret and the mosque imposed a new
geometry to the main public space, next to the old church.
During the French protectorate (1912-1956), Cité Portugaise was a name that
invoked the Portuguese past, in a general effort by the French to enhance
heritage culture. It remains as one of the denominations by which this citadel is
known in the actual town of El Jadida, “the new one”. In the present time, housing
up to 3500 people, this portion of the city is decentralized taking into
consideration the “medina” area formed from the 19
th
century on. One can
observe daily changes on the urban fabric as if the Portuguese orthogonal plan
was suffering from an “islamization” process: streets are cut or shortened; the
demolition of some houses induces the creation of new public spaces;
alignments get inflected and perspectives are substituted by privacy and shadow.
A new urban order has been installed adapting the Portuguese matrix and
evolving into a more recognizable aspect by the exclusively Arab population of
the present situation. The former Portuguese circulation circuits were
transformed by the addition of the new buildings or the opening of new dead end
ways.
Conclusion
Summing up, Ceuta, Tangier and El Jadida present three different urban
processes where Muslim and Christian strata are confronted.
Ceuta, once an important Muslim commercial city during medieval times, suffered
a process of downsizing when the Portuguese conquered it in 1415, due to
sustainability issues. The Muslim occupation was suspended from then on and
although its original limits were regained, the Islamic urban fabric was drastically
altered and the city image transformed according to European desire to erase the
pre-colonial layer.
7
Tangier offers a typical case of interruption of the Muslim rule over the city. Held
by the Portuguese between 1471 and 1661, it suffered a radical reduction of its
perimeter and a redirection towards the port. This fortified shape was maintained
by the brief British occupation and present day medina retrains itself to that
boundary, although recent population boom has pushed the urban assemblage
way beyond.
Finally, El Jadida allows us to go back to a non-Muslim origin. Its name - the new
- reflects the political situation since the 19
th
century Muslim occupation over a
Portuguese foundation of the mid 500s, subverting the orthogonality of the
original grid layout within a modern bastioned contour.
The decisive urban factor that prevails when analyzing this diachronical evolution
is the Portuguese interval in each case, though briefly followed by the British in
Tangier and still happening with the Spanish in Ceuta, as far as reshaping the
city is concerned. Politics and religion have been closely together in this path:
from the Muslim-Chritian situation of Ceuta to the Christian-Muslim phases of El
Jadida, passing by the Muslim-Christian-Muslim history of Tangier.
Several encounters between two different concepts have transformed the reading
of these Northern African cities in a stratigraphic process of urban archaeology.
As a consequence, today, one can double read the architectural form and urban
space, but, although sometimes gradual or smooth, the encounters have always
engaged a reaction towards different readings of the urban phenomenon. The
metamorphosis is occurring daily, conducting a cycle movement in the urban
history of the conquered cities of Ceuta and Tangier, while reinterpreting the
fabric layer of the most successful foundational case of former Mazagão.
1
For cities and towns, we decided to use the present denominations for the toponyms of the
former Portuguese possessions. The original Portuguese names are indicated in brackets.
2
Crónica da Tomada de Ceuta, by Gomes Eanes de Zurara. For further reading on Ceuta urban
topography, we suggest Gozalbes Cravioto and Gomez Barceló’s articles mentioned in the
bibliography.
3
Letter from Luis de Loureiro to João III – Mazagão, August 25th, 1541, in ANTT, Corpo
Cronológico, 1ª parte, m. 70, nº 75.
8
4
Araújo, R. M., 1998. As Cidades da Amazónia no séc. XVIII, FAUP, Porto, 1998.
5
Descriptions of Rohlfs and Séverac, both in 1861, mentioned in: GOULVEN, J., 1918.
“L’établissement des premiers Européens à Mazagan au cours du XIX siècle“, Revue de
l’histoire des Colonies Françaises, 6, pp. 385-416.
Sources
AL BEKRI, Abu Obeid (translation by Mac Guckin de Slane, 1918). Description
de l’Afrique Septentrionale, Alger : Typographie Adolphe Jourdan.
BRAUN, George, HOGENBERG, Franz (1572). Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Koln.
IDRISSI (translation, notes, glossaire by R. Dozy e M. J. Goese, 1866).
Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne , Leyde : E. J. Brill.
MENEZES, D. Fernando de (1732). Historia de Tangere, Lisboa: Officina
Ferreiriana.
Sources Inédites de l’Histoire du Maroc (Les) (1934 – 1953),
Dynastie Sa’dienne,
Archives et Bibliothèques de Portugal, 5 vols, Paris: Paul Geuthner.
ZURARA, Gomes Eanes de (ed. by PEREIRA, Francisco Maria Esteves, 1915).
Crónica da tomada de Ceuta, Lisboa: Academia das Sciências.
Bibliography
CORREIA, Jorge (PhD dissertation at FAUP, 2006). Implantação da cidade
portuguesa no Norte de África: da tomada de Ceuta a meados do século XVI, 2
vols., Porto.
FARINHA, António Dias (PhD dissertation at FLUL, 1990). Portugal e Marrocos
nos séc. XV, 3 vols, Lisboa.
GOZALVES BUSTO, Guillermo (1980). “Tanger medieval”, in Cuadernos de la
Biblioteca Española de Tetuán, nº 21-22, Tetuan, pp. 199-265.
GOZALBES CRAVIOTO, Carlos (1988). “La estrutura urbana de la Ceuta
medieval”, in Actas del I Congresso Internacional “El estrecho de Gibraltar”.
Ceuta 1984, vol.II, Madrid.
GOZALBES CRAVIOTO, Carlos (1993). “La topografia urbana de Ceuta, en La
cronica de Tomada de Gomes Eanes de Zurara”, in HERRAZTI, Alberto (1993).
Ceuta Hispano-Portuguesa, Ceuta: Instituto de Estudíos Ceutíes, pp. 189-206.
LA VÉRONNE, Chantal de (1972). Tanger sous l’occupation anglaise d’après
une description anonyme de 1674, Paris : Geuthner
MOREIRA, Rafael (1989). Portugal no Mundo, História das Fortificações
Portuguesas no Mundo, Lisboa: Alfa.
SOUSA VITERBO, Francisco (1899-1922, fac-simile 1988). Dicionário Histórico
e Documental dos Arquitectos, Engenheiros e Construtores Portugueses, 3
Vols., Lisboa: INCM.
TORRES BALBAS, Leopoldo (1985). Ciudades hispano-musulmanas, Madrid.
Universo Urbanístico Português 1415-1822 (coord. CARITA, Hélder, ARAÚJO,
Renata, 1998) Lisboa: CNCDP.
/fdata%2F2453167%2Favatar-blog-1073688003-tmpphpuHSn6z.jpeg){kind=avatar}
/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.over-blog.com%2Ft%2Fcedistic%2Fcamera.png)
/http%3A%2F%2Fdafina.net%2Fgazette%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimagecache%2F400xY%2Fachoura.jpg)
/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telexpresse.com%2Fimagesnews%2F1351245014.jpg)
/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aufaitmaroc.com%2Fpictures%2F0089%2F1057%2Fsimon_levy_07122011160839_medium.jpg%3F1323281718)
