Everything about Bab Agnaou totally explained
Bab Agnaou (Arabic
باب اكناو) is one of the nineteen gates of
Marrakech,
Morocco. It was built in the
12th century in the time of the
Almohad dynasty.
The name Agnaou, like
Gnaoua, in
Berber refers to black people (cf. Akal-n-iguinawen - land of the black). The gate was called Bab al Kohl (also referring to black people) or Bab al Qsar (palace gate) in some historical sources.
The function of the gate must have been representation, first of all. The corner-pieces are decorated with floral decorations extending around a shell. This ornamentation is framed by three panels and on these panels is an inscription from the
Quran in
Maghribi, foliated
Kufic letters, which were also used in
Al-Andalus. Bab Agnaou was renovated and its opening reduced in size, during sultan
Mohammed ben Abdallah. Forerunners of this horseshoe-shaped gate with its corner-pieces, framed by inscriptions from the
Quran can be found in the
Mezquita in
Cordoba. It shows many similarities to the contemporary (much simpler) Bab Er-Rouah in
Rabat.
Bab Agnaou gives entrance to the royal
kasbah in the southern part of the medina of
Marrakech. The
kasbah, built by the
Almohad sultan
Yaqub al-Mansour, is the site of El Mansouria (the kasbah mosque), the
El Badi Palace and the
Saadian Tombs.
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