Technical Reference

Sources

This archive draws on published scholarship, field survey data, and institutional records. The following bibliography lists primary and secondary sources consulted across all entries.

Foundational Texts

The study of Moroccan architecture was established by French colonial scholars in the early 20th century. While their work remains structurally important, it carries the interpretive biases of its era — particularly the tendency to separate "Arab" and "Berber" traditions into distinct categories. Later Moroccan and international scholars have complicated and enriched this framework.

  • Terrasse, Henri. L'Art hispano-mauresque des origines au XIIIe siècle. Paris: Van Oest, 1932.
  • Terrasse, Henri. La Mosquée al-Qaraouiyin à Fès. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1968.
  • Terrasse, Henri, and Henri Basset. "Sanctuaires et forteresses almohades." Hespéris, vols. IV–VII (1924–1927). Republished Paris, 1932; 2001.
  • Terrasse, Henri, and J. Hainaut. Les Arts décoratifs au Maroc. Paris: Henri Laurens, 1925.
  • Marçais, Georges. L'Architecture musulmane d'Occident: Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, Espagne et Sicile. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1954.
  • Deverdun, Gaston. Marrakech: Des origines à 1912. Rabat: Éditions Techniques Nord-Africaines, 1959–1966.
  • Maslow, Boris. Les Mosquées de Fès et du nord du Maroc. Paris: Éditions Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1937.

Islamic Architecture & Decorative Arts

  • Bloom, Jonathan M. Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.
  • Bloom, Jonathan M. Minaret: Symbol of Islam. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art VII. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  • Tabbaa, Yasser. The Transformation of Islamic Art During the Sunni Revival. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.
  • Dodds, Jerrilynn D., ed. Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.
  • Barrucand, Marianne, and Achim Bednorz. Moorish Architecture in Andalusia. Cologne: Taschen, 1992.
  • Paccard, André. Traditional Islamic Craft in Moroccan Architecture. 2 vols. Saint-Jorioz: Éditions Ateliers 74, 1980.
  • Castéra, Jean-Marc. Arabesques: Decorative Art in Morocco. Paris: ACR Édition, 1999.
  • Hedgecoe, John, and Salma Samar Damluji. Zillij: The Art of Moroccan Ceramics. Reading: Garnet, 1992.

Vernacular & Earthen Architecture

  • Meunié, Jacques, Henri Terrasse, and Gaston Deverdun. Nouvelles Recherches archéologiques à Marrakech. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1957.
  • Naji, Salima. Art et architectures berbères du Maroc: Atlas et vallées présahariennes. Casablanca: Éditions La Croisée des Chemins, 2001.
  • Naji, Salima. Greniers collectifs de l'Atlas: Patrimoines du Sud marocain. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud, 2006.
  • Hensens, Jacques. "Architecture and Environment: The Traditional Architecture of Southern Morocco." ICOMOS, 1989.
  • Dethier, Jean. Down to Earth: Mud Architecture, an Old Idea, a New Future. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
  • Houben, Hugo, and Hubert Guillaud. Earth Construction: A Comprehensive Guide. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1994.
  • Dipasquale, Letizia, Saverio Mecca, and Maddalena Achenza, eds. Earthen Architecture in the Mediterranean Region. Florence: Edicom, 2019.

Domestic Architecture & Riads

  • Revault, Jacques, Lucien Golvin, and Ali Amahan. Palais et demeures de Fès. 3 vols. Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1985–1992.
  • Gallotti, Jean. Le Jardin et la maison arabes au Maroc. Paris: Albert Lévy, 1926.
  • Navarro Palazón, Julio, and Pedro Jiménez Castillo. "Casas y palacios de al-Andalus." In Casas y palacios de al-Andalus: siglos XII y XIII. Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1995.
  • Petruccioli, Attilio. After Amnesia: Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean. Bari: ICAR, 2007.
  • Bianca, Stefano. Urban Form in the Arab World: Past and Present. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

Water Systems & Infrastructure

  • Lightfoot, Dale R. "Moroccan Khettara: Traditional Irrigation and Progressive Desiccation." Geoforum 27, no. 2 (1996): 261–273.
  • Lightfoot, Dale R. "The Origin and Diffusion of Qanats in Arabia: New Evidence from the Northern and Southern Peninsula." Geographical Journal 166, no. 3 (2000): 215–226.
  • Ben Brahim, Mohamed, et al. "Les Khettaras du Haouz de Marrakech: un patrimoine hydraulique en déclin." In Les Systèmes de captage des eaux dans le monde musulman. Rabat, 2003.
  • El Faïz, Mohammed. Les Maîtres de l'eau: Histoire de l'hydraulique arabe. Arles: Actes Sud, 2005.

Colonial & Modern Architecture

  • Cohen, Jean-Louis, and Monique Eleb. Casablanca: Mythes et figures d'une aventure urbaine. Paris: Hazan, 1998. Revised edition 2019.
  • Wright, Gwendolyn. The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
  • Chaouni, Aziza. "Depoliticizing Group GAMMA: Contesting Modernism in Morocco." In Third World Modernism, edited by Lu Duanfang, 57–84. London: Routledge, 2011.
  • Eleb, Monique. "An Alternative to Functionalist Universalism: Écochard, Candilis, and ATBAT-Afrique." In Anxious Modernisms, edited by Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Réjean Legault. Montreal: CCA, 2000.
  • Radoine, Hassan. "French Territoriality and Urbanism: General Lyautey and Architect Prost in Morocco (1912–1925)." Journal of Architecture 16, no. 1 (2011).

Earthquakes & Reconstruction

  • Williford, Daniel. "Seismic Politics: Risk and Reconstruction after the 1960 Earthquake in Agadir, Morocco." Technology and Culture 58, no. 4 (2017): 982–1016.
  • Segalla, Spencer D. Empire and Catastrophe: Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021.
  • Kherdeen, Riad. "Spectral Modernisms: Decolonial Aesthetics and Haunting in the Aftershock of Morocco's Agadir Earthquake (1960)." PhD diss., University of California, 2024.
  • Duffaud, F., et al. "Le Séisme d'Agadir du 29 février 1960." Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique, no. 154. Rabat, 1962.
  • Falconer, B. H. "Agadir, Morocco: Reconstruction Work Six Years after the Earthquake of February 1960." New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Quarterly Bulletin (1966).
  • Hanson, K., et al. "Rapid Report: Earthquake Damage to the Tinmel Mosque, Morocco." Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative / Penn Cultural Heritage Center, 2023.
  • Nadau, Thierry. "La Reconstruction d'Agadir." In Architecture française d'outre-mer, edited by Maurice Culot and Jean-Marie Thiveaud. Liège: Mardaga, 1992.

General History & Reference

  • Terrasse, Henri. Histoire du Maroc des origines à l'établissement du Protectorat français. 2 vols. Casablanca: Éditions Atlantides, 1949–1950.
  • Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  • Le Tourneau, Roger. Fez in the Age of the Marinides. Translated by Besse Alberta Clement. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
  • Bennison, Amira K. The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
  • Rosser-Owen, Mariam. "Andalusi Spolia in Medieval Morocco: Architectural Politics, Political Architecture." Medieval Encounters 20, no. 2 (2014): 152–198.

Institutional Sources

  • UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Nomination and advisory body evaluation documents for inscribed Moroccan sites: Medina of Fez (1981), Medina of Marrakesh (1985), Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou (1987), Historic City of Meknes (1996), Medina of Essaouira (2001), Portuguese City of Mazagan (2004), Rabat (2012).
  • Ministère de la Culture, Royaume du Maroc. Heritage survey and classification records for monuments historiques classés.
  • Direction du Patrimoine Culturel. Post-earthquake damage assessments (Al Haouz, 2023).
  • Règlement de Construction Parasismique RPS 2000, revised RPS 2011. Ministère de l'Habitat, Rabat.
  • Fondation pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Culturel de Rabat. Conservation and restoration documentation.

A Note on Sources

Moroccan architectural history has been shaped by its colonial scholarly origins. The foundational surveys by Henri Terrasse, Boris Maslow, Georges Marçais, and their contemporaries remain indispensable for their documentation of structures and techniques, much of it recorded before significant alterations or deterioration. However, their interpretive frameworks — the separation of "Arab" and "Berber" cultures into distinct, sometimes hierarchical categories — have been critiqued and complicated by subsequent generations of scholars, including Moroccan researchers working to reclaim their own architectural heritage.

This archive attempts to present structural and material facts with as much precision as available evidence allows, while acknowledging where documentation is thin or contested. Dimensions and specifications cited in building entries are drawn from published surveys, institutional records, and field measurement where available. Where no primary measurement exists, we note the source of estimates and the margin of uncertainty.

For corrections, additions, or research contributions, contact the editors through the About page.