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Behind the qibla wall, on the south side of the mosque, are several chambers and smaller annexes, including the imam's chamber, the minbar's storage chamber, a library, and a mida'a or ablutions chamber (Arabic: ميضأة). [3]
This pattern is the same repeated by the arcades of the courtyard. The three interior arcades intersect in the center of the sanctuary with a larger, higher arcade that is perpendicular to the qibla wall and faces the mihrab and the minbar. [119] The central transept divides the arcades into two halves each with eleven arches.
[13]: 72 [15]: 135 [4]: 37 The original mihrab was replaced with a new one of Zirid style at the middle of the shortened qibla wall. [31] The minaret, which might have originally been located at the middle of the courtyard's north side (like at the Great Mosque of Kairouan), would have thus found itself at the corner of a reduced courtyard.
The mihrab is a narrow, corbelled niche in the center of the qibla wall, and is defined by a similar niche with three built-in stone steps to its right. The mihrab, the minbar, and the lower part of the qibla wall are plastered with white wash. Viewed from the outside, one sees that the mihrab and minbar protrude slightly out of the qibla wall.
[12]: 178–180 On either side of the mihrab are two doors giving access to small chambers, one of which was used to store the wooden minbar (a ceremonial pulpit). Above and right in front of the mihrab is a large square cupola filled with a dome of finely-carved and painted muqarnas (stalactite or honeycomb-like geometric sculpture). Similar ...
Mihrab (Arabic: محراب, miḥrāb, pl. محاريب maḥārīb) is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the "qibla wall".
To the right of the mihrab is the minbar of the mosque, which could also be stored in a small room behind a door in the qibla wall. The minbar is most likely of similar origins as the Almoravid minbar of the Koutoubia Mosque, made by a workshop in Córdoba not long after the latter and installed in al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in 1144 (at the end of ...
To the right of the mihrab in the central tower is a second niche, the pulpit or minbar, from which the imam preaches his Friday sermon. [18] The towers in the qibla wall do not contain stairs linking the prayer hall with the roof. Instead there are two square towers housing stairs leading to the roof.