Qal'at Bani Hammad (Arabic: قلعة بني حماد), also called Qal'a Bani Hammad or Qal'at of the Beni Hammad, is a strongly built city in Algeria. Today, it is in ruins, but in the 11th century, it was the first capital of the Hammadid dynasty. It is located in the Hodna Mountains, northeast of M'Sila, at an elevation of 1,418 meters (about 4,652 feet). The area receives plenty of water from nearby mountains. The site is near the town of Maadid (also called Maadhid), about 225 kilometers (140 miles) southeast of Algiers, in the Maghreb region.

In 1980, UNESCO added it to the list of World Heritage Sites under the name Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad. It was described as "an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city."

The city has walls that are 7 kilometers (4 miles) long. Inside the walls are four residential areas and the largest mosque built in Algeria after the mosque of Mansurah. The mosque is similar to the Grand Mosque of Kairouan, with a tall minaret that is 20 meters (about 66 feet) high.

Archaeological digs uncovered many items, including terracotta, jewels, coins, and ceramics, showing the advanced culture of the Hammadid dynasty. Decorative fountains with lions as a design feature were also found. The remains of the emir's palace, called Dar al-Bahr, include three separate homes separated by gardens and pavilions.

History

The fortress was built in 1007 by Hammad ibn Buluggin, the son of Buluggin ibn Ziri, who also founded Algiers. The city became the capital of the Hammadid Berbers and faced a siege from the Zirid in 1017. In 1090, it was abandoned because of the threat from the Banu Hilal and was partly destroyed by the Almohads in 1152.

The Qalaa was described by Al-Bakri in the 11th century as a large and strong military fortress and an important center of trade that brought caravans from many places, including the Maghreb, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz. Ibn Khaldun noted that many travelers came because the city offered resources that supported science, trade, and the arts. The Qalaa attracted poets, scholars, and religious leaders. The Hammadid architectural style even influenced buildings in other regions.

Excavations of the site began in 1908, continued from 1952 to 1956, and are still ongoing today. Most of the site remains unexplored, and the details of the palaces require further study.

Architecture

The Hammadid emirs built five palaces, most of which no longer exist. However, the keep of the Palace of the Fanal (Qasr al-Manar) still survives. The upper palace includes three buildings arranged around an irregularly shaped courtyard: a private apartment, a domed hall, and an entrance wing.

Other palaces, such as Qasr al-Kawab and Qasr al-Salam, were also constructed by the Hammadids. Qasr al-Salam was likely the home of the ruler’s family and shows many features common in Hammadid architecture. Qasr al-Manar shares a similar layout to the upper palace and Qasr al-Salam, with a courtyard, an audience hall, and a private apartment all surrounded by T-shaped pillared porticos.

The Dar al-Bahar (or Qasr al-Bahr), located near the main mosque, was probably used for public gatherings or as the emir’s residence. Its name comes from a large water basin in the eastern courtyard. The main reception room is between two courtyards, and a domed hall lies north of the water court. The outer walls have buttresses with different designs. The water courtyard measures 71 meters long and 51 meters wide, while the basin is 68 meters long, 48 meters wide, and 1.3 meters deep. The courtyard is surrounded on all sides by T-shaped pillared porticos.

The Dar al-Bahr palace is named for its rectangular pool, which is 67 meters long and 47 meters wide. A ramp at one end of the pool was used to launch boats. Visitors from the time described nautical displays in the pool. The pool is surrounded by a portico and accessed through a grand entrance on the east side. To the west of the pool was an elevated terrace and courtyard with gardens. Outside the palace walls, gardens stretched east to west across the city and extended nearly 100 meters deep. These gardens have not been explored by archaeologists, though ornamental fountains have been found.

The Hammadid mosque is believed to have been the largest mosque in North Africa before the 20th century. It features a typical Maghreb-style square minaret. In Qal’at Beni Hammad, the minaret, 25 meters tall, is the only remaining part of the ruined Great Mosque. It resembles the Giralda in Seville.

Buildings in Qal’at Beni Hammad were decorated with porcelain mosaics, colored faience, sculpted panels, plaster, and enameled terra-cotta stalactites. Geometric and floral designs decorated pottery and walls.

In Qal’at Beni Hammad, fragments of stucco from Qasr al-Salam and Qasr al-Manar may be the oldest known muqarnas in the Western Islamic world, dating to the 11th or 12th century. No earlier muqarnas have been found in the Islamic West. According to Lucien Golvin, the muqarnas fragments from Qasr al-Salam are the oldest confirmed examples of true muqarnas vaults in the Islamic world. However, some scholars dispute the dating or classification of these fragments.

The buildings in Qal’at Beni Hammad are considered early examples of architectural styles later seen in Western Islamic art during the 12th century. Smooth, curved plaster capitals found at the site resemble forms later used in Almoravid and Almohad architecture, such as in the Great Mosque of Tlemcen or Tinmel. A marble basin and a grey marble fragment show the use of multifoil arches with spiral-shaped decorations. These designs later became common in Almohad buildings. Square rooms with barrel vaults in Qasr al-Manar are similar to Almohad minarets and the Torre Pisana in Palermo, which they predate. The Hammadid palaces are also noted for containing the first or one of the first recorded uses of a shadirwan.

Gallery

• Two pieces of stucco from Qal'at Bani Hammad
• A mosaic panel made of ceramic from Qal'at Bani Hammad
• A fragment from Qal'at Bani Hammad, now displayed in the Louvre