The El-Oued Mosque (; ) is a mosque in Fes el-Bali, the historic medina of Fez, Morocco. It was built in the late 18th or early 19th century on the site of a former 14th-century madrasa by the same name.
History
The mosque is located on the site of the former Madrasa el-Oued or (Madrasa al-Wadi), a madrasa built in 1321 or 1323 by the Marinid sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II.Mosquée el oued (Information plaque). Posted on a wall near the entrance of the mosque. ADER-Fes. November 2014. The madrasa's name ("Mosque of the River") referred to the fact that it was located on top of the Oued Masmouda, a water canal branching off the Oued Fes river system which historically supplied water to much of the Andalus quarter of Fes el-Bali. (The canal has since been covered over for decades.) Along with the Madrasa as-Sahrij and the Madrasa as-Sba'iyyin, it was built to provide lodging and teaching for students studying at the nearby Andalus Mosque, much as the Seffarine and al-Attarine Madrasas served students at the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque across the river. Although the Andalus mosque was thus a major center of scholarship and study in the middle ages, it was eventually eclipsed by the Qarawiyyin Mosque/University and fell into relative decline, possibly making the madrasas less important. In the late 18th or early 19th century the Alawi sultan Moulay Slimane (who also built a number of other mosques in Fes) demolished the madrasa and built a new mosque over it, which became one of the main Friday mosques of the district.
Architecture The mosque follows the standard model of Moroccan mosque architecture. It has a prominent square-shaft minaret with minor decorative framing around its windows. The mosque's layout is distinguished by a proportionally very large rectangular courtyard (sahn), partly filled with fruit trees.
See also Lists of mosques List of mosques in Africa List of mosques in Morocco
References