The “Berber” Minbar at Ithra

Among the most significant recent acquisitions for the collection of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture – Ithra – is a well-preserved wooden minbar. With its three climbing steps, plus the sitting platform and a maximum height of c.160 cm, it has a domestic feeling in comparison to the monumental minbars from which it derives. However, all its features – mobility by means of wheels, arched access gate, backrest, design, patterns, and overall physical construction – safely place this essential piece of religious furnishing within the tradition of the stately minbars that were created for the Friday mosques in today’s Southern Spain and Morocco under the Almoravid (al-Murabitun, c.1070–1147) and Almohad (al-Muwahhidun, c.1147–1269) dynasties in the 11th–13th centuries CE, a tradition that continued under the Marinids (1244–1465) in Morocco in the following centuries. All these ruling dynasties were of Berber origin.