Zirid and Hammadid palaces in North Africa and its influence on Norman architecture in Sicily

Abstract

In 973, the Fatimid caliph al-Mu’izz, abandoned the two royal cities of Tunisia, al-Mahdia and al-Mansuriya, for Cairo leaving power of the Ifriqiya to the Berber tribes of Beni Ziri. The capital city, Ashir, was established in Algeria on the slopes of mount Lakhdar that dominates the entire high plains of the steppes. After some years, Prince Buluggin ibn Ziri abandoned central Maghreb and its capital, and transferred it to Kairuan in Tunisia. The protection of the old capital of the Zirid kingdom was entrusted to the Hammadids who, profiting from this new situation, built in 1007 a royal city: the Qal’a of Beni Hammad, located in the Hodna Mountains in north-central Algeria. Unfortunately, the glorious Fatimid palatial architecture has all but disappeared. Neither Mahdia, nor al-Mansuriya, nor Cairo allows us to define the planimetric and spatial characteristics. To somehow return to the Fatimid palaces, would require the studying of the design settings of other more direct noble buildings constructed during the Zirid and Hammadid periods which also show certain analogies with several Norman palaces.