Great Mosque of Djenné

Overview

The Great Mosque of Djenné is a mosque built entirely of sun-dried mud brick in the town of Djenné in central Mali. It is the town's main congregational mosque, where Friday prayers are held, and Muslim worship has continued on the site since around the 13th century. Each year the whole community replasters the building's walls with fresh mud in a one-day festival. The mosque is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Present

The Great Mosque of Djenné is managed by the town's Muslim community and its imam, and it serves as Djenné's congregational mosque for Friday prayers. The building depends on the Crépissage de la Grande Mosquée, the annual replastering festival held before the rainy season, in which the whole town applies a fresh coat of mud plaster to the walls; without this yearly renewal the mud surface would erode. The work is directed by Djenné's guild of masons, whose knowledge passes from generation to generation. Entry to the mosque is reserved for Muslims, a restriction in place since the 1990s. The region around Djenné is affected by the ongoing armed conflict in central Mali.

Religious Significance

The Great Mosque of Djenné is the center of Muslim life in a town with a long history as a place of Islamic learning in West Africa. According to historical accounts, Koi Konboro, the first ruler of Djenné to become a Muslim, pulled down his palace and had a mosque built on the site, the same site the Great Mosque occupies today. Djenné became known for its Quranic schools, where students memorize the Quran, Islam's holy book, and the town drew religious students from across the region. The annual replastering of the mosque is bound up with the building's religious life: the imam blesses the work, and the whole community takes part, from the masons who direct it to the households that carry mud and water.

History & Structure

The first mosque in Djenné was built around the 13th century on the site of the ruler's former palace. The present building was completed in 1907, constructed by Djenné's guild of masons during the French colonial period. The mosque is built of sun-dried mud bricks coated with mud plaster and is raised on a platform about 75 meters on each side, roughly three meters above the surrounding market square, which protects it from the seasonal floods of the Bani River. The prayer wall facing Mecca carries three towers, each about 16 meters high and topped with an ostrich egg. The mosque was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988, together with the old town of Djenné.

Additional Resources

• Related: Great Mosque of Djenné (Smarthistory)
• UNESCO: Old Towns of Djenné
• Book: The Masons of Djenné by Trevor H. J. Marchand (2009)