Al-Beida Mosque
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| al-Beida Mosque | |
|---|---|
جامع البيضاء | |
 The minaret of the mosque in 2015 | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Sunni Islam |
| Location | |
| Location | Fez, Morocco |
  Location in Morocco | |
| Coordinates | 34°03′21.5″N 4°59′24.9″W / 34.055972°N 4.990250°W |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Mosque |
| Style | Moorish |
| Specifications | |
| Minaret | 1 |
| Minaret height | (approx.) 12.85 m |
| Materials | brick, wood |
The al-Beida Mosque (Arabic: جامع البيضاء)[1][2] is a mosque in Fes el-Jdid in the historic old city of Fez, Morocco.
The construction or foundation of the mosque dates from after that of the nearby al-Hamra Mosque and is thus likely from after the Marinid period.[3] Boris Maslow (20th-century author who documented many of Fez's mosques) believed that the building's layout showed indications that it started out as a small interior space (near the mihrab today) and that it was subsequently expanded to the larger complex seen today.[4] The expansion probably consisted of the courtyard (sahn) and its surrounding gallery, which, unusually, are wider than the main prayer hall itself and thus appear to have been added afterwards. The minaret of the mosque would also date from this expansion.[4]
The mosque's name, jama' beida or jama' al-beida, means either "White Mosque" or "Mosque of the White One". Since the form of the word beida (or bayda) is grammatically feminine, Roger Le Tourneau suggested that it refers to either a white minaret or a "white lady" (both plausible and grammatically feminine words).[3]
