El Mahkama — The word mahkama and the buildings it | elmahkama.com
The 1941–42 building, its courtyard, its materials and the Hispano-Moorish style it belongs to.
The Mahkama du Pacha in Casablanca was built between 1941 and 1942. It served two functions at once: a courthouse and a reception hall for the Pasha of Casablanca. That dual role explains why the building carries both judicial and ceremonial weight.
The interior is organised around a central courtyard. This is the defining move of the Hispano-Moorish style the building belongs to — rooms arranged around an open square that supplies light and circulation.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Three materials finish the interior. Zellij mosaic tile covers floors and walls in geometric patterns; carved plaster carries surface ornament; cedar wood appears in ceilings and joinery. Together they produce the layered, patterned surfaces characteristic of the style.
The Mahkama du Pacha is the best-known Moroccan example of a mahkama as architecture. It shows how the word, which names an institution, also names a building type with a recognisable plan: a courtyard core with rooms radiating from it.
As a piece of Moroccan architecture from the early 1940s, it stands at the point where a traditional building type was executed with the construction capacity of its decade — the dates 1941 and 1942 mark a two-year build.
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