Dictionary of islamic architecture

part of the roof is supported by shorter poles
contained within a circular outer wall. The eaves of
the thatched roof project beyond the line of the outer
wall so that from the outside the walls and entrances
are barely visible. Mosques in the region are built in
the same manner as the houses, but inside the hut
there is a flat-roofed rectangular mud-walled
building with a mihrab in the east wall. According
to local tradition the mosque is only the square
building inside whilst the outer thatched building is
merely for protection. This arrangement further
strengthens the idea that in West Africa Islam can
only be represented by rectangular or square
architecture of mud or stone.
Further reading:
R.M.A.Bedaux, ‘Tellem, reconnaissance d’une culture de
l’ouest african au moyen âge: recherches
architectoniques’, 
Journal de la Société des Africanistes
42:
103–85, 1972.

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309
West Africa
R.Bravmann, 
Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa,
Cambridge 1974.
N.David, ‘The Fulani compound and the archaeologist’,
World Archaeology
3: 111–31, 1971.
S.Denyer, 
African Traditional Architecture,
New York 1978.
A.D.Hyland, 
Traditional Forms of Architecture in Ghana,
Kumasi 1975.
D.Jacques-Meunie, 
Cités anciennes de Mauritanie,
Paris
1961.
R.J.McIntosh, ‘Archaeology and mud wall decay in a
West African village’, 
World Archaeology
6: 154–71,
1974.
B.Mallen and C.Benedetti, ‘Afro-Brazilian mosques’,
Mimar
29: 1988.
L.Prussin, ‘The architecture of Islam in West Africa’,
African Arts
1(2): 32–25 and 70–4, 1968.
—— ‘Sudanese architecture and the Manding’, 
African
Arts
3(4): 12–19 and 64–7, 1970.
—— ‘Contribution à l’étude du cadre historique de la
technologie de la construction dans l’Ouest africain’,
Journal de la Société des Africanistes
40: 175–8, 1970.
—— ‘West African mud granaries’, 
Paideuma
18: 144–69,
1972.
—— ‘Building technologies in the West African
savannah’, 
Le Sol, la parole et l’écrit, mélanges en hommage
à Raymond Maury,
Paris 1981.
—— 
Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa,
Berkeley
1986.
J.Sacht, ‘Sur la diffusion des formes d’architecture
religieuse musulmane à travers le Sahara’, 
Travaux de
l’Institut de Recherches Sahariennes
11(1): 11–27, 1954.
M.-M.Vire, ‘Stèles funéraires musulmanes soudano-
sahariennes’, 
Bulletin IFAN
21 B (3–4): 459–600, 1959.

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