| El-Oued Mosque | |
| Native Name: | |
| Coordinates: | 34.0627°N -4.9694°W |
| Location: | Fes, Morocco |
| Sect: | (Maliki) Sunni |
| Architecture Type: | mosque |
| Architecture Style: | Alaouite, Moroccan, Islamic |
| Founded By: | Sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II (as madrasa), Sultan Moulay Slimane (as mosque) |
| Established: | 1323 CE (as madrasa), between 1792 and 1822 (as mosque) |
| Minaret Quantity: | 1 |
The El-Oued Mosque (;) is a mosque in Fes el-Bali, the historic medina of Fes, Morocco. It was built in the late 18th or early 19th century on the site of a former 14th-century madrasa by the same name.
The mosque is located on the site of the former Madrasa el-Oued or (Madrasa al-Wadi), a madrasa built in 1321[1] or 1323 by the Marinid sultan Abu Sa'id Uthman II.[2] The madrasa's name ("Mosque of the River") referred to the fact that it was located on top of the Oued Masmouda, a water canal branching off the Oued Fes river system which historically supplied water to much of the Andalus quarter of Fes el-Bali.[3] (The canal has since been covered over for decades.) Along with the Madrasa as-Sahrij and the Madrasa as-Sba'iyyin, it was built to provide lodging and teaching for students studying at the nearby Andalus Mosque, much as the Seffarine and al-Attarine Madrasas served students at the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque across the river.[4] [5] Although the Andalus mosque was thus a major center of scholarship and study in the middle ages, it was eventually eclipsed by the Qarawiyyin Mosque/University and fell into relative decline, possibly making the madrasas less important. In the late 18th or early 19th century the Alaouite sultan Moulay Slimane (who also built a number of other mosques in Fes) demolished the madrasa and built a new mosque over it, which became one of the main Friday mosques of the district.
The mosque follows the standard model of Moroccan mosque architecture. It has a prominent square-shaft minaret with minor decorative framing around its windows. The mosque's layout is distinguished by a proportionally very large rectangular courtyard (sahn), partly filled with fruit trees.