GUSTAVO SIMONI | CELEBRATION OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE OF SIDI BOUMEDIENE, TLEMCEN

In this animated scene, a procession of men exits the main entrance of the mosque of Sidi Boumediene in Tlemcen, led by a group of musicians playing the lute and tambourines. Built by the Marinid rulers of Morocco in 1339, the mosque was dedicated to the influential Sufi saint Abu Madyan, who hailed from Seville and contributed greatly to the spread of tasawwuf, the ‘soul’ of Islam, in the Maghreb region. The mosque complex also included a madrasa, where Ibn Khaldun, the Muslim historiographer and historian, once taught; and the Dar al-Sultan palace, where the Sultans stayed during their visits to the mosque.

Trained in Rome as a watercolourist, Gustavo Simoni's Algerian subjects met with great acclaim. He purchased a house in Tlemcen, and welcomed many of his fellow Italian artists there.