The Great Mosque of Taza was built on the orders of the Almohad sultan Abd al-Mu'min in the period after 1142 CE, around the same time that he conquered the city.

[1][2][3][4] Taza, occupying a strategic location on the main road between Morocco and Algeria, was the first major city the Almohads conquered outside their initial mountain domains and served as one of their earliest bases after Tinmel.

[6] The last aisle, directly in front of the qibla wall, was distinguished by being slightly wider, as was the middle nave that led to the mihrab.

[3][9] The mosque was only the object of patronage again after 1665, when the 'Alawi leader Moulay Rashid briefly made Taza his main base and built the Dar al-Makhzen (royal palace) in the south side of the old city.

The present-day mosque, which includes Marinid-era expansions, is composed of a main building and of a "grand courtyard" (el-sahn el-kebir) on its east side.

The prayer hall is built in a hypostyle format and is divided into nine "naves" by rows of horseshoe arches running perpendicular to the southeastern qibla wall.

On the courtyard's north side are several other chambers of varying sizes which roughly correspond to the last two transversal aisles of the mosque building.

The courtyard existed during the Marinid period, but the qubba fountain and the southern prayer gallery probably date from the time of Moulay Rashid (17th century) or later.

With a maximum diameter of 2.5 meters and weighing 3 tons, it is the largest surviving example of its kind in North Africa.

Its decoration included mainly arabesque forms like floral patterns as well as a poetic inscription in cursive Arabic.

This ornamentation was focused especially on the pole or shaft at the top of the cone and, especially, on the large dome-like underside which resembled the elaborate stucco dome in front of the mihrab.

[10] Various other medieval lamps are also preserved in the Great Mosque of Taza,[10] including one that used a church bell as its core, possibly a spoil brought back from Marinid campaigns in present-day Spain.

[5] The mosque's minbar (pulpit) is also dated to the end of the 13th century, during the Marinid expansion under Abu Yaqub Yusuf.

Like other minbars, it takes the shape of a mobile staircase with an archway at the bottom of the stairs and a canopy at the top and it is composed of many pieces of wood assembled together.

The most significant preserved elements are its two flanks, which are covered with an example of the elaborate geometric decoration found in this artisan tradition.