Dar al Muwaqqit

The Dar al-Muwaqqit is a room in the minaret of the Al-Karaouine mosque in Fes, Morocco. It was the chamber of the muwaqqit, the officer charged with the regulation and maintenance of the clocks and with communicating the correct times of prayer to the muezzin. The most important object of the Dar al-Muwaqqit is the water clock of Al-Lajai. It was made at the order of the Marinid Sultan Abu Salim Ali II (r. 1359-1361) by the muwaqqit Abu Zaid Abderrahman Ibn Souleiman al-Lajai (d. 1370). Al-Lajai had studied mathematics with Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi at the Al-Attarine Madrasa. The clock was finished and put in place on 20 November 1361, two months after the death of the sultan.