the architecture of al-Andalus and one of the most important monuments of early Islamic architecture. It had a major influence on the subsequent architecture of Al-Andalus and of the Maghreb – what is known as "Moorish" architecture or western Islamic architecture – due to both its architectural innovations and its symbolic importance as the religious heart of the region's historic Cordoban Caliphate. Amira Bennison, for example, goes on to comment: Jonathan Bloom also comments: Among other examples of important precedents, the overall form of the 8th or 9th-century Bab al-Wuzara gate (Puerta de San Esteban today), with its horseshoe arch, voussoirs of alternating colours, and rectangular alfiz frame, became one of the most recurring motifs of Islamic architecture in the region. The minaret commissioned by Abd ar-Rahman III in 951–952 was also highly influential and became the model for later minarets in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Georges Marçais traces the possible origins of some later architectural motifs to the complex arches of Al-Hakam II's expansion, most notably the interlacing arches of the Aljafería in Zaragoza (11th century), the polylobed arches found throughout the region after the 10th century, and the sebka motif which became ubiquitous in Marinid, Zayyanid and Nasrid architecture after the Almohad period (12th-13th centuries). One exception to this legacy of influences was the mosaic decoration of the mosque's 10th-century mihrab, which, although admired, was not emulated by later architects. The ribbed domes of al-Hakam II's expansion are also a curious innovation whose origins have been debated, but the appearance of similar (though simpler) domes in the small Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo demonstrates that this feature spread into architectural designs beyond Cordoba. The domes also served as inspiration for the intricate ribbed dome made of plaster in the Great Mosque of Tlemcen (present-day Algeria), built by the Almoravids in the early 12th century, which in turn probably inspired similar domes built by the Marinids in the Great Mosque of Fes el-Jdid and the Great Mosque of Taza (present-day Morocco) in the late 13th century. In popular culture A posthumous poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon to an engraving of a painting by David Roberts, was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1840. Entitled The Mosque at Cordova, this harks back to 'the Moslem rule in Spain'. The South Asian Muslim philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal, who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement, visited