TUNISIA: Great Mosque Kairouan
Kairouan is a Muslim holy town in
Tunisia located 160 km south of capital Tunis. A treasure trove of ancient
buidings, it is known in particular for the
Great Mosque- the Ja`ime Sidi Okba - after the Arab general who
founded Kairouan in 670 AD. Of the original building nothing remains but the
present mosque constructed in 863 AD is one of the earliest in Islam. An
historic caravanserai on the North African trade routes, Kairouan was
further embellished by the
Aghlabid dynasty (800-909)
who built other mosques, shrines and cisterns but the focus remains on
the Great Mosque, the cultural highlight of a visit to Tunisia. Massive
wooden doors in the thick
buttressed walls of the mosque give access to a vast marble courtyard whose
focus is a grand minaret 31 metres in
height. Early mosques did not have minarets - the prayer-call was made
from the roof - but as Islam spread, the many church steeples influenced the
incorporation of the minaret into classic Islamic architecture. The lower
quarter of the single minaret in the Great Mosque of Kairouan dates
from 730 AD, the oldest in the world. In the prayer-hall is the oldest minbar pulpit in North Africa carved from teak by Iraqi craftsmen in the 9th century. The
colonnade along three sides of the courtyard is supported on hundreds of
Roman and Byzantine columns removed from ancient sites in Carthage and Sousse. No two
are alike and it is said that anyone trying to count them will become blind.
Then, as now, the Great Mosque remains a sacred pilgrim destination for
Muslims unable to afford the journey to Mecca: ancient belief says that
seven trips to Kairouan is equal to one hajj
pilgrimage to the sacred shrines in Saudi Arabia.The Muslim monuments of
Kairouan were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988.