Great Mosque of Kairouan: The Oldest Mosque of the Maghreb

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also called the Mosque of Uqba, stands in the city of Kairouan in central Tunisia. Founded around 670 by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi and rebuilt on a grand scale by the Aghlabid dynasty in 836, it is the oldest mosque in the Maghreb and one of the most important monuments of early Islamic architecture. Its minaret, prayer hall and decorated mihrab became models for mosques across North Africa and Muslim Spain.

Background: the Arab conquest of Ifriqiya

In the decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, Arab armies conquered Syria, Iraq, Persia and Egypt. Under the Umayyad Caliphate, founded in 661, the advance continued westwards into the Byzantine province of Africa, which the Arabs called Ifriqiya (roughly modern Tunisia, eastern Algeria and western Libya).

The coastal cities were still held by the Byzantines, and the interior was home to Berber (Amazigh) peoples who resisted the newcomers fiercely. The conquest of North Africa took more than half a century, far longer than that of Egypt or Iraq.

The founding of Kairouan

Around 670 (the year 50 of the Islamic calendar is usually given) Uqba ibn Nafi founded a fortified camp in the plain of central Tunisia. He chose an inland site, away from the coast where Byzantine fleets could strike, and close to the routes into the interior. The name Kairouan (al-Qayrawan) is usually explained as meaning “camp” or “caravan halt”, from a Persian word.

As in other new Arab garrison towns such as Kufa and Basra in Iraq, the mosque and the governor’s residence formed the core of the settlement. Uqba’s first mosque was probably a simple enclosure with a roofed prayer area built of reused materials and mud brick.

Uqba himself did not live to see the conquest completed. Later Arab writers describe a famous march to the Atlantic coast, but in 683 he was ambushed and killed near Biskra, in present-day Algeria, by the Berber leader Kusaila. Kairouan was temporarily lost and was only secured again in the late 680s and 690s.

Rebuildings before the Aghlabids

The early mosque was rebuilt several times as Kairouan grew into the capital of Ifriqiya. The governor Hassan ibn al-Nu’man, who took Carthage from the Byzantines in 698, is credited with a rebuilding, and further work followed under the governor Bishr ibn Safwan in the 720s, during the reign of the caliph Hisham. Some historians think the lower part of the minaret goes back to this period.

Another enlargement is attributed to the Abbasid governor Yazid ibn Hatim in 774. None of these phases can be clearly seen today, because they were swept away by the great reconstruction of the 9th century.

The Aghlabid rebuilding of 836

In 800 the Abbasid Caliphate granted Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab hereditary rule over Ifriqiya. His family, the Aghlabids, governed from Kairouan as largely independent emirs until 909, while recognising the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad.

In 836 the emir Ziyadat Allah I (r. 817-838) had the old mosque demolished and rebuilt from the foundations. The result was essentially the building that survives. Later Aghlabid rulers enriched it: Abu Ibrahim Ahmad (r. 856-863) decorated the mihrab, and Ibrahim II (r. 875-902) extended the prayer hall and added a dome over the entrance of its central aisle in 875.

The layout

The mosque covers an area of roughly 9,000 square metres, enclosed by thick walls strengthened by heavy buttresses that give it the look of a fortress. Inside lies a large, slightly irregular courtyard paved with marble and surrounded by arcades. Its surface slopes towards a central drain that feeds rainwater into underground cisterns.

The prayer hall on the south side has 17 aisles running towards the qibla wall, the wall facing Mecca. The central aisle is wider and higher than the others and leads to the mihrab. Where it meets the aisle along the qibla wall stands a ribbed dome, forming the T-shaped plan that became typical of mosques in North Africa.

The roofs rest on several hundred marble and granite columns, many of them reused from Roman and Byzantine buildings in Carthage and other cities of the region. Their varied capitals and shafts are a reminder of the long history of the land before the Arab conquest.

The minaret

At the north end of the courtyard rises a massive square minaret of three tiers, each smaller than the one below, about 31 metres high. It is one of the oldest standing minarets in the world. Its date is debated: many scholars place it in the 830s, while others think its base was built in the 720s.

The tower form of Kairouan, rather than the slender cylindrical minarets of the eastern Islamic world, became the standard model in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Later minarets such as those of the Kutubiyya in Marrakesh and the Giralda in Seville belong to the same tradition.

Mihrab and minbar

The mihrab, the niche that indicates the direction of prayer, is framed by carved marble panels and by glazed ceramic tiles with a metallic sheen, called lustreware. The tiles date from about 862. Tradition says they were brought from Baghdad, together with a craftsman from that city, and they are among the earliest surviving lustre tiles in the world.

Beside it stands the minbar, the pulpit from which the Friday sermon is given. Made of teak panels carved with geometric and plant designs, it dates from the same period and is regarded as the oldest surviving minbar still in its original place. A carved wooden screen (maqsura) enclosing the ruler’s prayer area was added in the 11th century under the Zirid dynasty.

A centre of learning

Kairouan’s mosque was not only a place of prayer but also a centre of teaching. The jurist Sahnun (died 854), who taught there, compiled the Mudawwana, a key text of the Maliki school of Islamic law. The Maliki school still dominates North and West Africa today, largely through the influence of the scholars of Kairouan.

The mosque also held an important library of manuscripts, including early copies of the Quran written on parchment. One famous example is the Blue Quran, written in gold on blue-dyed parchment, many of whose leaves were once kept in Kairouan and are now scattered among museums.

Later history

In 909 the Fatimids overthrew the Aghlabids, and power shifted to new capitals on the coast. Kairouan remained a major city under the Zirids, but in 1057 it was sacked during the invasions of the Banu Hilal, Arab nomadic tribes. The Zirid court moved to Mahdia, and Kairouan never regained its political role.

The Great Mosque survived. It was restored under the Hafsids in the 13th century and by later rulers, and it continued to be the spiritual heart of the city. In 1988 the old city of Kairouan, including the mosque, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the building is Uqba’s original mosque. The mosque still bears Uqba’s name, but the present structure dates from 836 and later. Nothing visible from about 670 survives.
• Myth: it is the oldest mosque in Africa. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat (Old Cairo) was founded earlier, in 641-642. Kairouan’s is the oldest in the Maghreb and among the best-preserved early mosques anywhere.
• Fact: the columns are older than the mosque. Many of its columns and capitals were taken from Roman and Byzantine ruins, a common practice in early Islamic building.

Timeline

• c. 670: Uqba ibn Nafi founds Kairouan and its first mosque.
• 683: Uqba is killed near Biskra by forces under Kusaila.
• c. 724-728: the mosque is rebuilt under the governor Bishr ibn Safwan.
• 800: the Aghlabid dynasty begins its rule from Kairouan.
• 836: Ziyadat Allah I demolishes and rebuilds the mosque.
• c. 862: the mihrab receives its lustre tiles and the carved teak minbar is installed.
• 875: Ibrahim II extends the prayer hall and adds the entrance dome.
• 1057: Kairouan is sacked by the Banu Hilal.
• 1988: Kairouan is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

The Great Mosque of Kairouan is the founding monument of Islam in the Maghreb. Its tower minaret, T-shaped plan and early lustre tiles shaped religious architecture from Tunisia to Spain, and its scholars spread the Maliki school of law across Africa. For more than 1,100 years it has remained in use as a place of worship.