Qairawan

Important caravan city in north-central Tunisia on the east-west route between Egypt and the Maghreb. Founded in 670 on the site of the Byzantine fortress of Kamouinia, it has four major 9th-century structures: the Great Mosque, the Mosque of Three Doors, and two massive cisterns. The Great Mosque bears the name of Uqba b. Nafi, the conqueror of North Africa, who built the first mosque at Qairawan in 670. The mosque was rebuilt again by the Aghlabid ruler, Ziyadat Allah, and his successors, beginning in 836. The 9th-century mosque, much of which survives influenced Islamic architecture in the Maghreb. The Mosque of Three Doors (Jami Tleta Biban) has a square sanctuary with nine domes and was built in 866. As a result of Bedouin incursions in the 11th century, the decline of steppe cultivation in favor of nomadic life, and the rise of Tunis as capital, Qairawan declined into an isolated market town for nomads.

An important caravan city in Tunisia on the east-west route between Egypt and the Maghreb. It has four major 9th-century structures: the Great Mosque, the Mosque of Three Doors and two massive cisterns. The Great Mosque bears the name of Uqba b. Nafi, the conqueror of North Africa, who built the first mosque at Qairawan, in 670. Nothing of the earliest mosque survives. It was rebuilt first in 695 and later in 724-7 by the caliph Hisham I. The minaret, a stepped tower resembling a lighthouse, may belong to the mosque of Hisham. The mosque was rebuilt again by the Aghlabid ruler, Ziyadat Allah, and his successors, beginning in 836. The 9th-century mosque, much of which survives, had a profound influence on Islamic architecture in the Maghreb. The Mosque of Three Doors (more properly, the Jami Tleta Biban) has a square sanctuary with nine domes, as in mosques at Balkh, Soljsse and elsewhere. According to an inscription on the facade, it was built in 866. Just outside the town are two polygonal cisterns, 37 and 130 metres across, begun in 860-1.