Sacred Site
The Great Mosque of Kairouan
Also Known As Great Mosque of Kairouan
Islamic Sites
Origin Founded with the city in 670 CE
The oldest major mosque in North Africa and the model from which much of the architecture of the western Islamic world descends. It was founded by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in 670 CE at the founding of Kairouan itself, and rebuilt into essentially its present form by the Aghlabid emir Ziyadat Allah I from 836. Its square, tiered minaret is generally held to be the oldest minaret still standing anywhere, and the prototype for the minaret form across North Africa and Iberia. The vast hypostyle prayer hall rests on columns quarried from Roman and Byzantine ruins, so that the building is quite literally assembled from the province it replaced.
Facts
Geography
LatitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement. LongitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement. Origins
Origin PeriodFounded with the city in 670 CE 1 Origin PeriodThe standing mosque is largely of the 9th century 1 Site
Type of Site Type of Site DetailCongregational mosque at Kairouan built around a vast colonnaded courtyard, its hypostyle prayer hall, tiered minaret and Aghlabid-era mihrab and minbar together forming the architectural template later mosque-building in the Maghreb and al-Andalus followed. 2 Status
Status TodayIn active religious use 1 UNESCO World HeritageInscribed on the World Heritage List 3 Inscribed 1988 within Kairouan Location
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The Mosque That Fathered the Architecture of the West
The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest major mosque in North Africa and the model from which much of the religious architecture of the western Islamic world descends.
Founding and rebuilding
Kairouan was founded as a garrison city by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi around 670 CE during the Muslim conquest of North Africa, and the mosque was founded with it. The building was reconstructed into essentially its present form under the Aghlabid emir Ziyadat Allah I from 836. Kairouan became the first great centre of Islam in the Maghrib and a seat of Maliki legal scholarship, and it acquired such prestige that it was sometimes counted among the holy cities, with a tradition holding repeated pilgrimage to it as of great merit.
The building
The mosque is a vast hypostyle hall opening onto an arcaded courtyard, its prayer hall carried on columns quarried from the Roman and Byzantine ruins of the province, so that the building is literally assembled from the civilisation it succeeded. Its massive square, tiered minaret is generally held to be the oldest minaret still standing anywhere and the prototype of the minaret form across North Africa and Muslim Spain. The mihrab, with its ninth-century lustre tiles and carved marble, is among the oldest and most celebrated in the Islamic world.
Living monument
The Great Mosque remains an active place of worship at the centre of the old city of Kairouan, and the city and its monuments are a World Heritage site. Its influence radiates well beyond Tunisia: the plan, the minaret and the decorative vocabulary set here were carried across the Maghrib and into Iberia, shaping mosque architecture over a wide region for centuries.
Columns with a Previous Life
Kairouan's mosque was partly assembled from other people's ruined buildings, and its minaret may be the oldest one still standing anywhere.
Columns with a previous life
The mosque's prayer hall is supported by a large number of reused spolia columns, capitals taken from earlier Roman and Byzantine structures across the region, no two entirely alike, a common practice in early Islamic architecture that here produced a forest of mismatched supports unified by the hall's roofline above them. The square minaret, built or substantially rebuilt in the eighth century, is widely cited as the oldest surviving minaret in the Islamic world, though the claim depends on how continuously rebuilt structures elsewhere are counted.
A founding legend involving buried gold
Tradition credits the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi with founding both the city and its mosque in the seventh century, and local legend holds that a spring and a golden cup, previously lost, were miraculously revealed at the site he chose, linking the mosque's location to a story of divine confirmation rather than ordinary military convenience.
A ranking some claim, not all accept
Some traditions and local claims describe Kairouan's mosque as ranking fourth in sanctity within Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, an honorific status promoted particularly within North African tradition rather than a designation universally recognised across the wider Muslim world.
Connections
Associated With
Its Great Mosque, rebuilt in the ninth century, is among the oldest surviving mosques in the world.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of IslamMarshall G. S. Hodgson
Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Contained In
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Element Of
Kairouan was the seat from which Maliki law spread across North Africa, and Sahnun compiled the Mudawwana there.
Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Originated In
Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
In the Other Atlases
Located In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.
Sources
1. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005- from the site's own catalogue record
- Originated In: North Africa, Stored region property on this entity, cited to this source: North Africa
View the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source 3. UNESCO World Heritage List
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage CentreView the Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam
Marshall G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago Press, 1974On the Muslim conquest of the Maghrib and Kairouan
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