Kairawan .com

City (1994 pop. 102,600), NE Tunisia. It is a sacred city of Islam. Founded in 670 by Uqbah bin Nafi, an Arab leader, it was the seat of Arab governors in W Africa until 800. Under the Aghlabid dynasty (800-909), it remained the chief center of commerce and learning. It was the first capital (909-21) of the Fatimids . When the city was ruined (1057) by invaders, it was supplanted by Tunis. Of Al Qayrawan's 150 mosques, the most celebrated is the Great Mosque, started by Uqbah bin Nafi and completed in the 9th cent. The city is noted for its carpet industry.

Great Mosque Commentary

"The Great Mosque at Qairouan, Tunisia, is the principal building of the Aghlabids and has an important relationship to the mosques of the Umayyad and Abbasid capitals. Its square minaret stands on the centre line of the building. The original structure of the early eighth century was swallowed up in the reconstruction of the ninth century. More bays were added to the courtyard face of the prayer-hall, and a central dome (since rebuilt) was constructed over it. Also at this stage a superb lustre mihrab was constructed— probably the earliest examples of its kind in Islamic architecture. The lustre-tiles appear to have been imported from Iraq. The building has slightly pointed horseshoe arches carried on Corinthianesque columns. The gored dome is carried on cusped squinches. The prayer-chamber has a T-shaped plan in which a central nave intersects the principal transverse aisle against the kibla wall. The giant, tapering minaret with its recessed stages as well as the incorrect southward orientation of the building itself reflect its eighth-century Syrian origins."
—Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p564, 567.