Kairouan

This article covers the city. For the governorate see Governorate Kairouan .

Kairuan / Qairawān القيروان
administration
Country	Tunisia
Governorate	Kairouan
Post Code	3100
Website	www.commune-kairouan.gov.tn
Demographics
population	117,903 pop (2004)
geography
Kairuan / Qairawān
Coordinates	35 ° 41 ′  N , 10 ° 6 ′  E Coordinates: 35 ° 41 ′  N , 10 ° 6 ′  E

Kairouan or Qairawan , more rarely Kairuan , also (al-) Qairawān ( Arabic القيروان, DMG al-Qairawān , "the camp city", emerged from a caravanserai ), is a city in Tunisia with about 120,000 inhabitants. It is located 150 km southwest of Tunis , 50 km west of Sousse and is the capital of the Kairouan governorate of the same name .

Until the 11th century, the city was an important center of Islamic scholarship in Arab North Africa ( Ifrīqiya ).

With the old town and its markets arranged according to guilds according to oriental tradition , with its mosques and other sacred buildings , Kairouan has been on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage since 1988 . According to a resolution of the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture (ISESCO), a subsidiary of the Islamic World League , Kairouan was the "Capital of Islamic Culture 2009".

After the revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 , Kairouan has developed into a Salafist stronghold . For many Tunisians, the city is seen as a daunting example. With increasing democratization and the supportive help from Europe, especially France and Germany, this radical group was unable to win supporters and therefore soon withdrew.

City history

After several campaigns by Muslim Arabs under ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ and his successors in the region between 666 and 670, the city was initially founded as a storage place and subsequently expanded. The earliest reports of the Muslim conquest of these areas in Ifrīqiyā go back to information from the Egyptian historian Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (died 871 - GAS, vol. IS 255-256). Further original sources are the works of North African local historians and the geographical literature, especially Andalusian Origin. Already around 654-655 Muslim troops occupied some areas under Muʿāwiya b. Ḥudaiǧ conquered, who built his army camp in the hilly landscape near al-Qarn, north of the later founded Kairouan (wa-ittakhaḏa qairawānan ʿinda l-Qarn). Since the Byzantine fleet ruled the Mediterranean at that time, the first bases were established in the safe interior of the country. The choice of geographic location gave the city its strategic importance. According to Islamic reports, however, the distance to the coast should not be more than a day's journey, which ritually did not require the reduction of the daily prayer (taqṣīr / qaṣr aṣ-ṣalāt) as the “prayer of the traveler”. According to Qairawan historians, the inhabitants of the city were "murābiṭun", i.e. H. Fighters, in the garrison town, in Ribāṭ , behind the demarcation line to Byzantium. The entire Byzantine region (Ḥusain Muʾnis, pp. 141-142) is called Qammūda / Qammūnīya by Arab geographers, the extent of which they define between Qaṣṭīliya ( Tozeur in the southwest) and the ancient Hadrumetum ( Sousse ) in the east.

The meaning and origin of the name "Qairawān" are unclear. In legendary reports, North African local history refers to a statement made by the general ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ, who wanted to establish a settlement in the region as an “army camp” and as a “qairawān”.

It is believed that the name is the Arabicized form of the Persian word "kārwān" in the sense of "caravan", or could mean the resting place of the caravans. Already the pre-Islamic poet Imraʿalqais (died before 550 AD GAS, vol. II. 122-126) is assigned a line of verse in which “qairawān” occurs in the sense of “group of people”: The Arabic philologist Abū ʿUbaid, al-Qāsim b. Sallām al-Harawī (d. 838) explains this line of verse and a statement by the Koran exegete Muǧāhid b. Ǧabr (died 722) in the same sense.

The local historian Abū Zaid aḍ-Ḍabbāgh (died 1296 - GAL, Suppl.IS812), whose work with the additions by Ibn Nādschī at-Tanūchī (died 1433 - GAL, Suppl. II. P.337) is the most important source for City history counts, discusses this term as follows: “In the language of the Arabs, opinions differed about the meaning of the word 'al-Qairawān'. It was said to designate a gathering place for both men and the army. It was also said that it was the warehouse for the equipment of the army or even the army itself. The meanings are comparable. ”Meanwhile, the possible Berber origin, as in some place names near Qairawān, is assumed to be in comparable phonetic forms, which, however, is rejected in research as not valid.

Qairawan as an Islamic City: The Religious Retrospective

Both in the introductions to Kairouan's scholarly biographies and in travelogues of Andalusian origin, the Islamic character of the city has been in the foreground since its foundation. The aforementioned local historian al-Dabbāgh praises the fact that K. "... was founded on the fear of God from the first day". His diction is a direct reference to verse 108 of sura 9: "A place of worship that was founded on the fear of God from the first day ...". The Koran exegesis interprets the verse in its original historical context as the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, in some variants as the Qubāʾ Mosque, the first mosque in Islam near Medina Kairouan, the local historian continues, also the house / home of the emigration in the west (dār hiǧrati l-Maghrib). This, in turn, is an obvious reference to the prophetic city of Medina, which was used as the home / home of the emigration (of the Prophet) from Mecca to Medina and as a place of cultivation of the Sunna (dār al-hiǧra wa-s -sunna) z. B. in a description in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Sahīh al-Buchārī (K. al-Iʿtiṣām, chap. 16).

Known for his piety, Ibn Marzūq al-Ṣumailī from Kairouan, who lived in 7/13. He spent eleven years in Medina and Mecca, where he died, in the 17th century, creating a further religious connection between the city and early Islamic history. In a letter to his compatriots in his homeland, he wrote: "I searched the old traditions and historical reports for a long time until I found (the evidence) that Kairouan is the fourth city after the three: after Medina, Mecca and Jerusalem" .

This statement by al-Ṣumailī has its roots in well-known Islamic traditions which, besides Mecca and Medina, also praise Jerusalem (Bait al-Maqdis), as the place of the ascension of Muhammad. The visit to these three cities has already been recommended in the traditional statements of Muhammad in the early hadith literature as recommended travel destinations where prayer is considered to be particularly valuable. As a fourth city, in some variants of these traditions in the Islamic East, the city of Kufa is added, which from a political and religious point of view already had a special meaning in early Islamic history. In the local history of North Africa (Ifrīqiyā), Kairouan is the fourth city that is considered to be the “base of Islam and the Muslims in the Maghreb” in the context of the old hadeeth literature. The city, it is said, “is the firm foundation of religion and belief. It is the earth cleansed of the filth of the unbelievers and idol worshipers, on which the first direction of prayer ( qibla ) in the countries of the Maghreb was established ”.

Aghlabids - Fatimids - Zirids

At the time of the Arab conquests, the settlement was initially a military camp and the headquarters of the governors of Ifrīqiyā. In the late 8th century it was the residence of the Aghlabids (800-909), with new foundations, and quickly developed into the center of Arab culture, especially law in North Africa. The city was the destination of numerous travelers from the Islamic West and especially from Andalusia who stayed in Kairouan as pilgrims to Mecca and Medina on their way to the East.

The canals led from the surrounding mountains with numerous cisterns in the city and under the courtyard of the main mosque secured the water supply. In 909 the Fatimids (909-973), Ismaili Shiites, took power under the leadership of Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī. However, the religious-ethnic tensions with the strictly Sunni population of the city forced them to expand their position of power in the capital al-Mahdiya , which they founded on the eastern sea coast. Around 973 they relocated the center of their caliphate to Cairo (al-Qāhira).

During this period, Kairouan was occupied by the Ibadite Abū Yazid , who was able to briefly interrupt the Fatimid hegemony between 944 and 946 with the support of the Sunni population of the city. After the final withdrawal of the Fatimids, the Fatimid vassal dynasty of the Zirids (972-1152) took power over Ifrīqiyā. Under its best-known ruler al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs az-Zīrī (1016-1062), who sought the favor of the Sunni population after the departure of the Fatimids, the city experienced its last heyday. The foundation of the palace city Ṣabra / Manṣūriya southwest of Kairouan, which began under the Fatimids, was completed under the Zirids. Al-Muʿizz distanced himself from the Fatimids and not only paid homage to the Abbasid rulers in Baghdad, but also declared the Malikites of Kairouan to represent the only valid Sunni legal system in the country by appointing the appropriate judges . In order to emphasize his political convictions, he donated a copy of the most important work of the Malikites in 1033 for the benefit of the main mosque: the Mudawwana of the Kairouan scholar Sahnūn ibn Saʿīd . He emphatically underlined his political position towards the Fatimids with his endorsement on a splendid copy of the Koran on parchment , in which he cursed the Fatimids as the enemies of God:

"The devoted servant of God, who strengthens His religion, says: I testify that there is no God but the only God, that Muhammad, God bless him, is the Messenger of God and that the most excellent person after the Messenger of God is Abū Bakr, then Umar, then Uthmān, and then Alī - may God be pleased with them. Mr! I curse the Banū ʿUbaid, your enemies and enemies of your prophet. May God turn our hatred of them only for our benefit. I donated this Koran to the Grand Mosque of al-Qairawān in honor of the benevolent and exalted God. "

At the beginning of March 1049, on the occasion of the breaking of the fast ( ʿīd al-fiṭr ), al-Muʿizz ordered the curse of B. ʿUbaid, d. H. of the Fatimids, in the sermons both in Ṣabra, the seat of the ruler, and from the minbar of the main mosque after every Friday prayer. The Qādī then conscientiously implemented the order in rhyming prose and recited sura 109 ( al-Kāfirūn ), however, with the omission of the last verse: “You have your religion, and I mean it”, in accordance with a short commentary by aḍ-Ḍabbāgh to emphasize the original intention - the curse of the Fatimids. The reaction of the Fatimids in Cairo was not long in coming. On behalf of the Fatimids, the Bedouin tribes of the Banū Hilāl and Banū Sulaim raided the city in a punitive expedition against the renegade Zirids and almost completely destroyed it. [10] In 1057 al-Muʿizz fled to al-Mahdiya and released Kairouan and its surroundings for looting. The scholarly activity, which had been brisk up to then, gradually came to a standstill. The visitors, especially from the Islamic West, who stayed in the city on their study trips, also stayed away. Many Kairouans emigrated to Andalusia. If they were learned men in the Islamic scientific disciplines, they found their way into the Andalusian scholarly biographies, in which they were mentioned biographically in a specially created "Chapter of the Strangers" (al-ghurabāʾ); most of them settled in Almería. With the rise of the coastal cities, especially Tunis, under the Hafsiden, the city lost more and more of its importance. The routes from the Islamic West and Andalusia to the Orient no longer led through Kairouan, but on the seashore to Alexandria.

The chronicler aḍ-Ḍabbāgh impressively sums up the social situation after the devastating attack: “After five hundred years (meaning the Islamic calendar from the beginning) this generation has died out. Because of the capture, destruction (of the city) and expulsion of the inhabitants of Ifrīqiyā to all Muslim lands by the mischievous Bedouins, no one remained in Kairouan who would be interested in the story. The principles of law were suspended because no ruler had protected them until God showed his grace through the appearance of the Almohad dynasty ”. - Meant is the founding of the dynasty by Abd al-Mumin (ruled between 1130-1163).

The earthquake in October 859 in Kairouan

The latest archaeoseismological investigations in the region around Kairouan confirm the correctness of the reports from Arab chroniclers about the earthquake in central Tunisia, which is dated to October 859, i.e. the reign of the Aghlabid emir Ahmad ibn Muhammad I, Abu Ibrahim (ruled between 856-863) .

At-Tabarī reports in his annalistic description of the reign of the Abbasid al-Mutawakkil (847-861) that in Rajab 245 / October 859 “an earthquake in the countries of the Maghreb (bilād al-maghrib), fortresses, settlements and irrigation canals (qanāṭir ) destroyed. ”Ibn al-Jawzī, (vol. 11, p.270) also reports the message from Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb al-Hāschimī, referring to a letter from Maghrebian merchants, reports that thirteen villages near Kairouan perished during a tidal wave in 240/854 (khasafa bi-hā). Ibn Ḥabīb, who died in Dhū l-Hiddscha 245 / March 860 in Samarra (GAL, 1/105) only mentions this flood and not the earthquake that occurred five months before his death.

It has been proven that an originally Byzantine aqueduct at Sharīschīra (Cherichira) near the small town of Haffouz, around 25 km west of K., until the earthquake investigated in 859, had functioned as a water supply from Jebel Oueslet (Jabal Waslāt) to Kairouan (Bahrouni, P.3-4). After the aqueduct was damaged and the 25 m high Byzantine bridge over the Sharishera river collapsed, the complex was comprehensively renovated with new building materials after the Aghlabid earthquake (Bahrouni, 8-9). Using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), the mortar samples taken from the aqueduct wall were analyzed for the purpose of determining their age. The secondary material could therefore be assigned to the early 9th century and thus to the renovation work during the period in question under the Aghlabids (Bahrouni, 9th).

The approximately 40 km long faults running from northeast to southwest north of Kairouan are still being investigated paleoseismologically in connection with the earthquake of 859.

The currently oldest report of Kairouan origin documents the building activities of the emir Abū Ibrāhīm Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. b. al-Aghlab, which can be dated after the earthquake. An-Nādschī inserted it into the work of aḍ-Ḍabbāgh and reports a short biography based on Abū Bakr al-Tuǧībī, who must have been active around 1009-1010, since he was named after the scholar al-Ḥaḏḏāʿ, who died that year , could pass on directly (ab-Ḍabbāgh, vol. 3, p.133: "Abū Bakr at-Tuǧībī reports: Abū Bakr al-Ḥa ...āʾ told me ..." etc.). According to this report, the emir showed unexpected repentance after his unrestrained lifestyle, accompanied by extravagant feasts and drinking parties, and sought advice from both Sunni and Shi'ite scholars in the city. He ordered construction work to be carried out with 300,000 Dīnār: construction of a cistern at the Tunis Gate, extension of the main mosque including an extension with the dome to the inner courtyard, extension of the Miḥrāb with marble and tiles, "carried out by a man from Baghdad". The teak (ḫašab as-sāǧ: Lane, 1459) that was used to build the minbar was also imported from Baghdad. Regarding the latter, an-Nādschī then remarks: “The woodworm does not attack the teak. To this day the minbar is free of woodworms. ”In conclusion he writes:“ These deeds of Abū Ibrāhīm were in honor of Almighty God. So God will hear his repentance, because everything he did is preserved to this day ”(ibid. P. 148).

Comparable reports confirm the above information. The Moroccan chronicler Ibn ʿIdhārī (died at the end of the 13th century GAL, Suppl.IS 577) chronologically summarizes also extensive building activities under Abū Ibrāhīm in the period in question, which are probably related to the consequences of the earthquake: In the year 859 the emir made major Amounts are available for the construction of cisterns, mosques and irrigation canals. In the following year, the large, circular cistern (mādschil) not far from the Tūnis Gate was dug and completed in 862. The local historian an-Nādschi ascribes one of these cisterns to the Emir Ibrāhīm II. (875-902) (Heinz Halm, 144). Both cisterns served to supply water to the city and its increasingly populated area beyond the Aghlabid period. In the smaller basin with a diameter of around 37 meters, the water carried from the mountains through the renovated canals is cleaned and then fed into the large basin with a circumference of around 405 meters. The water pressure on the walls of both pools is absorbed by huge buttresses. Abu Abdullah al-Bakri (1014-1094) even mentions fifteen cisterns and irrigation channels outside the city wall; the largest of these is “the cistern of Abū Ibrāhīm Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Aghlab at the Tunis Gate. It is round and infinitely large. In the middle stands a valuable tower, with an open observation room with four doors. ”(Al-Bakri, 26).

In the same year, the second expansion of the main mosque, ordered by Abū Ibrāhīm, was completed. The composition of the support columns from two core sections without a base structure, as well as the unequal heights of the column capitals of different origins, speak in favor of renovation and repair work after the earthquake. The bridge at the Abū r-Rabīʿ Gate, a work by Ziyādatullāh, which was destroyed by a great flood in 861, was also repaired a year later according to Ibn ʿIdhārī.

It should be noted that neither the original sources available today from Kairouan's local historians nor the Andalusian geographers report on the natural disaster of 859. The latest archaeoseismological analyzes (March 2020) are, however, an occasion to consider the construction activities in the period under discussion among the Aghlabids from this new aspect and to reassess the building history.

Buildings

Main mosque

Kairouan's Great Mosque, August 2008

Prayer room of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, April 2009

Mihrāb and minbar in the main mosque. Historic postcard from around 1900

The main mosque (also: The Great Mosque of Kairouan), al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr, Jāmiʿ ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ  /الجامع الكبير, جامع عقبة بن نافع / al-Ǧāmiʿ al-kabīr, Ǧāmiʿ ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ , popularly “Sīdī ʿOqba” for short, is still the symbol of the city today, and was founded around 670 by the conqueror of North Africa ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ next to the camp of the Muslim army. The founding date is unknown and is not mentioned by the North African local historians either. According to legendary reports, ʿUqba b. Nāfiʿ "marked out" (ichtaṭṭa) an area near today's mihrab and determined the direction of prayer on the camp site after a dream .

After the conquest of Carthage (697–698) by the Arabs, the general Hassān ibn an-Nuʿmān had the ʿUqba mosque rebuilt with spolia from Carthage. The local historian Abū Bakr al-Mālikī dates the beginning of the work to October 703. The most important extensions took place with recourse to the ancient building material under the Aghlabids, whereby the current structure, the column hierarchy and color schemes of the spolia in the prayer room were determined.

The prayer room is crowned by two ribbed domes: one is arranged above the mihrāb on the qibla wall, the oldest structural part of all, and the other overlooks the large inner courtyard, which was created over a gallery with horseshoe arches when the mosque was expanded. The prayer room consists of seventeen aisles, seven niches and a transept. The middle nave leads to the mihrab, which has the shape of a semi-cylindrical niche. The round, unbroken horseshoe arches dominate the central nave and the rows of transverse arches.

Immediately next to the mihrab is what is probably the oldest, original minbar , the eleven-step pulpit of the mosque. The side walls were designed in the years 862 and 863 with artistic carvings made of imported cedar in the form of a cassette. Under the Aghlabids, the expansion of the mosque is mainly attributed to Ziyādat Allah I (817–838) and Abu Ibrahim Ahmad (856–863). Ibn Nadschi († 1433), the most famous local historian and preacher ( Chatīb ) of his time , reports that the mihrab received its final form under Abū Ibrāhīm. In the middle of the marble-clad prayer niche runs the Koran sura Al-Ichlās in Kufic script followed by the naming of the Prophet: Mohammed “is the Messenger of God” along with eulogy - just like the inscription on the inside of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem . The determination of the direction of prayer goes back to the 7th century and deviates from the geographically correct direction by 31 degrees. The original niche from the time of ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ under the Aghlabids has not changed the original direction of prayer due to the artistic marble cladding with luster ceramics. The front arch of the pre-mihrab dome with its supports made of red porphyry looks like a triumphal arch ; this material was "in antiquity an expression of sovereign power and dignity."

The extension of the prayer room by another nave with a new dome towards the inner courtyard is attributed to Abū Ibrāhīm Aḥmad.

Entrance to the maqsūra: Bāb al-Imām

Immediately next to the minbar, the above-mentioned Zirid ruler Al-Muʿizz ibn Bādis az-Zīrī (ruled from 1016 to 1062) built the maqsūra , the seat of the ruler in the mosque, with a special access to the qibla wall, called Bāb al-Imām. The decorative wooden construction with the founding inscription is one of the most beautiful examples of Islamic art . According to another inscription, it was renovated in 1624.

The massive, twice expanded, now three-story minaret stands opposite the prayer room on the north wall of the mosque courtyard and its shape is reminiscent of a defensive tower with loopholes. Originally the mosque did not have a minaret; its first construction phase dates from the reign of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (ruled from 724 to 743). Thus it was created under Ziyadat Allah around a hundred years before the prayer room opposite was expanded. This north-facing extension of the complex is described by the most important geographer of his time, Abū (Ubaid al-Bakrī († 1094), who worked in Seville and Córdoba in the 11th century, and dates the first work to the time of a governor of Caliph Hisham. In the year 774, under the governor of the Abbasids Yazīd ibn Ḥātim, the complex was destroyed and rebuilt with the exception of the minaret and mihrab.

The Hafsiden undertook an extensive renovation of the sacred building in 1294, whereby the portals were given new supports and the side galleries were given new arches with pairs of columns - also spolia. At that time, new gates were built on the east wall, which are documented in original building inscriptions: the Lalla Rīḥāna gate, named after a local patroness, and the Bāb al-Māʾ (water gate) The former is based on the Aghlabid model with one supported by ancient columns Rib dome has been provided.

Despite multiple renovations between the 17th and 19th centuries, the old core of the main mosque from the Aghlabid era is still preserved in its original form. The central wooden main entrance to the prayer room, called Bāb al-bahū, derived from al-bāb al-bahīy, the magnificent gate , was renewed in 1828–1829. The work is documented in writing on the upper frieze and the date is recorded in a chronogram . According to the Basmala, the text begins with a quotation from the Koran; ( Sura 22 , verse 77) in the text the mosque is named as the Jamiʿ of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed .

"Islamized" ancient column, dated 1011 in the western side arcade

Today the mosque measures 173 feet and 8  inches on the south  , 219 feet and 10 inches on the west, 164 feet and 10 inches on the north, 220 feet and 1 inch on the east. Architecturally, it belongs to the courtyard mosque type and is considered the earliest example of the T-type (prayer room with a minaret facing) in mosque architecture.

The spolia of Byzantine and Roman origin, which were used in the extension of the inner courtyard with two side arcades, have been "Islamized" through quotations from the Koran and the Islamic creed (see illustration). Some of them date from the Zirid period in the late Kufic style. Other spolia only bear the inscription: "Muḥammad rasūlu ʾllāh": Mohammed is the Messenger of God.

The asymmetrical inner courtyard was covered with ceramic tiles well into the 19th century; Today's ground cover, made of yellow and white, only roughly cut marble blocks, was created at the end of the 19th century. Under this cover there are several cisterns , which are mainly fed with rainwater from the roof of the galleries. A curb with rope tracks, made from an ancient capital, serves as an opening to the water reservoir.

After the surveying of the spolia arrangement of the prayer hall by the building researcher and art historian Christian Ewert and after deciphering the contrasts of the colors and materials of the columns on the central nave and on the adjoining aisles, it was found that the connections between the related columns in this central pre-mihrab area were geometrical Floor plan figure of an eccentric octagon result. Only five years before this first construction phase under the Aghlabids - in the year 831 - the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mūn paid special attention to the Dome of the Rock : in the outer arcade he had the construction date changed and the name of the builder Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan delete and replace with his own name. The original date of construction in the main inscription has been preserved.

Christian Ewert tends to see in this hierarchy of columns in the main mosque an encoded inclusion of the octagonal Dome of the Rock by the Aghlabids, who, although politically largely independent, did not neglect their ties to the Caliphate of Baghdad . This is supported by the fact that the foundation inscription on the pre-mihrab dome of the main mosque in Tunis names the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'in bi-llah , but not the name of the Aghlabid builder.

“Just as the Dome of the Rock, by adopting the early Christian-Byzantine central building type, brings the spiritual conquest of the former Christian East to mind, Kairouan, the first significant site of Western Islam, could now become famous in the demanding new version in the spiritual and religious heyday of the Aġlabids have appropriated the Eastern Islamic pilgrimage destination with the same or comparable intention. "

- Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak : Research on the Almohad mosque. Lief. 1, preliminary stages: hierarchical arrangements of western Islamic prayer rooms from the 8th to 11th centuries. 2. 1. 1 The main Alabid mosques of Qairawān and Tunis. P. 52

Mosque of Muhammad ibn Chairun

Three-gate mosque; Historical postcard around 1905

The "Three Gates Mosque" مسجد ثلاثة أبواب / masǧid ṯalāṯati abwāb, popularly: "talat biban" in the old town, between the wool merchants' market and the southern city wall, originally used by local historians and in travel reports as the "mosque of Mohammed ibn Khairun",مسجد محمد بن خيرون / masǧid Muḥammad b. Called Ḫairūn , with its decorative facade it is one of the most beautiful examples of Islamic architecture.

The historian and geographer Ibn ʿIdhārī († after 1313) reports in his history of the Maghrib in the 14th century about the foundation of the mosque as follows:

“In the year 252 of the Hijra (= 866) Muhammad b. Chairūn al-Andalusī al-Maʿāfirī in Qairawān the venerable mosque named after him, built of fired bricks, plaster and marble, and had cisterns built in it. "

The facade, around seven meters high, is decorated with three inscriptions, the first of which is a quotation from the Koran ( sura 33 , verses 70-71):

“In the name of the merciful and good God. You believers! Fear God and say what is right, then he will also let your works flourish and forgive you your trespasses! Whoever obeys God (and his Messenger, receives a heavenly reward and) has thus won great happiness. "

The above Koran text also appears on the cornice in the extension of al-Hakam II (ruled 962–966) in Cordoba in the main mosque. It is conceivable that the affixing of this Koranic verse to the main mosque of Cordoba can be traced back to the Kairouan facade as a pattern.

In the second frieze is the founding inscription:

“In the name of the merciful and good God. God alone is entitled to the decision. It has always been and always will be. Muhammed b. Khairūn al-Maʿāfirī al-Andalusī ordered the construction of this mosque in order to obtain God's grace and in the hope of His forgiveness and mercy in the year two hundred and fifty-two. "

The foundation of mosques is regarded as a very meritorious work in Islam - one lets the prophet speak as follows in the great collections of hadiths :

"Whoever builds a mosque, God builds a house in paradise."

The third inscription informs about the renovation of the mosque:

“Praise be to God for His favors. May God bless our Lord Muhammad. The building of this blessed mosque was renewed in eight hundred and forty-four (1440 or 1441). We praise God and we pray for our Lord Muhammad and his family. "

Originally the mosque did not have a minaret. Probably during the restoration work under the Hafsiden , a small minaret in the style of the time was added next to the east arcade of the facade, which damaged the last letters of the first two inscriptions (left in the photo). The minaret can be reached from the prayer room via a narrow staircase that breaks the symmetry of the interior. It is divided into three floors with light openings and has a total height of only 11.5 m.

The prayer room with three naves parallel to the Qibla wall, which can be entered through three gates lined up next to one another, is only 9 × 8.60 m in size, with the ceiling being supported by four marble columns with antique capitals . The mihrāb arch is formed by a horseshoe arch with a total height of 2.60 m. The cistern , a curb with rope tracks and a vaulted space for the clay jug, is located next to the prayer niche flanked by two columns. It is fed with rainwater from the mosque roof.

The mosque has neither a pulpit ( minbar ) nor a courtyard. It is believed, however, that a musallā was attached to the richly decorated facade - as is the case with the small Bu Fatata mosque in Sousse .

With its old ornamentation from the Aghlabid period and with its early inscriptions, the facade occupies a special position in Islamic architecture. The entire complex was probably built as a family foundation for private purposes. Nothing is known of the mosque's founder, Muhammad ibn Chairūn al-Maʿāfirī al-Andalusī. He probably came to Kairouan as a merchant from Islamic Spain during the Aghlabid period, where tombstones of several family members have been found. The North African local historians call the son of the founder, the legal scholar (Faqih) Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Khairūn, among the "martyrs of the faith". He made a name for himself in Kairouan by spreading the teachings of the Zahirites . In 914, under the rule of the Fatimids , he was trampled to death by black slaves on the orders of the Fatimid city prefect for resisting the Shia . His tombstone is well known. Two other descendants of this well-known family were also buried in Kairouan: Abū Ǧaʿfar died in 922; the last recorded member, Abū Muḥammad, died in 959.

Tomb of the Companion of the Prophets

Photograph of an old postcard from the beginning of the 20th century; in the background the tomb of the Prophet's Companion

The grave complex مقام أبي زمعة البلوي / maqām Abī Zamʿa al-Balawī is outside the city walls in the district of al-Balawiya, where the local saint Kairouans, a certain Abū Zamʿa al-Balawī, a companion of the Prophet Mohammed , is venerated. According to legend, he was said to have carried three of the Prophet's whiskers with him; hence the name of the complex as the “barber's mosque”, which is only documented in European travel guides. He is said to have participated in the first Arab campaigns in North Africa during the caliphate of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, died in an unidentifiable battle in 654-655 and was buried in the region of Kairouan, which was only settled decades later.

As early as the 10th century, local historians of the city reported that residents of the city were said to have found a grave with an intact corpse at this point. The passage is likely to be seen as a product of popular Islamic belief.

In the history of the city of Kairouan one connects this prophet companion with an alleged saying of the prophet, who u. a. narrated at-Tirmidhī . The prophet is said to have foretold:

"Each of my companions who dies in a land will be sent (by God) on the Day of Resurrection as leader and light for the people (of that land)."

The tomb (maqām) can be reached through a large courtyard and a Turkish-style corridor richly decorated with wall tiles . Only in the 17th century was the inner courtyard extended with a small Koran school and rooms ( lichkeitenaumaʿa ) for visitors to the grave. Above the entrance to the adjoining madrasa , the start and completion of construction are documented in a founding inscription on the facility. The work took place between 1681 and 1685. The dome over the tomb itself is a later structural addition; according to the inscription on the inside, it was built in 1787. The Koran school and the prayer room were renovated at the beginning of the 1990s and are now also open to tourists.

Other Islamic buildings

In the old town center, several mosques, even without minarets, have been preserved as prayer rooms, which the residents of the respective quarters visit.

• The oldest mosque is probably the Al-Ansar mosque ,مسجد الأنصار / masǧid al-anṣār which, according to local history in Kairouan, is said to have been founded by the companion of the Prophet Ruwaifiʿ ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī in 667. The founding of this small court mosque with an open prayer room and archaic mihrab has not yet been confirmed by archaeological finds. The facility was renovated in 1650. Probably during this work, an epitaph was attached to a small marble slab on the inner facade of the prayer hall, which originally belonged to a grave in one of the cemeteries outside the city wall. The grave inscription is dated September 3, 1043. The local historian ad-Dabbagh († 1296) reports that the mosque was very popular among the Muslims seeking blessings; Handprints made of clay on the white outer wall confirm this cult that is common in popular Islam up to the present day.
• The Zaitūna Mosque مسجد الزيتونة / masǧid az-zaitūna  / 'Olive Tree Mosque'. According to tradition, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUbaid is said to have founded this mosque by the Medinan Ansār in 710. The aforementioned local historian Kairouan, Abū Bakr al-Mālikī, reports that he had a market - Sūq Ismāʿīl - built next to the mosque ; Because of his generosity and support for the poor, he was called "Merchant of God" (tāǧir Allāh). Locals used the mosque while the main mosque was being remodeled. During the renovation work of the mosque that cannot be dated, old tombstones with inscriptions from cemeteries outside the city wall were also used here - as in the mosque of al-Anṣār. They are dated October 25, 1033, August 19, 1037 and March 8, 1044 on the facade of the mosque.
• The mosque of al-Ḥubulī مسجد الحبلي / masǧid al-Ḥubulī . It is located near the north gate of the city (Bāb Tūnis) and bears the name of its founder Abū ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān al-Ḥubulī († 718), who is said to have been buried in the Quraish cemetery in Kairouan. The local historian Abū Bakr al-Mālikī, who witnessed the destruction of the city in 1057 by the Banū Hilāl, reports that al-Ḥubulī came to North Africa on behalf of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and that his grave was near Bāb Tūnis was known in its day.
• The tomb of Sīdī ʿUmar ʿAbbāda مقام سيدي عمر عبادة / maqām Sīdī ʿUmar ʿAbbāda , popularly: Āmor Abbāda. The tomb outside the city wall, crowned with seven domes, was completed in 1872. It is dedicated to the Kairouan blacksmith ʿUmar ibn Sālim ibn ʿUmar al-ʿAyyārī († 1855-1856), whose house in which he was buried was expanded after his death and as a museum with exhibits from his property, including tools, weapons and household items, was established. In the Islamic popular belief he is still considered a savior, whose grave is known and visited beyond the city limits.
• The Rūṭa fountain بئر روطة, بئر بروطة / biʾr Rūṭa, biʾr Barrūṭa . The fountain is located in a domed house in the old town. Although it is considered to be the oldest fountain in the city, it was only mentioned in the writings of local historians in the early 11th century. Harthama ibn Aʿyan (executed in June 816), the governor of the Abbasids in North Africa, is said to have built the complex around 796 near the Sunday market (sūq al-aḥad) that still exists today. According to an inscription, the complex was renewed in 1690.

The city wall

Bāb Tūnis. Historic postcard from around 1900

The city was first fortified with an adobe wall by order of the Abbasid caliph al-Manṣūr between 762 and 763. The Andalusian geographer Abū ʿUbaid al-Bakrī names six gates, of which the Tunis Gate (Bāb Tūnis) on the north wall is still today is preserved.

During the Kharijite and Ibadite invasions between 771 and 772, a large part of the wall was destroyed and the city gates burned down. The Aghlabid emirs Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab and his successor Ziyādat Allah ibn Ibrāhīm had the entire city wall torn down as a punitive measure against the civilian population of the city who supported the anti-Aghlabid movements between 810 and 824.

Another fortification of the city took place under Al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs az-Zīrī, which was soon destroyed by the Hilāl invasion. A fragmentary inscription over the Tunis Gate dated July 1045 survived the destruction and documents the construction work under the Zirid rulers.

It was only between 1756 and 1772 that the city wall received its present form with a length of 3800 and a height between four and eight meters. The inscriptions documenting the reconstruction date from this period: on the Bāb al-Jallādīn (gate of the leather merchants - today: Bāb asch-schuhadāʾ : Gate of the Martyrs) on the south wall, on al-Bāb al-Jadīd (the neuter gate ) in the northwest and at the gate in the southeast, popularly known as Bāb al-Chaucha , which is indicated in the inscriptions Bāb an-naṣr (victory gate ) and Bāb al-Jāmiʿ (gate (to) the main mosque).

Markets

One of the arched alleys of the carpet dealers

The founding of the markets that still exist today in the old town goes back to the aforementioned Yazīd ibn Ḥātim, who had the main mosque rebuilt around the same time, around 774. The aforementioned geographer Ibn ʿIdhārī from Marrakech reports, probably according to older sources from Kairouan local historians, that the governor mentioned had the market built according to the guilds . In his scholarly history of Kairouan, the local historian Abū Bakr al-Mālikī names twelve markets, some of which were named after the guilds: Market of the cloth merchants, market of tailors, market of tanners, market of weavers, etc. The Sunday market mentioned by him (sūq al -aḥad) still exists today. The Jewish market (sūq al-yahūd) was in the Ḥārat Ḫaibar, in the Ḫaibar district on the outskirts of the city where Jews lived . This name appears in a Kairouaner (purchase) certificate ( waṯīqa ) on parchment , which today belongs to the holdings of the former mosque library. Several local historians report that both Jews and Christians in the city had to follow certain dress codes imposed by the Muslim qādīs in the 9th century. One of the most famous students of the legal scholar Sahnūn ibn Saʿīd Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar al-Kinānī (d. 902) states in his work A Werkkām as-ṣūq (the legal systems of the market) that both Jews and Christians who dress similarly to Muslims are to be punished. "I am of the opinion that he (the Jew or the Christian) will be punished by beatings and imprisonment. They are brought up to their respective quarters as a warning and a deterrent for those who have not committed offenses." In corresponding legal opinions , ignoring such regulations was made a punishable offense as late as the 12th century - shortly before the city was destroyed. Signs with images of monkeys and pigs were attached to the houses of Jews and Christians, and their clay houses of prayer were not allowed to be attached with bricks. In the 10th century and later, the Jewish residents of this part of the city were mainly engaged in money lending and other financial transactions.

Both North African local historians and Arab geographers mention markets that were known in the city, often near the main mosque, until the 11th century.

• The Sunday market (sūq al-aḥad) was one of the largest markets in the city. It was located west of the main mosque from the 10th century onwards, where most of the markets have been located since the Fatimid reign. It was considered a trading and sales point for various products: pottery, sheep's wool, woven woolen goods. The establishment of the market goes to Harṯama b. al-Aʿyun, the governor of the Abbasid Hārūn ar-Rašīd, returned around 796. In the vicinity of the market there were houses under the same name (darb sūq al-aḥad), which suggests the central location of the market.
• The embroidery market (house) (dār aṭ-ṭirāz) was located near the administrative units of the city; therefore it was called "house" and not market (sūq). Here, elegant clothes have been adorned with elaborate embroidery and sold to wealthy citizens. The tombstone of a craftsman of this guild (ṭarrāz), who died in 1056, has been preserved.
• The market of the cloth and cloth merchants (sūq al-bazzāzīn) was because of its importance in the city center. Some representatives of this guild were identified on their tombstones in the early 9th and 10th centuries.
• The poultry market, its own chicken market (sūq ad-daǧāǧ) was located near the Tunis gate and was known as the weekly market. In the 10th century, a gate of the main mosque was known as the "Gate of the Thursday Market (bāb sūq al-ḫamīs)", near which the poultry market was located.
• The butchers and sellers of meat products were located near the greengrocers. A ḥānūt kaftaǧī coffee shop in the market area is documented in a Kairouan local biography from the 19th century.
• The paper manufacturers' market (sūq al-warrāqīn) emerged as early as the 8th century. The parchment (raqq / riqq), which is elaborate in its production and made from animal skins, and other writing materials were also sold here. The coarse paper (kāġaz), often made from scraps of fabric, found its way from Baghdad via Egypt to Kairouan. The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasī emphasizes in his report on North Africa that both copies of the Koran and literary manuscripts were mainly written on parchment. The correctness of this information is confirmed by the current holdings of the mosque library.
• The Cloth Merchants' Market (sūq ar-rahādira / rahādina) has been one of the city's oldest markets. According to local reports, this market already existed in the first decades of the 9th century. One of the gates of the main mosque was called bāb ar-rahādina in the 11th century; this suggests that this market was also near the main mosque. On several grave steles the epithets of the deceased are mentioned as "Rahdār".
• The dyers' marrow (sūq aṣ-ṣabbāġīn) was located near the markets of the cloth and cloth merchants and the manufacturers of all kinds of textiles. Until the 11th century, names with this job title were mentioned on grave steles.
• The tampers and sewers' market (sūq ar-raffāʾīn) was located near the cloth merchants; in their sewing rooms clothes have been repaired and overhauled.
• In the vicinity of the last-mentioned markets was the market of the linen traders (sūq al-kattānīn), in the vicinity of which the residential quarters were converted into "new shops" (al-ḥawānīt al-ǧudud ") during the reign of Ziyādatullāh.
• Silk Merchants' Market (sūq al-ḫazzāzīn / al-ḥarīriyyīn). Ibn Idhārī (vol. IS 260-261) reports that the Zirid ruler Bādīs ibn al-Mansūr ibn Buluqqīn ibn Zīrī in 1015 gave large gifts to the Fatimid al-Ḥākim bi-amri llāh (died 1021) by ship from al-Mahdiya from, including 28 camel loads of silk, sable fur (sammūr: Lane 1426) and other delicacies that were stolen by Arab pirates on the coast of Barqa . The nickname al-ḥarīrī appears on two Kairouan grave inscriptions in the first half of the 11th century
• * The weavers' market was of great importance near the wool and linen traders and on the Sunday market; the products were of particular importance in the manufacture and export of carpets (al-busuṭ) as far as Baghdad.
• The Pottery Market (sūq al-qallālīn); al-Bakrī reports that one of the city gates bore the name of this guild. Most of the products were sold on the Sunday market. In some surnames the job title "the potter" (al-qallāl), son of the potter (ibn al-qallāl) is mentioned and documented on grave inscriptions: for example in 1044 and 1158
• The market for lance and spear makers (sūq ar-rammāḥīn) was located near the main mosque, according to al-Muqaddasī; here both the manufacture and sale of spears and possibly other weapons took place. Some Qairawān families still bear the name ar-Rammāḥ, which is documented by local historians in the 14th century as an epithet of a weapons manufacturer.
• The date market / market of the date traders (sūq at-tammārīn). In the 10th century, Al-Maqdīsī called the “gate of the data traders” of the main mosque, which suggests that this market was also located near the mosque. As early as the last quarter of the 8th century, reports were made of a “date place” (raḥbat at-tamr) at the main mosque. The tombstone of a date trader (at-Tammār) has been identified in the old cemetery at the Tunis Gate. The year of death is no longer preserved.

Today's market consists of vaulted alleys with ventilation shafts and uncovered alleys, also arranged according to guilds. The central market area can be closed by sixteen gates. However, this core area of ​​the market is not near the main mosque, as is assumed to be a characteristic of the oriental-Islamic city , but is based on the strength of the "pedestrian flows". The view that the location of oriental markets was based on the proximity of the main mosques cannot be proven empirically.

Islamic epitaphs

Outside the city wall there are several cemeteries, the history of which goes back to the 9th century. The tombstones with dated inscriptions seen there are among the richest finds of epitaphs in North Africa. The material is predominantly marble in the form of round steles or panels, the latter often with edging as filigree ornaments of the Arabic non-figurative stone carving technique .

The oldest tombstone inscription known today is dated March 11th 850, the latest April 19th 1580. The earliest inscriptions are all written in the Kufic style, which has gradually been replaced by the decorative Naschī script . The somewhat modified Kufi style is still documented on tombstones towards the end of the 14th century.

The structure of the content of the inscriptions varies only slightly; the design of your content includes the following elements:

• Surat al-Ichlās
• this is the grave of ... (name), very often with an indication of the profession or the membership of a guild in the city
• The creed in its modified form: "It testifies that there is no God but God who has no partner (in power - see e.g. sura 6 , verse 163), and that Mohammed is his servant and his messenger"
• he testifies that Paradise , Hell (an-nār) and the Day of Resurrection are real ...
• Blessings for those who one for the dead intercession insert
• date of death

The content of the grave inscriptions suggests the social structure of the townspeople, their tribal affiliation, the professions practiced in the town and the political and religious positions of the deceased. On the epitaph of the Kairouan judge Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Ibn ʿAbdūn, who died on February 20, 910, the theological position of the deceased is also documented in the usual creed; In the enumeration of some of God's attributes it also says: “There is nothing that equals him. He is the one who hears and sees ( sura 42 , verse 11), the looks (of people) do not reach him, but are reached by him (sura 6, verse 103) ... ” Ibn ʿAbdūn stood as Hanafit close to the teaching of the Muʿtazila , which is documented here by the denial of the vision of God (nafy ar-ruʾya) through the reference to the latter verse of the Koran in its epitaph.

The anti-mu'tazilite position of the deceased is recorded on a stele dated December 27, 899: the last sentence on a stele is: "The Koran is the word of God and is not created" (laisa bi-machlūq). This is the first documented expression of opposition to the teaching of the Mu'tazila in Qairawān. Another funerary inscription with identical content dates from January 905; the creed is followed by the formula about the inhumanity of the Koran with the addition: " with this creed he lived and died ."

The grave inscription of July 13, 1002 is comparable in content: “... the Koran is the word of God and is not created. God will be seen on the day of the resurrection ... ”On a tombstone from August 3, 1043, which was found near the Bāb Tunis, behind the north wall of the city, besides the belief in the divine vision on the day of the resurrection is also the political position of the deceased demonstrates: "He is filled with hatred of the Banū ʿUbaid, the enemies of God and curses them."

The French orientalists Bernard Roy and Paule Poinssot recorded and described a total of 559 gravestones in Kairouan cemeteries in their publications (see: Literature) between 1950 and 1983 and documented their inscriptions. Some copies are exhibited in the museum of the institute Center d'Études de la Civilization et des Arts Islamiques in Raqqāda near Kairouan; the other tombstones are stored there.

Awlād Farḥān cemetery

The Awlād Farḥān cemetery. In the background: the main mosque

The grave of a patron saint of the Awlād Farḥān

On the northwestern city wall, behind the minaret of the main mosque, is the cemetery of the little-known Tunisian clan of the Awlād Farḥānمقبرة أولاد فرحان / maqbarat Awlād Farḥān , the descendants of Farḥān, with some bizarre tombs that are unusual for Islamic cemeteries. Some of them are surrounded by a low wall as double graves and are the resting places of the patron saints of the clan. " Allah " made of clay is applied to the top of the tombstone .

The clan members now live in different regions of Tunisia, but bury their deceased in this cemetery by the city wall. On the day of death of relatives and on certain public holidays, candles are lit in the small niches set into the tombstones.

Mosque library

In their report on their Mission scientifique en Tunisie in the journal Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine (vol. 1) in 1882, the French orientalists Octave Houdas and René Basset mentioned a collection of manuscripts in the main mosque of Qairawān, which they held in a closed room next to the mihrāb have seen. In 1897, the Tunisian ministerial official Muhammad Bek Bayram reported to the Egyptian Geographical Society about his trip to Kairouan and gave more detailed information about the manuscript collection that was then held in that of Al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs az-Zīrī built maqsūra which was kept in the main mosque. His report was published in Arabic translation in the Egyptian journal al-Muqtaṭaf . It was not until 1956 that the inventory, dated from 1293–1294, was published by the Tunisian researcher Brahim (Ibrahim) Chabbouh in the journal Revue de l'Institute des Manucrits Arabes (Cairo), the content of which no longer corresponds to what is actually available today.

The maqsura: behind this wall was the manuscript collection

The German orientalist Joseph Schacht , who examined some manuscripts from this uncatalogued collection on site in 1963 and 1964, published an initial scientific inventory of the most important documents in this library in the Islamic scientific journal Arabica in 1967. At that time, the Tunisian scholar Muḥammad al-Buhlī al-Nayyāl wrote a short study of some of the library's unique items and published facsimiles for the first time from the hitherto largely unknown inventory.

It was only in the mid-1980s that the manuscripts available today - mostly written on parchment - were sorted according to genre, author and title. With funds from the Federal Foreign Office, rooms for the storage of the manuscripts, as well as photo and restoration laboratories in the former summer residence of President Habib Bourguiba in Raqqada , twelve kilometers from Kairouan , have been created. Here is also the Center d'Études de la Civilization et des Arts Islamiques , which is connected to a small museum with exhibits from the time of the Aghlabids and Zirids .

Most of the manuscripts can be assigned to Islamic law and are the oldest materials worldwide on legal literature by the Malikites in the 9th century. Some copies were written in the Malikite period between the creation of the Muwattaʾ by Mālik ibn Anas (up to 795) and the Mudawwana of Sahnūn ibn Saʿīd (up to 854). The current state of research (1997) is represented by the bio-bibliographical studies of the orientalist Miklós Murányi on Kairouan scholarship.

The library also has one of the richest collections of ancient Koran codes, including fragments from the “Blue Koran” in the archaic Kufi script without diacritical points from the late 9th and 10th centuries. Several parts of the Blue Koran are already listed in the library's inventory from 1293–1294; some sheets are now in private collections. The origin of these codices is currently in the dark, but it is assumed today that the production of the blue parchment sheets and their description in gold can be located in Kairouan. A Hebrew document from the Cairo Geniza from the 10th century - the time the blue Koran was written - reports on the export of indigo from Egypt to Tunisia. This material was the basic material for the coloring of animal skins in the manufacture of parchment. The client on whose order these splendid specimens were created is unknown.

Some Koran leaves from different epochs are exhibited in the museum mentioned.

The blue Quran; Parchment. 10-11 Century: Surat Fatir , 1-4. Original in the National Museum of Bardo .

The sheet on the right from the blue Koran begins with sura 35 ( Fāṭir ), verse 1 and ends in line 14 with the beginning of verse 4 fragmentarily with: wa-i (n) وا. Characteristic for codices of this time is the later unusual word separation in Arabic , here at the end of line 3:ر - سلا / ru-sulan and at the end of line 10:اذ - كروا / ʾḎ-kurū . It should be noted that in the middle of the third line the copyist wrote a verbجعل / ǧaʿala and not the printed participle of the same verbجاعل, DMG wrote ǧāʿili ; This is not a rare phenomenon in the Kufic style, in which the vowel lengths are not marked, but the variant at this point allows a different reading of the verse than the one in print.

Kairouan in European literature

The French writer Guy de Maupassant described the main mosque in the following words:

“ There are only three religious buildings in the world that I know of that have made such a surprising and overwhelming impression on me as this barbaric, astonishing structure: the Mont-Saint-Michel, San Marco in Venice and the Palatine Chapel in Palermo. (...) It's completely different here. A wandering people of fanatics who are hardly able to build walls, who have come to a country covered with the ruins of their predecessors, have dragged together everything that seemed most beautiful to them and - driven by a sublime inspiration - now for their part out of these ruins A dwelling was built for his God in the same style and arrangement, a dwelling was built from pieces that were torn from collapsing cities, but just as perfect and magnificent as the purest designs of the greatest stonemasons. "

“ Ahead of us rises a temple of gigantic proportions like a sacred forest, for one hundred and eighty columns of onyx, porphyry and marble support the vaults of seventeen naves that belong to the seventeen gates. "

On December 21, 1910, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the following lines from Qairawān to his wife Clara:

“ I drove over for a day to the 'holy city' of Kairouan, next to Mecca the great pilgrimage site of Islam, which Sidi Okba, a companion of the Prophet, set up on the great plains and who rose again and again from its destruction around the around an enormous mosque, in which hundreds of columns from Carthage and all the Roman coastal colonies have come together to support the dark cedar ceilings and support the white domes that stand so dazzlingly against the gray skies that open here and there today the rain is falling that has been screamed for for three days. The flat white city lies like a vision in its pewter walls, with nothing but plain and graves around it, as if besieged by its dead, who lie everywhere in front of the walls and do not move and keep growing. You can feel the simplicity here wonderfully and the liveliness of this religion, the prophet is like yesterday, and the city is his like a kingdom ... "

sons and daughters of the town

• Sahnūn ibn Saʿīd (776–854), Islamic legal scholar
• Marcel Cravenne (1908–2002), French film director
• Georges Cravenne (1914–2009), French journalist and filmmaker
• Habib Galhia (1941-2011), Tunisian boxer
• Habiba Ghribi (* 1984), Tunisian athlete

Picture gallery

• 

  Main mosque from the northwest with a modern business district

• 

  Bab Tunis; City gate to the north

• 

  Kairouan on the way to Sousse ; right: the grave of the scholar as-Suyyuri.

• 

  (18) Market bustle in the old town

literature

• ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī: aswāq madīnat al-Qairawān fī ʾl-ʿaṣr al-wasīṭ min ḫilāl al-maṣādir wa-ʾl-āṯār (The markets of Qairawān in the Middle Ages according to the sources and monuments). In: Naǧm ad-Dīn al-Hintātī (ed.): Al-Qairawān ʿāṣima ḥaḍārīya fī taʾrīḫ al-maġrib al-islāmī . Tunis 2006, pp. 45-77.
• Ḥasan Ḥusnī ʿAbdalwahhāb: Waraqāt ʿan al-ḥaḍāra al-ʿarabiyya bi-Ifrīqiya al-tūnisiyya (حسن حسني عبد الوهاب: ورقات عن الحضارة العربية بافريقية التونسية) (Documents on the Arab civilization in Tunisian North Africa). Vol. I. Tunis 1965.
• Abū l-ʾArab at-Tamīmī: Ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ Ifrīqiyya . Ed. Mohammed Ben Cheneb. Algiers. Several reprints.
• ders. Kitāb al-miḥan , Ed. Yaḥyā Wahīb al-Ǧabbūrī. Beirut 1988
• al-Bakrī: Kitāb al-masālik wal-mamālik . Ed. de Slane. Algiers. Several reprints.
• Abū Bakr al-Mālikī: Riyāḍ an-nufūs fī ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ al-Qairawān wa-Ifrīqiyata . Ed. Bashir al-Bakkush. 3 vols. Beirut 1983
• Carmen Barceló & Anja Heidenreich: Lusterware Made in the Abbasid Taifa of Seville (Eleventh Century) and Its Early Production in the Mediterranean Region. In: Muqarnas 31 (2014), pp. 245-276.
• Jonathan M. Bloom: al-Ma'mun's Blue Koran? . In: Revue des Ètudes Islamiques. 54: 59-65 (1986)
• Jonathan Bloom: The Blue Koran. An Early Fatimid Kufic Manuscript from the Maghrib . In: Les Manuscrits de Moyen-Orient . Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes d'Istanbul, Istanbul 1989.
• Kenza Boussora & Said Mazouz: The Use of the Golden Section in the Great Mosque at Kairouan. In: Nexus Network Journal 8 (2004).
• Carl Brockelmann: History of Arabic Literature. 2 vol .; 3 supplement volumes . Leiden 1937-1943 (GAL; GAL, Suppl.)
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• aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, ʾAbdarraḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Anṣārī: Maʿālim al-īmān fī maʿrifat ahl al-Qairawān . With the additions and commentaries of Ibn Nādschī at-Tanūkhī. 4 vols. Tunis 1968-1993.
• François Déroche: The Abbasid Tradition; Qur'ans of the 8th to the 10th centuries AD . In: The Nassir D. Khalil Collection of Islamic Art . tape 1 . New York 1992.
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• GAL: see Carl Brockelmann
• GAS: see Fuat Sezgin
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• Ibn ʿIdhārī al-Marrākuschī: al-Bayān al-muġrib fī akhbār al-Andalus wal-Maġrib . Ed. GS Colin & É. Levi Provençal. Vol. I. Leiden 1948.
• Sonda Kammoun & Abdelkader Ben Saci: Morphometric method of daylight factor. Kairouan great mosque case. In: Proceedings of the ARCC 2015 Conference Architectural Research Centers Consortium. FUTURE of Architectural Research. Pp. 205-210 with illustrations
• al-Khushanī: Ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ Ifrīqiya . Ed. Mohammed ben Cheneb. Algiers. Several reprints.
• Gisela Kircher: The mosque of Muhammad b. Hairun ("Three-Gate Mosque") in Qairawân / Tunisia . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute. Cairo Department . tape 26 , 1970, pp. 141-167 .
• Alexandre Lézine: Architecture de l'Ifriqiya. Research on the monuments of aghlabides . Paris 1966.
• Georges Marçais: Tunis et Kairouan . Paris 1937.
• Georges Marçais, Louis Poinssot: Objets kairouanais. IXe au XIIe siècle. (= Notes & Documents 11, 1-2). Tunis 1948–1952.
• Georges Marçais: Les faiences à reflets métalliques de la grande mosquée de Kairouan. 1928
• Chālid Maudūd: al-maʿālim al-islāmiyya bi-ʿāṣimat al-aġāliba. (The Islamic monuments in the capital of the Aghlabids). In: al-Qairawān. Center des Études Islamiques. Qairawān. Tunis 1990
• Guy de Maupassant : On the way to Kairouan. North African impressions . R. Piper & Co, Munich 1957.
• Miklós Murányi : The comrades of the prophets in early Islamic history . Bonn 1973.
• Miklos Muranyi: Contributions to the history of Ḥadīṯ and legal scholarship of the Mālikiyya in North Africa up to the 5th century. That is, bio-bibliographical notes from the mosque library of Qairawān. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03925-6 .
• ders .: Religious foundations of books: the mosque library of Qairawān . In: Raif Georges Khoury & Hüsein Ilker Çinar (Ed.): Spirituality in Culture and Religion. Judaism - Christianity - Islam . Mannheim 2014)
• . DERS geniza or Ḥubus: Some Observations on the Library of the Great Mosque in Qayrawan . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 42 (2015), pp. 183-200.
• Bernard Roy, Paule Poinssot: Inscriptions arabes de Kairouan . tape 1 . Paris 1950 (Volume 2, Paris 1958. Volume 3, Tunis 1983).
• Henri Saladin: Tunis et Kairouan . Paris 1908.
• Joseph Schacht : On some manuscripts in the libraries of Kairouan and Tunis . In: Arabica . tape 14 , 1967, p. 226-258 .
• Paul Sebag: The Great Mosque of Kairouan . London / New York 1965.
• Fuat Sezgin: History of Arabic Literature. (GAS) Leiden 1967-
• Mohamed Talbi: Theological Polemics at Qayrawān during the 3rd / 9th Century . In: Rocznik Orientalistyczny. XLIII (1984), pp. 151-160.
• ders. L'émirat aghlabide (184-296 / 800-909. Histoire politique. Paris 1966.
• Elise Voguet: L'inventaire des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque de la Grande Mosque de Kairouan (693 / 1293-4) . In: Arabica . tape 50 , 2003, p. 532-544 ( full text ).
• Y. Waksmann, C. Capelli, T. Pradell, J. Molina: The Ways of the Luster: Looking for the Tunesian Connection. In: Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation. Doha, Qatar 2014

Web links

Commons : Kairouan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
• tourismtunisia.com (English)
• heini.de 14 photos

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Institut National de la Statistique - Tunisie: Census 2004 ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . ( french ) 
2. ^ Gundolf Keil : Vegetarian. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 34, 2015 (2016), pp. 29–68, here: p. 34.
3. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Kairouan. Retrieved August 22, 2017 (English). 
4. ↑ spiegel.de: Advance of the Extremists: Salafists Subjugate Tunisia's Holy City (August 7, 2013)
5. ^ According to the kind information provided by Hatem Ksibi, opponent of the Ben Ali dictatorship, former exile, Munich, 2018.
6. ↑ Futūḥ Miṣr wa-akhbāruhā. Ed. Charles C. Torrey. New Haven 1927, p. 192 ff.
7. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. IS 9
8. ↑ Yāqūt al-Hamawī: Muʿǧam al-buldān (Beirut 1957), Vol. 4, p.420.
9. ↑ Gharīb al-ḥadīth (Haidarabad 1976), Vol. 4,422; see also Lane, 2577; Ibn Manẓūr: Lisān al-ʿarab: snq-rw and qrn. R.Dozy: Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes . 3 . Ed. Paris / Leiden 1967, vol. 2, p.431 quotes the description of Tangier according to Arabic sources: “He conquered T. and established his borders (ikhtaṭṭa-hā) as 'qairawān' for the Muslims and made it theirs Place of residence. ”In a similar sense, Cordoba is also mentioned:“ Today it is the capital / citadel (qaṣba) of Andalusia and its qairawan ”.
10. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. IS 9
11. ↑ Ḥusain Munʾis: Fatḥ al-ʿarab lil-Maghrib. Cape. Maʿnā lafẓ qairawān. Pp. 152-154. Maktaba ath-thaqāfa ad-dīnīya, undated
12. ↑ Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina. EJ Brill, Leiden 1995. p. 63; W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina, Oxford 1972. p. 306
13. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. IS 7
14. ^ MJ Kister: You Shall Set out for Three Mosques. A Study of an Early Tradition. In: Le Muséon. Volume 82, 1969, pp. 173-196; Abū Bakr, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī: Faḍāʾil al-Bayt al-Muqaddas. Ed. Isaac Hasson. Jerusalem 1979, Introduction, pp. 15-18.
15. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. IS 6-7.
16. ↑ H. Halm (1992), pp. 148-149).
17. ↑ H. Halm: The man on the donkey. The uprising of Abū Yazīd against the Fatimids according to an eyewitness account. In: The World of the Orient. Volume 15, 1984, pp. 144-204.
18. ↑ H. Halm (1992), pp. 150-155.
19. ↑ (Roy and Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 37-38 and p. 39 with illustration of the original).
20. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. 3, p.197; Muranyi (2015), p. 187
21. ↑ Muranyi (1997), pp. 316-319)
22. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. 3, pp. 203-204
23. ↑ N. Bahrouni, M. Meghraouni, K. Hinzen, M.Arfaoui, F. Mahfoud: The Damaging Earthquake of 9 October 859 in Kairouan (Tunisia): Evidence from Historical and Archeoseismological Investigations. In: Seismological Research Letters. Volume 20, 2020, pp. 1-11.
24. ↑ Vol. 3, p.1439; after him also Ibn al- Jschauzī: al-Muntaẓam fī taʾrīkh al-mulūk wal-umam, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā & Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā. Beirut, undated vol. 11, p. 329.
25. ↑ Bahrouni, p. 10; Illustration on p. 4).
26. ↑ aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. 2, pp. 147.2-148.5; This section also mentions the construction activities in Tunis, Sousse , Sfax and Lamta Leptis minor .
27. ↑ Ibn ʿIdhārī, Vol. 1, p. 113.
28. ↑ Bahrouni, 5-6.
29. ↑ Abū Bakr al-Mālikī, Vol. 1, p. 398; aḍ-Ḍabbāgh, Vol. 2, page 41
30. ↑ Vol. 1, p. 113
31. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 5, p. 23 (Khiṭṭa)
32. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 4, p. 824; Summary of construction activities in: Henri Saladin (1908), pp. 110–118; Paul Sebag (1965), p. 22 ff. A variant of these legendary stories can be found in Paul Sebag (1965), p. 19.
33. ↑ The dating of his activities in North Africa is uncertain. He is said to have died in the fight against Byzantium around 699/700: The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 3, p. 271.
34. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), p. 31, note 151 with reference to the considerations of Saladin and Marçais
35. ^ Fuat Sezgin: History of Arabic literature. Brill, Leiden 1967. Vol. 1, p. 360
36. ↑ Riyāḍ an-nufūs fī ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ al-Qairawān wa-Ifrīqīya. (Ed. Baschīr Bakkūsch). Beirut 1983. Vol. 1, p. 56. - On the work, see Fuat Sezgin (1967), p. 360.
37. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), passim and Figures 19–23
38. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), p. 31.
39. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 39 f.
40. ^ Carl Brockelmann: History of the Arabic literature . Second edition adapted to the supplement volumes. Vol. 2, p. 310 f. Brill, Leiden 1949
41. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 40; Henri Saladin (1908), p. 124 names Ziyādat Allah as the innovator of the mihrab.
42. ^ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), vol. 1, p. 15. No. 3.
43. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), pp. 19 and 43 f.
44. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), p. 35.
45. ^ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 18-21. No. 6.
46. ^ Paul Sebag (1965), pp. 50 and 105.
47. ↑ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), vol. 1, p. 23, No. 8; H. Saladin (1908), p. 130.
48. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), pp. 39 and 101; H. Saladin (1908), p. 119 f.
49. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill. Suffer. Vol. 1, p. 155.
50. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 25 connects the report with the name of Bišr ibn Ṣafwān, who is said to have bought the area from the local population on behalf of the caliph Hisham. al-Bakrī and the local historians of Qairawāns do not mention his name.
51. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill. Suffer. Vol. 7, p. 358. No. IV
52. ^ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 30
53. ^ Roy and Poinssot (1959), pp. 52-60. Nos. 16-22; P. Sebag, pp. 53-56
54. ↑ P. Sebag, p. 56
55. ^ Roy and Poinssot (1959), pp. 57-59. No. 21. The indication of the passage from the Koran on p. 58, footnote 5 (XII, 76) must be corrected
56. ↑ P. Sebag, p. 59
57. ↑ Information from: Paul Sebag (1965), p. 90.
58. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), pp. 18-20; P. 31; Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina: Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250. Yake University Press 2001. pp. 30-33
59. ↑ Georges Marçais (1937), p. 54 from the year 1011 (see second figure in situ )
60. ^ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 52.
61. ^ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 90.
62. ↑ Paul Sebag (1965), p. 90 and p. 117, Figure 10. See also: Picture gallery: Kairouan around 1900; Photo # 6.
63. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), p. 49 and the colored illustrations 20 and 22.
64. ↑ Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak (1981), p. 50; Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina: Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250 . Yale University Press 2001. pp. 33-35
65. ↑ For further names and their variants see Gisela Kircher (1970), pp. 144–145, note 38
66. ↑ H.Saladin (1908), p 132
67. ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 3, p. 805; al-Bayān al-muġrib fī aḫbār al-Andalus wal-Maġrib . Ed. GS Colin & É. Levi Provençal. Brill, Leiden 1948. Volume 1. p. 114
68. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), pp. 156-159
69. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 157
70. ^ Christian Ewert: Spanish-Islamic systems of intersecting arches. Vol. 1. Cordoba. Madrid 1968. pp. 15-17
71. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 159. Note 128
72. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 166 with further sources according to al-Buchārī u. a.
73. ↑ The translation of the inscriptions: Gisela Kircher, op. Cit ; see also: B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 61-64
74. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), pp. 153-154
75. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 148; Ibrāhīm Shabbūḥ: Masǧid Ibn Ḫairūn. In: al-Qairawān. Center des Études Islamiques. Qairawān. Tunis 1990. pp. 56-62; especially 59-60
76. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), pp. 164–165 and ibid. Note 175
77. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 144 and ibid. Note 31; Ibrāhīm Shabbūḥ (Brahim Chabouh): Masǧid Ibn Ḫairūn. In: al-Qairawān. Center des Études Islamiques Kairouan. Tunis 1990. pp. 56-57
78. ↑ Heinz Halm: News on buildings of the Alabids and Fatimids in Libya and Tunisia. In: Die Welt des Orients (WdI), 23 (1992), p. 145
79. ↑ Muranyi (1997), pp. 154-155
80. ↑ Gisela Kircher (1970), p. 165.
81. ↑ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 184-185. No. 93
82. ↑ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 216-218
83. ↑ B. Roy, P. Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 254-256; Naṣr al-Ḥanzūlī: Baʿḍ al-ʿāʾilāt al-qairawānīya min ḫilāl an-naqāʾiš ilā nihāyat al-ʿaṣr az-zīrī (Some Kairouan families based on inscriptions until the end of the Ziridic period). ): al-Qairawān ʿāṣima ḥaḍārīya fī taʾrīḫ al-maġrib al-islāmī . Pp. 80-90. Tunis 2006
84. ↑ Chālid Maudūd: al-maʿālim al-islāmiyya bi-ʿāṣimat al-aġāliba. (The Islamic monuments in the capital of the Aghlabids). In: al-Qairawān, Center des Études Islamiques. Qairawān. Tunis 1990. p. 30
85. ↑ Muranyi (1973) pp. 155-156.
86. ↑ Chālid Maudūd: al-maʿālim al-islāmiyya bi-ʿāṣimat al-aġāliba. (The Islamic monuments in the capital of the Aghlabids). In: al-Qairawān. Center des Études Islamiques. Qairawān. Tunis 1990. p. 30; Henri Saladin (1908), pp. 135-140; Georges Marçais (1937), pp. 68-69
87. ↑ N. Hentati (2009), pp. 80-81; Roy / Poinssot (1950), Vol. 2, p. 65
88. ↑ N. Hentati (2009), p. 82; Roy & Poinssot (1950), Vol. 2, p. 73
89. ↑ Chālid Maudūd: al-maʿālim al-islāmiyya bi-ʿāṣimat al-aġāliba. (The Islamic monuments in the capital of the Aghlabids). In: al-Qairawān. Center des Études Islamiques. Qairawān. Tunis 1990. pp. 32-33
90. ^ H. Saladin (1908), p. 131
91. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1958), Vol. 2. pp. 538-539. No. 399
92. ^ Carl Brockelmann: History of the Arabic literature . Supplement volume 2, p. 337. Brill, Leiden 1938
93. ^ Muranyi (1973), p. 160
94. ↑ Riyāḍ an-nufūs fī ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ al-Qairawān wa-Ifrīqīya. (Ed. Baschīr Bakkūsch. Beirut 1983), Vol. 1, pp. 106-107; H. H. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb: Waraqāt ʿan al-ḥaḍāra al-ʿarabiyya bi-Ifrīqiya at-tūnisiyya. (Feuillets. Études sur certains aspects de la civilization arabe en Ifrikia / Tunisie). Tunis 1972. Vol. 1, p. 327; Vol. 3, pp. 37-38
95. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), p. 33
96. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1. pp. 418-419. No. 290
97. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1958), Vol. 2. pp. 463-464. No. 328 and pp. 554-555. No. 412
98. ↑ Muranyi: The comrades of the prophets in early Islamic history . Bonn 1973. p. 157
99. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), p. 33; Muranyi (1973), p. 157
100. ↑ Riyāḍ an-nufūs fī ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ al-Qairawān wa-Ifrīqīya. Vol. 1, p. 100
101. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), p. 32
102. ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 3, p. 231
103. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), pp. 31-32; Georges Marçais (1937), pp. 12-13. For the inscription see Roy and Poinssot (1950), Vol. 1, pp. 85–86, No. 41 with the name variant: Biʾr ʾAutaʾ (sic)
104. ↑ ^{a b} Chālid Maudūd (1990), p. 27
105. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), p. 27; Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 4, p. 825
106. ^ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (1950), p. 88
107. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (1950), p. 94; 98; 100
108. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (1950), p. 100, note 48
109. ↑ Ḥ. H. ʿAbdalwahhāb: Waraqāt . Vol. 1, pp. 57-58
110. ↑ Riyāḍ an-nufūs , Vol. 3 (Index), p. 98. Beirut 1984
111. ↑ Ḥ. H. ʿAbdalwahhāb: Waraqāt . Vol. 2, p. 53
112. ↑ The name of the Jews as Ḫaibarī (one from Ḫaibar) was also known. The reference to the originally Jewish settlement of Chaibar at the time of Muhammad is obvious: Ḥ. H. ʿAbdalwahhāb: Waraqāt . Vol. 3, p. 255 and note 2
113. ↑ Muranyi (1997), p. 92)
114. ↑ Edited by Farḥāt ad-Dašrāwī, Tunis 1975. pp. 96-97
115. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), pp. 60–61
116. ↑ Naǧāt Pacha (Bāšā): Le commerce au Maghreb de XIe au XIV siècles . Tunis 1976. pp. 67-68
117. ↑ al-Baḥrūnī (2006), pp. 58-59
118. ↑ Ḥ. H. ʿAbdalwahhāb: Waraqāt . Vol. I, pp. 49-50.
119. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1983), p. 50; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), pp. 46–47
120. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1950), Volume 1, p. 173; 178-179; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 48
121. ↑ Al-Muqaddasi: Ahsan at-Taqasim fī ma'rifat al-aqālīm, p 235
122. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 49
123. ↑ al-Kinānī: Takmīl aṣ-ṣulaḥāʾ wal-aʿyān. (Ed. ʿAbd al-Maǧīd Ḫayālī. Beirut 2005), p. 189
124. ↑ Ḥasan Ḥusnī ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Waraqāt , Volume 1, p. 207
125. ↑ al-Muqaddasī, p. 239.
126. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 50
127. ↑ On the term see: R. Dozy: Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes . Leiden, Paris 1967. Volume 1, p. 562
128. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 53
129. ↑ Roy & Poinssot (1950), Volume 1. p. 280; Volume 2, p. 443; 591; Volume 3, p. 35
130. ^ Roy & Poinssot (1950), Volume 1, p. 246; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 51
131. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 54
132. ↑ Abū Bakr al-Mālikī, IS 280; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 54
133. ^ Roy-Poinssot, vol. IS 453: at-tāǧir fī sūq al-ḥarīrīn (sic); and 483.
134. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 61
135. ↑ Roy Poinnsot, IS 560; III, p. 97; al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 61.
136. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 54
137. ↑ ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Baḥrūnī (2006), p. 55
138. ↑ Roy & Poinssot (1983), Volume 3, p. 77: “This is the grave of ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Abū (sic) Bakr at-Tammār. He died on Monday, the 18th aʿbān of the year [......]. "
139. ↑ Eugen Wirth : To the problem of the bazaar. Attempt to define and theory the traditional economic center of the oriental-Islamic city. In: Der Islam 52 (1975) pp. 6-46; here: p. 32. Fig. 24: Bazar Kairouan
140. ↑ Eugen Wirth: To the problem of the bazaar. Attempt to define and theory the traditional economic center of the oriental-Islamic city. In: Der Islam 51 (1974) p. 242
141. ↑ Nejmeddine Hentati (ed.): Etudes d'histoire Kairouanaise . Publications du Center des Études Islamiques de Kairouan. 2009. pp. 117-124
142. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), pp. 70-71
143. ↑ Nejmeddine Hentati (ed.): Etudes d'histoire Kairouanaise . Publications du Center des Études Islamiques de Kairouan. 2009. pp. 143-164
144. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (1950), pp. 104-110, note 48
145. ^ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (Tunis 1983), Vol. 3, p. 149
146. ^ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot (Tunis 1983), Vol. 3, p. 123
147. ↑ N. Hentati (2009), pp. 151-152
148. ↑ Chālid Maudūd (1990), pp. 71-72
149. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot, Vol. 1, pp. 171-173, No. 89
150. ↑ M. Muranyi (1997), p. 167, note 1
151. ^ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot, Vol. 1, p. 153, no. 77
152. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot, Vol. 1, pp. 160-161, No. 83
153. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot, Vol. 1, p. 296, No. 170; see also pp. 152–153, no. 77
154. ^ Di the Fatimids
155. ↑ B. Roy & P. ​​Poinssot, Vol. 2, pp. 536-537, No. 397; M. Muranyi (1997), p. 144, note 2-3. In the Islamic East, in Mosul , a stele with a similar content, with the rejection of the Mu'tazilite teaching, has been preserved. See Josef van Ess : Theology and Society in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries of the Hijra. Vol. 3, p. 474
156. ↑ Vol. 21 (April 4, 1897. pp. 241–246; about the library: pp. 243–244)
157. ↑ E. Voguel, pp. 533-534
158. ↑ Arabica 14 (1967), p. 226ff.
159. ↑ Al-maktaba al-aṯariyya bil-Qairawān. ʿArḍ wa-dalīl. (The ancient library of Qairawān. Representation and guide). Tunis 1963
160. ↑ Muranyi (1997), passim
161. ↑ On the parchment production in Qairawān see: Nejmeddine Hentati (Ed.): Contributions scientifiques et apports techniques de Kairouan. Tunis 2011. p. 175ff (Ṣināʿat al-ǧild bil-Qairawān) in Arabic.
162. ^ Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina: Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250. Yake University Press 2001. pp. 98-100
163. ↑ Guy de Maupassant: On the way to Kairouan. North African impressions. Selected from the travel book La vie errante and transferred by Erik Maschat. E. Piper & Co Verlag, Munich 1957, p. 56
164. ^ Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters. Published by the Rilke Archive in Weimar in conjunction with Ruth Sieber-Rilke, obtained by Karl Altheim. Insel Verlag. Vol. IS 273