Great Mosque

The Great Mosque of Kairouan (Arabic: الجامع الكبير بالقيروان), also called Oqba Ibn Nafi Mosque (Arabic: جامع عقبة بن نافع) in memory of its founder Oqba Ibn Nafi, is one of the main mosques of Tunisia located in Kairouan. Historically the first Muslim metropolis of the Maghreb, Kairouan is renowned as being the spiritual and religious center of Tunisia; it is also sometimes considered the fourth holy city of Sunni Islam.

Representing the emblematic building of the city, its Grand Mosque remains the oldest and most prestigious sanctuary in the Muslim West6,7. Since the Beylical Decree of March 13, 1912, it has been on the list of classified and protected historical monuments in Tunisia8,9, it has also been classified, along with the historical ensemble of Kairouan, as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1988.

Built, initially, by Oqba Ibn Nafi from 670 (corresponding to the year 50 of the Hegira), while the city of Kairouan was founded, it was enlarged and rebuilt in the 8th and 9th centuries. It is considered, in the Maghreb, to be the ancestor of all mosques in the region, as well as one of the most important Islamic monuments and a universal masterpiece of architecture.

From an aesthetic point of view, the Great Mosque of Kairouan appears to be the most beautiful building of Muslim civilization in the Maghreb. Its age and the quality of its architecture make it a jewel of Islamic art. There are many books and manuals of Muslim art that refer to the mosque.

Beyond its artistic and architectural importance, it has played, according to the Tunisian academic and Islamologist Mohamed Talbi, "a capital role in the Islamization of the entire Muslim West, including Spain, and the spread of Malikism. ".

During the reign of the Aghlabid dynasty (ninth century), major reconstruction and embellishment works gave the mosque its current appearance. The fame and the prestige of this one and of the other sanctuaries of Kairouan makes that the city develops and is populated more and more. The university, made up of scholars and jurists who teach in the mosque, is a training center both for the instruction of Muslim thought and for secular sciences. With the decline of the city, which began in the second half of the eleventh century, the intellectual training center subsequently moved to Zitouna University in Tunis.

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