Aghlabid
The Great Mosque of Kairouan Renewed
The Aghlabid rebuilding in Ifriqiya
Aghlabid renewal (221-248 AH / 836-862 CE)
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Kairouan, Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia)
35.6817, 10.1036 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
The Great Mosque of Kairouan, the Mosque of Uqba, is the oldest major place of worship in the Muslim West and the mother-mosque of the Maghrib. It was first founded by the conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi (radiyallahu anhu) around 50 AH (670 CE), when Kairouan was laid out as the Arab garrison city of Ifriqiya, but the great building that stands today is substantially the work of the Aghlabid emirs in the third century AH. The Aghlabids ruled Ifriqiya from Kairouan as a semi-autonomous dynasty under the nominal suzerainty of the Abbasid caliph, and they were great builders, known for their water works and for launching the conquest of Sicily. Ziyadat Allah I rebuilt the mosque around 221 AH (836 CE), giving it its present form, and Abu Ibrahim Ahmad enriched it around 248 AH (862 CE) with the ribbed dome before the mihrab and the carved maqsura. The building gathers the features that would define the architecture of the Muslim West: a massive square minaret in three tapering tiers, the earliest surviving minaret of its kind; a deep hypostyle hall carried on spolia columns of reused Roman and Byzantine marble; a wide arcaded courtyard with careful provision for water and for timekeeping; a fluted dome on squinches over the mihrab bay; and, set around the mihrab, golden lustreware tiles imported from Abbasid Iraq, the metallic-glazed ceramic that was a luxury of the age. Kairouan in this period was a centre of Maliki learning and of Sunni scholarship for the whole Maghrib, its jurists shaping the religious life of North Africa and al-Andalus. This scene depicts the renewed mosque: the square minaret over the courtyard, the forest of antique columns in the prayer hall, the sundial and water channels, and the lustre-tiled mihrab under its ribbed dome, the building in which the architecture of the Muslim West first took its lasting shape.
What you see
A massive square stone minaret rises in three tapering tiers like a fortress tower at one end of the courtyard. This is the early Maghribi minaret form, broad and solid, not the slender round pencil minaret of later Ottoman building nor the spiral ramp of Samarra.
A wide arcaded courtyard opens before a deep hypostyle prayer hall, its roof carried on rows of columns. The shafts and capitals are spolia, reused Roman and Byzantine marble of many colours and orders gathered from older sites and set up together.
Set in the courtyard pavement is a stone sundial and a marked centring device for fixing the prayer times and the qibla, beside channels and a great drain feeding cisterns, the careful water and time keeping of a dry inland city.
Over the bay before the mihrab swells a ribbed dome, an early fluted cupola on squinches, screened by a carved maqsura. The mihrab niche is the focus of the renewal, the richest point of the building.
Around the mihrab are set golden-glazed lustreware tiles, a luxury ceramic imported from Abbasid Iraq in this century, their metallic sheen marking the wealth and the eastern connections of the renewal.
The black of the Abbasid house appears on the insignia of the ruling emir, who governs Ifriqiya as a semi-autonomous Aghlabid prince under the distant Abbasid caliph, building locally while acknowledging the caliph in the east.
Beyond the walls lies the dry plain of inland Ifriqiya, with the great Aghlabid water basins nearby. Kairouan is the first great Muslim city of the Maghrib and the base from which the conquest of Sicily was launched.
Further reading & cross-references
al-Bakri, al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (11th c.): Andalusi Sunni geographer. His description of North Africa is a principal source for Kairouan, its mosque, and its water works. Confidence high for the topography and the building.
Ibn Idhari, al-Bayan al-Mughrib (early 14th c.): Major Sunni Maghribi history. Preserves the Aghlabid building campaigns at Kairouan and the dynasty's works. Confidence high.
al-Maliki, Riyad al-Nufus (11th c.): Sunni biographical history of the scholars of Kairouan. Used for the religious life of the city, its Maliki learning, and the patrons of the mosque. Confidence high for the milieu.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (extant fabric): Material evidence of the first order. The standing mosque, with its Aghlabid minaret, spolia columns, ribbed mihrab dome, and lustre tiles, is the direct confirmation of the architecture the scene depicts. Confidence high.
K. A. C. Creswell / Jonathan Bloom, studies of early Islamic and Maghribi architecture (modern): Modern non-confessional architectural scholarship. Used for the dating of the Aghlabid phases, the minaret form, and the imported Iraqi lustreware. Confidence high.
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