THE GREAT MOSQUE

OF KAIROUAN

Great Mosque of Kairouan

Location: In the Medina, Kairouan, Tunisia

Date of the monument: Hegira 221 / AD 836

Period / Dynasty: Umayyad,Abbasid

Patron(s): Ziyadat Allah I.

Area : 9000m2

Also known as : Mosque of Uqba

“one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, as well as a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb”

Plan of Kairouan

MOSQUE FACING TOWARD MADINA

HISTORY

The great mosque of Kairouan was built under the provinces of Ifriqiya, which the Arab annexed in AD 670, at which time they founded the city of Kairouan.Around 690, shortly after its construction, the mosque was destroyed during the occupation of Kairouan by the Berbers, originally conducted by Kusaila. It was rebuilt by the Ghassanid general Hasan ibn al-Nu'man in 703.With the gradual increase of the population of Kairouan and the consequent increase in the number of faithful, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad Caliph in Damascus, charged his governor Bishr ibn Safwan to carry out development work in the city which include the renovation and expansion of the mosque around the years 724–728. In view of its expansion, he pulled down the mosque and rebuilt it with the exception of the mihrab. It was under his auspices that the construction of the minaret began. In 774, a new reconstruction accompanied by modifications and embellishments took place under the direction of the Abbasid governor Yazid Ibn Hatim.

PLAN OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF KAIROUAN

ARCHITCTUREThe great mosque of Kairouan

was simply made up of sun-dried bricks that had stood

their since the foundation of the city. The mosque was

constructed with Abbasid style of a courtyard surrounded by

arcades, with a hypostyle prayer hall roughly one-third

the size of the entire enclosed complex, has one outstanding features- its minarets in the form of a lighthouse.The use

of Marbel and granite wa done in the prayer hall and columns.

MINARET

The world's oldest surviving minaret, 8th-9th century.

It is 31.5 meters tall and is seated on a square base of 10.7 meters on each side.

It is located inside the enclosure and does not have direct access from the outside.

It consists of three tapering levels, the last of which is topped with a small ribbed dome.

The first and second stories are surmounted by rounded merlons which are pierced by arrowslits.

The minaret served as a watchtower, as well as to call the faithful to prayer.

The interior includes a staircase of 129 steps, surmounted by a barrel vault, which gives to the terraces and the first tier of the minaret.

The courtyard facade (or south facade) of the tower is pierced with windows that provide light and ventilation, while the other three facades—facing north, east and west—are pierced with small openings in the form of arrowslits.

Details of minaret:

View of the second and third storey's of the

minaret

Door of the minaret

Close view of one of the Roman stones (with Latin inscriptions) reused at the base of the minaret

Wall and windows of the south facade of the

minaret

COURTYARD

The courtyard is a vast trapezoidal area whose interior dimensions are approximately 65 by 50 meters.

It is surrounded on all its four sides by a portico with double rows of arches, opened by slightly horseshoe arches supported by columns in various marbles and granite .

Access to the courtyard by six side entrances dating from the ninth and thirteenth centuries.

The northern part of the courtyard is paved with flagstones while the rest of the floor is almost entirely composed of white marble slabs.

In the courtyard there are also several water wells some of which are placed side by side.

Near its center is an horizontal sundial, bearing an inscription in nakashi engraved on the marble dating from 1258 AH and which is accessed by a little staircase ; it determines the time of prayers.

Details of the courtyard:

The horizontal sundial located in the courtyard

Focus on one well of the courtyard

Rain water collector cisternRain water collector basin

DOME

The Mosque has several domes, the largest being over the mihrab and the entrance to the prayer hall from the courtyard. The dome of the mihrab is based on an octagonal drum with slightly concave sides, raised on a square base, decorated on each of its three southern, Easter and western faces with five flat-bottomed niches surmounted by five semi-circular arches,the niche in the middle is cut by a lobed oculus enrolled in a circular frame. This dome, whose construction goes back to the first half of the ninth century (towards 836), is one of the oldest and most remarkable domes in the western Islamic world.

Prayer hallThe prayer hall is located on the southern side of the courtyard ; and is accessed by 17 carved wooden doors. A portico with double row of arches precede the spacious prayer hall, which takes the shape of a rectangle of 70.6 meters in width and 37.5 meters depth

Details of the prayer hall:

View of the mihrab located in the

middle of the qibla wall of the prayer

hall

View of the gallery which precedes the

prayer hall

One of the seventeen

carved-wood doors of the prayer hall

The mihrab, which indicates the Qibla (direction of Mecca), in front of which stands the imam during the prayer, is located in the middle of the southern wall of the prayer hall. It is formed by an oven-shaped niche framed by two marble columns and topped by a painted wooden half-cupola. The niche of the mihrab is two meters long, 4.5 meters high and 1.6 meters deep.The wall of the mihrab is covered with 28 panels of white marble, carved and pierced, which have a wide variety of plant and geometric patterns including the stylized grape leaf, the flower and the shell.

MIHRAB

4.5

m

2 m

MINBAR

The minbar, situated on the right of the mihrab, is used by the imam during the Friday or Eids sermons, is a staircase-shaped pulpit with an upper seat, reached by eleven steps, and measuring 3.93 meters length to 3.31 meters in height.

It consists of an assembly of more than 300 finely carved wood pieces with an exceptional ornamental wealth, among which about 90 rectangular panels carved with plenty of pine cones, grape leaves, thin and flexible stems, lanceolate fruits and various geometric shapes. The upper edge of the minbar ramp is adorned with a rich and graceful vegetal decoration composed of alternately arranged foliated scrolls, each one containing a spread vine-leaf and a cluster of grapes. In the early twentieth century, the minbar had a painstaking restoration

3.31

m

3.93m

COLUMN AND CEILING

In the prayer hall, the 414 columns of marble, granite or porphyry taken from ancient sites in the country such as Sbeïtla, Carthage, Hadrumetum and Chemtou, support the horseshoe arches.

The covering of the prayer hall consists of painted ceilings decorated with vegetal motifs and two domes : one raised at the beginning of the central nave and the other in front of the mihrab. The latter, which its hemispherical cap is cut by 24 concave grooves radiating around the top is based on ridged horns shaped shell and a drum pierced by eight circular windows which are inserted between sixteen niches grouped by two.

THANKYOUPRESENTED BY:

AMAN SINGHNIKITA SHARMAPRADEEP VERMA