islamicmosque: Masjid Uqba ibn Nafi

Masjid Uqba ibn Nafi

The Mosque of Uqba also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan, is one of the most important mosques in Tunisia, situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairoun.

Built by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi from 670 AD (the year 50 according to the Islamic Calender) at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque is spread over a surface area of 9,000 square metres and is considered as the oldest place of worship in the western Islamic World, as well as a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb. The Great Mosque of Kairouan is certainly one of the most impressive and largest islamic monuments in North Africa, its perimeter is almost equal to 405 metres (1,328 feet). This vast space contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a huge marble-paved courtyard and a massive square minaret. In addition to its spiritual prestige, the Mosque of Uqba is universally reputed as a masterpiece of both architecture and Islamic Art.

Under the Aghlabids (9th century), huge works gave the mosque its present aspect. The fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and repopulate increasingly. The university, consisting of scholars who taught in the mosque, was a centre of education both in Islamic thought and in the secular sciences. Its role can be compared to that of the University of Paris in the Middle Ages. With the decline of the city, the centre of intellectual thought moved to the University of Ez – Zitouna in Tunis.

Overview of the mosque's courtyard which is surrounded by colonnaded arches

Ancient cemetery and the Great Mosque of Uqba.

Location and general aspect

Map of Kairouan (1916) showing the location of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the northeast corner of the medina

Overview of the mosque

Wall and buttresses of the western facade of the mosque

Located in the north-east of the medina of Kairouan, the mosque is in the intramural district of Houmat al-Jami (literally "area of the Great Mosque"). This location corresponded originally to the heart of the urban fabric of the city founded by Uqba ibn Nafi.

But because of the specific nature of the land, crossed by several tributaries of the wadis, the urban development of the city stretched southwards. Then there are the upheavals of Kairouan following Hilalian 's invasions in 449 AH (or 1057 AD) and which led to the decline of the city. For all these reasons, the mosque (which occupies the same place since its founding in 670) is not any more situated in the center of the medina, and is thereby positioned on the extremity, near the walls.

The building is a vast irregular quadrilateral, longer (with 127.60 meters) from the eastern side than on the opposite side (with 125.20 meters) and less wide (with 72.70 meters) on the north side (the minaret) that the opposite side (with 78 meters). It covers a total area of 9000 m2.

From the outside, the Great Mosque of Kairouan is a fortress-like building, which required as much by its massive ocher walls of 1.90 meters thick composed of well-worked stones, courses of rubble stone and courses of baked bricks, as the square angle towers measuring 4.25 meters on each side and the solid and projecting buttresses that support and bind. More than a defensive role, the buttresses and towers full serve more to enhance the stability of the mosque built on a soil subject to compaction. Although a seemingly harsh, the external facades, punctuated with powerful buttresses and towering Porches, some of which are surmounted by cupolas, give to the sanctuary a striking aspect characterized by majestic sobriety.

History

Evolutions

View of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in the Early Twentieth Century

One of the doors of the mosque in early twentieth century

At the foundation of Kairouan in 670, the Arab general and conqueror Uqba Ibn Nafi (himself the founder of the city) has chosen the site of his mosque in the center of the city, near the headquarters of the governor. Shortly after its construction, the mosque was destroyed about 690, during the occupation of Kairouan by the Berbers, originally conducted by Kusaila. It was rebuilt by the Ghassanid general Hasan ibn Al – Numan in 703. With the gradual increase of the population of Kairouan and the consequent increase in the number of faithfuls, Hisham ibn Abd Al - Malik, Umayyad Caliph in Damacus, charged his governor Bishr ibn Safwan to carry out development work in the city which include the renovation and expansion of the mosque at around 724–728 years. In view of its expansion, he pulled down the mosque and rebuilded it with the exception of the mihrab, it was under his auspices 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.

Current Plan of the Great Mosque of Kairouan

Under the rule of Aghlabid sovereigns , Kairouan is at its apogee and the mosque profited from this period of stability and prosperity. In 836, Ziadet Allah I reconstructed the mosque once more : this is when the building acquired, at least in its entirety, the appearance we see today, at the same time the mihrab's ribbed dome on squinches was raised. Around 862 - 863, Abul Ibrahim enlarged the oratory, with three bays to the north, and adds the cupola over the arched portico which precedes the prayer hall. In 875 Ibrahim II built another three bays, thereby reducing the size of the courtyard which was further limited on the three other sides by the addition of double galleries.

The current state of the mosque can be traced back to the reign of Aghlabids — no element is earlier than the ninth century besides the mihrab — except for some partial restorations and a few later additions made in 1025 during the reign of Zirids, 1249 and 1293 to 1294 under the reign of Hafsids 1618 at the time of mouradites beys, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1967, major restoration work, over five years and conducted under the direction of the National Institute of Archeology and Art, are being launched throughout the monument, and ends with an official reopening of the mosque during the celebration of Mawlid of 1972

Host stories

Pilgrims around one of the wells

Colonnaded gallery above the prayer hall

Several centuries after its founding, the Great Mosque of Kairouan is the subject of numerous descriptions by Arab historians and geographers in the Middle Ages. The stories concern mainly the different phases of construction and expansion of the sanctuary, and the successive contributions of many princes to the interior decoration (mihrab, minbar, ceilings, etc.). Among the authors who have written on the subject and whose stories have survived are Al – Bakri (Andalusian geographer and historian who died in 1094 and who devoted a sufficiently detailed account of the history of the mosque in his book Description of Septentrional Africa), Al – Nuwayri (historian who died in Egypt, 1332) and Ibn Nagi (scholar and historian of Kairouan who died around 1435).

On additions and embellishments made to the building by the Aghlabid sovereign Abul Ibrahim, Ibn Nagi gives the following account :

He built in the mosque of Kairouan the cupola that rises over the entrance to the central nave, together with the two colonnades which flank it from both sides, and the galleries were paved by him. He then made the mihrab.

Minaret in the early twentieth

Old postcard (1900) showing the minbar and the maqsura

Subsequently, Western travelers, poets and writers awarded by Kairouan leave impressions and testimonies sometimes tinged with emotion or admiration on the mosque. From the eighteenth century, the French doctor and naturalist John Andrew Peyssonnel, conducting a study trip to 1724, during the reign of sovereign Al – Husayn Bey I, underlines the reputation of the mosque as a deemed center of religious and secular studies :

The Great Mosque is dedicated to Uqba, where there is a famous college where we will study the remotest corners of this kingdom : are taught reading and writing of Arabic grammar, laws and religion. There are large rents for the maintenance of teachers.

At the same time,the doctor and Anglican priest Thomas Shaw (1692–1751), touring the Tunis Regency and passes through Kairouan in 1727, described the mosque as that : " which is considered the most beautiful and the most sacred of Berberian territories ", evoking for example : " an almost unbelievable number of granite columns ".

At the end of the nineteenth century , the French writer Guy de Maupassant expresses in his book La vie errante (The wandering), his fascination with the majestic architecture of the Great Mosque of Kairouan as well as the effect created by countless columns : " The unique harmony of this temple consists in the proportion and the number of these slender shafts upholding the building, filling, peopling, and making it what it is, create its grace and greatness. Their colorful multitude gives the eye the impression of unlimited". Early in the twentieth century, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilker describes his admiration for the impressive minaret :

Is there a more beautiful than this still preserved old tower, the minaret, in Islamic architecture ? In the history of Art, its three-storey minaret is considered such a masterpiece and a model among the most prestigious monuments of Muslim architecture.

Architecture and ornaments

Overview of the building (center), southern facade to the outside (left) and Minaret seen from the courtyard (right)

Enclosure

Bab Lalla Rihana (late thirteenth century)

Today, the enclosure of the Great Mosque of Kairouan is pierced by nine gates (six opening on the courtyard, two opening on the prayer hall and a ninth allows access to the maqsura) some of them, such as Bab Al-Ma (Gate of water) located on the western facade, are preceded by salient porches flanked by buttresses and surmounted by ribbed domes based on square tholobate which are porting squinches with three vaults. However, Arab geographers and historians of the Middle Ages Al – Muqaddasi and Al – Bakri reported the existence, around the tenth and eleventh centuries, of about ten gates named differently from today. This reflects the fact that, unlike the rest of the mosque, the enclosure has undergone significant changes to ensure the stability of the building (adding many buttresses). Thus, some entries have been sealed, while others were kept.

During the thirteenth century, new gates were opened, the most remarkable, Bab Lalla Rihana dated from 1293, is located on the eastern wall of the enclosure. The monumental entrance, work of the Hafsid sovereign Abu Hafs `Umar ibn Yahya (reign from 1284 to 1295), is entered in a salient square, flanked by ancient columns supporting des Horsehoe Arches and covered by a dome on squinches. The front facade of the porch has a large horseshoe arch relied on two marble columns and surmounted by a frieze adorned with a blind arcade, all crowned by serrated merlons (in a sawtooth arrangement). Despite its construction at the end of the thirteenth century, Bab Lalla Rihana blends well with all of the building mainly dating from the ninth century.