Lala Sha sahab ki Dargah Karkhana

Kairouan's Medina

The word "medina" (or Médina) itself simply means "city" or "town" in modern day Arabic.
Medinas often contain historical fountains, palaces, and mosques. The monuments are preserved for their cultural significance (and are also a draw for tourists).
Because of the very narrow streets, medinas are free from car traffic, and in some cases even motorcycle and bicycle traffic. The streets can be less than a metre wide. This makes them unique among highly populated urban centres.

Kairouan's Medina (old town) is the best preserved in Tunisia. Some 1,000m/1,100yds long by 500m/550yds across, it is surrounded by a 3.5km/2mi long circuit of brick walls 10m/33ft high, reinforced by numerous towers. The present walls were built by the Husseinites between 1706-12 on the foundations of earlier walls dating from 1052, and have been frequently restored since then. The Medina here is a pleasant experience to walk around without being hasselled so much by souvenir sellers which can plague you in Medina's in Tunis and Sousse.

The Medina is the main place for shopping in Kairouan. You can buy all sorts of stuff such as brass plates, clothes, shoes, porcelain plates and bowls, leather goods etc. Most of it is pretty tacky but there are some nice items. All of the shops and stalls are located near enough on one street - Ave & Novembre which runs from Bab Tunis in the north of the Medina to Bab ech Chouhada in the south.

The Great Mosque

The Great Mosque

The Mosque of Uqba (Arabic: جامع عقبة), also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan (Arabic: جامع القيروان الأكبر), is one of the most important mosques in Tunisia.

Built by Uqba ibn Nafi from 670 A.D. (the year 50 according to the Islamic calendar) at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque is spread over a surface area of 900 square metres and is considered as a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb in the western Islamic world.

Under the Aghlabids, the fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and repopulate little by little. The university, consisting of scholars who met 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.


Construction

The present form of the mosque dates back to the Aghlabid dynasty (with the exception of a few partial restorations and several later additions). Prior to this era, the mosque had been reconstructed several times following the successive invasions of Kairouan. With the exception of the mihrab, no part of the mosque is older than the 9th century.

Shortly after its construction, the mosque was destroyed during the occupation of Kairouan by the Berbers, led at first by Kusaila (around 690). The mosque was reconstructed by the Arab Emir Ben Noman around 10 years later. In light of Kairouan’s growing population, Hichâm ibn Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Caliph of Damascus, ordered work to be undertaken in the city, which included the destruction of the mosque (with the exception of the mihrab) and its subsequent reconstruction.

Under the Aghlabids, Kairouan was at its apogee and the mosque profited from this period of calm and prosperity. In 836, Ziadet-Allah I reconstructed the mosque once more. In 863, Abou-Ibrahim increased the size of the oratory with the addition of three bays to the north, and added the cupola over the entry. In 875, Ibrahim II constructed 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. After this date, the mosque did not undergo more than minor changes or restoration work.


Description

The Mosque of Uqba greatly resembles an imposing fortress, a consequence of the 1.9 metre thick stones that were used to build its walls and its ramparts, in addition to its towers and the solid buttresses that support and strengthen the walls. The mosque takes the form of an irregular quadrilateral, which is wider on the side of the main entrance (138 metres) than on the opposite side (128 metres) and thinner on the side of the minaret (71 metres) than on the opposite side (77 metres).

The courtyard is accessible via six lateral doorways and forms a rectangle (approximately 60 metres x 40 metres in size) surrounded by galleries supported by columns made variously of marble, granite or porphyry and which were taken from ancient monuments (primarily from Carthage), as were those in the prayer hall. Near to the centre of the courtyard, there is a rainwater collector, which filters the water before allowing it to pass into the cistern located underneath the courtyard, and a sundial.

The minaret, which serves both as a watchtower and to call the faithful to prayer, is made of three tiers with a total height of 31.5 metres, thereby dominating the mosque. It is built on a square base that is 10.5 metres long on each side. The minaret, which was begun by the Umayyad governor Bishr Ibn Safouan around 725 and completed by the Aghlabid princes in the 9th century, is the fourth oldest in the world.

The prayer hall, which is accessible via 14 doors, is divided into 17 naves and eight bays including more than 400 columns similar to those in the courtyard. The minbar, which dates to the 9th century, making it the oldest in the Islamic world, is made of around 300 pieces of sculpted teak. To the right of it is the 'maksoura, a beautiful separating barrier which allows dignitaries to be separated from other visitors.

A legend says that it is not possible to count the columns of the Mosque of Uqba without going blind.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_Sidi-Uqba

The Great Mosque of Djenne

Preserving culture versus modernity: The Great Mosque of Djenne

Last Sunday's NYT had a fascinating article about the spectacular mud mosque of Djenne, Mali. The mosque is the largest mud brick building in the world, and the UN has declared the city as on official World Heritage Site. This means tourism and money for the preservation of the mosque (though current restoration of $900,000 is being funded by the Agha Khan Foundation). This is all well and good. The problem is that all the houses surrounding the Great Mosque are also made up of mud bricks, and they are also part of the heritage. The inhabitants living there, therefore, cannot make changes - even to the inside of their houses - without the permission of UN. This is a tricky issue: On the one hand, Djenne gets tourists in large part because of its status as the World Heritage Site. On the other hand, the very tourism drives the local economy and leads to changes in the local population that moves them away from being "authentic" - whatever that means. But there are also issues of who really benefits from this tourism:

The town was also a gateway that helped spread Islam regionally. When the king converted in the 13th century, he leveled his palace and built a mosque. Mali’s French colonizers eventually oversaw its reconstruction in 1907.

The Grand Mosque was again near collapse when the Agha Khan Foundation arrived to begin a $900,000 restoration project, said Josephine Dilario, one of two supervising architects. The annual replastering had more than doubled the width of the walls and added a yard of mud to the roof. It was too heavy, even with the forest of thick pillars inside the mosque supporting the high ceiling — one for each of the 99 names of God.

In 2006, the initial restoration survey ignited a riot. Protesters sacked the mosque’s interior, attacked city buildings and destroyed cars. The uprising was apparently rooted in the simmering tension among the 12,000 townsfolk, particularly the young, who felt forced to live in squalor while the mosque imam and a few prominent families raked in the benefits from tourism.

The frustration seems to have lingered. While the mosque graces the national seal, residents here appear markedly more sullen about tourism than in many other Malian cities. They often glower rather than smile, and they tend to either ask for money or stomp off when cameras are pointed in their direction.

With the mosque restoration nearing completion, the town is focusing attention on other critical problems — raw sewage and the restoration of the nearly 2,000 houses.

“There is a kind of tension, a difficulty that has to be resolved by not locking people into the traditional and authentic architecture,” said Samuel Sidibé, the director of Mali’s National Museum in Bamako, the capital.

These are difficult issues and we need to find a balance somewhere. Read the full article here. Here is a short film associated with the article and it provides some nice visuals of the mosque and the surrounding town:

Niujie Mosque

Niujie Mosque

Niujie Mosque main gate


Niujie Mosque main hall

The Niujie Mosque is the largest, oldest mosque in Beijing’s Xuanwu District, China, covering an area of about 6,500 square yards (6,000 sq. meters). First built in 996 during the Liao Dynasty, it was reconstructed in 1442 in the Ming Dynasty and expanded in 1696 under the Qing Dynasty, and now one of the major mosques in north China.

Constructed from timber, its architecture bears traditional Chinese influence on the exterior. The mosque is home to a number of important cultural relics and tablets such as the upright tablet of an emperor’s decree proclaimed in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty.

Great Sheikh Zayed Mosque

Great Sheikh Zayed Mosque

The Sheikh Zayed is the 3rd largest mosque in the world, located in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, situated in a large area between 2 bridges — Mussafah Bridge and Maqta bridge.

Named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and the first President of the United Arab Emirates who is also buried there, the mosque was officially opened in 2007.

It’s large enough to accommodate 40,000 people — the main prayer hall accommodates up to 9,000, and 2 rooms next to the main prayer hall, with a 1,500-capacity each, are for the exclusive use of women.

There are 4 minarets on the 4 corners of the mosque which rise about 375 feet (115 meters) in height. There are 57 domes covering the outside yard and the main building decorated with white marble, and the interior decor is constructed of marble.

The courtyard is paved with floral marble designs and measures about 18,600 square yards (17,000 sq. meters).

The Sheikh Zayed Mosque has made some world records:

• The carpet laid out on the vast expanse is the “World’s Largest Carpet” measuring 6,158 square yards (5,627 sq. meters). It took about 1,200 weavers, 20 technicians, and 30 workers to create the 47 ton carpet made of 35 tons of wool, and 12 tons of cotton. There are 2,268,000 knots within the carpet.

• The world’s largest chandelier at about 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter, and 49 feet (15 meters) in height. There are 7 imported chandeliers from Germany which are copper and gold-plated.

Both of these records were previously held by the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman.

But the mosque’s reputation may be short-lived, as Algeria is set to build the 3rd-largest mosque in the world facing the Bay of Algiers to hold 120,000. Planners boast that the Bay of Algiers mosque will also contain the tallest minaret in the world at 985 feet (300 meters) high.

Part of Sheikh Zayed Mosque from the Circular Fisheye