[split_line_heading animation_type=”line-reveal-by-space” font_style=”h1″ line_reveal_by_space_text_effect=”letter-reveal-bottom” mobile_disable_animation=”true” content_alignment=”center” mobile_content_alignment=”inherit” link_target=”_self” text_content=”Kairouan” font_size=”3vw” font_line_height=”1.8″ font_size_tablet=”13vw”][/split_line_heading][split_line_heading animation_type=”line-reveal-by-space” font_style=”h1″ line_reveal_by_space_text_effect=”letter-reveal-bottom” mobile_disable_animation=”true” content_alignment=”center” mobile_content_alignment=”inherit” link_target=”_self” text_content=”Tunisia” font_size=”3vw” font_line_height=”1.3″ animation_delay=”200″ font_size_tablet=”13vw”][/split_line_heading]
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The city of Kairouan was founded under the reign of the first Umayyad caliph of Damascus, Muawiya Ibn Abi Sufyan, when the governor of Ifriqiya, Uqba Ibn Nafi’ Al-Fihri, established in the year 56 AH (675 AD) a caravanserai for the army of Islam, which became Kairouan.
Located inland at the confluence of two wadis, far from the Byzantine threat, the new city was built around a mosque project made of rammed earth. In less than a century, it became the main crossroads of the new Sunni Muslim Maghreb, which included the new Andalusian territory and soon neighboring Sicily. The Aghlabid emirate of the 9th century definitively laid out the city’s plan and created the great monuments that still contribute to its reputation today. The great intellectual, scientific, and literary figures, along with the splendid artisanal crafts, illustrate this golden age of Kairouan culture.
Conquered by the Shiite Fatimids at the beginning of the 10th century, it temporarily lost its prominence to Mahdia. Kairouan regained its status and prestige under the Zirid Sanhaja kings who broke with Shiism and definitively restored the Sunni Maliki doctrine, the foundation of the religious unity of this Arab-Berber entity. The massive migration of Arab Hilalian tribes in the 11th and 12th centuries marked the city’s marginalization in favor of the new Hafsid capital: Tunis. The spiritual dimension of Kairouan imposed itself again on the Ottoman princes, who restored and embellished its monuments and imposing walls. Upon Tunisia’s independence in 1956, this dimension was especially honored through the festivities of the Prophet’s birthday: the Mawlid.
For the past two decades, Kairouan has experienced an exemplary revival following the 1987 Change, thanks to ambitious socio-economic development plans, programs to preserve the Medina—classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site—and the creation of a university hub that reconnects with the city’s major role in the history of Islamic thought in the Maghreb. This revival was crowned by the choice of Kairouan as the Capital of Islamic Culture in 2009.
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