12/10/2018
The Great Mosque of Kairouan ( Arabic : الجامع الكبير بالقيروان ), also called Oqba Ibn Nafi Mosque ( Arabic : جامع عقبة بن نافع ) in memory of its founder Oqba Ibn Nafi , is one of the main mosques of Tunisia located in Kairouan . Historically first metropolis Muslim from the Maghreb , Kairouan, culminating in the political and intellectual is in the ix th century [ 2 ], is reputed to be the spiritual and religious center of Tunisia [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] ; it is also sometimes considered the fourth holy city of Sunni Islam [ 5 ] , [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] , [ 9 ] , [ 4 ] , [ N 1 ]. A legend reports that on the site of the future Kairouan, a soldier of Oqba stumbled on a gold cup buried in the sand. This cup would have been recognized as having disappeared from Mecca a few years earlier, and when it was unearthed, a spring would have sprung up, giving water that would have come from the same source as the sacred source of Zamzam in Mecca [ 10 ] . This story helped to make Kairouan a place of pilgrimage , then a holy city .
Representing the building emblematic of the city, the Great Mosque remains the sanctuary 's oldest and most prestigious of the Muslim West [ 11 ] , [ 12 ] . Appearing from the decree Bey of 13 March 1912 , on the list of historical and archaeological monuments and protected in Tunisia [ 13 ] , [ 14 ] She was also ranked, with all the history of Kairouan, the World Heritage of the Unesco in 1988 [ 1] .
Built initially by Uqba ibn Nafi from 670 (corresponding to the year 50 AH ) [ 15 ] , while the city of Kairouan was founded, it was enlarged and rebuilt in the viii th and ix th centuries [ 16 ] , [ 17 ] . It is considered, in the Maghreb, as the ancestor of all the mosques of the region [ 18 ] , as well as one of the most important Islamic monuments and a universal masterpiece of architecture [ 19 ] .
From an aesthetic point of view, the Great Mosque of Kairouan appears as the most beautiful building of the Moslem civilization in the Maghreb. Its antiquity and the quality of its architecture make it a jewel of Islamic art . Many books and manuals of Muslim art refer to the mosque [ 20 ] .
Beyond its artistic and architectural importance, it has played, according to the Tunisian academic and Islamist Mohamed Talbi , "a capital role in the Islamization of the entire Muslim West, including Spain , and the spread of Malikism. " [ 21 ] .
Under the reign of the dynasty of Aghlabids ( ix th century), major reconstruction and beautification works give the mosque its present form [ 22 ] . Remarkable for its unit assembly as well as its vast dimensions, the fame and prestige of this place of prayer comes in addition to its contribution in the acquisition and transmission of knowledge, particularly between the ix th and xi th centuries. The university, made up of scientists and juristswho provide their teachings in the mosque, is a training center both for the instruction of Muslim thought and the secular sciences [ 23 ] , [ 24 ] . With the decline of Kairouan, started from the second half of the xi th century, the center of intellectual training moves thereafter to the
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