KAIRAWAN (KEROUAN)  , the " sacred " city of Tunisia, 36 m . S. by W. by rail from Susa, and about 8o m. due S. from the capital . Kairawan is built in an open plain a little west of a stream which flows south to the Sidi-el-Hani lake . Of the luxuriant gardens and olive groves mentioned in the early Arabic accounts of the place hardly a remnant is left . Kairawan, in shape an irregular oblong, is surrounded by a crenellated brick wall with towers and bastions and five gates . The city, however, spreads beyond the walls, chiefly to the south and west . Some of the finest treasures of Saracenic art in Tunisia are in Kairawan; but the city suffered greatly from the vulgarization which followed the Turkish conquest, and also from the blundering attempts of the French to restore buildings falling into ruin . The streets have been paved and planted with trees, but the town retains much of its Oriental aspect . The houses are built round a central courtyard, and present nothing but bare walls to the street . The chief buildings are the mosques, which are open to Christians, Kairawan being the only town in Tunisia where this privilege is granted . In the northern quarter stands the great mosque founded by Sidi Okba ibn Nafi, and containing his shrine and the tombs of many rulers of Tunisia . To the outside it presents a heavy buttressed wall, with little of either grandeur or grace .

It consists of three parts: a cloistered

court, from which rises the massive and stately minaret, the maksura or mosque proper, and the vestibule . The maksura is a rectangular domed chamber divided by 296 marble and porphyry columns into 17 aisles, each aisle having 8 arches . The central aisle is wider than the others, the columns being arranged by threes . All the columns are Roman or Byzantine, and are the spoil of many ancient cities . Access to the central aisle is gained through a door of sculptured wood known as the Beautiful Gate . It has an inscription with the record of its construction . The walls are of painted plaster-work; the mimbar or pulpit is of carved wood, each panel bearing a different design . The court is surrounded by a double arcade with coupled columns . In all the mosque contains 439 columns, including two of alabaster given by one of the Byzantine emperors . To the Mahommedan mind the crowning distinction of the building is that through divine inspiration the founder was enabled to set it absolutely true to Mecca . The mosque of Sidi Okba is the prototype of many other notable mosques (see MOSQUE) . Of greater external beauty than that of Sidi Okba is the mosque of the Three Gates .

Cufic

inscriptions on the facade record its erection in the 9th and its restoration in the 15th century A.D . Internally the mosque is a single chamber supported by sixteen Roman columns . One of the finest specimens of Moorish architecture in Kairawan is the zawia of Sidi Abid-el-Ghariani (d. c . A.D . 1400), one of the Almoravides, in whose family is the hereditary governorship of the city . The entrance, a door in a false arcade of black and white marble, leads into a court whose arches support an upper colonnade . The town contains many other notable buildings, but none of such importance as the mosque of the Companion (i.e. of the Prophet), outside the walls to the N.W . This mosque is specially sacred as possessing what are said to be three hairs of the Prophet's beard, buried with the saint, who was one of the companions of Mahomet . (This legend gave rise to the report that the tomb contained the remains of Mahomet's barber.) The mosque consists of several courts and chambers, and contains some beautiful stained glass . The court which forms the entrance to the shrine of the saint is richly adorned with tiles and plaster-work, and is surrounded by an arcade of white marble columns, supporting a painted wooden roof . The minaret is faced with tiles and is surmounted by a gilded crescent . The 19th-century mosque of Sidi Amar Abada, also outside the wall, is in the form of a cross and is crowned with seven cupolas .

In the suburbs are huge cisterns, attributed to the 9th century, which still

supply the city with water . The cemetery covers a large area and has thousands of Cufic and Arabic inscriptions . Formerly famous for its carpets and its oil of roses, Kairawan is now known in northern Africa rather for copper vessels, articles in morocco leather, potash and saltpetre . The town has a population of about 20,000, including a few hundred Europeans . Arab historians relate the foundation of Kairawan by Okba with miraculous circumstances (Tabari ii . 63; Yaqut iv . 213) . The date is variously given (see Weil, Gesch. d . Chalifen, i . 283 seq.) ; according to Tabari it must have been before 67o . The legend says that Okba determined to found a city which should be a rallying-point for the followers of Mahomet in Africa . He led his companions into the desert, and having exhorted the serpents and wild beasts, in the name of the Prophet, to retire, he struck his spear into the ground exclaiming " Here is your Kairawan " (resting-place), so naming the city.' In the 8th century Kairawan was the capital of the province of Ifrikia governed by amirs appointed by the caliphs .

Later it became the capital of the Aghlabite princes, thereafter following the fortunes of the successive rulers of the

country (see TUNISIA: History) . After Mecca and Medina Kairawan is the most sacred city in the eyes of the Mahommedans of Africa, and constant pilgrimages are made to its shrines . Until the time of the French occupation no Christian was allowed to pass through the gates without a special permit from the bey, whilst Jews were altogether forbidden to approach the holy city . Contrary to expectation no opposition was offered by the citizens to the occupation of the place by the French troops in 1881 . On that occasion the native troops hastened to the mosques to perform their devotions; they were followed by European soldiers, and the mosques having thus been " violated " have remained open ever since to non-Mahommedans . See Murray's Handbook to Algeria and Tunis, by Sir R . L . Playfair (1895) ; A . M . Broadley, The Last Punic War: Tunis Past and Present (1882) and H . Saladin, Tunis et Kairouan (1908) .