The city of Kairouan

2. The city of Kairouan
2.1 History
Founded in the year 50H/670 AD to serve
as a military base for the conquest of
North Africa, Kairouan benefited from the
prolonged Berber resistance to become
the political and economic capital of
Tunisia. The city experienced a period of
economic and commercial prosperity
and a period of urban growth from
the middle of the 7th century until the
middle of the 11th century. The Aghlabids
(800-909 A.D.) provided it with its most
beautiful monuments, the Great Mosque
(226 H/839 A.D.), the Mosque of Three
Gates (252 H/866 A.D.) and the Aghlabid
reservoirs, founded in 248 H/862 A.D.
In 909, the Fatimids established themselves
at Raqqada, which became the seat of
the Caliphate, and their power extended
through North Africa to Egypt, where they
founded Cairo. The Fatimid Caliphs left
Tunisia and delegated their power to their
lieutenants, the Zirids, who made Kairouan
into a great cultural and artistic centre. The
height of their actions coincided with the
Hilalian invasions (449 H/1057 A.D.) which
led to the desertion of North Africa by the
majority of its population and the decline
in the influence of the city.
century onwards, the city was once again
protected by ramparts three kilometres
long but covering only a tenth of its
area in its times of greatest prosperity.
Mustansir and the princes who succeeded
him were particularly occupied with the
Great Mosque. They consolidated its walls
and renovated its ceilings. Mausoleums,
saints’ shrines and domes were built by
the sufis – aesthetes and religious men
who multiplied in the city, giving it the
attraction of great spirituality.
With the coming of the Hafsids, the city
saw a certain renaissance. From the 13th
The number of inhabitants grew and
the Bedouins established themselves
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2. The city of Kairouan
El Bey district (houmet)
there. Mosques, such as the Ibn Khayrun
Mosque and the El Muallak Mosque, were
revived. Souks, such as the souk of the
cisterns, were reorganised and the people
of Kairouan adapted themselves to
surroundings made up of fields of cereals
and great expanses of pasture. The city
became a tanning, leather and weaving
centre. It became a commercial market
supplying its hinterland.
The Chabbiyyas, heads of a principality
that took Kairouan as its capital in the
16th century, established the seat of their
government (Dar Imara) there, along with
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the Kasbah and their residences, around
the Place Jraba, where the souk had already
been restored and altered in the Hafsid
period. Later, when Mohamed Bey (16761697 A.D.) reigned for 10 years at Kairouan,
the dignitaries of his regime established
themselves in this area, promoting its
decoration and development. It is from
this period that the buildings of this district
have maintained the beauty of their
architecture, with sculpted façades and
ceilings painted in the North African style.
This is why the 17th and 18th centuries are
a period of stability and relative prosperity
accompanied by a development of the
urban fabric, basically in the eastern part of
the city, around the Great Mosque. Already,
following the Spanish Reconquista,
an important Andalusian community
established itself in the district bearing
the name “Khadraouine”, referring to the
Spanish island El Khadra, where the basis
of the contingents came from. This district
is to the west of the Great Mosque and
stretches as far as the Place Jraba.
Kairouan benefited from the solicitude
of the Mouradites and the Husseinites,
who remedied the neglect the city had
2. The city of Kairouan
been subject to in the period of the
Ottoman governors. Hussein Ben Ali
lavished particular attention on Kairouan,
rebuilding its ramparts and building
the Husseinite Médersa. His successors
followed his example, marking their
recognition for the position taken by the
city at the time of Ali Bacha’s rebellion.
In the 19th century, the traveller Guérin
estimated the population of Kairouan
at 12,000 inhabitants. So, among other
cities of the regency, Kairouan maintained
a predominant place it would only lose
under the French protectorate.
2.2 Kairouan today
Nowadays, Kairouan is the seat of a
governor. The population of the city
exceeds 125,000 inhabitants and the city
is made up of the medina, surrounded
by its ramparts, and modern districts
bringing together administrative services,
hotels and a shopping centre. The city
has also maintained a certain reputation
as a holy city; it is still considered as the
spiritual capital of the country. Religious
festivals there exude a particular charm
and are celebrated enthusiastically. The
nights during the month of Ramadan
are memorable. Every year, the city
celebrates the official ceremony of
Mouled (anniversary of the Prophet’s
birth), which is held at the Great Mosque
and the tomb of Sidi-Saheb, companion
of the Prophet. For this occasion, the city
attracts a considerable crowd of Tunisian
and foreign visitors.
Kairouan also means tradition. This tradition
has helped to maintain a flourishing craft
sector. The city’s many souks specialise in
different branches of activities: the wool
souk, one selling woven cloth, leather,
carvings, carpets (where carpets are still
sold at auction)... These souks occupy
the centre of the medina, but other craft
activities referred to as “dirty” are placed
outside the walls, such as that at Nhaiçia,
boilermakers, tinners and dyers. But the
most developed activity involves carpets,
employing a basically female workforce.
Kairouan carpets are famous throughout
the world. The city carries on other craft
activities which are also renowned. This is
the case with traditional dress like the jebba,
the pure wool burnous, the hayek (female
veil), wash cloths, horse saddles, etc...
Finally, Kairouan is also an ancestral culinary
centre; the Makroudh, the different types
of bread, fritters with honey and couscous
with lamb are some examples revealing
the richness of this Kairouan cuisine.
architecture because of its monuments
(just over a hundred), its souks, its houses
and the streets, which are still an eloquent
witness to its prestigious past.
Kairouan is nicknamed the city “of three
hundred mosques”. Despite the many
changes of use of the disappearance of a
good number of these places of workshop
(there are currently no more than 66, of
which 4 are mosques and 62 mesjeds),
Kairouan Medina is full of little old local
oratories, most of them bearing the name
of their original founder: mesjed Attallah,
mesjed Trad, mesjed Abi ­Maysara, mesjed
al-Houbouli, etc ...
To these places of worship are added
about fifty zaouias: tombs where illustrious
figures from the city are buried. Twentyfour monuments have been classified into
successive waves since the beginning of
this century. The monuments form the
most important remains of the Kairouan
school, which inspired and served as
a model for buildings constructed
throughout the western Islamic zone for
several centuries. They form an integral
part of the Medina and their preservation
necessarily involves the conservation of
their architectural and urban surroundings
with which they are closely linked.
Kairouan Medina forms a real living
museum of Arab-Muslim art and
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2. The city of Kairouan
The Great Mosque
This wealth of architecture explains why
Kairouan Medina was, on 9 December
1988, classified by UNESCO on the world
heritage list, meeting five of the six
evaluation criteria.
2.3 Architectural characteristics of the
Medina
Kairouan Medina is a trapezoid-shaped
urban site measuring 52ha, with an
average length of 1000m and an average
width of 500m, dimensions of the main
axes of the city, established along NorthSouth and East-West orientations.
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The ramparts
The Medina has a structuring axis running
in the North-South direction, the Rue du
7 Novembre, markedly off-centre towards
the West, linking the two main gates of
the city and giving access to the souks at
the heart of the urban fabric. The network
of streets in the Medina shows a clear
predominance of East-West (longitudinal)
streets. The main streets show branches,
with some finishing as dead-ends. The
road structure increasingly branches
in the approach to the Great Mosque.
Observation of the full-empty ratio in
Kairouan Medina shows an absolute
dominance of the full, which characterises
traditional Arab-Muslim fabrics. It is a
fabric with particularly marked density.
The voids consist of the courtyards of the
houses, the streets and dead ends and of
squares of all sizes.
The courtyards are of a relatively large size
and represent the most perceptible part
of the void, while public spaces appear
particularly scarce. Squares, or at least
spaces that have not been built on, are
concentrated on the fringes of the urban
fabric, in the north and east of the city
and around the Great Mosque. Inside the
fabric itself, one, single square stands out
in the heart of the Medina, the Place Jraba,
which forms an integral part of the souks.
2. The city of Kairouan
In the peripheral areas of the urban fabric,
the squares appear as residual spaces (no
function of their own, no structured form),
except for the Place Ghassela, whose
ancient role as the place for washing the
sheep’s feet means that, even today, it is
still a very well known public square.
“Houmet El Bey”, “Houmet Essdedma...”.
These houses are sometimes “dar”, houses
with courtyards, with or without an upper
floor and joined together, or sometimes
“ali”, independent apartments located
above other accommodation or shops, or
“makhzen” (warehouses).
As for the “full”, this is made up of groundfloor or G+1 constructions in almost equal
proportions. This “full” is formed by various
housing blocks with courtyards joined to
one another, structured around a central
mass consisting of the souks.
Housing represents almost 80% of the
urban fabric of the Medina. For the Medina
as a whole, 1340 homes have been
counted, of which almost 300 include a
first floor (ali). The average surface area
of the houses would be of the order of
285m2, with huge courtyards, whose
most common size would vary between
75 and 125m2.
The Medina is made up of several “houma”
(districts), such as “Houmet Eljemâa”,
Dar Bouras
Dar Mrabet
Alley with a round arch
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2. The city of Kairouan
Rue du 7 novembre
The main artery and major business
centre, the “souk” (now called the Rue due
7 Novembre) links the two main gates of
the city: the Jalledines gate and the Tunis
gate. Despite its width and length (around
425 metres), its irregularity offers beautiful
visual sequences and dynamic, constantly
changing views.
The streets of the Medina are between 3
and 5m wide and the buildings alongside
them reach either ground-floor or firstfloor level, in almost equal proportions.
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Rue des Trois portes
The streets are dotted with architectural
landmarks like the minaret of a mesjed,
the way a corner is resolved, a Sabat,
often marking the transition between
the different types of streets and squares.
The dead ends represent the transition
between the public space (the street)
and the private space (the home) and are
considered as the immediate extension
of the Driba or Skifa (entrance hall). A
dead end street can have two or even
three bends and they are often less than
a metre wide. The largest house is found
at the end of a dead-end street, with more
modest homes in front of it. However, the
systematic establishment of large houses
along the main streets is a characteristic of
the Kairouan Medina.
In the heart of the Medina and at the
centre of all the activities, the souks form
the largest mass of urban fabric. Running
at right-angles to the main artery of Rue
7 Novembre where the essential shops
and boutiques are crowded, the covered
souks (carpet souk, perfume souk, blaghgia
2. The city of Kairouan
Sidi Sahid Mausoleum
souk...) extend as far as the Place Jraba,
which accommodates the weavers’ shops.
In the style of all the traditional Arab-Muslim
urban fabric, the spatial hierarchisation
that characterises the organisation of
the different urban components of the
Medina offers residents and visitors great
sequential richness and views which
are particularly lively because of the
architectural vocabulary and elements
used and because of the succession
of areas of light and shade. From a
morphological point of view, Kairouan
Medina is characterised by various original
aspects:
• the spatial separation between the
souks and the Great Mosque.
• the functional and spatial importance
of its commercial axis.
• the partial hierarchisation of its streets
and the compactness of its fabric.
2.4 Types of houses
The typology of the traditional Kairouan
house is adapted to the climate, the
family structure, the way of life and the
social traditions of the local population.
This typology is supported by the
fundamental principle of the intimacy
of the home compared to the space
outside. This principal is at the route of
the introverted form of the traditional
home, shown in the organisation of the
house around a central courtyard or patio
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2. The city of Kairouan
and a narrow entrance with one or more
transition areas between the street and
the courtyard (skifa and driba).
the Allanis..., and the modest house
corresponds to the normal homes of
ordinary people of Kairouan.
Kairouan houses are generally made up of
the following elements:
Narrow entrance
The typology of the Kairouan house
can be subdivided into three types of
home corresponding to the hierarchy
of social classes, running from the large
mansion to the modest house:
The large mansions belong to
aristocratic families, such as the
Bourases, the Mrabets...; the middle
class house belongs to the great
traders, men of literature and science
and legal men, such as the Rammehs,
Dar Bouras
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The organisation goes against all
principles of social segregation. The great
mansions stand next to modest houses.
Quite unusually, the large mansions are
located on the edges of the blocks and
their façades give directly on to their main
streets and squares. The architectural
wealth of their façades (number, carving
and handling of openings, use of
moucharabieh...) contrast with the sobriety
of the almost blind façades of the ordinary
homes standing beside them.
Courtyard
The narrow entrance consists of one or
more separation screens between the
indoor and outdoor worlds. In the large
mansions, the driba is the first distribution
room found when opening the entrance
door (beb eddar) allowing access to a
second space, the skifa, to the first floor el ali, to the makhzen and to the servants’
quarters.
2. The city of Kairouan
Courtyard
All the spaces in the house are organised
around a central courtyard where a large
part of the family’s activities are carried
out. The courtyard, usually paved with
blocks of sawen, allows air and light into
the spaces inside the house. The classical
façade of a courtyard on the living room
side, is made up of a framed central
door flanked by two windows, making a
symmetrical composition. In the space of
the courtyard one almost always finds the
cistern, el mejel, to collect rainwater, the
well - el bir, accessible from the kitchen
and the first floor and el âssar, a wooden
rod fixed to one of the courtyard façades,
used for hanging washing.
There are three or four living rooms
organised around the courtyard, on to
which they directly lead. These rooms
may be simply rectangular or with a more
elaborate T shape. The latter types are
called mejless.
The mejless or bit ras ed-dar
Generally facing east or south-east, the
mejless is the main room of the house.
It is subdivided into several sub-spaces:
three alcoves and two mini-rooms, the
maksouras. The middle alcove, called the
kbou or rutba is used by the family for
sitting. Two arches open into the side
alcoves, bit hajjem, with beds or serir
surmounted by a sedda or mestrak used
for storage. The ceiling of the mejless in
the large mansions is in wood decorated
with floral motifs, while the internal walls
are covered by ceramic tiles.
for food commodities are placed in the
dehliz, benefiting from its almost constant
ambient temperature so that they can be
kept all year. From the courtyard, access
can also be gained, via a marble slab, to
an underground matmoura, where the
bharat (spices) and grain are stored, before
bringing them up to the hri.
The ardhi or bit ed diwan
The hri
This is a rectangular room, sometimes
with a central alcove less important than
the one in the bit ras ed-dar. Its shape is
particularly longitudinal (its length is
much greater than its width). It serves as
a bedroom but also as a sitting room, bit
kaâd, for the mistress of the house. She
usually spends her time there.
Naouela or dwiria
These are two synonyms designating the
kitchen and its annexes, including a corner
for preparation or oujak, cupboards for
food, toilets and a washroom (mathara).
Light and air for the dwiria is achieved via
a lantern or madhoua, located at the key
to the cross vault generally covering the
food preparation area.
The dehliz and the matmoura
Generally paved with chaouat slabs and
lit by offset openings. Huge storage jars
This consists of several rooms succeeding
one another located on the first floor and
set aside for the storage and drying of
wool and bharat, as well as grain. El hri is
specific to the large mansions and middleclass houses. The height to the ceiling of
this space never exceeds 2.1o metres and
the ceiling is in oud el ârâr. Light and air is
brought in to the hri via small openings in
the form of embrasures. The commodities
are brought up to the hri using a pulley
system (jarrar) fixed to a large opening
overlooking the courtyard. .
Ali
This is the name given to the apartments
on the first floor, reserved for the master of
the house and for guests. El ali is made up
of one or more rooms and even a mejless
aloui reserved exclusively for the master
when he retires. In the large mansions, this
mejless is provided with two windows and
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2. The city of Kairouan
The hri
a moucharabieh gannaria overlooking the
neighbouring terraces and offering the
master a panoramic view of the city. Also
on the first floor can be found the guests’
apartment – bit ou dar eddhiafa – and the
servants’ quarters next to the hri.
2.5 Construction methods
Traditional techniques and construction
materials appear as follows:
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The mejless
The foundations are made of nisf, a mixture
of large fragments of brick with sand and
lime compressed using a wooden ram.
Siflani, a kind of waste ash from the brick
kilns surrounding the city is placed at the
level of the foundations to ensure dampproofing.
For the first courses of the wall, largesized cut stones (recovered from ancient
buildings) are used. The construction is
continued in baked bricks (or in nisf) made
in the kilns surrounding the city. The mortar
joining the bricks and stones consists of
clay mixed with lime. The buildings are
whitewashed with distilled lime, ensuring
long-term protection against damp.
The first types of roofs are with cross
vaults or barrel vaults and domes built
on drums. Wood was rarely used for roofs.
For the construction of the Great Mosque,
timber imported from Sicily was used.
Later, cedar wood was used for covering
2. The city of Kairouan
the most important parts of the house,
essentially for the Mejles. From the end of
the 17th century onwards and during the
18th century, many wooden ceilings were
modelled and painted in the North African
style. For more modest homes, juniper
wood is generally used for the roofs.
The traditional construction method
involves continuous maintenance to
repair the coverings with mortar and
limewash. Many mansions do not have
stone foundations. The use of clay as
mortar makes the structures fragile and
liable to rising damp.
2.6 Kairouan architectural vocabulary
The architectural repertoire of Kairouan is
distinguished by the following elements:
• Horseshoe and broken arches
• Dome on octagonal drum and with a
ribbed or rounded cap
• Ceilings in wood with joists
• Machrabiyas
• Cross and barrel vaults
• Houses with central courtyards
• Walls covered in plaster or ceramics
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