The Muslim armies which had pushed westward across North Africa founded the city of Kairouan within forty years of the death of the Prophet Mohamed. Today the fourth holiest city of Islam, - after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem - Kairouan offers visitors the opportunity to explore a living Islamic city.
The dignified Great Mosque, which dates from the Seventh Century, has a large prayer hall which incorporates Roman columns and a vast courtyard under which lies a cistern. Within Kairouan's walls lie mosques of various architectural periods, medieval Islamic schools, tombs of spiritual leaders, baths, and vaulted souks offering a range of traditional goods.
The Great Mosque at Kairouan
The Fatimids settle Mahdia
In 909 the Aglabids of Kairouan were defeated by a fledgling group of Shiites under the leadership of a charismatic Mahdi. He founded the Fatimid dynasty and settled its first capital on a long narrow peninsula in the Mediterranean , which he protected from hostile Sunni neighbors with a formidable gate. By the end of the century the Fatimids headed eastward to build their fabulous new capital at Cairo and to make permanent contributions to the Islamic world.
Today, Mahdia boasts a beautifully restored Tenth Century mosque, a Fatimid port, and peaceful lanes where voices mix with the click clack of the flying shuttles of the town's silk weavers.
Light in the Dark Ages
Meanwhile early Islam flourished in the sophisticated Islamic cities of Sousse, Sfax, and especially Tunis. The heart of Tunis, surrounded by bustling vaulted souks, is the Eighth Century Zitouna mosque-university complex. The city radiated as a center of light and learning at a time when Europe was descending into dark ages. Tunis reached its peak as an intellectual capital under the Hafsids, dynasty who founded libraries and institutions of learning within the city walls and reached across the Mediterranean to establish commercial links with the city states of Italy between 1229 and 1574.
Ibn Khaldoun writes universal history
In 1332, in a house within the Tunis medina, was born the great Ibn Khaldoun. Today he is acclaimed in the Orient and Occident alike as the father of modern sociology. Ibn Khaldoun taught the Muslim and Greek masters at Zitouna Mosque University and labored to understand the new world as it unfolded around him. Although his first intention was to write a history of North Africa, he soon realized that nothing could be understood apart from the broader historical context in which events took place. Consequently, as Ibn Khladoun wrote his world history, he explored the sweep of past and present in a stunningly modern manner.
Fair, and 81 ° F. 
The Muslim armies which had pushed westward across North Africa founded the city of Kairouan within forty years of the death of the Prophet Mohamed. Today the fourth holiest city of Islam, - after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem - Kairouan offers visitors the opportunity to explore a living Islamic city.
