QAYRAWAN, AL-

also spelled Qairouan, or Kairouan, town, north-central Tunisia. The town, one of the holy cities of Islam, lies on the Low Steppes, a semiarid alluvial plain southeast of the Central Tell. Founded in 670 on the site of the Byzantine fortress of Kamouinia, it served as the camp from which the offensive was launched that resulted in the Islamic political and religious subjugation of the Maghrib (northwest Africa). Al-Qayrawan was chosen as the capital of the Maghrib by the first Aghlabid ruler in about 800. Subsequently, it served (with Al-Mahidyah) as the political centre through the Fatimid and Zirid dynasties into the 11th century, becoming one of the great administrative, commercial, religious, and intellectual centres of Islam. As a result of Bedouin incursions in the 11th century, the decline of steppe cultivation in favour of nomadic life, and the rise of Tunis as capital, Al-Qayrawan declined into an isolated market town for nomads. Al-Qayrawan now trades in grain and livestock that are raised in the surrounding region, and it is an important carpet and handicrafts centre. A road and railway link it with Susah (Sousse), 38 miles (61 km) to the east. Al-Qayrawan's rampart-enclosed medina (75 acres [30 hectares]) contains the Great Mosque, with a 115-foot- (35-metre-) high minaret. Originally built by Sidi Okba in the 7th century, the present mosque is the fifth mosque built on the site and dates from Aghlabid times. Outside the town is the zawiyah (seat of a religious fraternity) of Sidi Sahab, containing the tomb of one of the companions of Muhammad, and an Aghlabid reservoir, an open circular pool 420 feet in diameter dating from the 9th century. Pop. (1984) 72,254.