To the right, especially in the afternoon, we have a delightful *View of the white houses of Kairwan, with its countless domes and towering minarets. Nearing the station we see extensive fields of cactus and large alfa-stacks.
36 M. Kairwan.—Hotels (comp. p. [324]). Splendid Hotel (Pl. a; C, 5), R. 3, B. 1, déj. or D. 3, omn. ½ fr.; Hôt. de France (Pl. b; C, 5), R. 2½–4, B. ¾, déj. or D. 3, pens. 7½ fr.; both in the Place Carnot, tolerable.—Café de France, Rue Massicault.—Post & Telegraph Office (Pl. C, D, 4), Rue de la Poste.—Physician. Dr. Santschi (a Swiss), Grande Rue, near the Bâb Djelladin.
In Half-a-Day, if pressed for time, we may visit the Grande Rue, the Souks, the Sidi Okba Mosque, and the Mosquée du Barbier. Tickets for the mosques are obtained at the office of the Contrôle Civil (p. [373]) or at the hotels. The overseers of the mosques mostly speak Arabic only. The guides, who are quite unnecessary, are very importunate.
Travellers in haste should endeavour to secure a cab (as yet only one), drive to the Contrôle Civil, the Barber’s Mosque, and back to the Porte de Tunis (p. [377]), and there begin their inspection of the town.
Kairwan or Kairouan (243 ft.; pop. 22,000, incl. about 800 Europeans), the oldest capital of Ifrikia, is a town of purely Arabian type, the most curious in Tunisia. The old town is an irregular rectangle, enclosed by a wall 33 ft. high and 2 M. in length; the large W. suburb, also purely Oriental, is the Faubourg des Djlass, called after the nomadic tribe of that name (p. [370]); to the S. is a new suburb near the station. The numerous mosques and zaouïas date mostly from the Turkish period. The town holds market for the extensive plain of Kairwan, and the souks are still important, though manufactures have declined. The climate (p. [321]) is extremely hot in summer.
Kairwan was founded by Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi (p. [322]) in 671, and was appointed by the caliphs to be the seat of the governors of Ifrikia. As the capital of the great Aglabide empire (p. [323]) and the seat of the oldest high school in N. Africa, it was hardly less important than Cordova (p. [68]), and the sumptuous mosque of Sidi Okba rapidly became the favourite goal of pilgrims from E. Barbary. After the Hilalides (p. [323]) had destroyed the greater part of the town in 1048 it was for centuries almost deserted, notwithstanding the favour shown to it by Abd el-Mûmen (p. [95]), the Hafsides, and the Merinides (p. [95]). In the early 16th cent. several quarters still lay in ruins. It was not till the Turkish period that the sacred town, ‘one of the four gates of Paradise’, which neither Christian nor Jew durst enter, again became the religious centre of the land. To spend one’s last days within its walls, and to be buried in hallowed earth outside its gates, seemed to believers the height of bliss. Its sacred character, which however did not prevent the beys of Tunis from bombarding and partly destroying the rebellious town, was finally lost when the mosques were desecrated by the entry of the French troops in 1881.
In the centre of the S. suburb, almost exclusively inhabited by Europeans, is the Place Carnot (Pl. C, 5), with its small Jardin Public. On its W. side the Rue du Contrôle, with the building of the Contrôle Civil (Pl. C, 5; see p. [372]), leads to the N. to the Place Mérabet (Pl. C, 4) and the S. gate of the town-walls, which were largely rebuilt after the bombardment of 1740.
On emerging from the Rue du Contrôle we see immediately to the left the Zaouïa Sidi ben-Aïssa (Pl. C, 5), where the hideous castigations of the Aïssaoua sect, originally Moroccan, are held on Friday afternoons. A little to the N.E., in the Rue de la Poste, is the M’sala Darb et-Tamar (Pl. D, 4; no admittance), a large open place of prayer for great Mohammedan festivals, with an underground cistern for rain-water.
The main street of the old town, between the Bâb Djelladin (Pl. C, 4; ‘Porte des Peaussiers’), or S. gate, now partly demolished, and the N. gate, the Porte de Tunis (p. [377]), is the Grande Rue (Pl. C, B, 4, 3), officially called Rue du Général-Saussier, enlivened by a picturesque crowd and numerous small shops.