In the Rue Sidi el-Guerian, the second side-street on the right, is the zaouïa of Sidi Abid el-Guerian (Pl. C, 4), an elegant building of the Turkish period (16th cent.?). The handsome portal, with the black and white striped decoration so often recurring in the other buildings, leads into a vestibule with tiled walls and stucco decoration, beyond which are a fine colonnaded court in two stories (with the sumptuous tomb of the saint on the left) and a small mosque. Adjacent on the left is the court of the Medersa (p. [228]), where the capitals of the columns are remarkable for their richness and variety.
Farther on in the Grande Rue are several mosques of little architectural interest. The gateway on the right, halfway between the two town-gates, leads to the Souks (Pl. C, 3, 4). The vaulted main street here, the Souk des Selliers and Souk des Cordonniers, is intersected by two vaulted side-streets, the Souk des Parfums and Souk des Tapis. The latter, for the sale of carpets, woollen rugs (margums), etc., has declined since the vegetable dyes have been superseded by the aniline. The farther part of the main street is the Souk des Gandourahs, ending at the quiet Place Finot (Pl. C, 3).
To the S.E. from the Place Finot the short Rue Moulei-Taïeb leads to the—
Djamâa Tleta Biban (Pl. C, D, 3; Mosquée des Trois-Portes), in the Rue Hassin Lalenni. It dates from the time of Obeïd Allah el-Mahdi (p. [369]), being the only early-Moorish building in Kairwan besides the Sidi Okba mosque, but was much altered in 1440 and 1509. The peculiar façade in three sections, with blind arcades (possessing Byzantine capitals) on the lower story, is composed above of older slabs with geometrical ornamentation. The interior is uninteresting.
We follow the Rue de la Mosquée des Trois-Portes to the N.E., then the Rue Zoughar to the right, and at the end of it a street to the left to the town-wall. To the left, in 2 min. more, we reach the Place de Sousse, with the Bâb el-Khoukha (Pl. D, 2, 3), the E. town-gate, an interesting double gateway, with two fine Byzantine capitals on the inner archway. From the N. end of the Place de Sousse the broad Rue de la Grande-Mosquée leads to the—
*Sidi Okba Mosque (Grande Mosquée; Pl. D, 1, 2), one of the oldest in the world, and, next to the Kairwin mosque at Fez, the most important in Barbary. After the mosques of Mecca and Medina and the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem (p. [477]), this has ever been deemed the greatest sanctuary of Islam. The poverty of the oldest building, founded by Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi in 671, is evidenced by the mud-built walls of the old mihrâb (p. [377]). A new building was first erected in 703 by Hassan ibn en-Nôman (p. [322]), the conqueror of Carthage. The plan seems to have been suggested by that of the oldest Egyptian mosques (such as the mosque of Amru, p. [460]), combined with that of the Damous el-Karita (p. [349]), while the ruins of Carthage, Susa, and Sbeïtla (p. [371]) supplied the building-materials. Of a second new building by the governor Bichr ibn Safuan, in 724, the fortress-like lower story of the minaret still exists. A further extension was made in 821 by the Aglabide Sijadet Allah I. The central story of the minaret, the arcades of the quadrangle, the Bâb el-Behou (p. [376]), and the last enlargement of the sanctuary itself are due to the Aglabide Ibrahim ibn-Ahmed (d. 875), who erected also the fine dome of the mihrâb, caused the mihrâb-wall to be decorated by Bagdad artists, and presented the superb Friday pulpit. The present maksûra (seat of the caliph) dates from the time of the Zirite Abû Teminn el-Muizz (p. [443]). The decay of the mosque after the irruption of the Hilalides seems to have been first arrested by Abd el-Mûmen and the Hafside El-Mostanser Billah (p. [332]). The latter, in 1284, caused most of the outer gateways to be rebuilt. At a later period we hear of restorations by Mohammed Murad Bey (p. [335]) and Hussein Ali ben-Turki (p. [323]). In 1828–42 the insecure state of the mosque necessitated the rebuilding of the external walls on the N.W. and N.E. sides and the restoration of the minaret, the Bâb el-Behou, and the arcades of the court. In 1872 the nave and its two adjoining aisles also were restored, but with little taste, and since 1895 the French government has bestowed its attention on the transept and the side-portals.
The immense edifice, an irregular quadrilateral of 136 by about 78–82 yds., covers an area of over 2¼ acres. The fortress-like Outer Wall, with its huge buttresses, has four doors on both its longer sides. These have lost their bronze mountings and some of them their cupolas. Above the S.E. wall rises the dome of the mihrâb chapel and above the N.W. wall the minaret.
We first walk round the whole enclosure. From the Rue de la Grande-Mosquée a short street leads to the right, past the new Court of Ablution (comp. p. [63]), to a large open space adjoining the S.E. end of the mosque, where there are numerous underground silos or granaries. From the walls here project the buildings of the mihrâb chapel and the maksûra, with the Bâb el-Imâm (p. [377]).
A few paces farther, at the beginning of the ‘Boulevard Ali Bey’, a poor street on the N.E. side of the precincts, is the massive square gateway tower of *Bâb Lella Rejana, adjoined by the insignificant domed tomb of that saint. The front half of the gateway, restored in 1828, is painted like the minaret with ‘giant-spiders’ to ward off snakes and scorpions, and is adorned below the battlements with blind horseshoe arcades. The perforated stucco decoration of the arch-recesses of the side-portals is one of the earliest examples of such work. The long inscription over the door extols caliph El-Mostanser-Billah (p. [374]), the builder.
Passing the next three gates we come to the N. angle of the precincts, where their fortress-like character is most apparent. Beside the embrasures of the minaret (p. [376]) are seen cannon-ball marks made during the bombardments of the 18th century.