Marmol states that, on account of the peculiar sanctity of this mosque, it was selected as the burial-place of the kings of Tunis.[143]
The most exquisite, and indeed almost the only attempt at exterior ornamentation, amongst the religious edifices of Kerouan, is the gate of a small mosque next to that of Seyed Hoosain el-Alani, called the Mosque of the Three Gates, Abou Thelatha Biban. It must be six or seven hundred years old, and is decorated with beautiful Cufic inscriptions all along the façade, which, as its name implies, contains three gateways.
In the Zaouiah of Sidi ben Aissa, that of the well-known Aissaoui sect, there are public readings every night, and the usual performances of the votaries, such as glass, cactus and scorpion eating, every Friday. This mosque contains two magnificent brass candlesticks, evidently brought by the Moors from Spain, and which no doubt at one time decorated some Christian cathedral.
Next in sanctity to the great mosque is one outside the city, within which is interred one of the companions of the Prophet, Aba Zamata el-Beloui, whence its familiar name, Jamäat es-Sahebi, Mosque of the Companion. With him are buried three hairs of the Prophet’s beard, one under the tongue, one on his right arm, and the third next his heart. This has given rise to the ridiculous fallacy amongst Europeans that he was one of the Prophet’s barbers!
The mosques are generally kept in a tolerably good state of repair, especially the domes and minarets, which present a most picturesque appearance from a little distance; this illusion is to a great extent dispelled on closer inspection, as the architecture, though good in its general effect, is entirely wanting in beauty of detail, and even the ancient marble columns, with richly carved capitals, which support nearly every entrance gate, are marred by thick coats of whitewash. A common ornamentation is a roughly executed inscription in projecting bricks going round the four sides of a minaret, generally the ordinary protestation of faith, La illah ila Ullah, Mohammed er-rasool Ullah—There is no deity but God; Mohammed is the Messenger of God. The only really good specimens of Cufic inscriptions, that I saw, were on the Mosque of the Three Doors before mentioned, and on each side of the entrance gate called Bab et-Tunis.
The town is by no means dirty for a purely native one, and the filth appears to be carried away pretty regularly by camels and deposited outside the walls.
The inhabitants are entirely dependent on the cisterns under their houses for a supply of water, and in years of drought their sufferings have been very great. To remedy this three large reservoirs were built outside the walls, the first, called Feskia m’ta el-Yeghlib, or reservoir of the Aghlabites, is circular in shape and 480 paces in circumference. It is in bad condition, and full of impurities, but it still retains water. The two others are the Feskia Saeed es-Sahib, and Feskia Bir el-Bey, both rectangular in form, but utterly ruined and unserviceable.
The only well in the city is one of very brackish water, called El-Barota. Tradition says that on the foundation of the city it was discovered by a sloughi, or Arab greyhound, scratching up the ground. The pious believe that there is a communication between this and the holy well of Zemzem at Mecca. A pilgrim once let his drinking vessel fall into the latter, and on his return to Kerouan he found it in El-Barota! With the exception of Jamäat el-Bey, which is of the Hanafi sect, all the other religious establishments belong to the Maleki or orthodox sect.
The city is full of dervishes, not only the half-witted creatures of both sexes, whose infirmity is supposed to be a sign of divine favour, but men of intelligence, who really are animated by a strong sentiment of religion, and of pure and humble life, who reckon every day lost till their entrance into the joys of paradise.
It is extremely difficult to form anything like an accurate estimate of the population of such a city as this. Mr. Wood, in a recent commercial report, estimates it at 15,000.[144] M. Pellissier stated it at about 12,000. Comparing it with Mohammedan cities in Algeria, the population of which is known, I should be inclined to put it down at considerably less than 10,000.