Kairouan

Kairouan: see Qayrawan, Al, Tunisia.

---

Kairouan

 or Al-Qayrawan

City (pop., 1994: 102,600), northeastern Tunisia. A religious centre of Islam, it was founded in 670 by the Arab general Sidi 'Uqbah and became the first Arab city in the Maghrib. It was chosen as the Maghrib capital by the Aghlabid dynasty c. 800. It served as an administrative, commercial, religious, and intellectual centre under the Fatimid and Zirid dynasties. The rise of Tunis, the new capital, led to Kairouan's decline and its devastation by Bedouin in the 11th century. It is the site of the 9th-century Great Mosque of the Qayrawan, one of the city's 150 mosques.