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Qairouan, Tunisia, 820 to 836.
Style: Islamic
The Great Mosque at Qairouan, Tunisia, is the principal
building of the Aghlabids and has an important relationship to the
mosques of the Umayyad and Abbasid capitals. Its square minaret stands
on the center line of the building.
The original structure of the early eighth century was
swallowed up in the reconstruction of the ninth century. More bays were
added to the courtyard face of the prayer-hall, and a central dome
(since rebuilt) was constructed over it. Also at this stage a superb
luster Mihrab was constructed— probably the earliest examples of its
kind in Islamic architecture. The luster-tiles appear to have been
imported from Iraq. The building has slightly pointed horseshoe arches
carried on Corinthianesque columns. The gored dome is carried on cusped
squinches.
The prayer-chamber has a T-shaped plan in which a
central nave intersects the principal transverse aisle against the kibla
[Qiblah] wall. The giant, tapering minaret with its recessed stages as
well as the incorrect southward orientation of the building itself
reflect its eighth-century Syrian origins.”
—Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. Pp.
564, 567.
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