Grande Mosquée Zitouna

About Grande Mosquée Zitouna

Mosque in Tunisia

The Zitouna Mosque, the Great Mosque of Tunis, stands at the heart of the medina and is the city's largest and oldest mosque, the second oldest in Tunisia after the Great Mosque of Kairouan. It was founded at the end of the 7th or start of the 8th century, traditionally by Hassan ibn al-Nu'man in 698 and completed by Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab in 732, but its present form comes from a 9th-century Aghlabid rebuilding and later additions over the centuries. Tradition links its name, Mosque of the Olive, to an olive tree that once stood on the site. It covers about 5,000 square metres with nine gates; its prayer hall rests on some 160 to 184 columns, many reused from the Roman ruins of Carthage, beside a broad marble-paved courtyard, and its square minaret was added in the 19th century. It grew into a centre of learning, today the University of Ez-Zitouna, and from the 13th century was Tunisia's most important educational institution. Great scholars taught here, among them Ibn Arafa and al-Maziri, and the poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi studied here. Around it branch the medina's souqs: the perfume souq, the chechia makers' souq and Souq el Berka.

Where:

Tunis, Tunisia