page_title: Great Mosque of Kairouan
section_title: Artworks
hierarchical_section_title: Great Mosque of Kairouan / Artworks
caption_attribution_description: العربية: من سورة البقرة بالخط الكوفي: يجد فصيام ثلاثة أيام في الحج وسبعة إذا رجعتم تلك عشرة كاملة ذلك لمن لم يكن أهله حاضري المسجد الحرام واتقوا الله واعلموا أن الله شديد العقاب (196) الحج أشهر معلومات فمن فرض فيهن الحج فلا رفث ولا فسوق ولا جدال في الحج وما تفعلوا من خير يعلمه الله وتزودوا فإن خير الزاد التقوى واتقون يا أولي الألباب (197) ليس عليكم جناح أن تبتغوا فضلا من ربكم فإذا أفضتم من عرفات فاذكروا الله عند المشعر الحرام واذكروه كما هداكم وإن كنتم من قبله لمن الضالين (198) ثم أفيضوا من حيث أفاض الناس واستغفروا الله إن الله غفور رحيم (199) فإذا قضيتم مناسككم فاذكروا الله كذكركم آباءكم أو أشد ذكرا فمن الناس من يقول ربنا آتنا في الدنيا وما له في الآخرة من خلاق (200) ومنهم من يقول ربنا آتنا في الدنيا حسنة وفي الآخرة حسنة وقنا عذاب النار (201) أولئك لهم نصيب مما كسبوا والله سريع الحساب English: Surah al-Baqarah, verses 197-201. Kufic script. The manuscript is originally in Qairawan, Tunisia. Français&#160;: Sourate La Vache, versets 197-201. Ecriture coufique. Le manuscrit était à l'origine à Kairouan, Tunisie.
context_page_description: The Great Mosque of Kairouan, also known as the Mosque of Uqba, is a mosque situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the most impressive and largest Islamic monuments in North Africa.
  Established by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in the year 50 AH at the founding of the city of Kairouan, the mosque occupies an area of over 9,000 square metres. It is one of the oldest places of worship in the Islamic world, and is a model for all later mosques in the Maghreb. Its perimeter, of about 405 metres, contains a hypostyle prayer hall, a marble-paved courtyard and a square minaret. In addition to its spiritual prestige, the Mosque of Uqba is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture, notable among other things for the first Islamic use of the horseshoe arch.
  Extensive works under the Aghlabids two centuries later gave the mosque its present aspect. The fame of the Mosque of Uqba and of the other holy sites at Kairouan helped the city to develop and expand. The university, consisting of scholars who taught in the mosque, was a centre of education both in Islamic thought and in the secular sciences.
context_section_description: The Mosque of Uqba, one of the few religious buildings of Islam has remained intact almost all of its architectural and decorative elements, is due to the richness of its repertoire which is a veritable museum of Islamic decorative art and architecture. Most of the works on which rests the reputation of the mosque are still conserved in situ while a certain number of them have joined the collections of the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art; Raqqada is located about ten kilometres southwest of Kairouan.
  From the library of the mosque comes a large collection of calligraphic scrolls and manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the second half of the ninth century. This valuable collection, observed from the late nineteenth century by the French orientalists Octave Houdas and René Basset who mention in their report on their scientific mission in Tunisia published in the Journal of African correspondence in 1882, comprises according to the inventory established at the time of the Hafsids (circa 1293–1294) several Qur'ans and books of fiqh that concern mainly the Maliki fiqh and its sources. These are the oldest fund of Maliki legal literature to have survived.
  Among the finest works of this series, the pages of the Blue Qur'an, currently exhibited at Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art, from a famous Qur'an in the second half of the fourth century of the Hegira (the tenth century) most of which is preserved in Tunisia and the rest scattered in museums and private collections worldwide. Featuring kufic character suras are written in gold on vellum dyed with indigo, they are distinguished by a compact graph with no marks for vowels. The beginning of each surah is indicated by a band consisting of a golden stylised leafy foliage, dotted with red and blue, while the verses are separated by silver rosettes. Other scrolls and calligraphic Qur'ans, as that known as the Hadinah's Qur'an, copied and illuminated by the calligrapher Ali ibn Ahmad al-Warraq for the governess of the Zirid prince Al-Muizz ibn Badis at about 1020 AD, were also in the library before being transferred to Raqqada museum. This collection is a unique source for studying the history and evolution of calligraphy of medieval manuscripts in the Maghreb, covering the period from the ninth to the eleventh century.
  Other works of art such as the crowns of light (circular chandeliers) made in cast bronze, dating from the Fatimid-Zirid period (around the tenth to the early eleventh century), originally belonged to the furniture of the mosque. These polycandelons, now scattered in various Tunisian museums including Raqqada, consist of three chains supporting a perforated brass plate, which has a central circular ring around which radiate 18 equidistant poles connected by many horseshoe arches and equipped for each of two landmarks flared. The three chains, connected by a suspension ring, are each fixed to the plate by an almond-shaped finial. The crowns of light are marked by Byzantine influence to which the Kairouanese artisan brought the specificities of Islamic decorative repertoire (geometric and floral motifs).
caption: Two pages of the Blue Qur'an (surah al-Baqarah, verses 197-201), originally in the library of the mosque
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