History of El Qayriouan City

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It was in Kairouan that Islam gained its first foothold in the Maghreb . The original Arab settlement lasted only a few years before it was destroyed by a Berber rebellion . It was re-established in AD 694 by Hassan ibn Nooman and has been Islamic ever since .
The city's golden age began when it be­came the capital of the Aghlabid dynasty in AD 797 . Although they preferred to rule from their palace at Raqqada , 9km south of Kairouan , it was the Aghlabids who endowed the city with its most important historic buildings , most notably the Great Mosque
Kairouan fell to the Fatimids in AD 909 , and declined after the capital was moved to Mahdia . Its fortunes hit rock bottom when it was sacked in 1057 during the Hi­lalian invasions . It never regained its position of political pre-eminence but it retained its significance as a seat of Islamic scholarship and a holy city of Islam .