Plan Drawing	Engraving	Engraving

Available on The GBC CD-ROM.

"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 centre 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 lustre mihrab was constructed— probably the earliest examples of its kind in Islamic architecture. The lustre-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 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. p564, 567.