Dictionary of islamic architecture

particular the minarets. The aqueduct is built of brick
and has a large inlet tower at the village of Basatin
about two miles south of the citadel.
Ahmed’s son Khumarawayah is known to have
built a beautiful palace with a golden hall decorated
with sheets of gold carrying representations of
himself and his wife. Not surprisingly the palace has
not survived.
Further reading:
K.A.C.Creswell, 
A Short Account of Early Muslim
Architecture,
ed. by J.Allen, Aldershot 1989.
P.K.Hitti, 
History of the Arabs,
10th edn., London 1970,
452–5.
C.E.Bosworth, 
The Islamic Dynasties,
revised paperback
edn. , Edinburgh 1980, 43–4.
Tunis
Capital city of Tunisia since the thirteenth century.
Although smaller than that of Qairawan, the Great
Mosque of Tunis (known as the Zaituna Mosque)
has a similar history and design. The first mosque
on the site was built in 732 to be replaced in 863
with the Aghlabid structure which forms the core
of the present mosque. The prayer hall consists of
fifteen aisles running east-west (i.e. perpendicular
to the qibla wall) with the mihrab at the end of the
central aisle, which is both wider and taller than
the other aisles and surmounted by a dome at the
end next to the mihrab; there is also a dome over
the entrance, but this was added later, in the
eleventh century. Both domes are ribbed and rest
on shell squinches like the domes of the Great
Mosque of Qairawan. The Tunis mosque is also
famous for its role as a university. Next to it is an
ablutions courtyard constructed by the Hafisid
rulers in the fourteenth century which is one of the
best examples of Tunisian decorative architecture.
In the centre of the courtyard is an octagonal
fountain and the whole area is decorated with white
marble with black marble inlay.
Other important mosques in Tunis are the Qasr
Mosque built in the twelfth century and the mosque
of the Kasba built in the thirteenth century. The latter
is interesting as one of the best examples of
Andalusian influence in Tunisian architecture with
its decorated minaret and ornate stucco decoration.
Tunis also contains a number of eighteenth-cen-
tury palaces.