Dictionary of islamic architecture

particularly in the early Islamic period for buildings
like the Great Mosque at Qairawan. Roman and
Byzantine material, in particular columns, formed
one of the major building materials for early Islamic
buildings. As elsewhere in North Africa the horshoe
arch was the dominant arch form in monumental
architecture. A certain amount of wood was
available for roofs although generally buildings
were covered with stone vaults. From the fifteenth
century onwards glazed tiles became a common
architectural feature which has survived until the
twentieth century.
Tunisia is noted for the large number of religious
buildings surviving from before the tenth century.
The oldest Islamic monument in Tunisia is the Great
Mosque of Qairawan which was built in 670 by
Uqba ibn Nafi. Little remains of this early mosque
which was rebuilt more than three times until 862
when it reached its present form under the Aghlabid
ruler Abu Ibrahim Ahmad. The plan of this building
became a model for later Tunisian mosques. The
Ribal of Tunisia © Creswell Archive, Ashmolean
Tunisia

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standard form comprises aisles running
perpendicular to the qibla wall with a raised aisle
in the centre leading to a domed cupola in front of
the mihrab. In addition there is usually one (or
more) aisle running parallel to the qibla wall
forming a T-plan. Examples of this style include the
Great Mosques of Tunis, Susa, Mahadi-ya, Monastir
and Sfax—only the Great Mosque of Tozeur differs
from it, with aisles running parallel to the qibla wall.
This mosque form remained remarkably constant
and even continued after the Ottoman conquest
although there are examples of mosques of pure
Ottoman form such as the Sidi Mahriz Mosque in
Tunis.
Other religious structures include the ribat or
fortified convent, an architectural form particularly
characteristic of Tunisia. One of the best examples
is the Ribat of Susa which was built by the Aghlabid
ruler Ziyadat Allah in 821. This consists of a square
building (95 m per side) with a central courtyard,
towers at the corners and a monumental entrance.
Three of the corner towers are circular whilst the
fourth is square and forms a base for a cylindrical
watchtower. The ground floor contains numerous
rooms opening from the courtyard whilst on the
first floor above the entrance there is a large prayer
hall covered with barrel-vaulted aisles
perpendicular to the mihrab. Other examples
include the three ribats of Monastir, the oldest of
which was founded in 796.
There is a wide variety of traditional house
types in Tunisia from the bedouin tent to
sophisticated courtyard villas. In southern Tunisia
there are fortified settlements (qusur) which
contain several tiers of barrel-vaulted rooms
(ghorfas) arranged around a courtyard. The
appearance of these structures is quite organic and
resembles a beehive. Most of the time they are used
for storage, but they could be used as dwellings
in times of trouble. The standard form of village
house is a windowless, flat-roofed structure, with
a central courtyard used for animals. Town houses
are a developed form of the village house; they
are often two storeys high and decorated with
polychrome glazed tiles. The houses of Tozeur are
noted for their decorative brickwork façades. In
Tunis there are a number of eighteenth-century
Ottoman palaces and mansions. These are usually
multiple courtyard structures with extrava-gant
decoration which is a mixture of Islamic and
European style.