Uqba ibn Nafi founds Kairouan

Earlier Arab expeditions into Byzacena had been raids that ended with a return to Egypt. Uqba, a kinsman of Amr ibn al-As who had campaigned for a quarter of a century in Cyrenaica and the Fezzan, was appointed governor of Ifriqiya around 670 and set out to build a lasting base. The site he chose, some 50 km inland, had been occupied by a Byzantine settlement called Kamounia; the name al-Qayrawan comes from the Persian word for a caravan or military column. Later legend tells that Uqba cleared a forest full of wild beasts and snakes, and that a spring gushed out beneath his horse’s hooves. For about five years he devoted himself to building the town and its mosque, which served as the model for later mosques of the Maghreb.

Around 675 Uqba was replaced by Abu al-Muhajir Dinar, who preferred a new town nearby and a policy of alliances with the Berbers. Reinstated by Yazid I in 681/682, Uqba again made Kairouan his base, but after his death at the hands of Kusaila the Arabs abandoned the unwalled town, and Kusaila ruled from it until 688 or 689. Retaken by the Arabs, Kairouan remained the capital of Ifriqiya; under the Aghlabids (800–909) it flourished as a centre of learning, and its Great Mosque, rebuilt by them in the 9th century with hundreds of columns taken from ancient ruins, still stands. The city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988.