TunisiaTourismTV – The
Aghlabids were the first great Muslim
dynasty in Tunisia.
From 800 to 909, they controlled a large area from eastern Algeria to Tripolitania.
Under their rule, Tunisia was a prosperous state, the first autonomous emirate in the Abbassid empire.
Great builders
It was under the Aghlabids that the
Great Mosque of
Kairouan was built in its present form.
They also built the
Great Zitouna Mosque in
Tunis.
The Aghlabid emirs sponsored huge hydraulic installations for agriculture and city life.
They developed the defensive system of the Ribats, a chain of small forts to keep watch over the coastline.
The Aghlabids’ main
naval base was
Sousse, which kept many buildings of this period.
Influence of Tunisia
In 827, the Aghlabids started the conquest of Sicily where the Arab influence will last several hundred years.
Under their reign, Imam Sahnoun definitively imposed the Malekite rite as the main Muslim rite in Tunisia, and Kairouan became a great intellectual and university center.
It was also around this time that two sisters from Kairouan, Fatima and Meryem el-Fehria, daughters of a wealthy merchant, built the two main mosques in Fez in Morocco. One of them is still called Al-Qarawiyine (Kairouanese mosque).
Under the Aghlabids, Tunisia regained the economic, cultural and political influence it had in Antiquity.
Photo: Aghlabid ceramic
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