Kairouan

A city of the steppes, Kairouan is the wool capital of Tunisia, with daily sheep markets. From these come the wool for her most famous craft – rugs and carpets. It is said that no fewer than 1,500 looms are still in use, on which the women of Kairouan knot the now world-famous pile rugs. As early as the ninth century, lfriquiya sent 120 rugs a year to the emperor of Baghdad.

 The Kairouan carpet is of the type brought by the Turks from Iran, traditionally of knotted point and known as the zerbia. It is predominantly brownish-red in colour and woven on a high-warp loom. Designs vary from the discreet geometry and subdued natural tones of the zerbias to the primary colours and Paul Klee motifs of the pile-less mergoum. A third type is the alloucha, of neutral tones. Designs and prices are tempting, but remember to bargain.

The distinctive sound of the streets of Kairouan is the curry­combing of the wool. It is like a tambourine and lasts all day. The women use a great iron comb held by a steel chain, their days measured in surfaces of wool that are finally sent to the shopkeepers. In a picturesque souk, you will be offered mint tea with pine kernels in it, inquiries will be politely made as to your journey, and all the time a boy will be spreading before you collections of carpets. These range from the grandiose, intended for ministerial suites or salons of hotels, to the more modest household offerings and finally, with an almost imperceptible gesture from the master, the tiny rugs designed to pack away in a suitcase, perfect to go beside a child’s bed back home.

 We have a woman to thank for the birth of the contemporary Kairouan carpet. Kamla Chaouech, daughter of a governor of the city, was the first to bring to Kairouan the Iranian carpet, early in the last century. She made some beautiful prayer rugs which she presented to the Sidi Saheb, or Mosque of the Barber. Since then, it has become a tradition that every girl should present a rug to the patron saint of the city just before her wedding.

The Zawia of Sidi Saheb is nicknamed the Barber’s Mosque because the seventh-century saint buried there, Abu Jama el­Balawi, possessed three hairs of the Prophet’s beard. Pilgrims come from far and wide to worship at the resting-place of these relics. It is a jewel of a mosque, reflecting the change from the somewhat austere art of previous centuries to the more delicate and refined Andalusian influence.

The period heralded a veritable renaissance in all forms of art. With a 1629 cupola and 1690 minaret, the Barber’s Mosque has walls covered wth ceramic tiles whose still-vivid colours contrast with the immaculately-white lacework of carved stucco above, and with the wooden ceilings painted in sepia, garnet-red and olive-green. Built round three courtyards, each markedly different from the last, this mosque also has a magnificent many-columned vestibule. Passing through this, the pilgrim enters an open courtyard surrounded on all four sides by a marble colonnade, its walls covered with decorative panels of tiles, and to the rear is the mausoleum, a place of silence and prayer.

 There are dozens of other mosques to visit in Kairouan, including the Mosque of the Three Doors, which has a beautiful facade dating from the ninth century. The medersas, or Koranic schools, are also fascinating visually, with black and white porticos and nail-studded doors, betraying the Turkish influence of the 17th and 18th centuries. But Kairouan has also preserved many crafts from its past, which if you have any energy and dinars left after your carpet expedition are well worth checking out.

Second to rug-making, the city’s principal product is copperware. Kairouan craftsmen chase and engrave superb copper jars, jugs, coffee and tea pots, plates and platters, basins and cooking pots, pails, mortars and pestles, cups, cauldrons and so on. One type of copper plate has passed into the Tunisian vernacular as kairouana, so appreciated is it by the locals as well as tourists. Most southern Tunisians wear shoes made by Kairouan cobblers, from the balgha or heel-less pointed slipper bought by all and sundry to the finest embroidered creations. Other collectable items include carved wood and paintings on wood.

Everything about Kairouan has a historical feel and in visiting it, exploring its monuments and appreciating its crafts, one experiences a condensed slice of the extraordinary past of this desert city. Now Kairouan has emerged from its ruins; the martyred city has become a holy city. Fortunately for the visitor, it has escaped the very rapid growth and modernisation of some other Tunisian cities. It retains the peace of a provincial town while exerting the pull of a great historical, artistic and spiritual centre.