Religion
The most important mosque in the city is the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan. It has been said that seven pilgrimages to this mosque is considered the equivalent of one pilgrimage to Mecca. After its establishment, Kairouan became an Islamic and Qur'anic learning centre in North Africa. An article by Professor Kwesi Prah describes how during the medieval period, Kairouan was considered the third holiest city in Islam after Mecca and Medina. Today, many consider the city as the fourth holiest in Islam.
Judaism, no longer prevalent in the city, has an illustrious history in Kairouan, particularly in the early Middle Ages. Rabbeinu Chushiel, his son Rabbeinu Chananel, and R. Nissim Ben Jacob (R. Nissim Gaon) were all from Kairouan and Rabbi Isaac Alfasi studied there, as did many other great rabbis. The rabbinical students of Kairouan are a major part of the transmission of the Oral Law from Babylonia to Spain. Kairouan was thus the first major centre of Jewish learning outside of Babylonia and Eretz Yisrael. In memory of Sufi saints, Sufi festivals are held in the city.
Read more about this topic: Kairouan
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Our religion ... is itself profoundly sad—a religion of universal anguish, and one which, because of its very catholicity, grants full liberty to the individual and asks no better than to be celebrated in each man’s own language—so long as he knows anguish and is a painter.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he “lives” his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy.”
—George Gurdjieff (c. 1877–1949)
“Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.”
—Michel Guillaume Jean De Crevecoeur (1735–1813)