ARCHITECT ATLAS
Loading atlas
Al-Zaytuna Mosque

Al-Zaytuna Mosque

Fathallah

Photo: T A · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Medina of Tunis, Tunisia
Client / Owner
al-Musta'in Billah
Year
Completed 864
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
—

The Al-Zaytuna Mosque, the Mosque of Olive, stands at the center of the medina of Tunis and is the oldest mosque in the city. The infobox names Fathallah as architect. A contemporary inscription calls him chief builder and names the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'in Billah as main patron. The article dates completion to 864 and 865 after an Aghlabid reconstruction. Its sources give founding dates from 698 to 735.

The site covers 54,000 square feet (5,000 m²). A trapezoidal courtyard leads to a hypostyle prayer hall of 15 aisles and about 160 columns, mostly reused antique pieces likely from Carthage. The infobox gives the minaret, rebuilt in 1894, as 141 feet (43 m). The infobox calls the style Moorish.

The Spanish occupation of Tunis in 1534 led to raids on its libraries. Bourguiba and Ben Ali carried out major restorations in the 1960s and 1990s.

Comments

  • Loading comments…
Be kind. Anyone can flag a comment for review.

Sign in

or

Your profile

3 to 24 letters, numbers, underscores or periods. It’s shown with your comments.

Contact us

Questions, corrections or ideas? Your message goes straight to the Architect Atlas owner.

Save to list

    Edit information

    We look the building up on Wikipedia for you. Architect Atlas lists buildings that have their own Wikipedia article: our test for notoriety and our source of truth.

        Typology
        Style (one to three)
        Photo (shown in a 4:3 frame)

        Drag and zoom to frame the building well. New photos are checked before they appear.

        Every change is checked before it goes live: facts against Wikipedia, photos by eye.