To Kairwan the Holy

An account of a visit to the sacred Tunisian city of Kairwan or (Kairouan), the centre of Western Islam.

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'To Kairwan the Holy: Scenes in Muhammedan Africa' is a lively account of a visit to the sacred Tunisian city of Kairwan (or Kairouan), 'the centre of Western Islamism', by the Revd Alexander A. Boddy in 1883. Since its foundation, shortly after the death of the Prophet, Kairwan had remained closed to all infidels until the French army took possession of the city in 1881. Travelling not as a missionary but as an unashamed and indefatigable tourist, the author misses none of the sights of his ports of call, which include Valetta, Susa and Tripoli as well as Kairwan. He visit mosques, schools and ruins, haggles in bazaars teeming with moors, Bedouins and Turks, and teaches himself to ride a donkey and a camel ('The newly formed camel corps has all my deepest sympathy', he notes feelingly). The highlight of the tour is of course the Djama 'l Kebir, the Great Mosque of Kairwan, reputed to have been the model for the Mezquita of Cordova and the mosque of El Azhar in Cairo. Published here in facsimile of the original edition of 1885, the book is illustrated with several attractive ink drawings by the Tunisian artist A.F. Jacassey.