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Synagogue, Kairouan, Tunisia

Description

The Synagogue of Kairouan

In 1920, shortly after the French Protectorate of Tunisia was formed, Kairouan returned to its vibrant Jewish past with the founding of a new synagogue located on Salah-Souissi street in the Jewish quarter. The Jewish community of Kairouan chose to build its main religious building in the heart of the hara in order to assert (or reassert) its presence in the town [1]. In the 1970s, after Tunisian independence and the Six-Day War that led to the departure of the Jewish community from Kairouan, the synagogue was made available to the Tunisian authorities to use as a Koranic school (a madrasa) after it fell into disuse [2]. Currently, the synagogue is partially in ruins [3].  

History of Kairouan 

Kairouan is a town located in north-central Tunisia 125 kilometers (77 miles) south of Tunis. The town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and considered the fourth most holy city in Islam, lies on the Bassee Steppe, a semiarid alluvial plain southwest of the Tunisian dorsal [4]. Kairouan (Arabic: القيروان) was founded in 670 CE by Uqba Ibn Nafi (Akbar), the Arab conqueror of North Africa, on the site of the Byzantine fortress of Kamouinia as the first permanent Islamic settlement west of Egypt [5]. The town was originally designed as a garrison (a military post), but it soon became the Islamic capital and government center of the Maghreb due to its strategic location and access to water. Kairouan was the capital of Ifriqiya for five centuries, through the Fatimid and Zirid dynasties and into the 11th century, becoming one of the great administrative, commercial, religious, and intellectual centers of Islam [6]. The town was sacked in 1057 CE by the Banu Hilal, a confederation of Arabian tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, who invaded North Africa from Egypt [7]. The invasion impoverished the area and its inhabitants, and Kairouan never regained its former prosperity. As a result of these Bedouin incursions, combined with the decline of steppe cultivation in favor of nomadic life and the rise of Tunis as a capital, Kairouan declined even further into an isolated market town for nomads passing through [8]. Today, Kairouan is an important carpet and handicrafts center and trades in grain and livestock. The town has seen some expansion with the establishment of the University of Kairouan and its engagement in light industry. Kairouan has also become a tourist destination after UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1988, fueling the conservation of the old town and the development of the Musée d’Art Islamique [9].

History of the Jewish Community

It is possible that Jews were settled in Kairouan at the time of its establishment in 670 CE, although it is not certain [10]. The Jewish community of the town was first documented in the ninth-century. Regardless of the time-frame, Jewish life prospered in Kairouan, becoming the leading Jewish economic, intellectual, and cultural center in North Africa during the Middle Ages [11]. The academy of Kairouan (the Yeshiva of Kairouan) was well-known and respected throughout the Jewish world, being the first major center of Jewish learning outside of Babylonia and Israel [12]. Important Jewish philosophers and scholars Natronai b. Havivai (c. 775), Mar Ukba (c. 920), Eldad ha-Dani (c. 9th-century), and Isaac Israeli (c. 10th-century) all settled in Kairouan and contributed to the image of Kairouan as a Jewish intellectual center. Jewish business firms played an important role in making Kairouan a center of commerce, headed by families such as the Ibn Sighmars, the Berechiahs, the Majjanis, and others. Kairouan also served as the site of a medical research center for both Jews and Muslims during this time [13].

When Kairouan was destroyed by Arabs in 1057, so was the Jewish community. This marked the end of the town as a Jewish economic, intellectual, and cultural center, with the Jewish population fleeing largely to Egypt and Sicily. From then until 1881, when Tunisia became a French protectorate, there were no Jews in Kairouan and it remained strictly out of bounds for all non-Muslims. Shortly after 1881 Jewish shopkeepers settled there with their families and formed a small Jewish community. During the six-month German occupation of Tunisia from 1942-1943 many again fled due to the hardships faced. Some briefly returned after World War II, however, after the country’s independence in 1956 and the Six-Day War, the Jewish community departed again and by the late 1960s no Jews remained in Kairouan.

Demography 

The population of the Jewish community of Kairouan was varied in origin. The Cairo Genizah, a collection of Jewish manuscript fragments and administrative documents, contains numerous names of families of Berber origin which were established in Kairouan, such as Labrat, Sighmar, and Masnut [14]. In addition, these documents include names of families of foreign origin who were also established in Kairouan, including Andalusi (of Spanish origin), Fasi (of Fez), Taherti (of southerwestern Algeria), and Siqili (of Sicily). That is to say, there is significant documentation that the Jewish community of Kairouan had origins in Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Italy, Tunisia, and other parts of North Africa [15].

Current News

In 2015 it was announced that the old Synagogue of Kairouan would be restored at the behest of the municipal council of Kairouan. The restoration of the synagogue is part of the council’s larger restoration project for places of worship in Kairouan [16]. Currently, the status of the restoration project is not known. 

Kairouan, Tunisia

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