Tunisia

Independent from France in 1956.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Kairouan and the Islamisation of Ifrīqiya

Islam came to Ifrīqiya with the Arab conquest of the 7th century; the general ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ founded Kairouan (Qayrawān) in 670, and it became the first great city of Islam in the Maghrib and a springboard for the faith across North Africa.

☾ Religious Composition

An overwhelmingly Sunni-Mālikī society

Tunisians are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims of the Mālikī school, with small Ibāḍī (on the island of Djerba) and ancient Jewish communities.

Demographic shares are approximate.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

Kairouan and the Zaytūna

The Great Mosque of Kairouan and the Zaytūna mosque-university of Tunis were among the foremost centres of Mālikī learning in the medieval Maghrib.

At a glance