Tunisia – Zaytuna Mosque in Tunisia holds historical importance

Location: Tunis – Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Voice: Natural

Duration: 00:04:53

Source: A24

Restriction: A24 Clients

Dateline: 22-05-2022

Storyline:

Zaytuna Mosque is the major and oldest mosque in Tunisia and the second mosque to be built in the Maghreb region after the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan. It was established in 698 AD by the order of Hassan ibn Nu’man and is known as the Great Mosque.

The mosque was one of the major centers of Islamic learning, attracting students from all parts of the world at the time.

The mosque is connected to the history of Tunisia where the national movement against French colonialism started from it. From this mosque, the first magazines were published in the Tunisian press, such as Azeytouna and El Hadhra.

The researcher in Islamic civilization, Ghufran Hassini, said the mosque today has lost its scientific importance and its influence leading to the emergence and spread of religious extremist currents in the Arab and Maghreb region and Tunisia in particular.

Shot list:

• Soundbite (Ghufran Hassani – Researcher in Islamic Civilization):

“Zaytuna Mosque is a global landmark. It used to be a university in which Sharia sciences were taught. It was the first university established in the world where Sharia scholars graduated from.”

• Soundbite (Ghufran Hassani – Researcher in Islamic Civilization):
• “It is called the Great Mosque because it is known all over Tunisia and the entire Maghreb region. The mosque is very ancient and it teaches in Qur’an and various Islamic sciences.”
• Soundbite (Ghufran Hassani – Researcher in Islamic Civilization):

“The contemporary and modern history of Tunisia is connected to the Zaytuna Mosque. The national movement, the movements against French colonialism and cultural resistance movements, started from the Zaytuna Mosque. In addition, the first magazines in the Tunisian press were founded by the sheikhs of the Zitouna Mosque, like the Azeytouna magazine in the thirties, and El Hadhra magazine at the end of the nineteenth century.”

• Various shots from the Zaytuna Mosque
• Soundbite (Ghufran Hassani – Researcher in Islamic Civilization):

“The mosque today has lost its scientific importance and its influence. I, as a researcher in Islamic civilization, think that the emergence, spread, and penetration of religious extremist currents in the Arab and Maghreb regions, specifically in Tunisia, was the result of the decline in the role of the Zaytuna Mosque, and the end of the education in it. It is not the property of Tunisians only, but it is the property of Islamic civilization as a whole.”