Alternate names: القيروان) (Arabic), Kirwan, Al-Kayrawān, Al Qayrawān, Kairwan, Qairouan, Arabic: القيروان.Al Qayrawan is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate or the Islamic Cultural Capital and considered the fourth most holy city in Islam and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670 in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya. 1909 Jewish population: 483. 2003 population: 150,000 with 1% Jewish.
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), pp. 582-583: "Kairouan".
- Pinkas HaKehilot, Libya-Tunisia (1997), p. 469: "Kairouan"
- JewishGen Sephardic SIG
Jewish history: particularly in the early Middle Ages. Rabbeinu Chushiel, his son Rabbeinu Chananel, and R. Nissim Ben Jacob (R. Nissim Gaon) and Isaac ben Solomon Israeli (physician and philospher), were all from Kairouan and Rabbi Isaac Alfasi studied there. Kairouan was the first major center of Jewish learning outside of Babylonia and Israel. [May 2010]
CEMETERY::
Jewish cemetery existed.[May 2010]