Great Mosque of Kairouan

And always, rising above the market's clamor, there was the mosque.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, expanded under Amir Ziyadat Allah only a handful of years into Fatima's own life, dominated the city not merely in its physical scale, though its scale was considerable, its courtyard vast enough to hold thousands, its prayer hall a forest of columns salvaged and repurposed from older buildings, some of them, it was said, older than Islam itself, but in the rhythm it imposed on the entire city's day.

Five times daily, the call to prayer rose from its minaret, and the city, in a sense, organized itself around that sound the way tides organize themselves around the moon.

Shops closed.