Under the reign of the first Umayyad caliph of Damascus, Muawiya Ibn Abi Sofiane, the governor of Ifriqiya Oqba Ibn Nafi’  El Fehri founded in the year 56 of Hegira (675 AD. ), a caravanserai for the Army of Islam, which becomes Kairouan.
Located inland and at the confluence of two wadis, far from the Byzantine peril, the new town was built around a mud-mosque project in less than a century. It was the main hub of the new Sunni Muslim Maghreb, which included the new Andalu territory and soon nearby Sicily.

It is the 9th century Aghlabid emirate that outlined the final route map of the city and set up the great monuments which make, even today, its reputation. The great intellectual, scientific and literary figures, the beautiful art crafts highlight this golden age of kairaouan's culture. Conquered by the Fatimid Shia in the early tenth century, it temporarily lost its prominence in favour of Mahdia.

Kairouan regained its status and prestige with the Zirid Sanhajit kings who made a break from the Shi'ism and finally restored the Sunni Malekite doctrine , cement of the religious unity of this Arab-Berber entity.
The mass exodus of Arab hilalian tribes in the 11th and 12th  centuries marks the marginalization of the city in favour of  the new Hafsid Capital: Tunis.
The spiritual dimension of Kairouan imposed  to the Ottoman rulers to restore and beautify its monuments and lofty walls.

With Tunisia’s independence in 1956, this dimension is enshrined in the celebrations of the anniversary of the Prophet: The Mawled.

For two decades, Kairouan has been enjoying, thanks to the Change of 1987, a rebirth through ambitious socio-economic plans and programs aiming at preserving the Medina, listed as World Heritage Site, and also through the creation of an university pole which revives the major importance of the city in the history of the Maghreb Islamic thought.

This renaissance is crowned by the choice of Kairouan as Islamic Cultural Capital for 2009.