VOL. XXII, No. 12 
WASHINGTON 
DECEMBER, 1911 
THE SACRED CITY OF THE SANDS 
With an Account of the Extraordinary Tortures Wel- 
comed and Endured by Devotees at Kairowan 
By Frank Epwarp JoHNSON 
hammed “the Prophet’ (632A.D.), 
founder of the Moslem faith, the 
Arab invasion swept like a whirlwind 
from India through northern Africa to 
the Atlantic Ocean. This vast army of 
victorious Moslems created with remark- 
able rapidity an immense empire, where 
the sciences, arts, and letters played an 
important role. 
Having in a few years conquered Asia 
Minor, Persia, and Egypt, the Arabs de- 
termined to invade Barbary (Tripoli of 
Barbary) and Ifrikia (Tunisia), under 
the leadership of Caliph Abdallah ben 
Bou-Sark, with 10,000 cavalry and 10,- 
000 “Fantassins.” Had the Byzantines 
united with the Berbers they could easily 
have repulsed the invaders; but the 
Patriarch Gregory chose this moment to 
revolt against the Emperor and take the 
“purple” at Suffetula (Sbeitla). 
Gregory sent 10,000 men against the 
Arabs, who had already passed through 
Tripoli of Barbary, but he was defeated 
and killed at the battle of Akouba, and 
all the region of southern Tunisia fell 
into the hands of Abdallah. He treated 
the natives so well that they were con- 
verted to Mohammedism. Serious trou- 
G penne after the death of Mo- 
ble having broken out in the Orient, the 
Arabs did not pay much attention to 
Tunisia until 661, when the Caliph was 
assassinated by a fanatical Kharedjite. 
To punish the people, a swarm of Arab 
cavalry advanced as far as Sousse under 
Sidi Okba ben Nafa, later governor of 
Tunisia. He founded in 669 the town 
of Kairowan, in the midst of an arid 
desert and salt marsh. 
Okba ben Nafa kept on his victorious 
march until he reached the Atlantic 
Ocean. The Berbers and Byzantines 
united to try and defeat him. On his 
return march he was attacked by the 
tribe of Aurés, who were inflamed by 
Koceilah, a Berber prince, whom Sidi 
Okba had taken captive and attached to 
his suite as a slave. 
Okba ben Nafa and 300 of his follow- 
ers were killed after a desperate fight at 
a small oasis near Biskra, and the tomb 
of Sidi Okba is greatly venerated to this 
day. 
Legends tell how Okba ben Nafa 
chose the site of Kairowan, in the midst 
of a desert, where nothing grew and 
where no water was to be found, saying 
that if a great city could be built there 
it would be a miracle permitted by 
