town located in north-central Tunisia. The town, one of the holy cities of Islam, lies on the Basse Steppe (Low Steppes), a semiarid alluvial plain southeast of the Central Tell. Tradition holds that the town was founded in 670 by ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ (Sīdī ʿUqbah), a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, on the site of the Byzantine fortress of Kamouinia. The town served as the camp from which the offensive was launched that resulted in the Islamic political and religious subjugation of the Maghrib (northwest Africa). It was chosen as the capital of the Maghrib by the first Aghlabid (Aghlabid dynasty) ruler about 800. The Maliki (Mālikīyah) school of Islam emerged there, as clerics challenged the personal and political excesses of the Aghlabid emirs. Subsequently, the town served (with Mahdia 【Al-Mahdiyyah】) as the political centre through the Fāṭimid (Fāṭimid Dynasty) and Zīrid (Zīrid Dynasty) dynasties into the 11th century, becoming one of the great administrative, commercial, religious, and intellectual centres of Islam. It also served as the site of a famous medical research centre for both Jews and Muslims in the medieval period. As a result of Bedouin incursions in the 11th century, the decline of steppe cultivation in favour of nomadic life, and the rise of Tunis as capital, Kairouan declined into an isolated market town for nomads.