Caliphs of Kairwán, waged war on Italy and Sicily: one of them, Muhammed, captured Malta. In 877, Ibrahim Ibn Ahmed founded most of the towns on the Tunisian littoral. He also built the suburban city of Raccadah, and successfully besieged Tunis after it had been captured by some insurgents. His grandson, Ziadet Allah, was the last of his race; and a line of Green Caliphs, beginning with Obeid Allah, reigned in Kairwán. He “ravaged Lombardy, took Genoa, and ruled in Sicily.” From the eleventh century the history of Kairwán has been one of gradual decay. The pleasant places of the Abassiyeh and Raccadah have become shapeless mounds; the power of its rulers has been gradually merged in that of the Beys of Tunis; and the halo of sanctity and exclusiveness which surrounds it has alone saved it from actual effacement. Its story and traditions rendered Kairwán a Moslem Rome—revered throughout Western Islam, but the particular sanctuary of the tribes which encamp around it. Kairwán has had its theologians, historians, philosophers, and poets: they, however, have all passed away. The famous Schanoun died there towards the end of the ninth century; and Kairwán has its own annalist—the celebrated Sheikh Ben Naji. For years Kairwán has lived on traditions and hopes. Thirty years ago Sheikh Amír Abádah fanned the expiring flame, and announced that Kairwán would one day receive the remains of the founder of the Moslem faith. In spite of its vicissitudes, Kairwán in its decline always remained the virgin Moslem town of Northern Africa. “De là,” writes M. Guérin, “l’espèce de sainte et mystérieuse auréole dont la foi Musulmane l’entoure; les caravans qui s’y rendent constamment de tous les points de la Tunisie viennent s’y retremper en quelque sorte dans l’Islamisme; sa grande mosquée dont toutes les pierres, suivant une tradition populaire, que les Imáms ont soin de perpétuer dans les masses, seraient venues miraculeusement se poser d’elles-même à la place qu’elles occupent, et sans cesse visitée avec un profond respect par les adeptes du Coran: les sanctuaires de ses santons sont également le but de pélerinages fréquents; tout cela entretient dans l’esprit des masses un fanatisme que rien jusqu’ici n’a pu affaiblir.” Reasons such as these have rendered the past, present, and future of Kairwán a matter of deep interest wherever the faith of Islam exists; and it is hardly to be wondered at that the Moslem press of Turkey, Egypt, and India has dwelt with peculiar earnestness on the entry of a Christian army into this one remaining stronghold of their common creed in Africa.