Kairouan is the 4th Holy City of Islam, after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The name of Kairouan would come from Kaïrawane (encampment). According to historians', towards 671, Oqba Ibn Nafii, companion of the Mahomet prophet, stop his cavalrymen in a valley, halfway of the East coast, ocupied by Byzantines, and of the Big Dorsal, occupied by the Berber ones. To give to its troops courage to fight without moving back, Oqba decides to found a city which will serve Islam until the end of time.