The natural limits of the Sfax area coincide with those of the governorate bearing also the same name. It covers 7545 km2, i.e., 4,6 % of the total area of Tunisia Its population is about 917.000 inhabitants (2009 census), distributed between 16 delegations and so many municipalities, and representing little less than 10 % of the Tunisian population. The estimated number of inhabitants in Tunisia is over 10400.000 inhabitants, with a rate of natural demographic increase of the population of 1.19 % in 2008. It has to do with a demographic configuration which is characterized by quasi-total uniformity in the cultural and religious points of view, and by a strong proportion of young people (up to the age of 29 years), reaching in 2008, 53.5 % of the total population.
The governorate of Sfax represents one of 24 governorates (wilaya ) of Tunisia, themselves divide d into delegations (moatamadiya ), which are partitioned into sectors (imada ). The administrative and spatial apportionment of the country responds to political and socioeconomic imperatives and reflects a strategy of country planning and a formation of an urban network covering all the country, for a better control of growth by the concerned authorities.
The Tunisian political system is a republican system. The executive power is exercised by the president of the republic, elected by universal ballot. He is assisted by a Prime Minister. The legislative power is accountable to a bicameral parliament, including a house of deputies and a house of councillors, while the judiciary enjoys an independence guaranteed by the constitution. Tunisia is member of several international organizations: UNO, UA, UMA, Arab League, UNESCO, ALESCO, ISISCO, IMF (INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND), FAO, OCI, WHO, OMT, WIPO … etc. Belonging to the area of low plains, and located in central-eastern Tunisia on a coastline of over 230 km, the region of Sfax is characterized by its low and little contrasted relief and consists of low plains and alluvial depressions.
Its semi-arid climate, with a low rainfall rarely exceeding 200 mm, allows only a modest vegetation cover for its land and is characterized by natural light wind, but it favours dry crops, including olive and almond. Throughout several successive generations the Sfaxian farmers have been able to accumulate a vast know-how in this respect.
The landscape of the Sfax hinterlands offers the charming view of the smoothly unfurling olive trees planted in straight lines drawn with perfect rigor along the horizon.
At harvest time, which begins in October, the groves are full of excitement: joyous men and women get down to pick the ripe fruit of this divinely blessed tree. a bit farther away, and as soon as we approach the urban area, the landscape changes. In fact, it is the fields of fruit trees—among which almond trees which well before the end of winter--that seem dressed in immaculate white blossoms.
Bordering on the sea side, alongside the Sfaxian natural harbour, a perfect archipelago, Kerkennah, deploys its islands and islets in the picturesque sites. This archipelago has provided, through its tumultuous history, one of the most protected stations in the Mediterranean basin, because of the unfathomable sea that surrounds it from all sides.
Its important port, mainly used in commercial and military activities, connects the basins with the western coast Mediterranean. Latin sources reported that after the Second Punic War, in 2002 BC. BC, the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, stationed there before going into exile in the East. The Kerkennah islands are in a way a shortcut of the civilisations of the Mediterranean Sea. They have experienced human presence from the stone ages, but from the seventh century BC, it was the Punic and Roman civilisations that had the most inseminating effect on the isle. While exhuming the remains of numerous vestiges, archaeological excavations confirmed the sources written about the economic and cultural boom that these islands have experienced, marked by unprecedented urban development testified by the existence of vast areas of housing, temples and of the most flourishing economic establishments, particularly in the city of Cercina, capital of the archipelago.
Throughout the different Islamic eras, Kerkennah played a key role in the defensive system of along the Ifriqyan coasts, evidenced by the massive fort called Burj al-Hissar, which gives a view over the excavated archaeological site in Cercina. But the archipelago has experienced several periods of unrest, especially during the Zirid era (eleventh century); then the ravaging occupation by the Normans of Sicily in the twelfth century. It exclusively owes its liberation to the intervention of the Almoahadi dynasty.
Later in the sixteenth century, Kerkennah suffered from the repercussions of the struggle between the Spaniards and the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. During the struggle against colonialism, Kerkennah was the stronghold of unionism. Now aspiring for a bright future, particularly thanks to irrigated crops and an ambitious eco-tourism, the island is witnessing a considerable revival. While still on board the ferry serving the navigating itinerary between the island and the shore, the visitors of Kerkenah can gain the impressive sight of its fixed fisheries (Charfiya), surrounded by hedges of palms, which capture a species of fish so appreciated by Sfaxians.
Just like the rest of the country, the region of Sfax has certainly known human presence since the earliest times of prehistory, but very few traces have survived such presence, unlike the extensive vestiges left by the different and successive civilizations in Tunisia. Many cities have flourished in those lands. Maps, itenareries and ancient texts mention the presence of a town called Taphrura, located north of the town of Thaen, probably the site of current city of Sfax according to some historians.
But this has not been confirmed by archaeologists, who remain silent on this topic, because no substantial physical evidence has been found in this regard. By virtue of appearing in texts, the topographic designation of the town has been engraved in the collective memory, and the absence of certainty helped the myth turn into reality. A large-scale urban project has come to revive the memory of this mysterious city and reconcile the city of Sfax with the seaside through cleaning its polluted coasts and filling approximately 400 hectares reclaimed from the sea, after having for several decades suffered from the economic model adopted by the municipal officials of the time.
Located about ten miles south of Sfax on the road to Gabes, Thaenae, another ancient city, has experienced a great economic and urban boom which reached its peak in the mid-third century. After a period of recession, due to the vicissitudes that had greatly affected the province of Africa Romana, current territory of Tunisia, Thaenae would prosper during the 4th century. Having its enclosures still preserved, fitted with two entrances, the Thaenae covers a total area exceeding 80 ha. Among the monuments of the site, there are several villas and a number of thermal units of which the most spectacular is certainly the complex called Thermes des mois. In the Islamic era, as of the seventh century, the city was gradually abandoned in favor of the new city, founded in the mid-ninth century, and called Safãqis (Sfax).
Farther and always on the road to Gabes, about 45 km downstream from the main road, appears an impressive fortress called Borj Yunga. Founded by the Byzantines and later refurbished to be used by the Aghlabid dynasty, this immense monument exhibits its enclosures still in a reasonably good condition, among the ruins which historians have identified as the ancient city of Macomades Minores, an important religious centre in Roman times.
North-east of the city of Sfax, about 45 km away from the coast and not far from the village of Botria, lie the remains of a great city, stretching over more than 100 ha. It is namely Acholla, a city known for its thermal stations, such as the Baths of Trajan, and a number of luxurious villas, like the House of Crawfish and the House of Neptune’s Triumph. Known as a harbour station, primarily commercial in nature, which enjoyed illustrious prosperity in the second century, Acholla was probably founded by Maltese settlers, simultaneously with the instigation of Carthage. This explains the Mediterranean vocation of the city of Sfax throughout successive millennia of history, and also its age-old openness to the sea.
The city of Sfax was founded during the rule of the Aghlabide Dynasty, under the reign of prince Ahmad Ibn Al-Aghlab, in the middle of the ninth century, historians and chroniclers affirm. It was established as an extension of a small hamlet of fishermen, farmers and other merchants, grouped around a Ribat, i.e. a sort of small fortress, known today as Kasbah. Being a great founder of urban sites, the Emir sent Kazi Ali bin Salem al-Bakri to accomplish this mission. The ramparts and the mosque were apparently the first monuments to be constructed. The city was then built with a view over the sea, probably on a virgin site, a hill called Jebel al-Nour, as reported by the city’s collective memory.
There is still an extramural structure: a modest mausoleum bearing the name of Jebel Sidi al-Nour. Such a quasi-unconquerable site was protected by a chain of fortifications which dotted the coast, by means of either Arab-Muslim vestiges or monuments dating back to the Byzantine era, or else allocated to other historical origins: Ksar Ziad; Borj GAFTA (Nadhour Sidi Mansour), Burj Yunga, etc. Probably the best preserved in the Arab-Berber world, the ramparts of Sfax, initially built with brick, were throughout the periods of architectural renovation reconstructed using local limestone material. Historians agree that the city probably owes its name to this huge wall. The topographic label would possibly be derived from a trilateral morphological root (SFK), which means to protect, to surround by a wall. The name Sfax would mean for the indigenous of the time “the city with ramparts.”
Being contemporary with these unassailable fortifications, the mosque epitomises the elegant austerity of Ifriqiya architecture. During the era of the Zirid dynasty, 10th and 11th centuries, the mosque underwent significant changes for which it owes the beautiful refurbishment of its eastern facade. Later in the eighteenth century, during the Ottoman era, it was expanded several times. Under the Aghlabid dynasty, known by historians as great builders, Sfax witnessed, like the rest of Ifriqiya, a remarkable growth especially marked by the development of the covered or open air souks, or of hydraulic engineering. The endemic water shortages prevailing over the region has led the city of Sfax—since the time of its early foundation—to install gigantic hydraulic facilities for supplying drinking water to the inhabitants, just like the example of Kairouan, the contemporary capital of the Aghlabid dynasty.
Two sets of sites constitute today archaeological sites benefiting from urban planning: one is located at the foot the walls on their north-west side; the other has been integrated in the Green Park of Sfax al-Jadida, New Sfax. These historical monuments are made of three constituents: there is a first circular decanting basin, connected by a junction canal leading to a second larger basin, having the same shape—that of a reservoir--communicating with a third vaulted cistern through a drawing up bay. The basins (or Fesqiya in the vernacular) are fed by rainwater, which is channelled by the Wadi el Qanater, located upstream—as reported by collective memory.
The Arab geographers and chroniclers of the time never ceased praising this so prosperous city, whose dynamic traditional marketplaces (“souks”) rivalled those of Kairouan. The chronicler El Bakri, who lived in the eleventh century, tells us about the city’s weaving workshops producing bed sheets which were as carefully woven as those of Alexandria, as well as other types of fibre that were exported by land and by sea. Arts and sciences, particularly religious scholarship, were not far behind. Abu al-Hassan Ali al-Lakhmi, great theologian, offered at the time his teachings at the Madrasah (i.e. school) which used to bear his name (now Mosque al-Driba).
Nonetheless, the city and region of Sfax were not spared the risk and turmoil of history. Following the staggering blows directed at the city, during the mid-11th century, by the Hilalian invasions targeting the Zeridi Emirs, and subsequent to the ensuing weakening of the central power of the dynasty, the Sfax area experienced an ephemeral autonomy under the rule of iron by Hammou Ben Malil, who was close to the Zeridis of Sanhaja. Nonetheless, this man initiated the undertaking of reorganising the city and implementing several municipal works.
Taking advantage of the turmoil experienced by the entirety of Ifriqiya during the first half of the 12th century, the Normans of Sicily took away one by one the cities of the coast, including Sfax. However, the population quickly rebelled and ousted the invaders, causing by the same token the other occupied cities to get emancipated. This glorious episode of local fantasized history was, as it were, tattooed forever in the collective memory of the Sfax inhabitants, under the enigmatic name of Hajouja.
Later on, under the Hafsids dynasty, as of the 13th century, Sfax experienced a long period of prosperity and urban and economic development, though interrupted by a short interlude which lasted nine years. In the mid 14th century, Sfax fell in the hands of Banu Makki, the sovereigns of Gabes—southern coastal state city in full expansion—where they enjoyed strong power.
The sovereigns of the Hafsid dynasty undertook in Sfax large-scale urban works perpetuated by inscriptions on stone. The city owes them the restoration work of the two city gates, Bab-Jebli north and Bab Diwan-south, as well as the building of a prestigious set of water cisterns (north of the city ramparts) equalling the number of the days of the year, called Nasiriyah, after the name of Sultan An-Nasser.
In the 16th century, Sfax experienced a period of unrest caused by the Hispanic-Turkish rivalries in the Mediterranean basin, which rang the death knell of the Hafsid dynasty. In the following century, during the reign of Mouradite dynasty—of Turkish origin--there appeared the beginnings of a general recovery which would gain momentum a century later thanks to the development of the maritime business with the countries of the East.
A Sfaxian family effectively contributed to this growth. Ali bin Ahmad al-Charfi belongs to this family of ship-owners and scholars who specialised, for eight or nine generations at a row, in cartography. Following the legacy of Arab geographers, especially Al-Idrissi, and having also assimilated the knowledge of Greek and Latin scientists inn this area, they established maps and plotted world charts, now preserved in European libraries. Ali bin Ahmad al-Charfi is the author of a nautical chart dating from 1551: it is an atlas comprising several maps, including those of several countries of the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea. These exceptional documents contain information on the coasts, ports and the sea. Such maps--considered as an important contribution to universal knowledge--were certainly useful to commercial shipping and therefore confirmed the maritime potential of the city of Sfax.
Another emblematic figure of Sfa is Sheikh Ali Nouri. Born in 1643, he studied theology and science in Sfax, Tunis and Egypt, in respective order. Once back to his hometown, and being equipped with his qualifications and diplomas, he proceeded to founding the zaouia (religious shrine) which bore his name. It was in fact a madrasah where teachings of the time were offered to disciples but whose influence went beyond the borders of the Sfax region. Sheikh Ali Nouri, theologian and well-versed in letters, was distinguished by the diversity of his activities since, in addition to his educational responsibilities, he was an artisan weaver. Yet, in the collective memory of Sfax his name remains associated with to the sea sciences. Historians affirm that he practiced racing and that, under his scholarly leadership, the city was equipped with a small fleet of warships in anticipation of Christian attacks, especially the Knights of Malta. He died in 1705. in fact, if there is a saint benefactor of the city of Sfax, it can only be Sheikh Ali Nouri. Paradoxically, he has no tomb, since he was buried, upon his request, outsidenthe ramoparts of the city. His tomb, being recently renovated, is adjacent to the regional headquarters of the Central Bank of Tunisia, located at Sfax Al-Jadida.
In July 1881, when the French armada anchored off the fortified city and its southern suburbs, the residents of Sfax and its hinterland, faithful to their tradition, fiercely defended their city despite the modest means they had at their disposal, having nothing to oppose their colonisers except some precarious weapons and their own bravery. Sheikh Charfi and Mohamad Kammoun commanded the resistance from inside the fortress, whereas Ali bin Khalifa, Kaid of Naffet, led his horsemen in the hinterland. After a fierce urban resistance, the Sfax town (Medina)—this city of medieval origin--fell into the hands of the enemy.
The urban planning of the Medina is characterized by a quasi-regular enmeshed design, its unceasing centrality and its hierarchy now, so to speak, fallen into disuse. Being the centre of the city, the Great Mosque represents at the same time of the place of worship, culture and collective socialising (e.g. marriage contracts, receiving condolences at funeral services, etc.). It is the centre around which were arranged, according to a segregated hierarchical distribution, residential neighborhoods as well as economic headquarters (trade and craftsmanship). Often fused in the same space, artisan jobs and businesses were grouped by virtue of corporate and professional affinities in the souks with shophs set in linear design, sometimes located in arched roofs or in vaulted open air speces. The least annoying ones were located the closest to the mosque. Indeed, far from being spontaneous and unplanned, such urban design is a well-thought or even sophisticated mode of social aggregation.
The medina of Sfax is also a sophisticated model of architecture: architecture of historical monuments with discreet charm, subscribed within the pure Ifriqiyan tradition (e.g. the Great Mosque), alongside residential architecture pertaining to fairy tales. This architecture–labelled traditional—emanates from cumulative empirical knowledge and a legacy of architectural know-how, leading to the development of normative models. Tradition means in this case a regulatory discipline which confers upon architecture a common vocabulary that only distinguishes individual variations and adjustments.
We are here talking about an architecture constantly rich with its qualities, but often threatened by the processes of transformation induced by changes in utilisation and in shapes as well as by modifications in apertures and textures. But isn’t refurbishing a necessary stage to prepare the monuments to new classifications in harmony with socio-economic and cultural evolution?
However, despite the changes that inescapably affect the Medina, the latter still retains its reference value. Much more than that, it is these very changes, in combination with conservation efforts, that continue to reinvent the Medina as a living heritage. Here comes the paradox, because the architectural legacy—which is often regarded from the perspective of its static dimension resistant to change, is experienced through the dynamics of socio-cultural realities and change. If the traditional balance is disturbed, another sort of balance—which takes into account the urbanization of the entire city—will then take over.
This si the essence of the Medina of Sfax: a historical nucleus, but continually updated; a space of memory, but one that is constantly renewed, a collective memory that is paradoxically meant to be prospective (rather than retrospective), because it can only be a conciliator between the past and the present--having always lived in harmony with its urban environment.
Formerly, in the late spring season when the almond blossoms covered their foliage and the fruits ripened, the Sfaxians used to leave the congestion and the misty conditions of the old town (Medina) and join in their countryside residence, called Borj and situated within a large strip of land called Jnene (i.e. orchard) in order to enjoy the freshness of countryside air and pick orchard fruit. They would only leave the Jnene with the advent of the first wave of autumn rainfall (ghasselet inwader). Being scattered residential units in the countryside, these Jnenes served as summer homes for the majority of the medina inhabitants.
Having appeared apparently in the 17th century, the Borj of the first generation consists of a storeyed residential house, without courtyard, offering from the outside the view of a massive silhouette substantially reduced by the tilt of the walls where we can see a few openings, certainly designed so for security reasons. Later in history, these homes underwent changes inspired by the architecture of the Medina, particularly due to the addition of the courtyard, porches and shared space, and subsequently turned into permanent residential locations. The area of the Jnene constituted a real estate reserve for the expansion of the city and helped with the process of tracing a well-planned scheme of urbanisation.
Already in the 17th century, the fact that the city was bordering the sea and that it witnessed a considerable demographic had led to the emergence of the first suburb Rbat al-Qibla, itself surrounded by ramparts, just like the Medina, and built after its pattern. It is this area of the city that was to be later called the French District.
The colonial period was in turn marked by the construction of a new urban edifice, Bab Bhar, which took over the role of the suburb. It is a filled area reclaimed from the sea and whose architecture, sometimes Arab-inspired and some other times neo-classical or modern in style. Bab Bhar later became an integral part of the city heritage, whose flower-shaped ornament is unquestionably the city hall.
With the advent of independence, urbanisation gained the zone of cemeteries (New Sfax) and that of orchards and Jnenes, which were initially reserved for a scattered seasonal housing. Then, numerous outer-urban districts have been gradually formed around the city periphery.
Sfax al-Jadida (New Sfax) is famous for the variety of its architectural forms which are intended to have a modernist spirit. It is in the design of Sfax al-Jadida that the architects insist on to proving their skills by giving free rein to their unbridled imagination to produce creative and inventive architectural forms, without being chained by the constraints of urban servitudes.
Designed as a tentacle-shaped city, Sfax sees its economic role becoming stronger, thanks to the development of agriculture, fishing, industry, and services, but all such growth was not realised without a negative impact on the environment, especially maritime. It was not until the first decade of the 2000s, that the first project to reconcile the city with its environment was launched, namely through the implementation of the eco-friendly urban project of Taparura.
Today, Sfax offers the image of a metropolitan centre similar in shape to a well-knit web laboriously weaved by a spider. It is a high-spirited city in full dynamism that shows off, not without flamboyance, the magnificence of its vitality: a city with a prestigious past, but always experienced as live present story. This helps the observer have the impression that it has patent signs of a cumulative history and an opulent territory which has for long been fashioned by human action.
In addition to this effort of urban and socio-economic development, it wouldn’t be strange to find an active participation by many organisations, as well as a network of associations which are both prolific and dynamic. Thanks to favourable legislation, several organizations have emerged, whose number now approaches 800. Some are charitable organisations while others are cultural or social. Associative life is considered as the cornerstone of the civilising project of modern Tunisia. Therefore, holding a firm belief in the role to be played by the components of civil society in realising national options and in the accelerated march towards modernity, development and progress in the country, the government has taken measures to facilitate the creation of associations, particularly those which attract young people to the spread of digital literacy and virtual economy.
The rapid and dynamic development of business, commerce, industry and services, coupled with the continued development of agriculture, have turned the Sfax region, though naturally little hospitable, into a territory that creates wealth. This is obviously assignable to the work of its inhabitants who have managed to tame a hardly fertile land and a harsh region.
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