Qualla: Medina of Sfax https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Medina of Sfax https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax Medina of Sfax: Introduction https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax/ Photo credit Hamed Gamaoun, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 977, the Arab traveler Ibn Hawqal passed through Sfax and described what he saw: a city surrounded by a beautiful olive grove, its oil exported to Egypt, the Maghreb, Sicily, and Europe. More than a thousand years later, the medina he visited is still inhabited, still functioning, still organized around the same great mosque that has anchored its center since the Aghlabid dynasty ordered its construction in 849. With 113,000 residents living within and around its medieval walls, the medina of Sfax is not a museum piece. It is a living city within a city, its souks still trading, its hammams still steaming, its domestic architecture still adapting to the needs of a modern population.

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Image: Hamed Gamaoun | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/snpt-medina-of-sfax-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Medina of Sfax: Built by Order, Shaped by Faith https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax/ Photo credit Sarah Murray, CC BY-SA 2.0. Inscriptions on the facade of the Great Mosque record the founding: the medina was built between 849 and 851, following orders from Abu Abbass Muhammad, the Aghlabid emir of Kairouan. The cadi Ali Ibn Salem oversaw the construction at Sfax. The Aghlabids had already built a forti...

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Image: Sarah Murray | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/snpt-medina-of-sfax-built-by-order-shaped-by-faith.mp3 0:06 2 full Medina of Sfax: The Architecture of Daily Life https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax/ Photo credit Archimouda, CC BY-SA 4.0. What distinguishes the medina of Sfax from other Tunisian medinas is the particularity of its domestic architecture. Houses built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the period of the city's greatest economic expansion, follow a distinctive pattern. The patio is cen...

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Image: Archimouda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/snpt-medina-of-sfax-the-architecture-of-daily-life.mp3 0:06 3 full Medina of Sfax: Markets, Hammams, and Heritage https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax/ Photo credit daly3d abd, CC BY 2.0. The souks are organized by specialty north of the great mosque, creating the economic center of the medina. This is traditional Islamic urban planning: sacred space at the core, commerce radiating outward, residential quarters beyond. Unlike many Tunisian medinas, Sfax has very f...

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Image: daly3d abd | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/snpt-medina-of-sfax-markets-hammams-and-heritage.mp3 0:06 4 full Medina of Sfax: A City That Survived Its Conquerors https://qualla.com/medina-of-sfax/ Photo credit Archimouda, CC BY-SA 4.0. The medina's walls have absorbed more than a millennium of upheaval. Under the Zirids in the tenth century, Sfax experienced an architectural renaissance even as the wider region descended into chaos. The city endured its first invasion under Ibn Melil from 1067 to 1099, supporte...

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Image: Archimouda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/p/t/medina-of-sfax-wp/snpt-medina-of-sfax-a-city-that-survived-its-conquerors.mp3 0:06 5 full