Qualla: Medina of Tunis https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis 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/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Medina of Tunis https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis Medina of Tunis: Introduction https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis/ Photo credit Public domain. From above, it looks like chaos. Narrow streets branch and dead-end without apparent logic, rooftops press against each other at irregular angles, and the boundary between public thoroughfare and private dwelling dissolves into ambiguity. Colonial-era writers described the Medina of Tunis as dangerous, anarchic, a territory of ambush. They were wrong. Since the 1930s, ethnographers and urban historians have demonstrated that the Medina's layout follows precise sociocultural codes governing the relationship between public and private, sacred and commercial, male and female space. The apparent disorder is, in fact, an order so sophisticated that it took outsiders decades to read it.

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/snx1-medina-of-tunis-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Medina of Tunis: Founded Around a Mosque https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis/ Photo credit Sami Mlouhi, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Medina grew outward from the Zitouna Mosque beginning in 698, its main axis running between the mosque and the kasbah -- the seat of government -- to the west, then extending east to the Bab el Bhar gate. Expansions north and south created two suburbs: Bab Souika to the north...

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Image: Sami Mlouhi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/snx1-medina-of-tunis-founded-around-a-mosque.mp3 0:06 2 full Medina of Tunis: Reading the Streets https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis/ Photo credit IssamBarhoumi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Despite their apparent irregularity, the Medina's streets follow a logic comparable to the Roman cardo and decumanus. The main north-south and east-west axes intersect at the court of the Zitouna Mosque, creating a hierarchy of thoroughfares: main streets, secondary streets, and ...

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Image: IssamBarhoumi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/snx1-medina-of-tunis-reading-the-streets.mp3 0:06 3 full Medina of Tunis: Builders Across Centuries https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis/ Photo credit Credits to Mourad Ben Abdallah / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. Each dynasty left its architectural signature. The Muradid rulers of the seventeenth century were prolific builders: Hammouda Pasha constructed numerous souks and palaces, then in 1655 commissioned Ottoman architects to build the Hammouda Pacha Mosque with its elegant octagonal m...

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Image: Credits to Mourad Ben Abdallah / Wikimedia Commons | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/snx1-medina-of-tunis-builders-across-centuries.mp3 0:06 4 full Medina of Tunis: Living Heritage Under Pressure https://qualla.com/medina-of-tunis/ Photo credit Benmahjoub mohamed, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Medina is not a museum. Its 110,000 residents live in a historic fabric that still functions according to patterns established centuries ago, even as those patterns face modern pressures. The Hafsia quarter, once the Jewish hara, has undergone urban renewal. Domestic architec...

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Image: Benmahjoub mohamed | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/1/medina-of-tunis-wp/snx1-medina-of-tunis-living-heritage-under-pressure.mp3 0:06 5 full