Qualla: Ribat of Sousse https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse 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/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ribat of Sousse https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse Ribat of Sousse: Introduction https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse/ Photo credit Fehmi bouguezzi, CC BY-SA 4.0. The marble columns in the Ribat of Sousse were looted from churches on Malta. After the Aghlabid dynasty captured the Byzantine city of Melite, modern Mdina, in 870, plundered marble and columns were shipped across the Mediterranean and incorporated into this coastal fortress in Sousse. It is a detail that captures the essential character of the building: pragmatic, layered with the spoils of conquest, and shaped by the realities of Mediterranean power politics in the early Islamic centuries.

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Image: Fehmi bouguezzi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/snre-ribat-of-sousse-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ribat of Sousse: A Fortress for Faith and War https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse/ Photo credit IssamBarhoumi, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ribat of Sousse was most likely founded in the late eighth century during the tenure of the Abbasid governor Yazid ibn Hatim al-Muhallabi, who died in 787. In the year 800, the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid granted the governorship of Ifriqiya to Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, found...

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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/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/snre-ribat-of-sousse-a-fortress-for-faith-and-war.mp3 0:06 2 full Ribat of Sousse: The Oldest Inscription https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. A marble inscription plaque set above the entrance to the cylindrical southeast tower bears what scholars consider the oldest surviving Islamic-era monumental inscription in Tunisia. Some researchers have interpreted the date it records as the year of the ribat's original foundat...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/snre-ribat-of-sousse-the-oldest-inscription.mp3 0:06 3 full Ribat of Sousse: Architecture of Innovation https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse/ Photo credit IssamBarhoumi, CC BY-SA 3.0. The ribat is built of stone, forming a square walled enclosure roughly 38 meters on each side and 11 meters high. Inside, two stories of galleries surround a courtyard, with rooms for garrison soldiers on the ground floor and a prayer hall on the upper level. The prayer hall cont...

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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/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/snre-ribat-of-sousse-architecture-of-innovation.mp3 0:06 4 full Ribat of Sousse: The Tower and the Sea https://qualla.com/ribat-of-sousse/ Photo credit Yamen, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cylindrical tower rising above the southeast corner was most likely intended as a lighthouse, its elevated position making it visible to ships approaching the coast. A spiral staircase inside allows visitors to climb to the top, where the view sweeps across the medina of Sous...

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Image: Yamen | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/r/e/ribat-of-sousse-wp/snre-ribat-of-sousse-the-tower-and-the-sea.mp3 0:06 5 full