Tunisia By Henk Overberg

 It has been interesting to follow from afar as a disinterested but not uninterested observer the developments that have been taking place in Tunisia since the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, which sparked off the Arab Spring.   I have been fortunate to lead groups to visit Tunisia three times: twice prior to the revolution and once just before the recent elections.   We enjoyed all our visits to Tunisia, were made very welcome, and learnt a lot about people and country.  Within the time of our three visits, the country has certainly changed.

Two things that struck us especially were the changes in attitude: of the bureaucracy we came in contact with, and also of the people we met while travelling city and country.   We well remember how custom officials obstructed and delayed our arrival at Tunis Airport.  We had us wait for hours for no purpose, before they even started to think of issuing visas.  This upset our people greatly: we spent much time afterwards calming them.   Whenever we had to deal with officials we struck the same unfriendly attitude.  On our last visit officials and police had lightened up considerably, welcoming us with open arms, and were in general enthusiastic and helpful.   People we met on our pre-revolution visits were circumspect in their comments about officialdom. Where a comment was made they often mentioned frustration with the corruption of officials, unreasonable levels of taxation, restrictive rules of business, and the like.

Such attitudes had disappeared on our last visit early October 2011.   People had energy: they expressed hope that long established problems could be resolved and that a new future was dawning.   The hope was mixed with fear: hope that things might become better, but also fear that the old patterns might linger.   Much was expected of the forthcoming elections.

Looking at the situation from afar, it seems that the elections have had a positive effect on Tunisian society.   Moderate Islamists form the majority in government, and they are allied with centre-left groups: there seems to be no wish to establish an Islamist state.   A new constitution has been introduced.   The violence seen in Egypt, Libya and Syria has largely been avoided.

MR Henk Overberg in Matmata, Tunsian south east.
He is a senior lecturer in Deakin university Melbourne Australia

I think a number of factors have been at play here.   First, the old authorities, symbolized by ex-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, went quickly.   Second, there was little foreign interference, so that the proxy wars in Libya and Syria have been avoided.   Third, the army played a far less intrusive role in the transition than it has done in Egypt, which led to a greater public acceptance of transitional arrangements.   Fourth, Tunisian society is relatively homogeneous, and there has neither been the inter-tribal warfare that has so disfigured Libya, nor the Islamic-Christian confrontation that is complicating the situation in Syria.   Without wishing to trivialize the suffering of Tunisians during the revolution, the level of antagonism in Tunisia was lower to a degree than it has been in Egypt, Libya, and Syria.

Will it last?   There is a real chance that it will.   The West had hoped for a transition to a Western-style secular political establishment.   Given the situation in Tunisia before the revolution, that was never likely to happen.   The polity under President Ben Ali was secular, but its secularism was linked with deep-seated patronage which generated wide-scale corruption.   In this context a secular outcome of the revolution was too much to hope for.   Yet with a moderate Islamic government in charge there is hope for the future.   Some of the signs have been good.    First, relatively uncorrupted elections were held.   Second, the population has by and large accepted the outcome.   Third, a constitution with reasonable democratic safeguards has been put into place.   Fourth, the whole process of transformation has been achieved in a context of relative absence of violence.   The next elections will provide a further measure of the success of the revolution.   If the present government is returned, well and good.   If such elections point to a change of government, then it remains to be seen whether the present lot in power will relinquish power without violence or corruption.   If such is the case, then Tunisia may well feel that a new future has dawned.              

The Rise Of Islamic Art in Tunisia (Part1)

The rise of Islam in the seventh century as a new faith has shaped the universal history since Arab-Muslims for more than five centuries became the new rulers of the Mediterranean sea.
After the death of the Prophet Mohamed, Arabs started to conquer new territories. One century later, their empire spanned from China to as far as Spain. This empire included Parthia, heir of a thousands year Persian culture, Alexandria, the capital of the Hellenic world, and Carthage, the most powerful Roman province and the capital of a brilliant Punic culture. By the year 800, Islam had become the official religion of the newly conquered territories, and the natives of these lands started to convert to Islam and many of them took their autonomy from central authority, Damascus and later Baghdad.
Ifriqiya, the heir of Roman Africa, was not an exception. Territories included Tunisia, the eastern part of Algeria and the west of Libya. With the establishment of an Arab-Muslim state in 700, Kairouan became the new capital instead of Carthage. Again with the new system established by the Arabs, Ifriqiya found itself again a leader of the whole Maghreb, the governor that ruled from Kairouan used to control a huge territory that extends from Tripoli to Spain.
Kairouan was the first city to be founded in the Muslim west, its mosque known as the mosque of Ukba Ibn Nafii was the first mosque in the Muslim west that became a model for the rest of Maghrebian and Andalusian mosques. In fact, the mosque of Cordoba follows the model of Kairouan's mosque. Nowadays, the mosque is considered a masterpiece of the Maghreb mosques, since it shelters the oldest pulpit in the Muslim world.

The minaret of the grand mosque of Kairouan

The Kairouan mosque is one of the first mosques to include a minaret, and its minaret follows the model of Roman watchtowers, and. The mosaic tower is represented in a mosaic in Ostia, Italy.

The oldest Minbar in the Muslim world. Photo taken in 1930

According to some Spanish-speaking guides in Tunisia, many Spaniards come to see the grand mosque of Kairouan and compare it to Cordoba's. French writers, such as Guy de Maupassant, admired the beauty. He wrote: "moved by sublime inspiration, erect a dwelling place for their God, a place made of pieces torn from crumbling towns, but one that is as perfect and as a magnificent as the purest conception of the the greatest stonemasons."
The mosque was erected by stones and pillars that were collected from the Roman sites that surrounded the city. The mosque and its prayer-hall are considered as a museum of Romano-Byzantine capitals. The pillars and the blocks were installed magnificently, displaying a rhythmic symphony of semi-circular horseshoe arches.

Mosaic from Ostia depicting Roman watchtower and served as a model for the Tunisian minarets.

The minaret of the mosque and its buttressed walls reflects its military aspect. The mosque was built as a military base for the Arabs who founded the city as a military base. The name Kairoaun is derived from the Persian language and means ‘camp’.

Aghlabid Pools in Kairouan

Due to its arid weather, Kairouan attracted refugees from Yemen, Sham (Syria) and the Arabic peninsula. With the locals of Ifriqiya, Kairaoun counted around 500,000 inhabitants. The problem of water appeared since the precipitations are rare. The rulers of Kairouan appealed an old technique of water collections; the Fesquiya. The Kairouanese engineers built the biggest hydraulic work in the Muslim world that still stands in Kairouan. They consisted of fifteen reservoirs. Every reservoir is divided into three elements; small pools, big pools and water tanks. They are filled by water coming from aqueducts and rain. The small pools have a capacity of 4000 cubic meters and the purified water goes to the bigger pools, 57000 cubic meters in capacity while the potable water is pulled up from the cisterns.
Nowadays they are recognized by the name the Aghlabid Pools. Its a name of a dynasty that ruled Ifriqiya, Sicily and south Italy from Kairouan for more than a century. They were the first to be independent from the central authority of Baghdad. Independence allowed Kairouan to be the metropolis of the Mediterranean Sea.
Thanks to its contribution to the Islamic and universal culture Kairouan was named as a World Heritage site in 1988.
The legacy of Islamic architecture
Mr Neji Djelloul, a holder of a PhD from Sorbonne university, said the architectural elements in the Islamic art has its meaning. The minaret symbolize the power. In Sunni towns, the mosque with its minaret occupies the center since they believe that the mosque is the main area for their several activities like praying and studying and ruling. The minaret is not only to call Muslims for prayer but also symbol of the authority.  He said also that the courtyard of the mosque was derived from the Roman forum because Muslims meet every Friday after prayer to talk and converse about their issues and daily problems.
Since they believe that the nation must be ruled by a descendent of the prophet (Ahlù-bayt), Shiites built the palace of the Caliph or the ruler in the center of the town while the mosque is on the corner and devoid of minaret because they built it in the corner of the ruler palace.
Mahdia was the first Shiite capital in the history of Muslim monarchies, founded by the Fatimid monarchy that was considered a descedent of the prophet Mohamed. The town planning reflects  Shiite beliefs. The mosque is on the edge of the peninsula while the palace of the Shiite caliph was raised in the center.
Mahdia and later Sabra Mansouriya in the outskirts of Kairouan served as models for the future Cairo founded by the same dynasty in 974.