Tunisian Tour. 2--Sidi Bou Said(突尼西亞之旅.2--西迪.布. 賽伊德)

Cont'd
Our next stop in the tour is a really beautiful little town some 20 km north of Tunis: Sidi Bou Said. This town was originally a little known fishing village called Jebel El-Manar (or fire mountain) because there used to be a fire burning at the spot where we find the present lighthouse to help returning fishing boats to berth safely at the village port at night. We were told by the local guide that it got its name from a Muslim saint Abu Said ibn Khalef ibn Yahia Ettaimini El-Beji, born in 1156 at Beja, who first studied and taught religion and science at the Zitouna mosque in Tunis, then went for a long pilgrimage to the Middle East and upon his return, retired for meditation in this village as a marabou/marabout and eventually died and was buried here in 1231. A marabou ( derived from Arabic word "mourabit" or "mrabet" , means "one who is garrisoned", referring to the religious volunteers who manned the ribats (small frontier fortifications) during the Muslim conquest of the Magreb in the 8th century) is a Qur'an scholar or religious teacher or a wandering holy men who survive on alms or a murshid ("Guide" or spiritual director) in the Sufi tradition who would sometimes make amulets for good luck or preside at various Islamic ceremonies, tell the future and otherwise act as a guide to the lives of his followers. But today, "marabout" in the Berber language means a saint  or simply a teacher, who leads lodges or schools (called "zaouïa") of a Sufi tradition called Tariqah (طريقه Ṭarīqah: "way", "path" seeking for the "ultimate truth"). Abu Said is regarded by the residents here as a local saint and his mausoleum here has now become a place for pilgrimmage. In the 18th century, the Husseinite Beys (Turkish governors who later conducted themselves as  kings) and other wealthy people began building villas and residences here and it gradually becomes a small town.

The town from a distance

The town upon closer inspection as our coach drove uphill

This type of trellised window shade is common all Muslim countries where ladies who are not supposed to be seen by male strangers can take a peek at what's outside the house. What's special here is that they are painted blue. But as we moved along the road, we found that here, the color blue is not special at all. I learned later that blue is believed by the inhabitants of West Africa to have the power to dispel evil. But the practice of painting the doors and windows blue and the walls of the houses white did not begin until the arrival here of a French painter and musicologist specializing in Arabic music, Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger, born as Boulogne-Billancourt ( 1872-1932) who wrote a famous six-volume La Musique Arabe (1930, 1959) and helped organize the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music. He lived and died here. The little palace he built here, called Ennejma Ezza(o)hra  between  1909-1921 now houses the Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes. He helped to revive the musical genre known as ma'luf during the 1920s.

It's a real delight to see how much time and attention the residents of this quaint little town are prepared to spend on making their door a showcase of its owner's personality. This is a simple very 19th century or early 20th century petty bourgeois door painted blue and black

 

This one is much more elaborate

A simple but not inelegant design

 

This one is obviously a minimalist

This one prefers the design of the door itself more than the motifs on the door

 

3-tier pyramidal rectangles plus circles.

Apparently, thought's been given not just to the door alone!

This one seems to prefer massiveness & utility

 

a cast lamp above segmented arch plus motifs

Very Turkish feel with its massive arches painted white and black

Even no-nonsense restaurants dare not go against tradition

Nor the local mosque

They paint not only the doors blue but their windows and lids for their water or electricity meter boxes  too

Even broken ones! 

But every now and then, you find someone determined to be a loner!

Two don't make a crowd yet. A man with two widely spaced eyes and dribbling sealed lips?

Not only do they spend time doing their doors. Some pay as much attention to the floral patterns of their metal gates. Many Berbers of Tunisia went along as soldiers with the Carthaginians in their colonization of the Iberian Peninsula in search of tin and silver and brought back with them the traditions of Mallorca, Cordoba and other Andalucia  in southern Spain famous for making wrought iron windows and doors and grilles with floral patterns but there they are usually painted black . Here they take on the local blue.

This one happens to be an art gallery. This town has been called the town of artists. Many famous artists visited it or even lived here for a while like the German-Swiss abstract painter Paul Klée (1879-1940), the poster, painter and caricaturist and writer Gustave-Henri Jossot (1866-1951), the German Expessionist painter August Macke (1887-1914), The Sicilian painter of light Saro Lo Turco and Swiss expressionist painter and stained glass artist Louis Moillet (1880-1962). Tunisian artists in Sidi Bou Said are members of Ecole de Tunis ( the Tunis school style of painting) , painters like "the father of Tunisian painting" Yahia Turki (1903-1969) , Brahim Dhahak (1938-2011) and the co-founder of the School of Tunis style of painting, Ammar Farhat (1911-1987). The famous post-modernist French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) also lived there for a number of years while teaching at the University of Tunis.

Paul Klée :Castle and Sun, 1928 (from the internet)

Paul Klée:   Red Balloon 1922  (from the internet)




Gustave-Henri Jossot:  the Geese 1902 (from the internet)

August Macke:  View into a lane 1914 (from the internet)



Saro lo Turco: Scenari della  Grande Ifrikia, Carthage 1997 (from the internet)



A painting by Yahia Turki from the internet




 Painting by Brahim Dhahak (from the internet)


Painting by Ammar Farhat (from the internet)



However, there are no such paintings on sale in this art gallery. I'm not complaining though because even if it did, I wouldn't be able to afford them.



They do have the traditional plates and tiles though,



and some nice water colors but unsigned: most probably reproductions



Another such for sale



Not only are the doors painted blue.



So are the windows and their frames. We were told that all residents here get a subsidy from the local government to preserve this 19th century tradition as a tourist attraction.

    

perhaps even for little windows like this and its pipes too!



I couldn't help wondering why the lamp above this door is not painted blue? Too few dinars involved to be bothered?



A blue gate



So this is the kind of bricks they use to build their houses: hollow bricks contain air, a good insulator against both heat and cold, something certainly needed here because the diurnal range can vary by more than 10 degrees centigrade depending on whether the sun is still in the sky or hidden by layers of clouds.

How relaxed one feels strolling along the stone-paved streets

whether up or down

walking up the busier streets

or peeking into quiet alleys

occasionally walking up out of curiosity to find if there's anything interesting up there

or turning a corner



It's rare to find a street as wide as this in this little town.



But wide or narrow, they are all paved with cobble stones



What a surprise to find instead of mere cobble stones, blue doors or blue windows, blue grilles etc. something much more interesting to comfort my eyes.




All of a sudden, she turned 8 again and it's hotch scotch time!

residents displaying their native handicraft against the walls

Quite a number of the houses in this town are hidden behind narrow arched passageways leading to the courtyard

There are a few family type take-away salad bars on the way up

or  an ice cream parlour

and candy store: the Tunisians are famous for making "nougats"



many cafés can be accessed only through the courtyard corridors

 

But not all.



This one is called "Au Bon Vieux Temps" (To the good old days)



This looks an authentic Arab restaurant, complete with blue patterned door, blue stand, reception table and mosaic wall, Turkish arches ....






The buxom receptionist

There are many things on sale in Sidi Bou Said but not necessarily in formal shops



But this one sure is


 
Everything seem just laid out without any concern for co-ordination



But that shop was not alone in carrying on business in this traditional style.  

Some plates with intricate Arabic designs lying on the floor and gauze above what appears to be the trellised lid of a drain!

This camel looks to me to be a bit confused why he should find himself in the middle of some blue dishes.

And the position of this tortoise doesn't appear much better. No, no, no,  perhaps not so bad after all. At least its colors and patterns do seem to mesh in much better with its immediate environment?  

They all sell more or less the same kind of stuffs for tourists: carpets, rugs, mats, plates, dresses, little souvenirs, mosaic tiles  etc.



Wall spaces are never wasted



Hanging dolls! Judging from the way they glare at me, perhaps these men in their chechias and jebbas don't appear too happy being treated that way.



or are they complaining that they are one rank beneath that of a bird cage?



Drums, camels, baskets, frames, plates lying in an indifferent heap on the pavement .



An in the air above, there's little chance that the space below the canopies would be left unused.



Of course the free public space of the kerbsides can't possibly be slighted



no matter how precarious such space may be ( perhaps "desert flowers" are used to that?)



even if it may completely render pedestrian passage completely impassible



But this shop is a bit special. It sells not only baskets, rugs, mats and carpets. It sells some paintings too: full of fiery colors

The old fashioned pots, stove and pans beside them: the Berbers and Phoenicians have been expert metal workers for more than 2500 years working with tin from Britain or Spain and copper from Cyprus 

More paintings on the other side of the shop entrance



This one is much calmer. It's a bit strange to see paintings lumped together with mats and carpets though but...



And it being a country in which 98% of the population are Muslims, how could there be no mosque here? Is this the entrance to the mosque where  Abu Said taught the faithfuls here?

I was a bit surprised that everywhere we went, we found these orange trees.

 

Here's another one, laden with fruit 

 

No body seems interested in harvesting them. But one of our tour group members did pick one or two. I don't know if they're any good. But one thing I'm sure of. Ever since he picked them, his lips had been sealed. I didn't hear him tell anyone else the results of this act of audacity. Nor did I see him doing the same anywhere else again.

The Tunisians seem to have a love of gardening.

See what I mean? 

That's a 3-fork garden restaurant

 They seem to have no particular aversion to cactus in their gardens 

Flowers beside a door

Creepers outside a house 

Creepers and plants all over the gate

They reach almost to the level of the roof

or might take up the entire width of an uphill path

 

A  creeper outside a shop, though all emaciated by the cold weather

A little daisy by the wayside

more roadside flowers

Stars above a star! 

We're told that this is the reason why we were made to walk uphill for half an hour.  Below is is the former fishing port, now a mooring place for pleasure crafts.

We are told that across the seas, it's Italy. With all those clouds around, how do you expect me to know!

I thought that the path beside the restaurant below might take us down to the sea. But I was wrong.  

A man deep in thought. What's he thinking about?

What is this wheel doing here?

and two more !!!

A closer view of the harbour

Mint tea here for just one Dinar

The harbour from a different perspective

Really nice spot for a tête-à-tête

We were told that on a sunny day, we could see much further away. I'm sure that's right but.... 

Ah, ... at last...a bit of blue sky

Even down at where our returning coach was waiting, the Sidi Bou Saidians haven't abandoned their blue and white.

             

                "Kanechiwa kangei, come, see, one dinar, one dinar, one dinar..."  

All different kinds of doors! 

                                                           Fancy bird cage

masked women

Colorless contrite men below masked women in their colorful sefseris ! Perhaps in Tunisia, that only happens on the shop floor for tourists?