Tunisian Tour. 3 - The Medina of Tunis (突尼西亞之旅.3--突尼斯之麥地那市集)

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Our next stop is the the old town of Tunis, called in Arabic "Medina" or more correctly the Medina Souk ( or Suuq). According to some historians, this part of Tunis was first built in the 723 by Obeid Allah ibn-al-Habhab to celebrate Tunis as the capital of Tunisia but other historians argued that its building was ordered by Hassan Ibnu-Nouauman who led the conquest of Tunis and Carthage. Whatever the truth may be, it has become a world heritage site since 1979 probably because it contains more than 700  monuments of different historical architectural styles eg. Roman or Byzantium, Andalucian and Arab, including palaces like La Marsa, Bardo and Ksar Said and the Dar-el-Bey (Bey's Palace) which combines a variety of architectural and decorative styles from many such  periods and is believed to stand on the remains of a Roman theatre as well the 10th century palace of Ziadib-Allah II al Aghlab, mosques, mausoleums like the Tourbet El Fellari, Tourbet Aziza Othman and Tourbet El Be,  about 200 madrassas or zouias (religious schools) like the El Bachia, Slimania, El Achouria, Bir El Ahjar, El Nakhla including in the case of the Zitourna Mosque, a university, oratories, fountains and historic shops (souk/ suuq) which showcase not only Islamic architecture, sculpture but also its urban planning and the arts under the two great Muslim dynasties which affected life in Tunisia, the Almohads (1127-1247 ) the second caliphate after the death of Mohammad (originally from Mecca but later based mainly in Damascus in what is now Syria and after being ousted in Damascus by the Abbisads moved to Cordoba, southern Spain and the Hafsids (first as governors on behalf of the Almohads but from 1229 to 1574 as kings in their own right). It is supposed to the the most completely preserved Islamic heritage site in North Africa. It was the commercial, economic, political and cultural centre of not only of Tunisia but also of the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe from the 12th century to the 16th century. About 100,000 or about a tenth of the population of Tunis still live in it. The buildings here can be divided into domestic houses, official and civilian buildings like government offices and libraries and commercial quarters eg. the neighborhood of El Bey Tourbet and the Kasbah district is where all the judges and politicians live whilst the streets of Pacha are mainly military and bourgeois.

This is Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul of Tunis, the only active Catholic Cathedral there, right outside the entrance to the Medina Souk. There are now an estimated 20,000 Catholics in Tunisia but not more than 500 of them regularly attend service, mostly in Tunis. This beautiful church was completed in 1897 when Tunisia was still a "protectorate" of France, something which first started in 1881. The other cathedral is St. Louis Cathedral in Carthage, a little north of Tunis, also built in the 19th century but after Tunisia got independent in 1956, the cathedrals were taken over by the Government but in exchange, the Catholic church was permitted to continue to operate because freedom to practice one's own religion is guaranteed by the Tunisian constitution, now being redrafted. The Anglicans and the Jews are also allowed to practice their own form of religion here.  Theoretically the archdiocese of Tunis operates 12 churches, 9 schools, several libraries, 2 clinics and a monastery and it does cultural and charitable work throughout the country.The history of the Jews in Tunisia goes back to Roman times. But there are now much less Jews in Tunisia than before. Prior to 1948, there were more than 105,000 Jews in Tunisia 70,000 of whom were subjects of the bey of Tunis, 30,000 of them French citizens, and 5,000 were Italian citizens but in the 1950s, around 55,000 of them immigrated to Israel and 40,000 to France and the rest to other countries. By 2011, only 700 Jews were left living in Tunis, with another 1,000 on the island of Dherba. Despite such small numbers, the Jewish community in Tunis still runs 3 primary schools, 2 secondary school and a yeshiva ( a religious school specializing in the study of Talmud and the Torah). On 12th January 2014, the Ennahda-led government led by Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, nominated René Trabelsi, a kippah-wearing Tunisian Jew from Djerba and the owner of a large tourist agency to be the new Minister of Tourism.

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

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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

Tunisian Tour. 1 Tunis: Carthage.(突尼西亞之旅.1-迦太基帝國遺址)

The trip to Tunisia proved a most rewarding journey both in terms of photographs taken and in filling out certain blanks in my knowledge of ancient history of certain Mediterranean civilizations and present day conditions of a mainly agricultural country at the northernmost tip of North Africa with a very rich and complex history heavily influenced by its historical and cultural heritage from Semitic Canaanite Phoenicia, Italy, Turkey,  southern Spain and France.

Tour to Fujian 4.2 -old Amoy (福建之旅4.2--舊日廈門)

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Our tour of Fujian concluded with a brief tour of the old Amoy which had been there long  before the 2nd World War (which in China meant the defensive war against the Japanese invasion which started in 1931) with suitable postwar and post-1978 modifications.

At the head of the street, we saw this sign which says that it's a Chinese cultural historical heritage street.

Tour to Fujian 4.1- A Garden City (福建之旅4.1--花園城市)

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One of my most surprising findings in this trip is how outwardly clean and pleasant the physical environment in Amoy is.

 If possible, I would take a leisurely stroll along the banks of the enclosed sea/lake very morning.