Manouba ( ') is a city in north-eastern

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, and is part the metropolitan area of

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, also called

Grand Tunis Grand Tunis or Greater Tunis (Arabic language, Arabic: ''تونس الكبرى'', French language, French: ''Grand Tunis'') is the largest metropolitan area in Tunisia, centered on the country's capital Tunis. It consists of four governorates: ...

. It is located at the west of Tunis city center at around . It is the capital city of Manouba Governorate. Manouba is well known for its university. It is also often viewed as a desirable place for family life because of its security, availability of various services and its high level of education.

History

Historically, Manouba is noted as the birthplace of the

sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

Sayyida ʿĀʾisha al-Mannūbiyya (1199–1267 CE), and until 2012 the city contained a shrine to her, supposedly her father's house. It was customary in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for the Beys of Tunis to make a ritual circuit of city's the great shrines on the 27th day of Ramaḍān (''

laylat al-Qadr In Islamic belief, Laylat al-Qadr () or Night of Power is an Islamic holidays, Islamic festival in memory of the night when the Quran was first sent down from Heaven in Islam, heaven to the world, the first Waḥy, revelation the Islamic proph ...

'') and visit this shrine. More recently, 'up until the Tunisian revolution of January 2011, once a week, on Sundays or Mondays, rituals were held ... During the day, the shrines were women's space, devoted to music and trance rituals. At night, they became men's space, dedicated to Ṣūfī ceremonies (''

dhikr (; ; ) is a form of Islamic worship in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited for the purpose of remembering God. It plays a central role in Sufism, and each Sufi order typically adopts a specific ''dhikr'', accompanied by specific ...

'' ...)'. However, on 6 October 2012, the shrine was burned down by religious extremists, thought to be young Salafis; ʿĀʾisha's catafalque was entirely destroyed. The ''Institute of Arabic Literature'' of the

White Fathers The White Fathers (), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (), and abbreviated MAfr, are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men). They were founded in 1868 by Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who w ...

, which would later become the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, had a study center in Manouba before it was moved to Rome in 1964.

Gallery

References

Communes of Tunisia Populated places in Manouba Governorate {{Tunisia-geo-stub