Bir El Hafey (Arabic: بئر الحفي) is a town and commune located at 34°55′48″N 9°12′00″E in the

Sidi Bouzid Governorate Sidi Bouzid Governorate (; ), sometimes spelt ''Sidi Bou Zid'', is one of the 24 governorates (provinces) of Tunisia. It is in central Tunisia and landlocked. It covers an area of 7405 km2 and has a population of 429,912 (2014 census). The ca ...

, in

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 ...

(Maghreb, North Africa). As of 2004 it had a population of 6,405.Recensement de 2004 (Institut national de la statistique)
Bir El Hafey is located about thirty kilometers south of Sidi Bouzid, in the southern foothills of the Tunisian ridge. Attached to the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, it is a municipality with 6,475 inhabitants in 2014. It is also the capital of a delegation. It is in crossroads position on the Kairouan-Gafsa axis because crossed by the RN3 while being connected to Sidi Bouzid, the chief town of the governorate.

History

Bir El Hafey is the modern site of the Ancient, notably Roman, city of Nara. H.H. Abdul Wahab identified Bir El Hafey with the medieval city of Jamunis (aka ''Jamūnis al-Sābūn''), one of the main cities of the Qammuda region. Jamunis is first mentioned in the 10th century, when it became the capital of Qammuda under the

Zirid dynasty The Zirid dynasty (), Banu Ziri (), was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from what is now Algeria which ruled the central Maghreb from 972 to 1014 and Ifriqiya (eastern Maghreb) from 972 to 1148. Descendants of Ziri ibn Manad, a military leader of t ...

, replacing the nearby city of Madhkur, which had been sacked by the forces of

Abu Yazid Abū Yazīd Makhlad ibn Kaydād Dajjal (; – 19 August 947), was a member of the Ibadi sect. He opposed the Ismaili Shia rule of the Fatimids in North Africa and sought to restore Ibadi dominance in the region. Known as the Man on the Donke ...

. However, Jamunis was probably an important city before this. It was the site of a battle in 1030 between the Zirid ruler

al-Mu'izz ibn Badis Al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs (; 19 January 1008 – 2 September 1062) was the fourth ruler of the Zirids in Ifriqiya, reigning from 1016 to 1062. His regent was his paternel aunt Saïda bint Mansur until he reached majority. Name Ibn Khallikan wro ...

and the

Zenata The Zenata (; ) are a group of Berber tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. Society The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun repo ...

Berbers, which al-Mu'izz won. Jamunis is no longer mentioned after the 11th century, having been sacked by the

Banu Hilal The Banu Hilal () was a confederation of Arab tribes from the Najd region of the central Arabian Peninsula that emigrated to the Maghreb region of North Africa in the 11th century. They ruled the Najd, and campaigned in the borderlands between I ...

Al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī (), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1094) was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West. Life Al-Bakri was born in Huelva, the ...

described the city of Jamunis as being surrounded by sand and

olive tree The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

s and having a strong fortress which served as an

agadir (granary) An ''agadir'' (, plural: ''igudar'' or ''iguidar'', "the wall" or "the fortified compound") is a fortified communal granary found in the Maghreb. In Morocco, ''agadir''s are most commonly found in the regions of the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas ...

. He wrote that it was surrounded by many large and prosperous villages.

Al-Muqaddasi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the '' nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syri ...

mentioned the village of Khawr al-Kaf as being among those villages. Jamunis also had many

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

and

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

orchards, as well as a jami mosque.

Ecclesiastical history

Nara was important enough in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Byzacena Byzacena (or Byzacium) (, ''Byzakion'') was a Late Roman province in the central part of Roman North Africa, which is now roughly Tunisia, split off from Africa Proconsularis. History At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Dioclet ...

to become a

suffragan bishopric A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led by ...

of the Metropolitan Archbishop of

Hadrumetum Hadrumetum, also known by #Names, many variant spellings and names, was a Phoenician Phoenician colonies, colony that pre-dated Carthage. It subsequently became one of the most important cities in Roman Africa before Vandal Kingdom, Vandal and Uma ...

, but faded. There are three bishops documented from Nara. *Crescenziano participated in the

Council of Cabarsussi Cabarsussi was an ancient civitas (municipality) and bishopric in the Roman province of Byzacena (Roman North Africa), that is tentatively identifiable with ruins at Drâa-Bellouan in modern Tunisia. The current bishop is Terence Robert Curtin, a ...

, held in 393 by the Maximianists, a dissident sect of the

Donatists Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...

, and he signed the council's acts. * The Donatist Gennaro intervened at the 411 Carthage conference, which saw the Catholic and donatists from all over

Roman North Africa Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisi ...

debate. On that occasion the town had no Catholic bishops. *Vittore was present at the synod assembled in Carthage in 484 by King

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was ma ...

of the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

. After the council Vittore was exiled.

Titular see of Nara

The diocese was nominally in 1925 restored as a Latin

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

. Nara
at www.gcatholic.org. It has had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank : * Raffaele Angelo Palazzi (柏長青), O.F.M. (1928.06.15 – 1946.04.11) * Patrick Dunne (1946.08.08 – 1988.03.16) * Nino Marzoli, C.R. (1988.04.16 – 2000.05.24) *

Jerome Edward Listecki Jerome Edward Listecki (born March 12, 1949) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the eleventh archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 2010 to 2025. Listecki previously served as an auxiliar ...

(2000.11.07 – 2004.12.29), later Archbishop * Jerzy Maculewicz,

O.F.M. Conv. The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (O.F.M. Conv.) is a male religious fraternity in the Catholic Church and a branch of the Franciscan Order. Conventual Franciscan Friars are identified by the affix O.F.M. Conv. after their names. They are ...

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

(2005.04.01 – ...)

Population

In 2004 the population of the town was 5589, and in 2014 this had increased to 6475.

References

Sources and external links