Souk El Blaghgia is one of the souks of the

medina of Tunis The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from ...

Etymology

''Balgha'' is an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word that refers to a babouche made of leather and which is considered as a part of the traditional clothes 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 ...

and the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

region in general.

Location

The souk is located in the centre of the Medina of Tunis, near

Al-Zaytuna Mosque Al-Zaytuna Mosque, also known as Ez-Zitouna Mosque, and El-Zituna Mosque (, literally meaning ''the Mosque of Olive''), is a major mosque at the center of the Medina of Tunis in Tunis, Tunisia. The mosque is the oldest in the city and covers an a ...

and between

Souk El Attarine Souk El Attarine (), or souk of spice traders, is the name by which most spice markets are referred to in Arab countries in the Middle East. Old cities (:ar:سوق_العطارين_(القدس), Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Tunis, Marrakach ...

and the

Kasbah A kasbah (, also ; , , Maghrebi Arabic: ), also spelled qasbah, qasba, qasaba, or casbah, is a fortress, most commonly the citadel or fortified quarter of a city. It is also equivalent to the term in Spanish (), which is derived from the same ...

Street. It is linked to Foundouk El Blaghgia.

History

It was founded in the 13th century by

Abu Zakariya Yahya Abu Zakariya Yahya (, Abu Zakariya Yahya I ben Abd al-Wahid (12031249) was the founder and first sultan of the Hafsid dynasty in Ifriqiya. He was the grandson of Abu Hafs Umar ibn Yahya al-Hintati, the leader of the Hintata and second in command ...

and then reconstructed again during the Ottoman era between 1756 and 1757. It was considered during the Husainid reign as one of the most important souks of the

Medina of Tunis The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from ...

Architecture

The whole souk is covered with

barrel vaults A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

. Also, it has a covered dead end surrounded by the shops. Nowadays, the souk has more than 70 shops.

Evolution

Since its foundation, the souk was specialized in producing and selling balghas (traditional men shoes) and ''chebrella'' (feminin version of the balgha). Yet, the arrival of european shoes, it started losing its importance. Nowadays, it is still specialized in shoes selling, but mainly modern ones with updated design for daily use and with a multiples choices for colours to satisfy all tastes.

Notes and references

{{Portal, Africa Blaghgia