Hara ( ar, الحارة ), now referred to as Hafsia,La Hara de Tunis en 40 photos de la collection de Bernard Allali
/ref> was the Jewish quarter 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 t ...

Etymology

''Hara'', meaning "quarter" in the Tunisian Arabic dialect, was derived from the four Jewish families who founded the neighborhood according to local folklore. In

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian, is a set of dialects of Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its over 11 million speakers aeb, translit=Tounsi/Tounsiy, label=as, تونسي , "Tunisian" or "Everyday Language" to distingu ...

, ''ḥāra'' refers exclusively to Jewish neighborhoods;Fitoussi, Margaux. ''Ḥāra of Tunis''
Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World
/ref> in Standard Arabic, the term simply means "neighborhood". The Hara of Tunis stood out from most

mellah A ''mellah'' ( or 'saline area'; and he, מלאח) is a Jewish quarter of a city in Morocco. Starting in the 15th century and especially since the beginning of the 19th century, Jewish communities in Morocco were constrained to live in ''mellah'' ...

s because it did not have walls that separated the Jewish-populated area from the other areas of the Medina.Tunis: The Hara, 19th & 20th-century photographs
/ref>

History

Origin

The origins of the Hara are not very well defined. According to R. Bonquero Voligny, the Jews had no right to spend the night in the

until the 12th century. They had to go out every day before the doors closed and take shelter in the outskirts of the city, especially in the village of

Mellassine ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. This made them vulnerable to robbery by looters.Allagui, Abdelkrim .''Juifs et musulmans en Tunisie''. Ed.Tallandier/Projet Aladin. 2016. {{isbn, 9791021020771.

Sidi Mahrez

According to legend, the Jews requested the intervention of

Sidi Mahrez Sidi Mahrez ben Khalaf or Abu Mohamed Mahrez ben Khalaf ben Zayn ( ar, سيدي محرز بن خلف; 951–1022) was a Tunisian Wali, scholar of the Maliki school of jurisprudence and a Qadi. He is considered to be the patron-saint of the city of ...

to convince the

Bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

to allow them to settle inside the

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

and protect themselves. For this purpose, they made two damascened daggers in gold and offered one of them to the Bey as a sign of respect and admiration. Then the

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

who led the delegation to meet the Bey told him that there was a copy in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, and that Sidi Mahrez, a faithful servant of the Bey, could bring it back with the help of his magical powers. In the meantime, the Jews implored Sidi Mahrez to play along and bring the dagger to the Bey, then to ask, as a reward, for the admission of ''hara'' (four) Jewish families inside the Medina. The

wali A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...

accepted and managed to convince the Bey to agree. Since Jewish families were numerous and widespread, under this agreement all the people who lived in

Mellassine ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

managed to enter. In order to choose the best location for the new quarter, the Bey asked Sidi Mahrez to throw his stick from the top of the minaret in the direction of the suburb of

Bab Souika , demolition_date=1861, coordinates= Bab Souika ( ar, باب سويقة) is one of the gates of the medina of Tunis. It was demolished in 1861. Its situation was between Bab El Khadra and Bab Saadoun Bab Saadoun ( ar, باب سعدون) is on ...

. The Jews built their first intramural dwellings in the history of Tunis where the stick fell.

Decline and Restoration

The Jewish community of Tunis resided in the Hara from the 13th century until they began moving from the Medina to

La Goulette La Goulette (, it, La Goletta), in Arabic Halq al-Wadi ( '), is a municipality and the port of Tunis, Tunisia. La Goulette is located at around on a sandbar between Lake Tūnis and the Gulf of Tunis. The port, located 12km east of Tunis, is th ...

during the

French Protectorate of Tunisia The French protectorate of Tunisia (french: Protectorat français de Tunisie; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في تونس '), commonly referred to as simply French Tunisia, was established in 1881, during the French colonial Empire era, ...

. It underwent a long process of rehabilitation, which began in the 1930s and continued after the

Independence of Tunisia Tunisian independence was a process that occurred from 1952 to 1956 between France and a separatist movement, led by Habib Bourguiba. He became the first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia after negotiations with France successfully had b ...

in 1956. According to the 1956 census, the Hara had 11,258 inhabitants, 7,638 of which were Jews. There are plans among the residents to restore the Sla El-Kebira, the Grand Synagogue of the Hara, and convert it into a Jewish museum.Muslim locals seek Tunis synagogue revival to honour once vibrant Jewish quarter

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

References

*Robert Attal
''L'évolution d'un ghetto nord-africain''
Publications de l'Institut des hautes études de Tunis. Mémoires du Centre d'études de sciences humaines. 1959.

External links

Harvard University exhibition of photographs on Tunis: The Hara

i24 News article on the revival of Jewish Quarter in El Hara, Tunis, 2018
Tunis Jewish ghettos Jews and Judaism in Tunis