M'saken


M'saken is a town in north-eastern Tunisia, close to Sousse.
WWW Official Site

Etymology

The origin of the word comes from "Msaken" masken meaning "habitat", "house" or "dwelling".
This refers to "Houses of the Nobles".

Administration

The town is the administrative center of a "delegation" of the same name, which at the 2014 Census had a population of 97,225.

Municipality

M'saken municipality was found in 19 February 1921.
The actual municipal council was elected in the Local elections of Tunisia on 9 May 2018.
Its composition by party is as follows:
PartySeats
Ennahdha12
Nidaa Tounes5
Courant démocrate4
Msakin Tourid 3
Front populaire2
Union civile2

[Villages] and [town]s of Delegation">:fr:Délégation (Tunisie)">Delegation

The following villages and Towns are part of M'saken delegation
Village/TownDistance to M'sakenPopulation Municipality
Borjine73,966M'saken
Beni Rabiâa63,528M'saken
Beni Kalthoum22,453M'saken
Knaies84,780M'saken
Frada261,434M'saken
Moureddine73,614M'saken
Messaadine212,930Messaadine

Notable people

Traditional doors

Traditional houses of M'saken have typical traditional doors which are also found in the neighbour villages and towns.
The door can be double or with single leaf, and has always a small leaf inside called khoukha.
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History

According to local tradition, M'saken was founded by a group of descendants of Husayn Ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad. They had come to North Africa escaping from the Abbasid rulers of Baghdad, who had been engaged in a cruel fight against Sharifians the sons of Ali.
They founded a Sharifian Emirate in near present-day Tiaret in west-central Algeria. After three generations, following the fall of this Emirate, some of their descendants lived in eastern Morocco near Oujda for some time, before moving to Kairouan in Tunisia. After some decades, they founded the town of M'saken at the time of the Hafsid dynasty which was based in Tunis.
Their town was originally called 'Kousour al Ashraf', then 'Masakin al Ashraf', and finally Masakin - or 'Msaken' as it is pronounced and spelled in North Africa. The town centre was built around the Jamma al Awsat and was composed of five ksars.

Ksours of Msaken

The population which founded Msaken is composed of 5 groups having each a common paternal ancestor:
  • Ksar El Nejejra
  • Ksar El Menaama
  • Ksar El Jabliyine
  • Ksar El Qebliyine
  • Ksar El Jedidiyine

List of Family Names of Msaken

Loghmari، Ben Abdallah, Ben Salem, Ben Amor, Bouhlel, Mahjoub, Chatti, Gazzah, Rouis, Hamila, Mkhinini, Bhiri, Graa, Mliss, Chaarana, Gharbi, Magroun, Mribah, Naqouri, Said, Berriri, Guezguez, Zrouga, Gharmoul, Ben Khalifa, Rezgallah, Laadhari, Bouneb, Chebil, Braham, Bziouech, Gares, Turki, Landolsi, Ben Sik Ali, Chaieb, Chahed, Chouikha, Youssef, Zorgati, Zrelli,ben abdeljelil, Jeddi, Youssef

Historic monuments

The Awsat Mosque of M'saken is among the oldest known monuments of M'saken city. It was founded around the year 1360.

Soufism

M'saken is known to be a religious city. It included the Madrasa of Sidi Ali ben Khalifa and over the centuries has been home to a number of Sufi figures:
  • Sheikh Mohamed Gazzah
  • Sheikh Ladharai
  • Sidi Omar Shatti
  • Sidi Ali Ben Khalifa

Statistics

Population: 125,694 inhabitants Altitude: 112 mNumber of hospitals: 3

Traditional dresses

Traditional dresses of M'saken as typical of North Africa and more specifically of the Tunisian Sahel region.
The Melya, traditional dress of women in North Africa, was used in M'saken but today it is no longer used.
In Tunisia, each village or region uses a specific color for its women Houli.
According to old people it had the color gold for M'saken women.

Dialect

M'saken people speak the Msakni dialect, which is a branch of the Sahli dialect, specific to the Sahel, Tunisia region, and which is a Pre-Hilalian_Arabic_dialect
and a citadin pre hilalian language
The most characteristic word being the pronoun of the first person singular pronounced 'eni' in the Sahel instead of 'ena': In M'saken it is said 'yeni' by replacing the vowel 'e' by 'y'
M'saken dialect is also recognisable by the strong vowel 'i' at the end of many words which are pronounced at the end with a soft 'i' in the rest of the Sahel and as 'e' or 'a' in the rest of Tunisia and North Africa.Examples:
  • He went: Mshi, Mshei, Mshe, Msha
  • He ate : Kli, Klei, Kle, Kla
  • Water: Mi, Mei, Me, Ma
  • Here: Hni, Hnei, Hne or Houni, Hna

Migrations

M'saken has a large population living in foreign countries, mainly in France and more particularly in the Côte d'Azur region, in Nice and neighbouring areas. According to some sources, 40% of the population of M'saken lives outside Tunisia. The town's population increases very significantly in July and August every year following the return of migrants to their hometown for the holidays.

DNA Haplogroup

Recent genetic studies of the Msaken population suggest a significant historical connection to West Asia. It is believed that the city was founded around 1360 AD by five related men who migrated from this region, and subsequent population growth included descendants of the founders as well as migrants from other parts of Tunisia. A Y-DNA analysis of 23 males from different Msaken families was conducted, using both Short Tandem Repeats and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms markers. The study revealed that most of the tested individuals belonged to the Haplogroup J-M172, specifically the J-L271 subgroup. two individuals belonging to Kermous tribe were found belonging to Haplogroup Haplogroup R1a AND MORE PRECISELY R-Z93 The analysis estimated the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor Most recent common ancestor for the population to be between 1500 and 6200 years before present, with a notable genetic bottleneck around 5400 years ago. The geographic origin of this haplogroup is traced to East Anatolia, present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and western Iran. Interestingly, 20-30% of random Tunisian STR haplotypes also exhibit the Msaken-Haplotype, linking the population's Y-DNA to broader regional genetic patterns.
For more information, see the published study by Kamel AL-Gazzah, Technical Director and Citizen Scientist, Tunisia.

Climate

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies M'saken climate as hot semi-arid bordering with hot-summer Mediterranean.
It is considered to be a local steppe climate.
There is little rainfall throughout the year.
The average annual temperature is 18.3 °C in M'Saken.
In a year, the average rainfall is 347 mm.

Sports

M'saken has many sport teams: