Мсакен: История и особенности тунисского города

Town in Sousse Governorate, Tunisia

M'saken (مساكن Msākan; also spelled Masakin, Msaken) is a town in north eastern Tunisia, close to Sousse.

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

Traditional houses of M'saken have typical traditional doors which are also found in the neighbour villages and towns (Zaouiet Sousse, Ouerdanine, Beni Kalthoum, :fr:Borjine, Moureddine ). The door can be double or with single leaf, and has always a small leaf inside called khoukha (literally =pear). . .

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 (descendants of Husayn and his brother Hassan) 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' (which means "Sharif's houses"), then 'Masakin al Ashraf' (which has the same meaning), and finally Masakin or 'Msaken' as it is pronounced and spelled in North Africa. The town centre was built around the Jamma al Awsat (which means the central mosque) and was composed of five ksars (great houses).

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

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 (Melya). According to old people it had the color gold for M'saken women.

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.

Köppen Geiger climate classification system classifies M'saken climate as hot semi arid (BSh) bordering with hot summer Mediterranean (Csa). 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.