M'saken is a town in north-eastern Tunisia, close to Sousse.
Etymology
The origin of the word comes from "Msaken" masken meaning "habitat", "house" or "dwelling". This refers to "Houses of honorable people" due to the distinguished lineage of its first inhabitants.
M'saken municipality was found in 19/02/1921. The actual municipal council was elected in the Local elections of Tunisia in May 9th,2018. Its composition by party is as follows:
Hamed El Karoui, Prime Minister of Tunisia from 27 September 1989 to 17 November 1999. Born in Sousse, his family, by the name of Wada, is originally from M'saken.
Ridha Layouni: President of :fr:Association des académies nationales olympiques d'Afrique|Association of National Olympic Academies of Africa and Former Tunisian National Olympic Committee.
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. ar:باب بالخوخة . . .
History
According to local tradition, M'saken was founded by a group of descendants of Husayn Ibn Ali, grandson of the prophet Muhammad. They had come to North Africa escaping from the Abbassid rulers of Baghdad, who had been engaged in a cruel fight against Sharifians. 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.
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 m
Number 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 :fr:Houli|Houli. According to old people it had the color gold for M'saken women.
M'saken dialect
M'saken people speak the Msakni dialect, which is branch of the Sahli dialect, specific to the Sahel,_Tunisia region, and which is a Pre-Hilalian_Arabic_dialect and a :fr:Parlers_préhilaliens_citadins|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.
The climate
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.
