Archnet is an Open Access resource, provided to the public to facilitate cultural understanding and excellence in both scholarship and practice. Content from Archnet.org may not be published, displayed, or appropriated for commercial use without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder. Unless otherwise noted, Archnet material is available for instructional, nonprofit use, and personal use on the terms of a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International</a> (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Please contact Archnet to request permission to use the Archnet.org website and its contents beyond the scope outlined above. High-resolution images may be available by contacting us using <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>. The content available on Archnet, including but not limited to information, text, graphics, logos, and multimedia related to the the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/authorities/1903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Trust for Culture’</a>s programmes, such as the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/54" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Historic Cities Programme</a>, the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/848" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Award for Architecture</a> and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/132" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Music Programme</a>, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights and laws, whether owned by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, its affiliates, or third parties. Unauthorized use, reproduction, distribution, modification, or display of this content is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the respective copyright or trademark holder. Violation of this prohibition may result in legal penalties.

Terms of use

Archnet is a community powered resource that provides ready access to visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality.&nbsp;This unparalleled resource continues to grow with both the addition of historic archives and documentation on contemporary trends shaping the built environment today.&nbsp;To better serve you, our user, in the study of art and architecture of Muslim societies, we continue to build our vast collection of sites, publications, images, and videos. We invite your involvement, particularly in the areas below:<ul><li>To ensure a high level of scholarly content and accuracy in the information provided, we appreciate your expert feedback and, more importantly, your contributions.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Please send comments, corrections, commendations, and other feedback to <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>If you find sites on Archnet to which you can contribute in compelling and meaningful ways, your generosity is most welcome. If you would be interested in contributing research, publications or other media to Archnet, please contact us using <a href="about:blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet-submission@mit.edu</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>We welcome the donation of select archives based on our current editorial policies and priorities.&nbsp;If you have a collection you would like to bring to the attention of Archnet's editors, please send an email to: <a href="http://mailto: archnet-submission@mit.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet-submission@mit.edu</a>.</li><li>Occasionally, Archnet editors issue calls for contributions on specific themes or of particular types of material. Follow those on the <a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/akdc/category/contributors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website of AKDC@MIT </a>or <a href="https://mailchi.mp/17fc345bbd94/archnetakdc-updates" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subscribe to our mailing list</a>.</li></ul>The breadth, depth and quality of Archnet is only possible through the generosity of numerous institutions and individuals listed on the respective pages throughout the site.&nbsp;We thank you for your generosity!

Contribute

<h2>ARCHNET FAQ</h2>1. Will ARCHNET work on my device?Archnet works well on the most recent version of any major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge), either on a mobile device or computer. It may work on older or less common browsers as well. If Archnet fails to work properly on your machine, please let us know about your experience by clicking the blue feedback button at bottom right!2. Will my URLs from earlier versions of Archnet still work?Yes, if they are from the version launched in January 2013. As of October 12, 2021, all URLs from the old Archnet have been redirected to ARCHNET.&nbsp;&nbsp;3. How do I download a/n:&nbsp;<ul><li>image - Select the image you want to download from search results, a site or an authority. The image will open in your browser.&nbsp;Right click to download.&nbsp;For larger, high-resolution copies, see contact us using archnet@mit.edu.&nbsp;</li><li>publication - Open the page for the publication in your browser and click the download button. Reprinting Archnet publications is permissible only for personal use.&nbsp;Please contact us for any other requests.&nbsp;</li><li>site descriptions and metadata - Site descriptions and metadata can be used for any nonprofit or educational organization with appropriate attribution to the authors and Archnet.&nbsp;</li><li>video - Currently video downloads are not possible. If you'd like to use an Archnet video, please contact <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>See our <a href="https://www.archnet.org/pages/terms" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Terms of Use</a> for information on how you can use Archnnet material.4. Can I contribute material to Archnet?&nbsp;Yes!&nbsp;See our <a href="https://www.archnet.org/pages/contribute" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Contribute</a> page for more information.&nbsp;Calls for specific contributions are also also shared in our social media and on the <a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/akdc/category/contributors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">web site of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;5. What happened to the Archnet Timeline?&nbsp;Timeline has migrated into the ARCHNET NEXT Collections page&nbsp;<a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/collection_type/3/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">as a category</a>. These collections provide short introductions for each period, often offering lists of additional resources at the end of the entry. Only the timeline graphic listing the periods along a chronological axis has not migrated.6. My question isn't here.&nbsp;How can I get help?&nbsp;If your issue is with using Archnet, use the blue Feedback button to alert us to your issue. This will allow you to include a screenshot or recording. Please, also, feel free to contact us at <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>We are currently developing the help section of ARCHNET NEXT. In the meantime, please use the blue Feedback button in ARCHNET NEXT to send us feedback or other questions. Contact us at <a href="mailto:archnet@mit.edu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">archnet@mit.edu</a>.&nbsp;

Need help?

Welcome to ARCHNET, an Open Access, intellectual resource focused on the built environment of Muslim societies.Our mission:&nbsp;<ul><li>Facilitate excellence in scholarship, and professional work by providing ready access to quality, unique texts, and media focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, conservation issues, visual and material cultures, and related topics, both historically and in terms of contemporary best practices.</li><li>Enable teaching and learning in these domains by providing educators with reliable, effective pedagogical material and teaching aids.&nbsp;</li><li>Serve serves as a platform through which scholars, practitioners, and institutions can bring their work to new global audiences.&nbsp;</li><li>Promote intercultural understanding and dialogue through reliable, high-quality, peer-reviewed material on the diversity of, and pluralism within Muslim societies and the interaction between Islamic and other religious, cultural, and philosophical traditions.</li><li>Enable easy access to a wide variety of resources via a custom-built, web-based, mobile-friendly platform optimized to minimize financial, infrastructural, linguistic, and other barriers to access.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>Launched in 2002 after several years of development, ARCHNET is a pioneering digital resource that has proven a reliable authority on the built environment of Muslim societies, past, and present.&nbsp;ARCHNET is a partnership between the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/1342" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries </a>(AKDC@MIT) and the <a href="https://www.archnet.org/authorities/1903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Trust for Culture</a> (AKTC), with support from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT. ARCHNET NEXT was developed by <a href="https://www.performantsoftware.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Performant Software Solutions</a>.

About

 Mahdia

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/download

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/iiif

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/inline

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/preview

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/thumbnail

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/d569b9e2-3cb1-423d-98b9-e6162e7ea3ab/content

digital graphic

AN103940.jpg

place

city walls

Tunisia

Construction

Sir Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell

Creswell: Tunisia

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/download

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/iiif

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/inline

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/preview

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/thumbnail

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/2957152b-866b-4693-ad72-f9a9b6e86c84/content

B & W print

ICR0400

Ramparts

Russell Harris

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/download

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/iiif

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/inline

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/preview

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/thumbnail

https://archnet-3-prod-iiif-cloud-c0fe51f0b9ac.herokuapp.com/public/resources/97e56565-ac2a-4cc4-8d87-75002daed8dd/content

digital photograph

Mahdia. Ramparts. View of port.

See <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/2358" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Timeline: Fatimid</a> ﻿&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By the late ninth century, the hegemony of the Abbasid Caliphate had weakened. Regional governors in Egypt and Iran exercised near-total control of their territories, paying lip-service to the caliph through the mention of his name in the Friday sermon (khutba) and in coinage and tiraz textiles produced at official manufactories. Some Islamic dynasties, such as the Umayyads of Spain, operated entirely outside the caliphate, while local leaders in parts of Syria and Arabia espoused Shiism. In 267 H/909 a new Shia leader, "Abd Allah al-Mahdi, conquered Tunisia and founded a new capital at Mahdiyya. He followed the Ismaili doctrine of Shiism which claimed a new era of history would be heralded by the arrival of the Mahdi (the messiah), who would be descended from "Ali and Fatima through Isma"il ibn Ja"far al-Sadiq. "Abd Allah and his successors, the Fatimids, set themselves up as rivals to the Abbasids and within seven years of Imam alMahdi’s conquest of Tunisia they had established a governor in Sicily. In 969 an exceptional general, Jawhar, occupied Egypt, and in 973 the fourth Fatimid Imam-caliph, al-Mu"izz, relocated the Fatimid capital to Cairo (al-Qahira, the Victorious), the new town he built on the Nile next to the pre-existing city of al-Fustat. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Although the Fatimids maintained their capital at Cairo, they taught their vision of Islam by proselytising through a broad regional organisation, the da"wa. At the height of their power in the late tenth century the Fatimids controlled Mecca and Madina, Yemen and parts of Palestine and Syria. Supported by an army of North African, Turkish and Sudanese soldiers, the Fatimids eventually suffered from internal dissensions that took both ideological and political forms. Exacerbating the power struggles within the military, drought led to economic woes in the 1060’s and the inability of the Fatimid caliph to pay his army. In 1067, during the reign of al-Mustansir, the soldiers ransacked the Fatimid treasury. While this was a disaster for the Fatimid ruler, it has proved to be a boon for historians of Fatimid art because of the descriptions by the historians, Ibn al-Zubayr and Makrizi, of the objects dispersed from the treasury. While the Fatimid dynasty survived until 1171, its territories in Sicily, Syria and Palestine fell to its rivals and finally Saladin delivered the coup de grâce with his conquest of Egypt.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The historical descriptions of the Fatimid treasury corroborate the tangible evidence of the luxury and refinement of this court. Carved rock crystal vessels designed to contain precious substances such as attar (cat. no. 59), gossamer-thin textiles inscribed with the name and titles of the caliphs (cat. no. 62), and jewellery made of the finest filigree and enamel (cat. nos 63–66) reflect the Fatimid court’s opulence. Fatimid art shows a loose influence of Abbasid and Byzantine prototypes. While some elements of Fatimid lustreware pottery derive from Abbasid lustrewares, the iconography of large hares (cat. no. 57), figures engaged in sports such as cock-fighting, and the combination of foliated epigraphy and geometric ornament (cat. no. 56) are more typical of the Fatimids than the Abbasids. The descriptions of the Fatimid treasury call attention to how much was lost, but the few items that remain are witness to a period of great cultural wealth. Source: <a href="https://www.archnet.org/collections/52" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aga Khan Museum</a> (<a href="https://www.archnet.org/publications/10037" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spirit and Life</a> Catalogue, p.87)

RampartsMahdia, Tunisia

Ramparts
Mahdia, Tunisia