The Ablution Room of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis: architectural and artistic aspects

Starting Ottoman era to the present day, the Hafsid monuments of the Medina of Tunis have undergone major transformations both from a structural and from stylistic-formal point of view. In many cases, the refurbishing have completely deleted the elevation of the original buildings, leaving only the fundamental trace of typological system. In other rare cases, however, it has preserved the original architectural structure, as the case of ablution room Mid’at es-Soltāne, built between 1448 and 1450. The monument is located in the heart of the old town, down the road that leads to the sūq al-‘Attarin (market Perfumers). This is an area adjacent to the mosque al-Zaytūna for the faithful who use the site for the ritual washing of the Muslim prayer. The room has a unique architectural style that draws much from the artistic traditions of Eastern from Syria and Egypt in particular. The research is based on the study of the surviving parts of the planimetric and formal components by means of a systematic reading of the architecture of the second half of the fifteenth century in Tunisia and the Near East.