Ksar
As a ksar ( Arabic قصر, DMG qaṣr , pluralقصور, DMG quṣūr , also Ksur or in French spelling Ksour ; Central Atlas Tamazight ⴰⵖⵔⵎ Aɣrem , plural ⵉⵖⵔⵎⴰⵏ Iɣerman ) are traditional, rural fortified settlements or storage castles of the Berbers in the Maghreb , i.e. in Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia , Libya and Mauritania .
Word meaning
The high Arabic word qasr denotes a castle or a royal palace. The Spanish term Alcázar (fortress), with an agglutinated Arabic article al- , is derived from al-qasr . al-qasr is derived from the Latin castrum , which is translated as castle or fortress.
The one from Arabic قصبة / qaṣba , the term kasbah originally referred to a fortress that was used exclusively for military purposes throughout the Maghreb. This can be inside or outside cities and was often used to better control the population. The application of the term kasbah to entire districts that were inhabited by the military and court officials as well as their families is a later development of meaning.
function
During the early Islamic expansion ( Futūḥ ) , Ksar meant a military camp. The later ksour served the population of the nearby settlements as a refuge or to protect the goods deposited in the numerous storage chambers ( ghorfas ) from attacks by enemy neighboring villages or from predatory nomad tribes.
architecture
The ksour of the Maghreb are - depending on their location, their function, the climate and / or the regionally available building materials (stones, clay) - designed very differently:
Tunisia
A typical Tunisian ksar - sometimes reminiscent of a Roman amphitheater (e.g. El Djem ) in its architectural form - is usually built from small stones and some earth as mortar and usually has only one access. The outer walls of the storage chambers (ghorfas) form a closed outer wall, which in many cases was plastered with clay (sometimes with cement mortar in the 20th century). Inside there is a large open - oval or rectangular - space around which the storage chambers, arranged on two or more floors, are grouped.
The uniform, closed construction of the southern Tunisian Ksour allows the assumption that they were based on a joint and future expansion plan, because with the growing population and the resulting higher demand for storage chambers, these could or had to be built on top of the existing ones. The basic architectural structure of the ksar remained unchanged in such cases.
The ksour of southern Tunisia and western Libya are often located on the caravan routes through the Sahara and served as storage castles (see Agadire ), trading centers and sometimes as religious centers. As a rule, they were uninhabited and - depending on the threat situation - were only guarded by one or more guards. Typical examples of the Ksar architecture of the lowlands are the Ksour in or near Medenine .
In the mountainous regions of southern Tunisia - especially in the Dahar Mountains - there are similar structures (e.g. in Ksar Haddada or in Ksar Ouled Soltane ). However, there are also more or less fortified, stone-built and formerly year-round inhabited mountain villages, which are also known as Ksar (e.g. Guermessa , Chenini or Douiret ). In their architecture, which has grown and nested over the centuries, they differ fundamentally from the ksour of the lowlands. The only thing common to both such different forms is their defensive character.
Libya
In western Libya there are only a few ksour - mostly built on high rocky outcrops - (e.g. Qasr Bou Neran , Qasr el-Hadj , Kabaw / Cabao), which are comparable in their functions and their architectural form to those in southern Tunisia. The Ksar of Nalut differs from the others in that a further oval ring with storage chambers was built into its interior, so that - as with the Agadirs of Morocco - only a narrow corridor with ghorfas remains free on both sides.
Algeria
Most of Algeria's storage castles have disappeared. A well-preserved example is the Ksar Draa north of the oasis town of Timimoun , which was probably not built from rubble stones until the 16th or 17th century and pelted with a thin layer of clay .
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/A%C3%AFt_Benhaddou-de.jpg/220px-A%C3%AFt_Benhaddou-de.jpg)
Morocco
In Morocco, the term Ksar describes a well-fortified, permanently inhabited village that can consist of several - partially nested - residential castles ( Tighremts ) (e.g. Ait Benhaddou , High Atlas ) or - in a few cases - of a closed wall ring is surrounded (e.g. Tizourgane or Aït Kine , Antiatlas ).
A uniform planning of the Moroccan ksour can only be determined for the ksour built by the Alawids in the area of Rissani (Ksar Abouam, Ksar Abbar and others). In the rural Ksour of Morocco, only the wall ring - albeit rarely existing or preserved - was the result of joint work. Unarmed villages in Morocco are usually referred to as douar (e.g. Amtoudi ).
Mauritania
The Mauritanian ksour are more like settlements (trading centers) built of stone that have developed into small towns over the centuries. The UNESCO has the Mauritanian ksour of Ouadane , Chinguetti , Tichitt and Oualata to World Heritage declared.
Current condition
Due to the modernization of living conditions and the pacification of the Berber tribes, all the ksour of the Maghreb have become inoperable. In addition, there is a lack of rain and a steady migration of the population to the cities. That is why almost all of the Ksour that still exist are in dire decay. Survival of this architecture, which is so characteristic of the Berber cultural history, which is nowhere written down, will probably only be possible as a tourist attraction or as a film set. Several scenes of the film Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in the Ksour of Southern Tunisia (Ksar Haddada and Chenini) were shot.
See also
literature
- Herbert Popp , Abdelfettah Kassah: Les ksour du Sud tunisien. Natural Science Society, Bayreuth 2010, ISBN 978-3-939146-04-9 . (French)
- Joachim Willeitner: Libya, Tripolitania, Syrtebogen, Fezzan and the Cyrenaica. DuMont, Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4876-2 , pp. 136f.
- Arnold Betten: Morocco. Antiquity, Berber Traditions and Islam - History, Art and Culture in the Maghreb. DuMont, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7701-3935-4 .