ER RIADH, TUNISIA

street corner in Djerbahood, er Riadh, Tunisia, with
sample artwork in background, artwork courtesy
Mario Belem, picture courtesy, MistakerMaker.org

The Arab-occupied town of er Riadh is located almost in the center of the island of Djerba off the southern coast of the Arab-occupied country of Tunisia. It was originally called Djirt, then later nicknamed as Hara Seghira or “Small Neighborhood”. Probably the first thing that one notices upon entering the town is the pervasiveness of its international street art. This is especially so in the neighborhood of Djerbahood, an indigenous Amazigh (Berber) neighborhood in the northern part of this otherwise "Arab" town. 

Beginning in the 3rd century BCE, er Riadh/Djirt was part of the Berber Kingdom of Numidia. Roman rule followed in 46 BCE. In the 8^th century, the town, as well as the rest of North Africa, became occupied and colonized by the Arabs and governed by their various dynasties. Since the latter 10^th century and the rule of the Arab Fatimids, the town was governed by various other dynasties, some indigenous Berber, some not – the Masmuda Berber Almohads whose rule was briefly interrupted by the Almoravid Sanhaja Berber Banu Ghaniyas; the Kurdish Ayyubids; the Hintata Berber Hafsids; the Turkish Ottomans; the French; and finally, the Arabs again.

It was an anomaly in North Africa, and in the “Arab world” in general, that at one time, er Riadh/Djirt had become a mostly Jewish town. According to tradition, the first Jews settled in Djirt, among the indigenous Berbers, as refugees from the Babylonian destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the conquest of Judea in 586 BCE. (A second wave of Jewish immigration occurred after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70.) Jews and Berbers have lived together in peace ever since. It was said that the el Ghriba synagogue which was built, contained a door and a stone from the destroyed Temple that was brought over by some of the high priests. Another tradition says the synagogue was built on a spot where a young girl (ghriba, "the isolated one") who had not been accepted by the others, had lived. After her death, her uncorrupted body was found by the Jews of the nearby village, and then buried in a cave which became the site of an annual pilgrimage for Lag BaOmer. Today, the synagogue is located on the southern border of the town. Centuries later, it and the surrounding area became the scene of Arab terrorist attacks. In 1985, during the festivities for Simchat Torah, a local policeman responsible for the synagogue‘s safety opened fire into the crowd of celebrating Jews, killing three people, including a child, and wounding 15. On April 11, 2002, a truck full of explosives was detonated close to the synagogue, killing 21 – 14 German and 2 French tourists, and five locals. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was found to have been masterminded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and financed by a Pakistani resident of Spain.

Er Riadh today is surrounded by towns of mixed Berber, Arab settler, and sub-Saharan African residents – Medjine, the closest; Megmag; el May, a mostly Berber village; Oualegh; Barkouk; and Houmt Souk, the major city on Djerba lying a few miles to the north on the coast. Inside the town itself and in Djerbahood, is the Guest House, an authentic Berber house from where travelers can explore other parts of the island as well as southern Tunisia on the mainland.

el Ghriba Synagogue, er Riadh, Tunisia, courtesy, fotocommunity.de