Originally from Msaken, Béchir is the curator of the Great Mosque of Sousse. He welcomes visitors there and, sometimes, introduces them to the secrets nestled between the columns of the sanctuary.
For more than thirty-five years, Béchir has worked here and mastered all the mysteries of this mosque founded in 851 and counting, with the Ribat and the Bouftata oratory, among the three oldest historical and religious monuments of the Pearl of the Sahel.
Pointing to the epigraphic inscriptions, revealing the complex of cisterns hidden under the impluvium of the courtyard, Béchir notes every detail and even the Aghlabid and Ottoman strata of the restorations known by the mosque.
Above the central porch, an inscription in Kufic characters mentions the work initiated in 1965 by Bourguiba. All around, Koranic quotes have been calligraphed since the early days of the mosque, a haven of serenity, on the threshold of the medina of Sousse.
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