North Africa · a Light

Frontier forts on the Tunisian coast doubled as retreat houses

A ribat was a fortified post on a threatened frontier, most often a coast. The ones at Monastir, founded in 796, and Sousse, built in 821, still stand in Tunisia: square blocks of stone with a courtyard, cells on two storeys, a prayer hall and a watchtower. They were held by volunteers who came for a term of service rather than by a standing garrison, and the same men spent their nights in prayer and Qur'an study, so the buildings functioned as barracks and retreat houses at once. The towers were close enough to pass a signal fire along the coast within a night. In later centuries the word ribat shifted meaning and came to name a Sufi lodge with no walls to defend.

Monastir 796, Sousse 821 · Tunisia