Folklore, tradition and belief in Tunisia, 17-18th centuries!

First, do you know that in Tunisia, we speak two languages?

The official one, which is Arabic, not widely spoken by Tunisian people, and mainly used for official communication and in the official media.

And the second one, the most important one, the language of the heart for most Tunisians and the soul of Tunisia for centuries, which is widely spoken by Tunisians from the youngest to the eldest and in all contexts and situations. It's The TOUNSI.

Unfortunately, not taught at schools and very little written, even though there are some private attempts during the last decade, such as private media communication, marketing campaign and very few officials speech during election campaign :-).

Otherwise, until now, Le TOUNSI is widely not considered as THE official language of Tunisia by the officials and the arabophile elite. They continue to rule it as a dialect, kind of primary language, even though a very close version of Le TOUNSI is the official language of our neighbor Malta, Yes, the Maltese, who belongs to the same family, the Semitic language, has the same grammatical and syntactical structure even most of its vocabulary.

The cherry on the cake, since Malta joined the E.U. The Maltese version of le TOUNSI has become one of the official languages of the E.U. YES, Le TOUNSI is an European language.

So, in order to introduce our beautiful language to our hosts and e-hosts, here is a post, in TOUNSI".

The post is about a marabout (a saint) who is few meters from our DAR.

An English version will follow the Tunisian text.

Enjoy a real TOUNSIA reading experience :-)

Zaawiaa : Fi nahaj sidi qadhay lahwayij, adad 5 (mawjoud bin nahj tourbet al bey wanahj sidi alsurdou) fil lemdina.

Sidi qaday lahwayij : Ismou lahqiqi Abou hafs Amor bin alsaafy w ash bin alqarn 17 w 18 w kan moudaris fi almadrasah almaghribiat ali fi janb makinat allouh fi tourbet al bey w kan imam khams fi masjid alqobah, fin qra inbou khaldoun.

Kan insen tayeb et tqiy barsha. Souken el houma jaalou minou wali baad moutou w talkou alyh lqab qaday lahwayij.

Kan fi alzaawia shibak hadid kanat nisa haak Al Waqat tourbit fih fatlat sghira min alqmash aw alqitin wkn yaataqdu jaziman alkhuyut eindama tithal tithal maahom mashakilhom.

The marabout Sidi Qadai Al-Hawaij is located at No. 5 (between Tourbet Al-Bey and Sidi Sourdo street), in the Medina of Tunis.

The marabout Sidi Qadai al-Hawaij, his real name is Abu Hafs Omar Ibn al-Safi and he lived between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He has the nickname "kadai la Hawaij ", which means he grants all wishes.

In the corner was a window, in which the women of that time tied a small wick of cloth or cotton, and they firmly believed when these knots are undone, their wishes will come true and their problems will disappear.