Sfaqes

Sfax stands on Tunisia's eastern coast, where a walled town and its surrounding agricultural country faced the Gulf of Gabès. Olive growing supplied an important product, while fishing and maritime exchange linked inhabitants with other Mediterranean shores. Markets and workshops served both urban households and the rural hinterland. The coast's shallow waters and tidal conditions required local knowledge from sailors and fishermen approaching the town.

Sfax returned to Hafsid authority around 1370 after a period of local dissidence. In the sixteenth century it was drawn into the struggle between Ottoman and Spanish powers, and eventually became part of Ottoman-ruled Tunisia. Its great mosque was enlarged in the eighteenth century, while a southern suburb grew near the sea and became a place of maritime trade.