ABSTRACT
For over a thousand years medinas had enormously significant implications across the Sahel. They were the seat of government, religious centres, the focus of economic activity as well as concentrations of learning and progress. In Tunisia, colonialism by the French heralded the first significant changes in medinas, and change has characterised Tunisian medinas ever since. One of the principal physical manifestations of Islam in the Tunisian Sahel is the medina, or traditional walled urban area. The chapter offers some of the problems facing contemporary medinas: they have become pauperised, traditional sources of employment have dried up, they are overcrowded, there is little room for expansion and access is extremely restricted. Continuing up the scale, from individual houses through neighbourhoods, quarters and souks, changes are also evident at the macro-scale of the overall morphology of the medina. Monastir's medina shared many of the problems found in those elsewhere in the Sahel. This was the main reason why the redevelopment took place.
