Ahmed EL Bahi

Ahmed El Bahi is a Professor of History at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Kairouan (Department of Archaeology) and a member of the Scientific Council of the Laboratory of Maghreb Archaeology and Architecture at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in La Manouba (LR13ES10). His research focuses on the historical geography and toponymy of the medieval Maghreb, with fifty published articles. He has published five critical editions of medieval and early modern manuscripts, including hagiographies, travelogues, and chronicles, and he coordinates the Sousse City Encyclopedia Project.

The project

Title: Rewriting the History of Medieval Ifîqiya: The Contribution of Recently Discovered Sources

"The interpretation of the pre-Saharan region of southern Ifriqiya has long been dominated by the traditional models established by Tadeusz Lewicki, Claudette Vanacker, and Jacques Thiry. However, new research on the historical geography of this region has revealed the existence of several strategic routes, overlooked by geographical sources, which connected this supposedly marginal region with the rest of the Maghreb. Over the past decade, several historical sources have been discovered, including manuscripts that were thought to be lost forever or manuscripts whose critical editions have called into question previous editions. The examination or re-examination of these new sources has revealed a huge amount of data that was previously unusable. What is more, it has opened up areas of research that could rewrite the political, economic, and cultural history of medieval Ifriqiya."

Hosting Institution : École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Selective Bibliography

• Al-mu’nis fî akhbâr Ifrîqiyya wâ Tûnis, Edition critique, Tunis, 2025.
• Les figures de Sousse à l’époque médiévale, Sousse, 2019.
• Manâqib-s Ahmad al-Ghawth al-Tabbâsî & Al-silsila al-tabbâsiyya, Edition critique, Tunis, 2021.
• Bibliographie de la ville d’Hadrumetum / Sousse depuis sa fondation jusqu’en 1881 : Histoire – Archéologie – Patrimoine, Sousse, 2019.
• Rihlat al-Yûsî, Edition critique, Tunis, 2018.