User:Abuslim

khniss for ever!
"Khniss"(Arabic: خنيس‎) is a small city in the Tunisian sahel region. It is located on the coast, 5 km south of Monastir. Its population is estimated at around 10,000.

Khniss is believed to be the hometown of the famous Tunisian linguist Abu Isaak Al Khounaysy who taught linguistics and grammar in the first African university and research center built by the Aghlabites in Kairouan.

The city was mentioned as a refuge for Arab families evicted from Sicily in the 15th century by the Normans. Some sources mention the migrations of the Sicilians to Khniss in the 10th century on two waves after Sicilia passed under the rule of the Norman king Roger. The exact significance of the word Khniss remains mysterious. Some invoke a possible meaning of Church as a deformation of the Arabic kanis, others suggest a link to the word khounais meaning depression in Arabic. Others reckon the city and its name are of berber origins, however the word itself is not known. It should be noted that in Irak there is an old historical assyrian village with the name of Khniss. Also in Morocco there is a village with the same name. Those different guesses and hints mentioned above should be further investigated.

Traditionally, the economic activity of the city was based on olive farming, fishing, stone quarries (which left some of the neighboring landscapes disfigured), and on handcraft textile. Khniss specialized in wool processing and in weaving different sorts of high quality woolen blankets, such as "ferrachia", "barnous", "abena", etc...

Nowadays, the local economy is more diversified, but still dominated by an important export oriented textile industry, mostly for ready-made clothing. With the modern structure of the textile industry, the traditional woolen textile activity, which missed on the latest innovations and technologies, got a severe shock, and its economic importance has declined. There is a real threat that the traditional know-how in processing woolen textiles completely fades away.

Khniss is a coastal city! Its past and present are and certainly so its future will be, extremely connected to its sea which marks the start up of an amazing marine depression called the "Dead Sea" that stretches till "Cap Dimass" in Bekalta.In some parts of this "Dead Sea" shallow seabeds you can easily contemplate Romain mosaics. Elders have always called the region "Al Maklouba" in a reference to an old myth saying the region had known a major earthquake that critically changed the landscape.

Until a very recent past the region had known a traditional ecological fishing method known as "Demmassa". From Khniss to Bekalta we can observe two levels in the sea.The first one called "Dead Sea" by the local people is a confined Laguna with no significant marine waves or currents; the second "Bhar Hay" or (live Sea) with currents and waves. The Laguna of Khniss, part of the "Dead Sea" had a very rich marine biodiversity that provided along history the natural base to the livelihood of many families. All the people of Khniss were more or less "fisherman". During the last decades, the ecological equilibrium of the Laguna has been constantly endangered due to poor planning and due to the absence of sustainable preservation strategies.Pollution caused by the deviation of rain waters, to protect the Skanes-Monastir airport and the summer palace of former President Bourguiba, adding to urban and industrial waste water strangled the environment and almost completely depleted the marine biodiversity.

Several families make up the mixed population of the city. "Aguir" and "Bellamine" family branches are claimed to be the oldest settlers. Other settlers include "Trimeche" (likely to be originating from Crete), "Sakly" (originating from Sicilia), "Kraiem" also known as “Djeraba” (thought to be originally from Lebanon after a small stay in Djerba), "Boussaid" also known as "Trabelsia", alledgedly coming from Tripoli in Libya. In addition to these families, Khniss also comprises several other families such as "Mabrouk" and "Lakhal" considered as originating from the same family branch; "Ayed", "Belayouni", "BenAfia", "Boughammoura", "Chaabane" "Debbabi" and "Haddad", which ancestors came from Monastir. "Guerdelli", "Jlassi", "Korbi" and "Braham", two families we also find in neighboring Bembla- "Krir", etc... Some of the family names in Khniss are also common in neighboring towns such as Monastir and Bembla.

The people of Khniss are known as peaceful, hard working, honest and hospitable. The city is characterized by a disproportionately large number of brilliant teachers, academia, doctors and engineers, all passionate and proud of their modest origins.