Uqba Ibin Nafi mosque, nestled in Talmin village in the southern state of Kebili, is not only a relic of Tunisia’s Islamic history, it is also host to columns and masonry containing Roman inscriptions and carved figures that were part of a church dating back to over 2000 years ago.

 “Under the French occupation, the church was torn down by French soldiers who were looking for Roman objets d’art beneath the building,” says Chaker Hdeiri, the Imam of Uqba Ibin mosque. “Thanks to villagers, those ancient pieces of art were saved.”

Uqba Ibin Nafi mosque, nestled in Talmin village in the southern state of Kebili, is not only a relic of Tunisia’s Islamic history, it is also host to columns and masonry containing Roman inscriptions and carved figures that were part of a church dating back to over 2000 years ago.

 “Under the French occupation, the church was torn down by French soldiers who were looking for Roman objets d’art beneath the building,” says Chaker Hdeiri, the Imam of Uqba Ibin mosque. “Thanks to villagers, those ancient pieces of art were saved.”

Villagers transferred the ancient relics from the church into the mosque to preserve that part of their small town, which stood as a witness to Romans’ conversion to Christianity. Protection of the church’s monuments, says Hdeiri, aims at protecting houses of God.

“Immediately after the emergence of Christianity, a church was built in the village owing to the important status of this region to Romans,” says archeologist Sami Chaib. “At the time, the clerics were Talmin villagers.”

Like other historians and archeologists, he hopes that this part of the world will turn into a historical landmark.

Head of Talmin Heritage Protection Society (THPS) Abdurrazzaq Daghman commends villagers’ efforts to protect the Christian ruins inside their mosque against looters, despite the criticism leveled by some other villagers who believe that keeping Christian relics inside the mosque violates its sanctity.

Government negligence

Despite his emphasis that the THPS cooperates with Muslim to protect these ancient ruins, he questions why the Ministry of Culture or international organizations have not developed a plan to save the ruins, such as keeping them at a museum earmarked for Roman history and churches.

“The National Archeology Institute has denied our request to search for new monuments and keep the available ones out of the reach of thieves, especially since historical manuscripts explain that successive civilizations and religions existed in our region,” argues Daghman.

Some villagers maintain that until recently, Christian historical monuments in their region were subject to looting. They indicate that a few years before the Tunisian revolution, a group of gangsters arrived in the village and deliberately ripped off some columns and tore down parts of the church’s walls, without being stopped by the local authority.

Mosque boycott

Some villagers refuse to perform prayers inside the mosque because they believe that Christian inscriptions and carved monuments desecrate the sanctity of the place. They have started going to a recently built neighboring mosque.

“Islam does not prohibit us from praying in any place as long as it does not contain any prohibitions,” says Hdeiri. “However Islam prohibits performing prayers in a mosque that has been specifically built to urge worshipers to abandon another mosque. These people are unaware of the region’s history. Our ancestors built mosques next to churches and dared not destroy any of them.”