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55-559: It is one of the most important museums in the Mediterranean region and the second museum of the African continent after the Egyptian Museum of Cairo by richness of its collections. It traces the history of Tunisia over several millennia and across several civilizations through a wide variety of archaeological pieces . First proposed in the 1860s by Muhammad Khaznadar , the son of

110-584: A terrorist attack when three terrorists in civil uniform attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. This attack took place after the famous Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris where many journalists were killed Two of

165-511: A rare indigo-colored parchment. The Blue Quran was written in Kufic script, characterized by sharp angles and the absence of vowel markings . Each page contains 15 lines, which is untraditional for the period. It was common for Qurans to have thick margins, few lines, and large spaces between words, much like the Amajur Quran, which contained three lines per horizontal page. More common features of

220-524: A rich collection of marble statues representing the gods and Roman emperors found on various sites including those of Carthage and Thuburbo Majus . The Bardo has also rich pieces discovered during the excavations of Libyco- Punic sites including mainly Carthage , although the Carthage National Museum also possesses an important collection. The main parts of this department are grimacing masks, terracotta statues and stelae of major interest for

275-469: A wide variety of archaeological pieces. Being in the former palace, it offers many major works discovered since the beginnings of archaeological research in the country. Originally called Museum Alaoui (المتحف العلوي), the name of the reigning bey at the time, it has had its current name of Museum of Bardo only since the country's independence. In addition to famous works such as the Blue Koran of Kairouan ,

330-607: Is an early Quranic manuscript written in Kufic script. The dating, location of origin, and patron of the Blue Quran are unknown and have been the subject of academic debate, though it is generally accepted that the manuscript was produced in the late 9th to mid-10th century in either Kairouan , Tunisia or Cordoba in Umayyad Spain . The manuscript is among the most famous works of Islamic calligraphy , notable for its gold lettering on

385-581: Is still controversy among scholars as to where the Blue Quran originated. Many museums cannot agree on how to categorize the manuscript, with some, like the Denver Art Museum , categorizing it as Asian Art while acknowledging it may have origins in North Africa. This conflicting categorization reflects how scholars do not, and may never, agree on the true origins of the Blue Quran. The manuscript's approximately 600 folios were separated and dispersed during

440-588: Is the largest of the world's five Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub regions. It is home to a number of plant communities, which vary with rainfall, elevation, latitude, and soil. The Mediterranean basin is home to considerable biodiversity , including 22,500 endemic vascular plant species . Conservation International designates the region as a biodiversity hotspot , because of its rich biodiversity and its threatened status. The Mediterranean basin has an area of 2,085,292 km , of which only 98,009 km remains undisturbed. Endangered mammals of

495-640: Is the only plant family endemic to the region. Among the endemic plant genera are: The genera Aubrieta , Sesamoides , Cynara , Dracunculus , Arisarum and Biarum are nearly endemic. Among the endemic species prominent in the Mediterranean vegetation are the Aleppo pine , stone pine , Mediterranean cypress , bay laurel , Oriental sweetgum , holm oak , kermes oak , strawberry tree , Greek strawberry tree , mastic , terebinth , common myrtle , oleander , Acanthus mollis and Vitex agnus-castus . Moreover, many plant taxa are shared with one of

550-614: Is unlikely from a geodynamic point of view. The end of the Miocene also marked a change in the Mediterranean basin's climate. Fossil evidence shows that the Mediterranean basin had a relatively humid subtropical climate with summer rainfall during the Miocene, which supported laurel forests . The shift to a Mediterranean climate occurred within the last 3.2–2.8 million years, during the Pliocene epoch, as summer rainfall decreased. The subtropical laurel forests retreated, although they persisted on

605-557: The Alpine orogeny , occurred mostly during the Oligocene (34 to 23 million years ago ( mya )) and Miocene (23 to 5.3 mya) epochs. The Neotethys became larger during these collisions and associated folding and subduction. About 6 mya during the late Miocene, the Mediterranean was closed at its western end by drifting Africa, which caused the entire sea to evaporate. There followed several (debated) episodes of sea drawdown and re-flooding known as

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660-692: The Cairo Geniza documents was another important contribution in the area of Mediterranean Jewish culture. Wheat is the dominant grain grown around the Mediterranean basin. Pulses and vegetables are also grown. The characteristic tree crop is the olive . Figs are another important fruit tree, and citrus , especially lemons , are grown where irrigation is present. Grapes are an important vine crop, grown for fruit and to make wine . Rice and summer vegetables are grown in irrigated areas. Blue Qur%27an The Blue Quran ( Arabic : الْمُصْحَف الْأَزْرَق, romanized : al- Muṣḥaf al-′Azraq )

715-668: The Canary Islands while others include the whole Macaronesia (with the Azores and Cape Verde ). In Western Asia, it covers the western and southern portions of the peninsula of Anatolia, as far as Iraq , but excluding the temperate-climate mountains of central Turkey. It includes the Mediterranean Levant at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, bounded on the east and south by the Syrian and Negev deserts. The northern portion of

770-620: The Dinaric Alps along the eastern Adriatic , and the Balkan and Rila - Rhodope mountains of the Balkan Peninsula divide the Mediterranean from the temperate climate regions of Western , Northwestern or Northern Europe , Central Europe , and Eastern Europe . The Mediterranean basin was shaped by the ancient collision of the northward-moving African–Arabian continent with the stable Eurasian continent. As Africa–Arabia moved north, it closed

825-662: The Maghreb region of northwestern Africa has a Mediterranean climate, separated from the Sahara Desert , which extends across North Africa , by the Atlas Mountains . In the eastern Mediterranean the Sahara extends to the southern shore of the Mediterranean, with the exception of the northern fringe of the peninsula of Cyrenaica in Libya , which has a dry Mediterranean climate. Europe lies to

880-552: The Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate , with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers , which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. It was a very important part of Mediterranean civilizations. The Mediterranean basin covers portions of three continents: Europe , Africa , and Asia . It is distinct from the drainage basin , which extends much further south and north due to major rivers ending in

935-633: The Mediterranean floristic region , which belongs to the Tethyan Subkingdom of the Boreal Kingdom and is enclosed between the Circumboreal , Irano-Turanian , Saharo-Arabian and Macaronesian floristic regions . The Mediterranean region was first proposed by German botanist August Grisebach in the late 19th century. The monotypic Drosophyllaceae , recently segregated from Droseraceae ,

990-530: The Messinian Salinity Crisis , which ended when the Atlantic last re-flooded the basin at the end of the Miocene. Recent research has suggested that a desiccation-flooding cycle may have repeated several times during the last 630,000 years of the Miocene epoch, which could explain several events of large amounts of salt deposition. Recent studies, however, show that repeated desiccation and re-flooding

1045-661: The Metropolitan Museum of Art . Several of the detached folios have also been sold at major British auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's in the 2010s, carrying a price of hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. In 2018, Christie's auctioned off one folio for a reported £512,750, over double the low estimate for the lot. Two folios are included in the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art . The Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art in Kairouan has two folios, and so does

1100-717: The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha in Qatar. The Blue Quran is among the most famous Qur'an manuscripts and is one of the most famous works of Islamic calligraphy. This work emulated the purple parchment that was used in the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts and was an effort to surpass their rivals in the Byzantine Empire. The Blue Quran was also a display of wealth and power among the Fatimid Dynasty. Art historian Yasser Tabbaa wrote that

1155-522: The National Museum of Carthage is the primary museum of the Carthage archaeological site. The essential pieces of this department are grimacing masks, terracotta statues and stelae of major interest for Semitic epigraphy , and the stele of the priest and the child. The museum also houses Greek works discovered especially in the excavations of the shipwreck of Mahdia , whose emblematic piece remains

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1210-644: The Ottoman Empire , though most of the folios remained in Kairouan , Tunisia until the 1950s. It is estimated that about 100 folios remain in museums and private collections, with the largest being the 67 folios held by the Musée de la Civilisation et des Arts Islamiques near Kairouan. Other collections include the National Library , the Museum of Fine Arts , the Harvard University Art Museums , and

1265-696: The Prime Minister of Tunisia , the museum is housed in an old beylical palace since 1888, it has been the setting for the exhibition of many major works discovered since the beginning of archaeological research in the country. This historic building also serves as the seat of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People , Tunisia 's Lower house . Originally called Alaoui Museum ( Arabic : المتحف العلوي , romanized :  al-Matḥaf al-ʿAlawī ), named after

1320-622: The Sahara , which became a grassland , with lakes, rivers, and wetlands. After a period of climatic instability, the Sahara settled into a desert state by the 4th millennium BCE . One of the earliest modern studies of the Mediterranean was Fernand Braudel 's La Méditerranéee et le monde méditerranéen à l époque de Philippe II (The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II), published in 1949. S.D. Goitein 's multivolume study of

1375-577: The Virgil Mosaic , represent a unique source for research on everyday life in Roman Africa . From the Roman era, the museum also contains a rich collection of marble statues representing the deities and the Roman emperors found on different sites including those of Carthage and Thuburbo Majus . The museum also houses pieces discovered during the excavations of Libyco - Punic sites including Carthage, although

1430-597: The Wisconsin glaciation ( Würm in Southern European contexts), reached its maximum extent approximately 21,000 years ago, and ended approximately 12,000 years ago. A warm period, known as the Holocene climatic optimum , followed the ice age. Food crops, including wheat , chickpeas , and olives , along with sheep and goats , were domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean in the 9th millennium BCE , which allowed for

1485-475: The establishment of agricultural settlements . Near Eastern crops spread to southeastern Europe in the 7th millennium BCE . Poppy and oats were domesticated in Europe from the 6th to the 3rd millennium BCE. Agricultural settlements spread around the Mediterranean basin. Megaliths were constructed in Europe from 4500 – 1500 BCE. A strengthening of the summer monsoon 9000–7000 years ago increased rainfall across

1540-420: The reigning bey at the time, it takes its current name of Bardo Museum after the independence of the country even if the denomination is attested before that date. The museum houses one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world, thanks to excavations in various archaeological sites in the country including Carthage , Hadrumetum , Dougga and Utica . Generally, the mosaics of Bardo, such as

1595-405: The 9th-century. One theory is that an Umayyad patron commissioned the Blue Quran and that the manuscript was created by Christians, who have a greater tradition of writing their sacred texts on dyed parchment than Muslims. Since the distance between Spain and Tunisia is closer than that of Persia and Tunisia, transporting the Blue Quran would be easier and therefore more likely. Presently, there

1650-586: The Blue Quran in its entirety over a long distance would be unlikely. This supports the idea that the Blue Quran was created in the Western Islamic world. Additionally, the Blue Quran shares many characteristics, including its deep blue color, with the Bible of Cava , a manuscript created in 812 CE in Umayyad Spain . The physical similarities between the two supports the idea that the Blue Quran originated in Spain around

1705-466: The Blue Quran include the perceptible column of letters on the right side of each folio and the splitting of unconnected letters between lines in the manuscript. The manuscript is thought to have contained 600 parchment folios made from sheepskin, which was commonly used because of the thinness of the finished product. Due to the size and construction of the manuscript, the parchment would have required at least 150 sheep. The signature blue color of

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1760-544: The Islamic Department contains a collection of ceramics from North Africa and Asia Minor . The Bardo brings together one of the finest and largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world thanks to the excavations undertaken from the beginning of the 20th century on archaeological sites in the country including Carthage , Hadrumetum , Dougga , or Utica . The mosaics represent a unique source for research on everyday life in Roman Africa . The museum also contains

1815-549: The Mediterranean Sea, such as the Nile and Rhône . Conversely, the Mediterranean basin includes regions not in the drainage basin ( Portugal , Jordan and Iraq ). It has a varied and contrasting topography. The Mediterranean region offers an ever-changing landscape of high mountains, rocky shores, impenetrable scrub, semi-arid steppes, coastal wetlands, sandy beaches and a myriad of islands of various shapes and sizes dotted amidst

1870-691: The Mediterranean basin include the Mediterranean monk seal , the Barbary macaque , and the Iberian lynx . The WWF identifies 22 Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions in the Mediterranean basin, most of which featuring sclerophyll plant species: Neanderthals inhabited western Asia and the non-glaciated portions of Europe starting about 230,000 years ago. Modern humans moved into western Asia from Africa less than 100,000 years ago. Modern humans, known as Cro-Magnons , moved into Europe approximately 50–40,000 years ago. The most recent glacial period,

1925-507: The Semitic epigraphy, the stele of the priest and the child being the most famous. The museum also houses Greek works discovered in particular in the excavations of the ship of Mahdia, whose iconic piece is a marble bust of Aphrodite. The museum underwent a major refurbishment, completed in 2012, that was interrupted due to the Tunisian revolution . The expansion, which added 9,000 square meters to

1980-603: The academic community. He claimed that he obtained some of the manuscript's pages in Constantinople and that it originated in Mashhad , Persia, where they were commissioned for the tomb of the 9th-century Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid . This is supported by the Persian customs stamp on one of its pages. Additionally, the horizontal layout of the Blue Quran resembles the Qurans created in

2035-524: The building. The attack, which killed 22 people including 21 foreign tourists, was claimed by ISIS . The Bardo National Museum building was originally a 15th-century Hafsid palace, located in the suburbs of Tunis . The Bardo is one of the most important museums of the Mediterranean basin , and the second largest on the African continent after the Egyptian Museum . It traces the history of Tunisia over several millennia and through many civilizations through

2090-457: The bust of Aphrodite in marble, gnawed by the sea. The Islamic Department contains, in addition to famous works such as the Blue Qur'an of Kairouan , a collection of ceramics from the Maghreb and Anatolia . In order to increase the reception capacity and optimize the presentation of the collections, the museum is the subject of a vast operation which was to be completed initially in 2011 but

2145-491: The clear blue sea. Contrary to the classic sandy beach images portrayed in most tourist brochures, the Mediterranean is surprisingly hilly. Mountains can be seen from almost anywhere. By definition, the Mediterranean basin extends from Macaronesia in the west, to the Levant in the east, although some places may or may not be included depending on the view, as is the case with Macaronesia: some definitions only include Madeira and

2200-528: The complex, was designed by SCPA Codou-Hindley (France) and Amira Nouira (Tunisia). Considerable funding came from the World Bank . It contains a major collection of Roman mosaics and other antiquities of interest from Ancient Greece , Carthage , Tunisia , and the Islamic period. The museum displays objects ranging from pre-historical artifacts to modern jewelry . On 18 March 2015, 24 people were killed in

2255-450: The displayed works. 36°48′33.79″N 10°08′04.23″E  /  36.8093861°N 10.1345083°E  / 36.8093861; 10.1345083 Mediterranean Basin In biogeography , the Mediterranean basin ( / ˌ m ɛ d ɪ t ə ˈ r eɪ n i ən / MED -ih-tə- RAY -nee-ən ), also known as the Mediterranean region or sometimes Mediterranea , is the region of lands around

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2310-401: The dye was likely brushed onto the parchment before it was stretched and dried. The gilded lettering in the manuscript was given its gold sheen by the application of gold leaf over an adhesive, such as gum, egg white, fig sap, fish collagen, or a glue byproduct of parchment making. The text was outlined in black or brown ink, which can be attributed to an iron-tannate ink that was common for

2365-617: The early Abbasid period, which would place the manuscript in or around modern day Iraq. These pieces of evidence support the idea that the Blue Quran was created in the Eastern Islamic world. On the other hand, the Blue Quran was included in the inventory of the Great Mosque of Kairouan , which places the manuscript in Tunisia around 1300 CE. While this does not confirm that the manuscript was created in Tunisia, scholars argue that transporting

2420-716: The former Tethys Sea , which formerly separated Eurasia from the ancient super continent of Gondwana , of which Africa was part. At about the same time, 170 mya in the Jurassic period, a small Neotethys ocean basin formed shortly before the Tethys Sea was closed at the eastern end. The collision pushed up a vast system of mountains, extending from the Pyrenees in Spain to the Zagros Mountains in Iran . This episode of mountain building, known as

2475-450: The four neighboring floristic regions only. According to different versions of Armen Takhtajan 's delineation, the Mediterranean region is further subdivided into seven to nine floristic provinces : Southwestern Mediterranean (or Southern Moroccan and Southwestern Mediterranean), Ibero-Balearian (or Iberian and Balearian), Liguro-Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, East Mediterranean , South Mediterranean and Crimeo-Novorossiysk. The Mediterranean basin

2530-420: The golden letters. These erasures seem to go beyond correcting scribal mistakes as encountered regularly elsewhere. The Blue Qur'an is one of the largest manuscripts to exist, the work measures H. 11 15/16 in. (30.4 cm), W. 15 13/16 in. (40.2 cm). The codex is in a horizontal state, rather than the traditional vertical format. The exact origin of the Blue Quran is unknown. Scholars have proposed that

2585-434: The gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack . It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Tunisian history; surpassing the 2002 Ghriba synagogue bombing , which killed nineteen people, most of whom were also European tourists, and injured more than thirty others. Starting from June 17, 2014,

2640-455: The islands of Macaronesia off the Atlantic coast of Iberia and North Africa, and the present Mediterranean vegetation evolved, dominated by coniferous trees and sclerophyllous trees and shrubs, with small, hard, waxy leaves that prevent moisture loss in the dry summers. Much of these forests and shrublands have been altered beyond recognition by thousands of years of human habitation. There are now very few relatively intact natural areas in what

2695-662: The manuscript was created under the Abbasid , Fatimid , or Umayyad Caliphates, or the Aghlabid or Kalbid dynasties. This would place the location of origin in Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Spain, or Sicily. One theory is that the Blue Quran was produced in Persia during the Abbasid Caliphate. This was first proposed by Frederik R. Martin, a Swedish diplomat and dealer, who introduced the Blue Quran to

2750-445: The manuscript's estimated time and place of creation. The ink was used to "tidy up" the feathery edges of the gold leaf. Each sura was demarcated into groups of twenty verses using rosettes made from either silver leaf or silver ink. The verse markers were also detailed with red paint, which were thought to have come from either lac or safflower . Curiously, several pages of the manuscript have been completely or partly stripped of

2805-399: The museum offers visitors a digital guide in English , French , and Arabic . Developed by Orange Tunisia using Near-field communication technology, it comes in the form of a free downloadable application for smartphones and visitors can also borrow a free smartphone at the museum entrance. It offers audio commentaries, photo slideshows, and a historical and geographical perspective of

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2860-444: The north of the Mediterranean. The European portion of the Mediterranean basin loosely corresponds to Southern Europe . The three large Southern European peninsulas, the Iberian Peninsula , Italian Peninsula , and the Balkan Peninsula , extend into and comprise much of the Mediterranean-climate zone. A system of folded mountains, including the Pyrenees dividing Spain from France , the Alps dividing Italy from Central Europe ,

2915-456: The parchment came from an indigo dye that was derived from an indigotin-bearing plant material, either Indian Indigo or woad . Due to the similar composition of all indigo dyes, modern analytic technology and art historians are unable to make a definitive conclusion on the source of the blue dye. However, research done by scholar Cheryl Porter, whose work focuses on the use and technical implementation of color in manuscripts, has determined that

2970-427: Was not finished until 2012 due to the Tunisian Revolution . The work concerns the increase of the exhibition surfaces by adding new buildings and redeploying the collections. The project aims to make the museum a major pole for a quality cultural development, so that the visitor can appreciate the artistic pieces deposited. On March 18, 2015, an Islamist terrorist group attacked the museum and took tourists hostage in

3025-431: Was once a heavily wooded region. Phytogeographically , the Mediterranean basin together with the nearby Atlantic coast, the Mediterranean woodlands and forests and Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe of North Africa , the Black Sea coast of northeastern Anatolia , the southern coast of Crimea between Sevastopol and Feodosiya in Ukraine and the Black Sea coast between Anapa and Tuapse in Russia forms

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