M'saken

M'saken,Sousse,Tunisia
M'saken,Sousse,Tunisia

Location in Tunisia

Coordinates: 35°44′0″N 10°35′0″E / 35.73333°N 10.58333°ECoordinates: 35°44′0″N 10°35′0″E / 35.73333°N 10.58333°E
Country Tunisia
Governorate Sousse Governorate
Population (2014)
 • Total 97,225
Time zone CET (UTC1)

M'saken as it is written in Tunisia or Masakin or Msaken (Arabic: مساكن‎) is a town in northeastern Tunisia, close to Sousse.

Administration

The town is the administration centre of a "delegation" (district) of the same name, which at the 2014 Census had a population of 97,225.

People of Msaken

Habib Chatti: Habib Chatti or Habib Chatty, born August 9, 1916 at M'saken and died March 6, 1991 in Paris, is a Tunisian diplomat and politician. After completing his primary education in his hometown, he continued his studies at the Collège Sadiki Tunis. He works in the late 1930s in the press as editor of the newspaper Assabah. In 1955, he was appointed as Director of Information in the Government of Tahar Ben Ammar. Ambassador of Tunisia in 1958, he became Chief of Staff of President Habib Bourguiba in 1972, then Minister of Foreign Affairs from 14 January 1974 to 24 December 1977. In 1979, he was elected Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, whose headquarters is located in Jeddah.

Zied Ladhari: Politician, member of Ennahdha party.

Tahar Hamila: "Tahar Hamila" Politician, member of the constitutional council

Zoubeir Baya: Football player.

History

According to local traditions, Msaken was founded by a group of descendants of Hussein Ibn Ali and Fatima Ez-zahra (Muhammed's daughter). Their ancestors had came to North Africa escaping from the Abbassid masters of Baghdad, who had been engaged in a cruel fight against Sharif people (descendants of Hassan and Hussein, the sons of Ali and Fatima). They founded a Sharif Emirate in Taguedmett near present-day Tiaret in Algeria's west center. After three generations and following the fall of this Emirate, some of their descendants lived in eastern Morocco near Wajda for some time. Then some of their descendants emigrated to Kairouan in Tunisia. After some decades, they founded MSAKEN town in Hafside times who had their capital in Tunis. Their town was originally called [Kousour al Ashraf] (which means "Sharif's houses"), then [Masakin al Ashraf] (which has the same meaning), and finally Masakin - or Msaken with the North-Africain spelling (means just means "houses"). The town core had been founded around the actual Jamma al Awsat (which means the central mosque) and was composed of five ksars (great houses).

Y chromosome DNA Analysis

12 people from different families in Msaken were tested for their Y chromosome DNA in 2009-2014. These tests were done by Family Tree DNA company. The results are as follows:

- 11 persons belong to J2a4h2f1 haplogroup. (SNPs L24+,L25+,F3133+,Z7704+,L192.2+,L271+)

- 2 persons belong to R1a1a1l haplogroup. (SNPs Z93+ Z94- Z283- L342-)

Two new snp have been found in 5 samples tested among the 11 people who belong to J2a4h2 Haplogroup, the rest of the group are for sure positive for thes SNP as per their STR haplotypes matching. These snps are L192.2 and L271 they were first discovered in February 2010 in "Walk through the Y Chromosome" (AKA WTY) test on a sample from Msaken belonging to AL GAZZAH Family. The TMRCA is estimated to be 800+/-300 Years Before Present for SNP L271 which is matching with Msaken foundation date The TMRCA is 3000 +/- 500 years for L192.2 snp. L192.2 SNP has a wide geographic scope: It has been found in Jordan, Turkey, Italy, Russia, Kuwait, India (Syrian Christians of Kerala), Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,Iran,Georgia. Its most variation so far observed in Anatolia which means that it first originated there. It is particularly present among Armenians and Kurds (according to haplotypes found in yhrd.org).

Mitochondria DNA Analysis

Two people from Msaken have been tested for their Mitochondria Haplogroups, the results are as follows

1- Haplogroup T2b3, with more than 1500 high resolution matching (HVR1+HVR1) with European people: probably Central/Western European origin

2- Haplogroup N1c :Middle eastern origin (Arabia, Anatolia).

3- Haplogroup H (predicted H2a2) : Eurasia.

4- Haplogroup L3f : East African roots.

5- Haplogroup L1c3 : West African roots.

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