Ifriqiya [Tunisia]

The reign of the Muradids was a short one, holding power for just over half a century from AH 1050 to 1116 / AD 1641 to 1705. Descendants of the Genoese renegade Usta Murad, they experienced infighting and a climate of insecurity that weakened their power and revived their Algerian neighbour's designs on supremacy.
The Muradid Hammuda Pasha, who established order in the country, will be remembered along with Murad III, a bloodthirsty prince assassinated in the climate of conspiracies that precipitated the fall of the dynasty.
The Muradids were great builders and endowed the country with some beautiful buildings. They were renowned for their predilection for public utility works both in the capital and elsewhere in the country. They were responsible for some of the most famous monuments in Tunis:
• The funerary mosque of Hammuda Pasha and the mosque of Mhammed Bey that is noteworthy for its Ottoman architecture and the domes that crown it.
• The foundation of the Muradiya madrasa (school).
• The renovation and decoration of the Great Mosque of Tunis, to which they added a minaret.
• The construction of the first buildings of Dar al-Bey and the renovation and decoration of the Beylical Palace of Bardo in the suburbs of Tunis.
• The provision of new suqs and the construction of several residences in the medina, as well as a number of public, religious and civil buildings.
• Civil engineering projects including the bridge over the Medjerda River at Medjez al-Bab, built using ancient materials salvaged from a neighbouring structure, a second bridge over the same river at Jédeida, and the restoration of a bridge in al-Kef region.