AL-MITHAQRIAD AL-UNSAL-FUNDUQ AS-SIQILLIAL-MUNYA
ITFRENAR
AL-MITHAQالميثاق
The common charters

The sources

What the charters state rests on the works listed here. Where a source is weak, second-hand or not yet checked against a printed edition, this is declared, rather than choosing the more suggestive version. The sources of the Riad and of the Fondaco, once kept apart, now stand in a single list, ordered by house.

Riyad al-Uns · Fez

The statements on the pages on natural coolness and on water rest on the sources listed below. Every figure in the text carries a note pointing to one of them; where a source is weak, second-hand or not yet checked against a printed edition, the page says so rather than choosing the more suggestive version. The courtyard measurements come from Andalusia and the Alhambra: on Fez the published literature is still one of calculation, and the first measurement of the house will be its own.

Climate, policy and the 2030 Agenda

  • Climate normals 1991–2020, Fès-Saïss station (WMO 60141), NOAA/NCEI, as reported by secondary sources; to be checked against the NCEI file.
  • Direction Générale de la Météorologie (Maroc), press release of 17 August 2021 (46.7 °C in Fez on 13 August 2021) and 2024 climate report.
  • IEA, National Climate Resilience Assessment for Morocco, 2023.
  • IEA, The Future of Cooling, 2018; UNEP, Global Cooling Watch 2023.
  • Règlement thermique de construction au Maroc, decree no. 2-13-874 of 15 October 2014 (zone Z3, Fez), simplified version; to be checked against the Bulletin Officiel.
  • World Bank, CCDR Maroc – Note technique : Pénurie d’eau et sécheresses, March 2023.
  • United Nations, 2030 Agenda, targets 3.d, 6.4, 6.b, 7.3, 11.4, 11.c, 12.2, 13.1, 13.3 (sdgs.un.org).

The microclimate of courtyards

  • R. El Harrouni, M. Benaicha, I. M. Benkirane, V. Becue, «Bioclimatic assessment and thermal comfort of traditional Riads in Fez Medina», Results in Engineering 29 (2026), 108889, doi 10.1016/j.rineng.2025.108889.
  • K. El Harrouni, M. Ben Aicha, R. El Harrouni, «Parametric modelling and traditional architecture: improving the thermal comfort of the traditional courtyard house in Morocco», MATEC Web of Conferences 149 (2018), 02051, doi 10.1051/matecconf/201814902051 (cites Y. Etzion, Architectural Science Review 33, and the Enquête Logement 2000).
  • C. Rivera-Gómez, E. Diz-Mellado, C. Galán-Marín, V. López-Cabeza, «Tempering potential-based evaluation of the courtyard microclimate as a combined function of aspect ratio and outdoor temperature», Sustainable Cities and Society 51 (2019), 101740.
  • E. Diz-Mellado, V. P. López-Cabeza, C. Rivera-Gómez, C. Galán-Marín, J. Rojas-Fernández, M. Nikolopoulou, «Extending the adaptive thermal comfort models for courtyards», Building and Environment 203 (2021), 108094.
  • E. Diz-Mellado, Á. Ruiz-Pardo, C. Rivera-Gómez, F. J. Sánchez de la Flor, C. Galán-Marín, «Unravelling the impact of courtyard geometry on cooling energy consumption in buildings», Building and Environment 237 (2023), 110349.
  • V. P. López-Cabeza, C. Galán-Marín, C. Rivera-Gómez, «Thermodynamic performance enhancement of courtyards using a shading device», Proceedings 38 (2020), 17.
  • B. Jiménez Alcalá, «Natural cooling in Hispano-Moslem residential architecture: the case-study of the Court of the Lions and the Court of Comares in the Alhambra (Granada)», PLEA’99, Brisbane 1999, pp. 399–406.
  • D. Zhao et al., «Radiative sky cooling: fundamental principles, materials, and applications», Applied Physics Reviews 6 (2019), 021306.
  • FAO, Crop evapotranspiration, Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56, 1998, tab. 2.

Water: hydraulics, rule, the history of Fez

  • L. J. García-Pulido, «The Alijares Palace (Qaṣr al-Dishār) at the Alhambra: a bioclimatic analysis», Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 10/1 (2016), pp. 46–71; id., «The mastery in hydraulic techniques for water supply at the Alhambra», Journal of Islamic Studies 27/3 (2016), pp. 355–382.
  • C. Trillo San José, Agua, tierra y hombres en al-Andalus. La dimensión agrícola del mundo nazarí, Granada 2004; ead., Agua y paisaje en Granada. Una herencia de al-Andalus, Diputación de Granada 2003; ead., «El agua en al-Andalus: teoría y aplicación según la cultura islámica», Tecnología del Agua 271 (2006).
  • T. Madani, L’eau dans le monde musulman médiéval : l’exemple de Fès (Maroc) et de sa région, thesis, Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2003.
  • R. Le Tourneau, Fès avant le Protectorat, Casablanca 1949.
  • M. Ayacine, M. El Bouchikhi, K. Obda, «Le patrimoine hydraulique de la médina de Fès et le développement durable», Espaces 6–7 (2019).
  • M. El Faïz, Les maîtres de l’eau. Histoire de l’hydraulique arabe, Actes Sud 2005.

Arabic texts cited

  • Qur’an, al-Wāqiʿa 56:30–31; al-Anbiyāʾ 21:30; al-Insān 76:18 (ʿUthmānī text).
  • Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, Kitāb al-ijāra, no. 3477 (ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī).
  • Ibn Mājah, Sunan, Kitāb al-ṭahāra, no. 425 (weak chain through Ibn Lahīʿa; cited as such).
  • Ibn Khaldūn, al-Muqaddima, book I, ch. IV, sect. 5, ed. Khalīl Shaḥāda, Beirut 1988, I, pp. 433–434.
  • Ibn Abī Zarʿ, al-Anīs al-muṭrib bi-rawḍ al-qirṭās, description of Fez; text read from a scan and normalised, to be collated against the Rabat 1972 edition.
  • Ibn Zamrak, inscription on the Fountain of the Lions; reading to be verified against E. García Gómez, Poemas árabes en los muros y fuentes de la Alhambra, Madrid 1985.
  • Ibn Luyūn, Kitāb al-Filāḥa (Almería, 1348), in the Spanish version of J. Eguaras Ibáñez, 1975, revised by W. Akef and I. Almela, 2021. The passage on the siting of a house among gardens is cited on the pages of Al-Munya, after the Spanish version.
  • al-Jaznāʾī, Janā zahrat al-ās fī bināʾ madīnat Fās, ed. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ibn Manṣūr, Rabat 1991 — cited only as a work to consult, not for figures.

Descriptions of Fez

  • Leo Africanus, Della descrizione dell’Africa e delle cose notabili che quivi sono, in the text of G. B. Ramusio (Giunti, Venice 1550), reading by Otto Anders, Dedalus, Naples 2000; Book III, Fez: “Artigiani diversi, botteghe e piazze” and “Giardini e orti”. The passages cited are translated from the Italian.
  • Edmondo De Amicis, Marocco, Treves, Milan 1876, chapter “Fez”: the threshold and courtyard of a medina house; the River of Pearls. The passages cited are translated from the Italian.

To the house

Al-Funduq as-Siqilli · Sicily

The historical and documentary statements on these pages rest on the sources listed below, and where the sources are weak or discordant the page says so instead of choosing the more suggestive version. Some incidental details remain without a precise reference; they carry no argument of the project and can be recognised because no conclusion rests on them.

Islamic and Norman Sicily

  • Michele Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula, Leipzig 1857, and Versione italiana, Turin-Rome 1880-1881. Reference corpus for the Arabic sources on the island, including Ibn Ḥawqal, al-Idrīsī and Ibn Ḥamdīs; it also gives the Arabic place-names of the island (raḥl, qalʿa, manzil, marsā) and the notes on the lexicon that passed into Sicilian.
  • Ibn Jubayr, Travels, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Iṭrābānishī (of Trapani), verses on the Favara, in the Italian version of M. Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula: text of the quotations on the fondachi of Messina and Palermo, on the fertility of the island and on the Favara, translated from the Italian.
  • Ibn Jubayr, Viaggio in Sicilia, edited by Giovanna Calasso, Adelphi, Milan 2022.
  • Ihsan Abbas, al-Arab fi Siqilliya, for the text of the verses of Ibn Hamdis.

Al-Andalus and the Corral del Carbon

  • Leopoldo Torres Balbas, Las alhondigas hispanomusulmanas y el Corral del Carbon, in «Al-Andalus» 11 (1946), pp. 447-484.
  • Maria del Carmen Jimenez Roldan, Del funduq a la alhondiga: un espacio entre el emirato nazari y el reino de Granada, in «Al-Qantara» (CSIC, 2019).
  • Alicia Hernandez Robles, La pervivencia del funduq andalusi en las ciudades de Valencia, Murcia y Sevilla tras la conquista, in «Medievalismo» 31 (2021), pp. 235-271.
  • Fundacion Publica Andaluza El legado andalusi, Granada, whose seat is in the Corral del Carbon.
  • Fundacion Euroarabe de Altos Estudios, Granada.

Climate, data and regulations

  • Ragusa weather station (515 m), 1991–2019 means of temperature and precipitation, as reported by a secondary source; to be checked against G. Fioravanti, P. Fraschetti, F. Lena, W. Perconti, E. Piervitali, I normali climatici 1991–2020 di temperatura e precipitazione in Italia, ISPRA, Stato dell’Ambiente 99/2022.
  • PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission, Joint Research Centre), SARAH3 and ERA5 databases, 2005–2023, for 36.93° N 14.73° E, 479 m: hourly typical meteorological year (TMY), irradiation on the optimally inclined plane and photovoltaic output. Queried on 23 September 2026.
  • WMO, press release of 30 January 2024 on the validation of the 48.8 °C of 11 August 2021 in the province of Syracuse (SIAS station) as the European record.
  • SNPA, Il clima in Italia nel 2023, Report ambientali 42/2024; Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 6 May 2024 (state of emergency for the water deficit in Sicily) and extension of 9 May 2025.
  • ISTAT, Dotazioni energetiche delle famiglie – Anno 2024, October 2025; IEA, The Future of Cooling, 2018; UNEP, Global Cooling Watch 2023.
  • Presidential Decree no. 412 of 26 August 1993, table A (Ragusa: zone C, 1,324 degree-days); Legislative Decree no. 199 of 8 November 2021, annex III, as amended by Legislative Decree 5/2026.
  • WMO normals 1991–2020 for Fès-Saïss (station 60141), NOAA/NCEI, for comparison.

Courtyards, shade and mass

  • Y. Etzion, «The thermal behaviour of non-shaded closed courtyards in hot-arid zones», Architectural Science Review 33 (1990), pp. 79–83; K. El Harrouni, M. Ben Aicha, R. El Harrouni, «Parametric modelling and traditional architecture», MATEC Web of Conferences 149 (2018), 02051.
  • C. Rivera-Gómez, E. Diz-Mellado, C. Galán-Marín, V. López-Cabeza, «Tempering potential-based evaluation of the courtyard microclimate as a combined function of aspect ratio and outdoor temperature», Sustainable Cities and Society 51 (2019), 101740.
  • E. Diz-Mellado et al., «Extending the adaptive thermal comfort models for courtyards», Building and Environment 203 (2021), 108094; id., «Unravelling the impact of courtyard geometry on cooling energy consumption in buildings», Building and Environment 237 (2023), 110349.
  • V. P. López-Cabeza, C. Galán-Marín, C. Rivera-Gómez, «Thermodynamic performance enhancement of courtyards using a shading device», Proceedings 38 (2020), 17; V. P. López-Cabeza et al., «Shade and thermal comfort in courtyards: experimental versus simulation results», Buildings 12 (2022), 1961.
  • S. M. Morales Pérez, «El patio y la herencia sevillana del habitar», Arquitectura y Urbanismo XL/2 (2019), pp. 59–66, on the use of toldos.
  • R. El Harrouni, M. Benaicha, I. M. Benkirane, V. Becue, «Bioclimatic assessment and thermal comfort of traditional Riads in Fez Medina», Results in Engineering 29 (2026), 108889.
  • D. Zhao et al., «Radiative sky cooling: fundamental principles, materials, and applications», Applied Physics Reviews 6 (2019), 021306.
  • B. Jiménez Alcalá, «Natural cooling in Hispano-Moslem residential architecture: the case-study of the Court of the Lions and the Court of Comares in the Alhambra (Granada)», PLEA ’99, Brisbane 1999, pp. 399–406; L. J. García-Pulido, «The mastery in hydraulic techniques for water supply at the Alhambra», Journal of Islamic Studies 27/3 (2016), pp. 355–382.

Water, subsoil and Sicilian precedents

  • C. Trillo San José, Agua, tierra y hombres en al-Andalus. La dimensión agrícola del mundo nazarí, Granada 2004; ead., Agua y paisaje en Granada. Una herencia de al-Andalus, Diputación de Granada 2003; ead., «El agua en al-Andalus: teoría y aplicación según la cultura islámica», Tecnología del Agua 271 (2006).
  • P. Todaro, G. Barbera, A. Castrorao Barba, G. Bazan, «Qanāts and historical irrigated landscapes in Palermo’s suburban area (Sicily)», European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 10 (2020), pp. 335–370; P. Todaro, Il sottosuolo di Palermo, Palermo 1988; id., Guida di Palermo sotterranea, Palermo 2002; id., «Sistemi d’acqua tradizionali siciliani: qanat, ingruttati e pozzi allaccianti nella Piana di Palermo», Geologia dell’Ambiente 4 (2014).
  • G. Lofrano, M. Carotenuto, R. Maffettone, P. Todaro, S. Sammataro, I. K. Kalavrouziotis, «Water collection and distribution systems in the Palermo plain during the Middle Ages», Water 5 (2013), pp. 1662–1676.
  • H. Bresc, «Les jardins de Palerme (1290–1460)», Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Moyen Âge 84 (1972), pp. 55–127; G. Barbera, «Parchi, frutteti, giardini e orti nella Conca d’Oro di Palermo araba e normanna», Italus Hortus 14/4 (2007), pp. 14–27.
  • M. Saeli, E. Saeli, «Analytical studies of the Sirocco room of Villa Naselli-Ambleri: a XVI century passive cooling structure in Palermo (Sicily)», Journal of Cultural Heritage 16/3 (2015), pp. 344–351; E. Saeli, M. Saeli, La Camera dello Scirocco di Villa Naselli di Gela a Palermo, 2022; T. Firrone, «Le camere dello scirocco: archetipi bioclimatici della Palermo antica», in Palermo città delle culture.
  • U. Staacke, Un palazzo normanno a Palermo. La Zisa, Palermo 1991; G. Bellafiore, La Zisa di Palermo, Palermo 1994; G. Caronia, La Zisa di Palermo. Storia e restauro, Rome-Bari 1982; G. Spatrisano, La Zisa e lo Scibene di Palermo, Palermo 1982.
  • A. Patanè, I viaggi della neve. Raccolta, commercio e consumo della neve dell’Etna nei secoli XVII–XX, Palermo 2014; L. Lombardo, «Il viaggio della neve nel Mediterraneo: dalla Sicilia all’isola di Malta», Dialoghi Mediterranei 8 (2014).
  • FAO, Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56 (1998), for the orders of magnitude of evaporation; latent heat of vaporisation at 25 °C: 2,441.7 kJ/kg.

Ground and buried ducts

  • T. Kusuda, P. R. Achenbach, Earth temperature and thermal diffusivity at selected stations in the United States, National Bureau of Standards, Report 8972, 1965.
  • J. M. Andújar Márquez et al., «Ground thermal diffusivity calculation by direct soil temperature measurement», Sensors 16 (2016), 306; J. Mathur et al., «Investigation of soil thermal saturation and recovery under intermittent and continuous operation of EATHE», Energy Reports 1 (2015), pp. 17–21.
  • M. Grosso, G. Chiesa, «Horizontal earth-to-air heat exchanger in Imola, Italy. A 30-month-long monitoring campaign», Energy Procedia 78 (2015), pp. 73–78; F. Ascione, L. Bellia, F. Minichiello, «Earth-to-air heat exchangers for Italian climates», Renewable Energy 36 (2011), pp. 2177–2188.
  • G. Chardome, V. Feldheim, «Heat transfer and condensation in an earth–air heat exchanger», Energy and Buildings 205 (2019), 109532; H. Wei, D. Yang, J. Wang, J. Du, Applied Energy 276 (2020), 115493.

Lexicon and rural architecture

  • Alberto Varvaro, Vocabolario Storico-Etimologico del Siciliano (VSES), 2014; Giorgio Piccitto and Giovanni Tropea, Vocabolario siciliano.
  • Roberto Sottile, Arabismi siciliani tra Oriente e Occidente.
  • Antonino Traina, Nuovo vocabolario siciliano-italiano, Palermo 1868, s.v. funnacaru.
  • Italian National Commission for UNESCO, L’arte dei muretti a secco, inscription 2018.
  • P. Laureano, address to the Africa Forum, Rome, 4 June 2008, for the sentence quoted on the page on the building site; id., La piramide rovesciata. Il modello dell’oasi per il pianeta Terra, Turin 1995; id., Giardini di pietra. I Sassi di Matera e la civiltà mediterranea, Turin 1993.

Arabic texts cited

  • Qur’an, 25:45; 78:9–11; 16:81; 76:13; 76:18 (ʿUthmānī text, quran.com / tanzil.net).
  • Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, no. 3477 (ṣaḥīḥ, al-Albānī) and no. 1681 (ḥasan, al-Albānī); al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 2320, and Muslim, no. 1553 (sunnah.com); al-Bukhārī, no. 2072, on the work of one’s own hand.
  • Al-Idrīsī, Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq, fourth climate, sect. 2, ed. Opus geographicum (Naples–Rome 1970–1984), pp. 598 and 613; Italian translations by M. Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula, and by U. Rizzitano, Il Libro di Ruggero, Palermo 1966.
  • Ibn Jubayr, Riḥla, ed. Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, p. 305; Italian translation edited by G. Calasso, Adelphi, Milan 2022.
  • Ibn Ḥamdīs, Dīwān, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, Beirut 1960: qaṣīda «Qaḍat fī ṣ-ṣibā» (vv. 33–37, on Sicily) and qaṣīda in praise of al-Manṣūr of Bijāya (the lions of the basin); text checked against aldiwan.net and I. ʿAbbās, al-ʿArab fī Ṣiqilliya. Italian translation in F. M. Corrao, Poeti arabi di Sicilia, Milan 1987.
  • Ibn Zaydūn, qaṣīda of al-Zahrāʾ, in the reading al-labbāt of the anthologies.
  • Al-Sulamī, Kitāb al-futuwwa, part one.
  • In the pages the captions of these quotations give the author, the work and the reference. The Qur’anic texts and the ḥadīth are given in the vocalisation of the sources; the passages of al-Idrīsī and Ibn Jubayr come from the editions indicated and have been checked against the Arabic text; the verses of Ibn Ḥamdīs and Ibn Zaydūn await collation against the printed edition by an Arabist, and the page says so. The translations, where not otherwise indicated, are our own.

International conventions

  • Council of Europe, Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention), Faro, 27 October 2005, CETS No. 199. The English and French texts are authentic. Ratification and implementation: Law no. 133 of 1 October 2020 (Gazzetta Ufficiale, general series, no. 263 of 23 October 2020), in force since 24 October 2020, with the Italian translation annexed; the Convention has bound Italy since 1 April 2021. Articles cited: 2(a) and (b); 6(c); 8(c); 9(d); 13(d).
  • UNESCO, Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Paris, 17 October 2003; ratified by Italy by Law no. 167 of 27 September 2007 (Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 238 of 12 October 2007) and by Morocco on 6 July 2006. Cited: Article 2(1) and 2(2)(e); Article 14(a)(iv). The Italian translations are our own from the French text.
  • UNESCO, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, element 01393, Art of dry stone construction, knowledge and techniques (decisions 13.COM 10.b.10, 2018, and 19.COM 7.b.57, 2024).
  • The Nara Document on Authenticity, Nara Conference, 1–6 November 1994, with UNESCO, ICCROM and ICOMOS; para. 13, our translation from the English.
  • Council of Europe, European Landscape Convention, Florence, 20 October 2000 (ETS No. 176); ratification: Law no. 14 of 9 January 2006 (Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 16 of 20 January 2006, ordinary supplement). Cited: Articles 1(a) and 5(a).

What does not appear on these pages

  • Four claims that often circulate on these subjects were checked and discarded: that the daily temperature range of the Ragusa district is comparable to that of Fez, that the scirocco chambers date from the Islamic period, that the maiolica of Caltagirone is the Sicilian half of zellij, and that the ventilation system of the Zisa can be reconstructed in the details that circulate about it. None of them appears here.
  • The measurements of the Andalusian courtyards and of the Alhambra are now cited with their source; it remains true, and the pages say so, that no published measurement isolates the effect of water from that of mass and shade, and that no measurement yet exists of the masseria.

To the house