Er Rouhia (ir-Rūḥīya) is a small town (with about 4,000 inhabitants) and district capital (muʕtamadīya) in the Siliana Governorate. According to local sources, its original population was formed by the Arabic tribes Ūlǟd Mǟžir and Ūlǟd ʕAyyāṛ. Due to its location in the transition area of three governorates, it belonged to El Kef first, later became a part of Kassrine and as Siliana became a governorate of its own, it became a part of Siliana.
Within the municipality of Er Rouhia the dialect of is-Skārna is famous for its unique lexical expressions. Folk etymology has it that the name of the town is derived from ir-rūḥ hīya “It is the spirit”. Er Rouhia used to be a vivid center of spiritual life, famous for its zrid-ceremonies (singular zarda “feast celebrated in honour of a saint”), in the course of which the local population as well as people from other parts of Tunisia visited the saints’ tombs (e.g. Umm id-Dlǟl, Sīdi l-Hǟdi, Ḥmid Bū ʕĪn, Sīdi ʕAlī). After the revolution in 2011 these activities stopped and have shown a slow revival within the last years.
