Following the oral story that pays tribute to Sidi Dawdi Bensouda, the founder of Dar Sqalli, it goes without saying that this 18th century’s hometown, not far from the Zqaq al-bqal street (merchant’s quarter), located at Arset Hwaja garden, undoubtedly  belonged to Ben Saqrun , a former trader and notorious land lord.
This hometown was fully ceded to the Sqalli family in the mid-19th century. The remaining wings of the building however were handed over to other family members who acquired important, vital and traditional parts of this massive Dar. The Masriya for instance, a huge guest-room, reserved for notable guests or single family youth, the landlord’s mule stable
 and the Heri (Sqalabia),  an internal water/food reservoir were unthinkably  not for sale.  Today, the masriya became independent homes; the reservoirs were turned into storage places while the stables are converted into little shops for craftsmen and shopkeepers. We however noticed the recurrent relooking that has been operated at different times on the house during the last 30 years.

To our nice surprise we found a hint to this house in the 1st Tome as well as the 2nd one. Mentioned as Dar Squalli in both tomes, this house, our main subject focus, goes back in fact  to the 18th century and is still in the possession of a the family’s relatives. It is registered under the following number 1289 1872-11873 and located the Zqaq al Bqal/ n° 14 – Kattanin Street. The last house lord passed away in 1984, few years after his wife had died leaving behind 7 boys and 3 daughters.
1.  Sqalli in Arabic might mean Sicilian. The young Madani Sqalli explains how his forefathers possibly from a noble background( the prophet Muhammad descendant) has spent some time in Sicilia after he had left Arabia. Thus, the family’s name. Few years in Spain, they left heading to Morocco where the settled since then.

2. Following Al-Haj « Abd al Aziz » in 1984, the off springs of the last spouse were 2 young daughters and 2 sons. Mahmud was 20, Madani 16, the eldest of the daughters is married in Casablanca while Khadija, the youngest of the lot, was then only 12 years old.

Most of the kids of a premium wedding live actually in the nouvelle Ville, except for Driss, a 35 years old married son who still hangs around the sqalabia with his sons and an elder brother, Abdel hay, whose love for music and trade make of his stay in the Fez medina an outpost of first choice as a family chief. The later also, occupies with other business mates an old asylum that became a caravanserai and a trade center gathering. In addition to his many businesses, Haj Adbul Aziz owned in the new town other city buildings and various farms and plots in the countryside. His modest beginnings in his little shop in the medina and his hard labours paid off and he became an affluent person. His success grew considerably amongst his generation and is still remembered as a pious individual. His family kept an out of question sense of respect to their father maker and speaks highly of him. Meanwhile, other descendants lead different lifestyles still hanging around the same niche and all the subsequent consequences of the family gatherings on the quality life of this hometown.

It is hardly easy to guess about what is happening beyond the walls of a house in the medina. The height of the buildings stands up as a barrier with barely visible windows looking out onto the narrow alleyways excluding from view the interior’s beauty. Access has always been possible through short doors with a usual nailed wooden lock-block called Huha.Flanking the house sides shops are glued to the Dar Kabira (the big house) and the annexed wings. On the left side an uplifted door leads to a double leveled big room – Masriya- that was part of the Family’s residence. The Dar Kabira opens onto a courtyard sided from west by a Bortal and three beautiful bedrooms from the other sides.The zigzagging entry on the other parallel part takes into stable places and a storage corner leading onto a vast kitchen place. The stables however communicate with the alleyways via another backdoor on which another big room was constructed.

On both northern and southern flanks of the courtyard, two beautiful rooms (Bayt) open with two big doorways turning around two sculpted pylons and a wooden door locker and sided by two square metal-grilled windows and a stucco plaster belt.
 A beehive of three-shaped closure stands high on the door sides to culminate on a finely sculpted and coloured top crown of the entrance. The Samassiya on the other hand is bordered with vertical bands supported by a parallel lozenge tracery mounting to top roof. Ahead of this lies an aligned and twisted eight star shaped inscription coming eminently into perspective by when the open gallery was cut to give away a doorway supported by stucco decorated pillars. This space closes in on the top roof when half superposed wooden supports ending lifted by two stucco decorated plaster capitals. Using these wooden supports along the mere façade, these cedar-wood lines sail forward and backward to make fine fringes simply plain and devoid of any decorations. Yet, every here and there inside the Middle arch, some festooned arches are surmounted with stucco lozenge panels. 
On the western flank of the courtyard’s middle we discover a window-less similar doorway to the southern and northern sides   .  At the gallery’s heart of similar size found in the other spaces bordered with archways slightly decorated with lozenges filled with floral motifs.

The eastern façade, like the western one, does not possess a gallery and are interspersed between arch-pillars with spaces that have built up to give free way to a Sammasiya and a wooden front to  shelter a metal- grilled window. The central body of the façade would have been lower and closer to the main archway functioning as a window of a former Sqalabiya,which hives way to twin floors upstairs.

The entry in zigzag is no original compared to the usual parts that are common to Riads, except the appearance of a staircase facing the main entrance that leads to the next floor. These niches play a decorative role more than a cupboard to place things in.  
On the northern side-wall opens onto the stables a doorway (scheme 14). To come into the courtyard, one has to enter three doors dropping one stair each passage. Before getting authorized entry the visitor must wait on a bank. Once crossing these two communicating rooms, it is all a gorgeous patio richly decorated with a mosaic fountain finely surrounded with abundant and refined stucco of little columns around the superior floor (derbuz).

On the left side entry a lifted long room above the courtyard’s level is paved with ceramics and roofed by apparent, painted and parraleled timbers to the entrance (scheme 5 & 4). Facing the door a richly Saniya is decorated with various flowery and soberly coloured motifs, while most of the square glazed tiles teem with lively colours on a pure white background.Side floor tiles are doubly aligning a long blue belt of mosaic tiles. One of the doors opens suddenly onto the kitchen to become a cupboard on one side and shortened toilet with lavatory and a modern toilet and shower on the other side. The little window (tarma), the light inlet of the north-east gallery sheds light on this toilet’s corner. 
Carrying on westward we come into a corridor in which, on the right, we find a stair mounting up to the superior stages. The corridor unveils a door leading to a mosaic fountain (Sqaya). Turning left we come into a vast and deep kitchen space with huge cupboards and smoke evacuating outlets. Inside, we come across toilets (mirhad). This kitchen was once part of the old house.   
westward, the opening on a narrow room subjected to an amputation of some other space to the north, now all walled up,  transformed into some alleyway shop. This space is floored with small colourful mosaics and topped up with a very short roof, a direct result of a setting up of a Sqalabia. Beyond the next stage is the old original roof reduced to a tarma, a beautiful tiny room converted into a kitchen with no interior windows. These toilets are a novelty since the owner used certainly to have squatting toilets. Paying a short glance at the southern gallery it is evident that the south-east corner of the courtyard’s underground system stopped to function some time ago.
The Squalli’s mansion dated back to 1872-1873 and must have replaced by an older house of the XVII century, which foundations and main architectural styles are the bases of the noble traits that make up the actual building. With a view over the wadi we can perceive a canalization heading to the central fountain (Sqaya) in the courtyard and the old kitchens where the Sqaya is situated. This ma’da is divided into a lavatory side and a toilet one.  The beautifully grilled iron window seemingly of recent trend clear off the room with a polychrome floor. The latter-day existing staircases obtrude the right window giving access to the Sqalabia. Towards the south-east angle, where the ma’da is, an intermediate staircase, through an underground gallery, leads to a food storage place formerly used as a bortal and today reshaped into an extra room paved with white-framed Zellij (mosaic).

Adjacent to the northern wall there are the old stables (Sch 14) offering access to the alleyways through the Satwan doorway. The former entry is transformed into a tailor’s shop. Setting up on top of two big column and a central rectangular pillar that divide the stable into two sections split and interspersed with small arches. Backside, a doorway leads into a hay storage place that communicates with the kitchen. Similar to the other ground parts, we note a toilet in the north-west angle.

Access to the next floor is permitted via a stairway on the north-east angle (Sch 12). A cupboard is found on the left side close another one with a door on the third, transfigured to meet up with special needs. This shortened exit extends to give way to a store-place (Bayt hla).  The fourth stair curve gets light from a grilled window opening onto the northern gallery, and when getting to a stage where access is allowed to a long Sqalabia just above a Bortal.  Through the left stairs and the south-east angle we get into a room with slightly enlighten cupboard opening onto the northern gallery. The lower room is dotted with window hole on the southern wall. While there we discover the premier masriya above the stables (Sch 14 bis) where simultaneously a staircase delivers a doorway into a trapezoidal open space converted into a double- arched sitting room. This distribution of organs continues in the next spaces used as toilets (mirhad), which turns into air-conditioning and enlightens the section (Sch 21) undisclosed as a beautifully lighted room furnished with 3 windows looking outward on the street. The roofed with short timber pillars supported at the base by two large transversal arches. (18).

The last steps of the 12th stairs lead through a lifted door into the next floor Where an airy window set high in the north-east angle (N’bah). This latter surrounds the courtyard bordered with square pillars that support carved wooden balustrade (derbuz). As in the bottom floor, we find here similarly spaced out pillars. On the little side-corners the central void space if filled with plaster colonnades that support the horizontal equally superposed pillars. Some horizontal and vertical moulded stripes decorate as disposed since the 17th century that would never efface the past sculptures. The top of the pillars is embellished by a finely chiseled stucco decor. Despite defects shown on the irregular measures of the various spaces, the beauty stays highly portrayed. The gallery’s balustrade is consistent of 7 panels. The largest in the middle is almost square, cut into floral, eight sided interlaced stars. The free spaces are filled with beautiful items ending with small cubes. Every now and then appear some swastika crosses or superposed flowery shapes. The last panels, gradually narrower get more of the same swastikas.
Similar distribution is clear on the large sides, yet the central one, an eight sided- floral panel, escorted by two swastikas type panels, have almost adopted a rectangular dimension. In the corners however the linkage is assumed by a vertical panel, cut into intricate lines forming two flattened and prolonged semi equal surfaces. These little panels end up at the base in little curved and inclined arches. The zellij-paved galleries are predominantly floored with white, black and dark green tiles. On top of painted apparent colonnades supporting pillars with a frieze of a double small pillar- lines in the middle that bear up another long pillar over which semi-circular glazed green tiles lay ahead. Higher on the top the little wall of the terrace comes out.