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foum el kelb [Arabic]

In Tunisia, ? – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of length, used for fabric and sewn work, the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the outstretched index finger, = 8 çboa, but varying locally, for example 10 centimeters in Le Sers and Djemmal, 15 cm in Redeyef, Bizerte and Kairouan. Literally, “dog’s mouth.” In Kairouan it is also called a kharbouk.

Marcel Legendre.
Survivance des Mesures Traditionnelles en Tunisie.
Publications de L’Institut des Hautes ètudes de Tunis.
Memoires du Centre D’ètudes de Science Humaines, volume 4.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1958.

Pages 12, 24, 63, 75, 79 and 81.

sources

D’autres mesures comme le “foum el kelb”, quoique usités surtout dans les intérieurs et chez certains artisans, disparaissent peu à peu.

Other measures, such as the foum el kelb, even though used mainly in the interior and among certain artisans, are gradually disappearing.

Legendre, cited above.