Tunisian History Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by and +1
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- Anthropology, Mediterranean Studies, History of the Mediterranean, Tunisian History

Le tasfih (littéralement « fermage », « scellement ») est un rituel profane de protec-tion de la virginité féminine auquel se soumettent par deux fois certaines jeunes filles tunisiennes, obtenant ainsi le statut de msafha: avant leur entrée dans la puberté (séquencefermeture) ; et avant leur entrée dans la conjugalité (séquence ouverture). Pratiquées en mi-lieu urbain et rural, des variantes du rituel coexistent. C’est dans un contexte familial et féminin qu’une opératrice (mère, tante, grand-mère, matrone, voisine, etc.) effectue une légèreincision sur le genou, recueillant le sang avec sept fruits secs. À chaque ingestion, l’enfant doit alors prononcer une formule d’engagement impliquant l’impuissance sexuelle de tous lesprétendants avant son mariage : « je suis un mur, et le fils d’autrui un fil ». La veille des noces, la jeune femme offre sa virginité en inversant la formule.

- by Samuel LÉZÉ
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- Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Anthropology, Women's Studies

Six ans après la première édition, l'histoire de la communauté grecque de Tunisie est désormais en français.L'étude, qui présente pour la première fois l'histoire de la communauté grecque de Tunisie, est basée exclusivement sur des documents d'archives, résultat de la recherche en Grèce et Tunisie. C’est la première fois que les archives communautaires et consulaires ont été consultées.

- by Jihed souid
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- Tunisian History, Mountain Villages

La Revolución de los Jazmines fue uno de los sucesos más sorprendentes que podían
haber tenido lugar para la comunidad internacional, pero más aún lo fue, que ésta se
extendiese por la franja norte de África, convirtiéndose en el fenómeno ya conocido como
Primavera Árabe. En esta ponencia se trata de explicar el movimiento social que ocasionó y
fue en sí la citada Revolución, que causas había y los problemas sociales de la sociedad
tunecina que motivaron la Revolución de los Jazmines, con su cenit el 14 de enero de 2011,
que provocó la huida del país al exilio en Arabia Saudí, del que fue hasta ese momento su
principal dirigente el Presidente de la República Zine el Abidine Ben Alí, por el profundo
rechazo que sus políticas habían provocado en la población, especialmente en los últimos
años de mandato, marcados por la corrupción del régimen y de la falta de expectativas para

- by Rubén Tamboleo García
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- Sociology, Social Change, Social Movements, Political Science

This paper sheds light on the largely neglected Jewish presence in the textile-manufacturing Tunisian town of Ksar-Hellal during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the Jews’ impact on local production and commerce in the textile sector.
Based on local notarial Arabic documents, ranging over a period from 1875 to 1886 in Ksar-Hellal, this ground-breaking paper augments the traditional historiography founded on Jewish and European sources. The Arabic documentation recorded the activities of two Jewish-owned family companies that were well integrated into textile production and distribution channels via their financial and commercial activities.
The paper illuminates the gaps in our knowledge not only of Jewish Tunisian history but also of the local history of Ksar-Hellal.

- by Mourad Regaya
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- Tunisian History
- by Leila El Houssi
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- Tunisian History

Les 'Ulamā' et la propriété foncière en Ifrīqiya (i er-iii e /vii e-ix e siècles) Résumé. Les dictionnaires biographiques consacrés à l'Ifrīqiya nous donnent un répertoire d'hom-mes appartenant à l'élite savante et pieuse. Au travers des informations relatives à ces hommes livrés surtout à la pratique ascétique, nous rencontrons des données, certes rares, mais assez intéressantes, sur les rapports qu'entretenaient les saints personnages de l'Ifrīqiya avec le travail de la terre. On trouve certaines positions juridiques relatives au travail de la terre, aux rapports entre propriétaires et travailleurs, et surtout à la pratique du travail agricole par certains savants et certains saints. Leur étude permettrait de nuancer une idée répandue selon laquelle la civilisation arabo-musulmane serait une civilisation du commerce et de la ville plus que de la terre et de la ruralité. Abstract. Scholars and land property in Ifrīqiya (i st-iii rd c./vii th-ix th c.) The biographic sources (kutub al-tarāğim), which deal with the history of Ifrīqiya give us a great number of biographies of pious men. Through those texts we can find scarce information about the rural and agronomic implication of this category of people. Our contribution doesn't deal with wealth of these men, but about their rural wealth. This situation allows seeing the constitution of the rural property of men of knowledge and the rural law or farmer's law. In fine we can say that the muslim civilisation is not based only on the urban economy as it was usually suggested, but also, the rural wealth is important and the better example is the example of 'Ulamā' and their rural wealth.

- by Mohamed Tahar Mansouri
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- History, Medieval History, Tunisian History

L'arrivée d'une viticulture de masse est l'un des effets évidents de la colonisation française en Tunisie 1. Rares en 1881, les plants de vigne deviennent la marque physique, concrète d'une modification d'un environnement et de l'arrivée d'un élément extérieur dans la gestion du pays à l'époque de la colonisation. Au plus fort de la colonisation française, dans les années 1930, on compte près de 50 000 hectares de vigne produisant quasiment 2 millions d'hectolitres. Très vite une viticulture à deux vitesses apparaît. La première, sur laquelle se concentre les autorités est conçue sur un modèle productiviste, et à partir de grandes parcelles et de plus forts rendements produit du vin de coupage principalement à destination de la métropole. La deuxième est celle de l'agriculture familiale, de petites parcelles occupées par des viticulteurs plus pauvres mais qui représentent l'essentiel du modèle viticole tunisien, tant en termes de surfaces possédés que de professionnels. Dans le détail, le vignoble le mieux renseigné par les archives reste les plus grandes parcelles, détenus par des grands intérêts économiques français et qui fournissent en vin la métropole. Les plus petites parcelles sont celles qui intéressent le moins l'administration, alors qu'elles représentent le coeur de la Tunisie viticole, et constituent progressivement l'enjeu même du projet colonial français. Comment la concurrence entre ces deux modèles, et la prépondérance des petits vignobles renseignent-elles le phénomène politique de colonisation en Tunisie ? Nous verrons d'abord que le modèle de la petite parcelle s'impose malgré une projet économique français contraire en Tunisie. Puis que ces petits vignobles sont en réalité largement accaparés par une classe particulière : celle viticulteurs italiens. Enfin, les vingt dernières années du Protectorat remettent à mal cette prépondérance du petit vignoble.

- by Nessim Znaien
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- Alcohol Studies, Drugs And Alcohol, Tunisian History, Tunisia

This essay talks briefly about the achievements of Bo that enhanced the modernization and the development Tunisia and his policies that played a role in the econo and political liberalization of the country. However, it shows the failures... more

- by Mahdi Sellami
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- History, South African Politics and Society, Modernization, Tunisian History

A presentation of the brief period of action of the Sacred Squadron, Greece's elite force in WW2, in the Tunisian Front. This was essentially the unit's baptism of fire and a prelude of a much harder struggle in a completely different... more

- by Grégor Marchand
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Tunisian History

Whereas historians studying the US relations to the Barbary States insisted on the conflictual and naval aspects, this paper explores American shipping and trade to Tunis in the 1800s

Bulla a été fondée à une date non encore précisée, mais probablement antérieure au IVe siècle av. J.-C. Après avoir dépendu de Carthage dès le IIIe siècle av. J.-C., cette ville passa sous domination des rois numides au milieu du IIe siècle av. J.-C. Á l'époque romaine, Bulla Regia a connu les différents statuts municipaux en même temps qu'elle se dotait de parure monumentale expression architecturale de sa romanisation. Si elle a conservé plusieurs monuments digne de son passé prestigieux et de son importance économique, Bulla Regia retient surtout l'attention par la hardiesse de ses somptueuses demeures qui s'ordonnaient sur deux niveaux, un rez-de-chaussée et un sous-sol.

- by Moheddine Chaouali
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- Ancient History, Roman History, Romanian History, North Africa Studies

Coming from the Orient, Christianity first spread among the small Jewish communities who lived near ports, particularly in Carthage. It was not long before it found favorable ground in Africa. The first authentic documents relating to the African Christianity, was the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs. It dates back to the earlier 180 AD and was enacted under the rule of the Roman emperor Commodus (180-192). The Act was believed to be passed after the incident of twelve Christians from a little unlocalized village called Scillium, situated at the province of Proconsularis, were condemned to death by the sword, for refusing to worship the imperial deity. From 197, the voice of Tertullian proclaimed, addressing the pagans, " We are of yesterday, and yet we have filled all your places; your cities, islands, villages, companies, palace, senate, forum; we leave you only your temples.".

- by Raafat Elmesallamy
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- Christianity, History of Christianity, Early Christianity, Tunisian History

The Conquest of Tunis in 1535, a relatively limited military victory in the power balance of the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century, became through art both a historic and a legendary milestone that marked the backbone of Charles V’s reign. The war to secure the reinstatement of the king of Tunis, Muley Hassan, who had been expelled from his states by Barbarossa —acting on behalf of the Turk— was a brief event that was more reactive than subordinate to a systematic plan of conquest. Nonetheless, it was perpetuated in the European imaginary as a symbol of the first ‘modern war’ by historiography and, above all, by visual propaganda, as many of the chronicles of the African expedition generated during those years lived on for posterity in manuscript form. So far attempts at analysing the imagery associated with the imperial expedition have centred chiefly on its best known and most brilliant consequence, the famous tapestry set woven at the Brussels workshops that served Willem de Pannemaker and held by Patrimonio Nacional. In contrast, this essay marks a first approach to provide an overall and politically contextualised interpretation of the artistic expressions linked to the campaign and executed during the emperor’s lifetime (1500-1558), arranged in accordance with a narrative discourse.

- by Juan Luis González García
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- Military History, Artillery, Visual propaganda, Ottoman History
- by Virginie Prevost
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- Tunisian History, Tunisia, Medieval Maghreb history, Tunisie

North Africa is rarely mentioned in scholarship on the medieval Mediterranean. This paper demonstrates the potential of archaeology for understanding the impact of the Arab conquests on settlement and society in seventh- and eighth- century North Africa. Despite difficulties in dating early medieval occupation, synthesis of the available evidence reveals that the Arab conquest was not catastrophic for settled life. Mapping the distribution of urban sites across North Africa shows that the majority of Byzantine towns were not abandoned but remained significant centres. The rural evidence is less clear, but suggests a relatively busy countryside of estates, farms and fortified villages. The paper then presents three detailed case-studies of the towns of Tocra, Sbeïtla and Volubilis in the early medieval period, before considering more broadly the evidence for fortifications, religious buildings (churches and mosques), housing and production in towns. It concludes with some preliminary observations on the nature of Arab rule in North Africa from the perspective of the archaeological evidence.

There is only very limited evidence for the life of the sixteenth century English renegade and eunuch slave, Hassan Agha, whose birth name was Samson Rowlie. Until now, he has been known from a single letter written in 1586, supplemented by a striking watercolour portrait from 1588. However, new research on early English diplomatic relations with the Ottomans has uncovered further evidence of Hassan Agha's later life and continued contacts with his fellow Englishmen. This previously unstudied evidence includes a report of Hassan Agha's premature death in sinister circumstances, presumed murdered. This paper will present these original research findings in the context of England's early diplomatic and commercial relations with the Ottoman Levant. Particular attention will be paid to the position of eunuch slaves within Ottoman government and society, as well as questions of personal identity and loyalty amongst renegade ministers and officials. This will address the proposed conference topics of 'consular, diplomatic and commercial interactions' and 'individual or family histories that reveal aspects of the Levantine world'.

- by Nouri Gana
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- Social Movements, Labor Economics, Middle East Studies, Middle East & North Africa

This book chapter offers an overview of challenges and opportunities for Tunisian women's rights before and after Tunisia's 2011 revolution. From Nouri Gana’s introduction: “Monica Marks deftly weaves together the ways in which the issue of women’s rights has been used and abused by Bourguiba and Ben Ali to maintain their hold on power. Counter-revolutionary forces, along with a host of opposition parties, have similarly wheeled out the issue of women’s rights in order to show how bad Ennadha would be for women despite Ennahda’s endorsement of the Personal Status Code of 1957 and of a new constitution that does not include Sharia law. What has muddled the waters even further, however, is the rise to prominence of Salafism, one of the most mediatized phenomena in postrevolutionary Tunisia, especially insofar as it directly affects women’s rights.”

- by Monica Marks
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- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Middle East Studies, Middle East & North Africa
- by Jessica Marglin
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- Middle East Studies, North Africa Studies, Moroccan Studies, Tunisian History

El aborto y los derechos de las mujeres en Túnez: un caso excepcional en el Medio Oriente. por Mg. Ignacio Rullansky 1 La legalización de la práctica abortiva en el Medio Oriente contemporáneo constituye hoy en día una causa por la cual distintos colectivos feministas se han y siguen movilizándose en virtud de las restricciones de múltiple índole que se oponen a ella. Las circunstancias varían según los casos, pero los factores más eminentemente vinculados al rechazo generalizado a la legalización del aborto en esta vasta región, a excepción de casos puntuales, representan un rasgo generalizado que se desprende de valores culturales tradicionales y a interpretaciones de principios religiosos: debe reconocerse que el Islam no ofrece una lectura unívoca sobre el tema. Sin embargo, aquí es preciso introducir una salvedad no menos importante y que radica en la tradición constitucional de las sociedades meso-orientales, genealógicamente emparentada con distintos modelos europeos adoptados a partir del Siglo XIX que, como no debería sorprender, también relegaban la práctica del aborto a la ilegalidad. El aborto y el uso de contraceptivos es estrictamente ilegal en casi todas sus formas en el Mundo Árabe , salvo en Túnez y Bahrein ; en Egipto y Sudán, existen previsiones y casos donde sí se contempla. En esta entrada nos centraremos en el caso tunecino, dada su excepcional característica de haber sido un Estado pionero de la región del Norte de África y el Mundo Árabe, tanto en su tradición constitucional como en su legislación sobre el derecho al aborto, sancionado en 1965 y reformado en 1973, y sobre los derechos de las mujeres. Un poco de historia sobre la constitución y los derechos civiles en la región Es en la época del " Tanzimat " o de " reorganización " del Imperio Otomano (1839-1876) que las distintas provincias toman contacto con los imperios europeos modernos. La expansión del capital y la competencia entre las potencias occidentales para conquistar mercados, rutas de comercio y asegurarse el control sobre recursos y materias primas fundamentales para las necesidades de la industria moderna promueve contactos entre élites locales del mundo árabe e islámico propugnaban adquirir mayor autonomía del dominio otomano. Esta coincidencia de factores, entre otros, acelera la fragmentación del Imperio y estimula dinámicas de colonización entre sus provincias y el Reino Unido y Francia. Sin embargo, estos contactos no fueron unidireccionales: el mundo árabe e islámico supo tomar elementos culturales, tecnológicos y hasta inspirarse en formas de gobierno y en los modelos de los cuerpos legales europeos para legitimar 1 Publicado originalmente en:

L’auteur Hérodote, né à Halicarnasse (sud-ouest de la Turquie) en 484 avant J.-C. signale l’usage du youyou traditionnel, par les femmes maghrébines durant la haute antiquité : « Pour moi, dit Hérodote, les hurlements rituels qui accompagnent les cérémonies religieuses ont aussi la même origine car les Libyennes en usent fort et d’une façon remarquable », (Livre IV, 189). Au Maghreb traditionnellement, selon les contrées et la configuration culturelle des lieux, le youyou est nommé Twalwil et Tzaghrit (arabe populaire), Tighratin dans les dialectes berbères de la Kabylie. Ce rituel du youyou, spécifique aux femmes maghrébines selon Hérodote, plonge ses racines dans les tréfonds antiques du monde méditerranéen. Il découle d’usages et de coutumes archaïques et de règles religieuses communes aux anciens grecs et aux paléoberbères.

- by Ali Farid BELKADI
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- Islamic Law, Late Antique Archaeology, Islamic Studies, Islamic History

A preliminary catalog of Ibadi and other Arabic Manuscripts at the Association pour la Sauvegarde de l'Île de Djerba (Houmet Souk, Tunisia). The catalog includes codicological descriptions of each manuscript, a list of watermarks with... more

- by Paul Love
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- Book History, Codicology, Tunisian History, Maghreb studies
- by Virginie Prevost
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- Tunisian History, Libyan history and archaeology, Libyan Studies, Ibadism
- by Jeremy Johns
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- Tunisian History, Medieval Sicily, Fatimids, Norman Sicily

Presented to the SSCLE at 3rd SMRS, this paper explains how Ibn Tumart combined his charisma, his radical ideas of Muslim identity and social organization, and his malignantly propagandized views of Islam to create the Muwahid faith community. The paper shows how Ibn Tumart's "struggle" became a holy war on error within Islam (takfiri jihad) that continues today in the Islamist crusades against the modern world.

- by Dana Cushing
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- History, Ethnohistory, Psychology, Military Intelligence
- by İsa GÖKGEDİK
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- Tunisian History, Libya, Maghreb, Magreb

David Santillana (1855-1931), juif « portugais » de la province ottomane de Tunis, par la suite naturalisé italien, fut à la fois juriste et arabisant. Cet article propose de s’interroger sur les contacts juridiques et diplomatiques entre les mondes oriental et européen et sur la possibilité de les « penser » ensemble, à travers l’action et l’œuvre de Santillana.
The jurist and Arabist David Santillana (1855-1931) was a “Portuguese” Jew of Ottoman Tunisia who later acquired Italian citizenship. This article discusses the diplomatic and legal contacts between the East and the West through his life and work. It questions the possibility of « thinking » these two worlds together.

- by Florence Renucci
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- History, Cultural History, Islamic Law, Ottoman History

In Rommel’s Rear: War Crimes, Colonial Mass Violence and the Persecution of
Jews in North Africa, 1940-1943 – Conventional wisdom holds that the Desert
War was an honorably fought and dispassionate war with no Gestapo, persecuted
civilians, or ruined homes. No doubt the fighting in North Africa was marked by
acts of generosity and humanity towards the enemy. However, this is only one
side of the coin. As I will show on the basis of new archival findings in seven
countries and a critical reassessment of the existing literature, in the shadow of
El Alamein, both sides committed serious atrocities against enemy soldiers and
civilians. While it is certainly true that the level of violence was lower than in
Eastern Europe, the North African Campaign was anything but a war without
hate. There were numerous intentional crimes and infringements of the rules of
conduct, including the ill- treatment and murder of captured enemy soldiers; the
plunder of the indigenous population; the rape of local women; as well as the
exploitation, murder, and mass detainment in concentration camps of Arabs,
Berbers, and Jews, which was often motivated by racial and anti-Semitic hatred.
Thus, the Desert War has to be recontextualized and put into the larger historical
frameworks that shaped WWII and, more broadly, the first half of the 20th
century. Conceptually, I reconnect the North African Campaign to the overarching
policies and prevailing ideologies of both the Axis and Allied regimes and
their societies. In particular, I show that much of the war violence that we see in
North Africa resulted from two major factors: the colonial context in which the
fighting took place, and the simple yet too often ignored fact that on the Axis side
the war was waged by fascist regimes that shared the violent vision of creating
racially pure societies. Thus, the Desert War has to be seen for what it actually
was: an integral part of the World War II experience which itself was inextricably
linked to the Axis powers’ imperial drive for “living space” and their murderous
biopolitics.

- by Patrick Bernhard
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- French History, Violence, Middle East & North Africa, North Africa Studies