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A foundational text on the early modern history of Tunis that places Tunisian history firmly within Ottoman historyThe Tunisian historiography of the modern era has broadly centered on a narrative of three successive powers: the pashas, first, followed by the deys (the "symbolic uncles" of the Turkish militia), who were in turn deposed by the beys (native civil rulers arising out of Hafsid times). This approach has provided all the components of a national narrative: it has posited the decline of the pasha's authority as a consequence of the Tunisian province's autonomy, and has framed the wars between deys and beys as a conflict of identity between the Turks and the locals.
While this linear story is seductive in its apparent coherence, it leaves several questions in the shadows, in particular, the interference of several external forces in the affairs of the province: most notably, the Ottoman Empire. The Regency of Tunis was effectively controlled by the Ottomans who had reactivated a former Hafsid institution, the
mhalla. A kind of itinerant power, the
mhalla succeeded in allowing the Ottomans to establish peace through the creation of tax regulations and matrimonial alliances with the tribes. Thus, the Regency of Tunis was able to distinguish itself from other imperial provinces through the founding of a monarchical house symbolically linked to the Empire and, at the same time, socially anchored in its territory.
Relying on local sources in Tunisian archives, Leïla Blili places the Regency of Tunis firmly within the Ottoman Empire, revealing the complex connections between the imperial center and its far-flung province, and challenging the long-standing theory of Tunisian autonomy. Blili's examination of social continuity during moments of intense political turbulence restores the place of women in the narrative of state formation, underlining the significance of the matrimonial politics of sovereigns and the crucial political and social roles women played in the regency.
List of contents
Foreword
Julia Clancy-SmithIntroduction
Translators' Note
PART 11666-1705: The Years of Uncertainty: Between Military Power and Beylical HousesChapter 1: The Maghreb in the Seventeenth Century: The Revolt of the Regencies
Chapter 2: Tripoli: On Tunis' Path
Chapter 3: The Legacy of Hamouda Pasha and the Difficult Early Years of the Mouradid House
Chapter 4: The Civil War and the Weakening of the Mouradid House (1675-96)
Chapter 5: The Era of Reforms (1835-77)
Chapter 6: Muhammad Shalabi, alias Dom Philippe, son of Ahmad Khouja Dey (1627-86): The Western Temptation
Chapter 7: The Life and Death of the Last Mouradids
PART 2Prologue: 'Azîza 'Othmana: The Bridge and the Plank: Power and Lineal Transmission Chapter 8: Brahim al Sherif in Power: Rupture or Continuity? (1702-1705)
Chapter 9: Setting up the Husseinid House and Narrating Its Legitimacy
Chapter 10: Husseinid Legitimacy Put to the Test of Filiation
Chapter 11: Power Between Consensus and Violence
Chapter 12: The Era of Reforms (1835-77)
Chapter 13: Sadaq Bey: The Failed Institutionalization
Chapter 14: Beylical Power Put to the Test of Colonialism
Epilogue: The End of an Empire, The Start of a Nation
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Leïla Temime Blili
Foreword by Julia Clancy-Smith
