What is a Tunisian? Jews and Belonging in the Nineteenth Century
This paper looks at understandings of citizenship and its extension to Jews in nineteenth-century Tunisia. Taking the case study of the Shamama lawsuit –a sprawling legal battle over the estate of Nissim Shamama, a Jew from Tunis who died in Italy in 1873– the paper argues that Muslims were the ones...
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| Argitaratua izan da: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cdlm, |
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| Egile nagusia: | |
| Formatua: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Hizkuntza: | Anglais |
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Cahiers de la Méditerranée
2023
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| Sarrera elektronikoa: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Gaia: | This paper looks at understandings of citizenship and its extension to Jews in nineteenth-century Tunisia. Taking the case study of the Shamama lawsuit –a sprawling legal battle over the estate of Nissim Shamama, a Jew from Tunis who died in Italy in 1873– the paper argues that Muslims were the ones to make the most robust argument for Jews as full members of the Tunisian state. European jurists, on the other hand, tended to understand Jews’ legal status in purely religious terms, leaving them outside the purview of full state membership. In the process, North African Muslims articulated a different view of equality. Jews from North Africa echoed these arguments, the paper encourages us to rethink what it meant to belong to Tunisia through a Jewish lens, and thus offers a new approach to the history of citizenship and nationality in the modern Maghrib. |
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