Diplomatic history as a field for cultural analysis: Muslim–christian relations in tunis, 1700–1840

Historical Journal

Volumn 44, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 79-106

  Windler, Christian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG   (Germany)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 79958344972     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X01001674     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. See Ann Thomson, Barbary and Enlightenment: European attitudes towards the Maghreb in the eighteenth century (Leiden, 1987).
2. On the myth of crusade, see Alphonse Dupront, Mythe de Croisade (4 vols., Paris, 1997).
3. See Jörg Fisch, Die europäische Expansion und das Völkerrecht: die Auseinandersetzungen um den Status der überseeischen Gebiete vom 15. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 284–287.
4. Hans Kruse, Islamische Völkerrechtslehre (2nd edn, Bochum, 1979), pp. 163–170.
5. See Jörg Manfred Mössner, Die Völkerrechtspersönlichkeit und die Völkerrechtspraxis der Barbareskenstaaten (Algier, Tripolis, Tunis 1518–1830) (Berlin, 1968), pp. 148–57, on opinions concerning the regencies of the Maghreb.
6. On the legal conceptions of relations between Muslims and infidels: Majid Khadduri, War and peace in the law of Islam (2nd edn, Baltimore, 1955)
7. Kruse, Islamische Völkerrechtslehre. Cf. the articles ‘Amān’, ‘Dār al-cahd’, ‘Dār al-ḥarb’, ‘Dār al-Islām’, ‘Dār al-ṣulḥ’, ‘Dhimma’, ‘Djihād’,‘Imtiyāzāt’, ‘Mucāhada’ in the Encyclopédie de l'Islam. Nouvelle édition, vols. I, II, III, VII (Leiden, 1960, 1965, 1971, 1993).
8. See Jocelyne Dakhlia, Le divan des rois: le politique et le religieux dans l'Islam (Paris, 1998).
9. On relations between Great Britain and the regencies, see Matthew S. Anderson, ‘Great Britain and the Barbary States in the eighteenth century’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 29 (1956), pp. 87–107
10. Godfrey Fisher, Barbary legend: war, trade and piracy in North Africa, 1415–1830 (Oxford, 1957).
11. Between France and Tunis, there were only three ruptures, in 1741–2, 1770, and 1798–1802.
12. See, for example, Sartine to Vergennes, Versailles, 28 Nov. 1774, Paris, Archives Nationales (AN), AE BI 1145, fos. 31 IV-12r.
13. See the Franco-Tunisian treaties of 25 Nov. 1665, 30 Aug. and 4 Sept. 1685, French versions in Eugène Plantet, ed., Correspondance des beys de Tunis et des consuls de France avec la Cour, 1577–1830 (3 vols., Paris, 1893–1899), 1, pp.: 182–90, 268–73, 349–57, 366–9.
14. On the treaties see Yvan Debbasch, La Nation française en Tunisie, 1577–1835 (Paris, 1957), pp. 13–30.
15. See Taoufik Bachrouch, Formation sociale barbaresque et pouvoir à Tunis au XVIIe siècle (Tunis, 1977)
16. Sadok Boubaker, La Régence de Tunis au XVIIe siècle: ses relations commerciales avec les ports de l'Europe méditerranéenne, Marseille et Livourne (Zaghouan, 1987)
17. Mohammed Hédi Cherif, Pouvoir et société dans la Tunisie de Ḥusayn bin'Alī, 1705–1740 (2 vols., Tunis, 1984–1986).
18. On the symbolism of the maritime djihād in Algiers, see Houari Touati, Entre Dieu et les hommes: lettrés, saints et sorciers au Maghreb (17e siècle) (Paris, 1994), pp. 162–165.
19. See Virginia H. Aksan, An Ottoman statesman in war and peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi, 1700–1783 (Leiden, 1995)
20. Stanford Jay Shaw, Between old and new: the Ottoman Empire under Selim III, 1789–1807 (Cambridge, MA, 1971).
21. Carter Vaughn Findley, Bureaucratic reform in the Ottoman Empire: the Sublime Porte, 1789–1922 (Princeton, NJ, 1980), pp. 126–140
22. idem, Ottoman civil officialdom: a social history (Princeton, NJ, 1989).
23. Khater Chater, Dépendance et mutations précoloniales: la Règence de Tunis de 1815 à 1857 (Tunis, 1984).
24. Leon Carl Brown, The Tunisia of Ahmad bey, 1837–1855 (Princeton, NJ, 1974), pp. 79–91
25. on the Tunisian families of traders and intermediaries. On the trade between Sfax and the Levant, see Ali Zouari, Les relations commerciales entre Sfax et le Levant aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (Tunis, 1990).
26. See Mohammed Hédi Cherif, ‘Expansion européenne et difficultés tunisiennes de 1815 à 1830’, Annales ESC, 25 (1970), pp. 714–745.
27. Treaty of 8 Aug. 1830, French version in Plantet, Correspondance, III, pp. 704–707.
28. A similar treaty was imposed on the Regency of Tripoli, see the French version in Edgard Rouard de Card, Traités de la France avec les pays de l'Afrique du Nord: Algérie, Tunisie, Tripolitaine, Maroc (Paris, 1906), pp. 288–293.
29. For analysis of the conquest of Algiers by Tunisian historiographers of the nineteenth century: Ahmed Abdesselem, Les historiens tunisiens des XVIIème, XVIIIème et XIXème siècles: essai d'histoire culturelle (Tunis and Paris, 1973), pp. 304–5, 366–7.
30. ‘Il ne s'agirait pas de confronter pas à pas les normes et les comportements, mais plutôt d'analyser les “espaces juridiques” qui se créent à travers la pratique’ (Simona Cerutti, ‘Normes et pratiques, ou de la légitimité de leur opposition’, in Bernard Lepetit, ed., Les formes de l'expérience: une autre histoire sociale (Paris, 1995), pp. 127–49, at pp. 131–2).
31. Cerutti's reflections follow, in particular, the following authors: Fredrik Barth, Process and form in social life: selected essays of Fredrik Barth (London, 1981)
32. John L. Comaroff and Simon Roberts, Rules and processes: the cultural logic of dispute in the African context (Chicago and London, 1981)
33. Sally Falk Moore, Law as process: an anthropological approach (London and Boston, 1978)
34. idem, Social facts and fabrications: ‘customary’ law on Kilimanjaro, 1880–1980 (Cambridge, 1986).
35. Guido Komatsu, ‘Die Türkei und das europäische Staatensystem im 16. Jahrhundert. Untersuchungen zu Theorie und Praxis des neuzeitlichen Völkerrechts’, in Christine Roll, ed., Recht und Reich im Zeitalter der Reformation: Festschrift für Horst Rabe (Frankfurt am Main, 1996), pp. 121–44, at pp. 140, 143.
36. See Mössner, Die Völkerrechtspersönlichkeit, p. 170.
37. Magra to Nepean, Tunis, 14 Sept. 1791, PRO, FO 77/3, fo. 205v.
38. See Erving Goffman, Interaction ritual: essays on face-to-face behavior (2nd edn, London, 1972), pp. 90–91
39. cf. idem, Relations in public: microstudies of the public order (New York, 1972), pp. 62–94.
40. See Ferdinand Brunot, Histoire de la langue française des origines à nos jours, VIII: Lefrançais hors de France au XVIIIe siècle, pt 2: L'universalité en Europe (Paris, 1967), pp. 799–837
41. XI: Lefrançais au dehors sous la Révolution, le Consulat et l'Empire, pt 2: Le français au dehors sous le Consulat et l'Empire (Paris, 1979), pp. 347–348.
42. Le français au dehors sous le Consulat et l'Empire, VIII, pt 2, pp. 826–827.
43. See Bartolomé Bennassar and Lucile Bennassar, Les Chrétiens d'Allah: l'histoire extraordinaire des renégats, XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Paris, 1989)
44. Anita González-Raymond, La croix et le croissant: les inquisitions des îles face à l'Islam, 1550–1700 (Paris, 1992)
45. Lucia Rostagno, Mi faccio Turco: esperienze ed immagini dell'Islam nelle Italia moderna (Rome, 1983)
46. Lucetta Scaraffia, Rinnegati: per una storia dell'identità occidentale (Rome and Bari, 1993).
47. On the lingua franca spoken in the ports of the Maghreb until the nineteenth century, see Hugo Schuchardt, ‘Die Lingua franca’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 33 (1909), pp. 441–61 (still essential reading)
48. Guido Cifoletti, Il vocabolario della lingua franca (Padua, 1980)
49. idem, La lingua franca mediterranea (Padua, 1989). The term ‘lingua franca’ originally referred to the Mediterranean pidgins; it later acquired the generic meaning that it has today.
50. Jean-André Peyssonnel, Voyage dans les régences de Tunis et d’ Alger, ed. Lucette Valensi (Paris, 1987), p. 54.
51. ‘Le bey actuel est un homme habile… Ce prince parle italien, cause avec esprit, et entend mieux la politique de l'Europe que la plupart des Orientaux’ (François-René de Chateaubriand, Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem [1811], ed. Emile Malakis (2 vols., Baltimore, 1946), at II, p. 253).
52. Journal of the Proceedings of my Embassy to the Court of Tunis, 2 Mar. 1796, signed: Waldegrave, PRO, FO 20/10.
53. Cf. Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis, ‘Réponses aux questions de Raynal’, in idem, Tunis et Alger au XVIIIe siècle: mémoires et observations, ed. Joseph Cuoq (Paris, 1983), p. 26.
54. Truce of 25 Jan. 1786, Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN), Estado, leg. 3408.
55. Barthélémy de Saizieu to the Compagnie d'Afrique, Tunis, 3 Mar. 1768, AN, AE BI 1142, fo. 153r
56. Barthélémy de Saizieu to Bourgeois de Boynes, Tunis, 6 June 1774, AN, AE BI 1145, fo. 238v.
57. Devoize to Deforgues, Tunis, 12 prairial an II [31 May 1794], MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 32, fo. 181 r.
58. Husayn bin ‘Alī bey to Bayle, 7 Apr. 1718, AN, AE BI 1129.
59. A register containing copies of part of the active and passive correspondence of Mariano Stinca with the consuls (years 1810 to 1814) figures among his personal papers conserved in the National Archives of Tunisia (carton 81, dossier 980). On Mariano Stinca, see Habib Jamoussi,‘Mariano Stinca: image d'un esclave au pouvoir sous le règne de Hammouda-Pacha bey’, Revue d ‘Histoire Maghrébine, 23 (1996), pp. 431–471.
60. Declaration of Hammūda bey on the subject of the trêve with Portugal, Bardo, 1 Jan. 1794, PRO, FO 77/4, fo. 3r.
61. Jean Ganiage, Une entreprise italienne de Tunisie au milieu du XIXe siècle: correspondance commerciale de la thonaire de Sidi Daoud (Paris, 1960), p. 7
62. Mongi Smida, Consuls et consulats de Tunisie au ige siècle (Tunis, 1991), p. 18
63. Andreas Tunger-Zanetti, La communication entre Tunis et Istanbul 1860–1913: province et métropole (Paris, 1996), p. 50.
64. On the thonaire of the Raffo family on the coast of Cap Bon, that by beylical concession remained in the hands of the family from 1826 to 1901, see Ganiage, Une entreprise italienne.
65. Raffo to Cardinal Franzoni, Tunis, 20 June 1836, Rome, Archives of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (PF), SC, Barbaria, vol. 15, fo. 118r.
66. P. Luigi da Taggia to Cardinal Franzoni, Tunis, 10 Apr. 1837, PF, SC, Barbaria, vol. 15, fo. 16gr.
67. Reade to Palmerston, Tunis, 30 July 1836, PRO, FO 77/29; Rizo to Alvarez Mendizábal, Tunis, 10 May and 5 June 1836, AHN, Estado, leg. 8369.
68. [Hermann Ludwig Heinrich Pückler-Muskau], Semilasso in Afrika, Dritter Teil: Biserta, Tunis (Stuttgart, 1836), pp. 188–189.
69. P. Luigi da Taggia to Cardinal Franzoni, Tunis, 10 Apr. 1837, 4 Jan. 1838, and 10 Apr. 1839, PF, SC, Barbaria, vol. 15, fos. 169r, 236r, 414r-v.
70. Ganiage, Une entreprise italienne, pp. 8–9.
71. William W.J. Roosen, ‘Early modern diplomatic ceremonial: a systems approach’, Journal of Modern History, 52 (1980), pp. 452–76, at pp. 455–6.
72. Thomas Shaw, Travels, or observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant (Oxford, 1738), p. 155.
73. Jocelyne Dakhlia and Lucette Valensi, ‘Le spectacle de la cour: éléments de comparaison des modes de souveraineté au Maghreb et dans l'Empire ottoman’, in Gilles Veinstein, ed., Soliman le Magnifique et son temps: actes du Colloque de Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 7–10 mars 1990 (Paris, 1992), pp. 145–57, at pp. 146, 148–53
74. Jocelyne Dakhlia, ‘Du sacré duel au sacré débattu: la légitimité en écho des souverains maghrébins’, Al-Qanṭara. Revista de Estudios Arabes, 17 (1996), pp. 341–74, at pp. 344–8, 352
75. idem, Le divan des rois, pp. 91–92.
76. On the maḥalla, see idem, ‘Dans la mouvance du prince: la symbolique du pouvoir itinérant au Maghreb’, Annales ESC, 43 (1988), pp. 735–760.
77. On justice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see Robert Brunschvig, ‘Justice religieuse et justice laïque dans la Tunisie des deys et des beys, jusqu'au milieu du XIXe siècle’, Studia Islamica, 23 (1965), pp. 27–70, at pp. 36–54.
78. On the ceremonial of the Ottoman court, see Gülru Necipoglu, Architecture, ceremonial, and power: the Topkapi palace in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (New York and Cambridge, MA, 1991), especially pp. 15–22: the exterior walls of the Topkapi Palace, followed by a succession of gates, separated the sultan's court from the city. The reclusion of the sultan was aimed at exalting his sacred character, rather than assuring his security.
79. Maurice Agulhon, Marianne au combat: l'imagerie et la symbolique républicaines de 1789 à 1880 (Paris, 1979).
80. Mona Ozouf, La fête révolutionnaire, 1789–1799 (Paris, 1976).
81. Linn Hunt, Politics, culture, and class in the French Revolution (Berkeley, 1984).
82. Linda Frey and Marsha Frey, ‘“The reign of the charlatans is over”: the French revolutionary attack on diplomatic practice’, Journal of Modern History, 65 (1993), pp. 706–44, insist rightly on the interest that diplomatic ceremonial presents.
83. From his reading of the works of the anthropologist Fredrik Barth, Giovanni Levi has offered a spirited criticism of this tendency of interpretative cultural anthropology (Giovanni Levi, ‘Ipericoli del geertzismo’, Quaderni storici, n.s., 58 (1985), pp. 269–77).
84. See James Clifford, The predicament of culture: twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art (Cambridge, MA, 1988), p. 15.
85. See Frey and Frey, ‘“The reign of the charlatans is over”’.
86. See Jean Belin, La logique d'une idée-force: l'idée d'utilité sociale et la Révolution française, 1789–1792 (Paris, 1939), pp. 184–188.
87. Treaty of 9 Nov. 1742, French version in Plantet, ed., Correspondance, 11, pp. 365–366.
88. See Cherif, Pouvoir et société, I, p. 139, on the entrance of Husayn bey into Tunis in 1706.
89. On the election of Uthmān bey: Soler to the duke of San Carlos, Tunis, 22 Sept. 1814, AHN, Estado, leg. 6250.
90. Gautier to Maurepas, Tunis, 24 Mar. 1740. Cf procès-verbal of the assembly of the French nation of 12 Apr. 1741, AN, AE BI 1134.
91. Crozet to Maurepas, Tunis, 18 Nov. 1741, AN, AE BI 1134.
92. Crozet to Maurepas, Tunis, 16 Sept. 1741, AN, AE BI 1134.
93. Grou de Sulauze to Berryer, Tunis, 8 Mar. 1760, AN, AE BI 1139.
94. Beaussier to Delacroix, Tunis, 7 vendémiaire an V [28 Sept. 1796], MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 34, fo. 257v.
95. Devoize to Delacroix, Tunis, 5 ventôse an IV [24 Feb. 1796], MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 34, fo. 51v-2r.
96. Cf. Journal of the Proceedings of my Embassy to the Court of Tunis, 22 Feb. 1796, signed: Waldegrave, PRO, FO 20/10.
97. Devoize to Richelieu, Tunis, 2 Apr. 1817.
98. Cf. Devoize to Richelieu, Tunis, 18 Sept. 1817, MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 43, fos. 17r-v, 6gv.
99. Devoize to Richelieu, Tunis, 18 Sept. 1817, MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 43, fo. 7or.
100. Schwebel to Thiers, Tunis, 31 May 1836, MAE, CPC, Tunis, vol. 2, fo. 197v. Cf. Pierre Grandchamp,‘Suppression du baise-main des consuls à la cour du bey de Tunis’, Revue Africaine, 62 (1921), pp. 335–339.
101. Rizo to Alvarez y Mendizábal, Tunis, 31 May 1836, AHN, Estado, leg. 8369
102. Reade to Palmerston, Tunis, 4 and 6 June 1836, PRO, FO 77/29.
103. According to Ahmad Ibn Abī al-Ḍiyāf, Présent aux hommes de notre temps: chronique des rois de Tunis et du Pacte Fondamental, chapitres IV et V, ed. André Raymond (2 vols., Tunis, 1994), 1, p. 73, Muṣṭafā bey preferred to no longer speak of the affair.
104. See Brown, The Tunisia of Ahmad Bey, pp. 315–316.
105. The Tunisia of Ahmad Bey, pp. 242–243.
106. Barthélémy de Saizieu to Praslin, Tunis, 18 Nov. 1768, AN, AE BI 1142, fo. 295r-v.
107. Louis Jean-Baptiste Filippi, Fragments historiques et statistiques sur la régence de Tunis, 1829, in Charles Monchicourt, Documents historiques sur la Tunisie: relations inédites de Nyssen, Filippi et Calligaris (1788, 1829, 1834) (Paris, 1929), pp. 41–292, at pp. 160–1.
108. Gay to Devoize, Tunis, 12 June 1820, AN, 327 AP 18.
109. Barthélémy de Saizieu to Sartine, Tunis, 11 Oct. 1776, 14 and 18 Feb. 1777, AN, AE BI 1147–1148.
110. ‘le premier et le seul qui en ait obtenu la confiance, le libre accès et un logement dans son palais’ (Mémoire sur l'échelle de Tunis, Tunis, 1 Oct. 1774, signed: Barthélémy de Saizieu, MAE, MD, Afrique, vol. 9, fo. 141r-v).
111. Gay to Devoize, L'Abdélie, 14 Sept. 1819, AN, 327 AP 14.
112. Delespine de Chateauneuf to Castries, Tunis, 6 Aug. (quotation) and 6 Sept. 1787, AN, AE BI 1152.
113. Accounts of the Consulate, 1795, presented by Suchita; accounts of the consulate, July-Dec. 1799, presented by Buzarán, AHN, Estado, leg. 6248.
114. Barthélémy de Saizieu to Bourgeois de Boynes, Tunis, 22 Aug. 1774, AN, AE BI 1145, fo. 283r-v
115. idem to Sartine, Tunis, 28 May 1775, AN, AE BI 1146, fo. 81r.
116. Delespine de Chateauneuf to La Luzerne, Tunis, 30 May 1790, AN, AE BI 1153, fo. 132v.
117. Suchita to Aranda, Tunis, 12 Dec. 1792, AHN, Estado, leg. 4802.
118. Journal et notes de l'année 1808 et 1809, note of 17 Aug. 1809, AN, 327 AP 1.
119. Stinca to Devoize, Bardo, n.d., AN, 327 AP 16.
120. Lesseps to Sébastiani, Tunis, 19 Nov. 1830, MAE, CPC, Tunis, vol. 1, fos. 150v-1r.
121. On the second visit in January 1831: idem to Sébastiani, Tunis, 15 Jan. 1831, Tunis, fos. 160v-1r.
122. Deval to Broglie, Tunis, 23 May 1835, MAE, CPC, Tunis, vol. 2, fos. 94v-5r.
123. Broglie to Deval, Paris, 28 Aug. 1835, MAE, CPC, Tunis, vol. 2, fo. 122r.
124. See Brown, The Tunisia of Ahmad bey, pp. 325–334.
125. Alain Boureau, ‘Ritualité politique et modernité monarchique’, in Neithard Bulst, Robert Descimon, and Alain Guerreau, eds., L'Etat ou le roi: les fondations de la modernité monarchique en France (XIVe-XVIIe siècle) (Paris, 1996), pp. 9–25, especially p. 14.
126. Cf. Daniela Frigo, Principe, ambasciatori e ‘jus gentium’: l'amministrazione della politica estera nel Piemonte del Settecento (Rome, 1991), pp. 269–288.
127. Norbert Elias, Die höfische Gesellschaft: Untersuchungen zur Soziologie des Königtums und der höfischen Aristokratie mit einer Einleitung: Soziologie und Geschichtswissenschaft (4th edn, Frankfurt am Main, 1979), on the etiquette and ceremonial see chs. 5 and 6, pp. 120–221.
128. In his master work on Les rois thaumaturges, Marc Bloch had already studied the disappearance of the toucher royal in England and France (Marc Bloch, Les rois thaumaturges: étude sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale, particulièrement en France et en Angleterre (Strasbourg, 1924), pp. 381–405).
129. See Milos Vec, Zeremonialwissenschaft im Fürstenstaat. Studien zur juristischen und politischen Theorie absolutistischer Herrschaftsrepräsentation (Frankfurt am Main, 1998), on the German science of the ceremonial in the eighteenth century.
130. Like Norbert Elias, the American ceremonialist school, which was interested in the royal symbolism of the ancien regime as the leading element in the customary constitution of a monarchical state, concentrated on the function of the ceremonial as a means of reinforcing monarchical power (see, for example, Ralph E. Giesey, Cérémonial et puissance souveraine: France, XVe-XVIIe siècles (Paris, 1987)
131. Richard Jackson, Vive le roi! A history of the French coronation from Charles V to Charles X (Chapel Hill, 1984)).
132. See Jeroen Duindam, Myths of power: Norbert Elias and the early modern European court (Amsterdam, 1994), especially pp. 99–136.
133. Polignac to Lesseps, Paris, 25 Aug. 1829, MAE, CCC, Tunis, vol. 48, fos. 235r-6r.
134. See Erving Goffman, The presentation of self in everyday life (New York, 1959), pp. 9–10.
135. See Goffman, Interaction ritual, pp. 9–10.
136. See Goffman, The presentation of self pp. 9–10.
137. See Goffman, Interaction ritual, p. 8.