A new history of Ottoman Tunis
The first Ottoman conquest of Tunis took place in 1534 under the command
of Kheireddine Barbarossa. However, it was not until 1574 that the
Ottomans finally wrested control of the former Hafsid Ifriqiya
(modern-day Tunisia), retaining it until the French occupation of
Tunisia in 1881. The Regency of Tunis was thus born as an imperial
province, and individuals originating from throughout the vast territory
of the Ottoman Empire settled there, rapidly creating a new elite via
marriage with women from local notable families. This book studies the
former Hafsid territory's position within the Ottoman world and the
social developments that accompanied the genesis of the united Regency
of Tunis until the death of Hamouda Pasha.
On the social plane, who were these Turko-Ottomans who were able to
drive the Hafsid kings from their throne? Were they noble officers, as
is so often remembered? The sources paint a different picture: one of
rogues from distant Anatolia, and captives of corsairs from across the
Mediterranean. These men expanded privateering for their own profit,
seizing the country's riches for themselves and monopolizing exports to
Europe.
Leïla Blili revisits the conventional historiography of Ottoman Tunisia,
widely considered by historians to be an autonomous province ruled by a
dominant class of Turko-Ottomans cut off from local society. She shows
that the Regency of Tunis was much less autonomous than secondary
scholarship has alleged and, through her analysis of the marriages of
these Turko-Ottomans, that they were in fact well-integrated into the
local population. In doing so, she also illuminates the place of kinship
ties in the establishing of inheritances, access to spheres of power,
and the very acquisition of titles of nobility.
