Provincializing and Forgetting Ottoman Administrative Legacies

Abstract

In order to reframe our perception of the Mediterranean, Oualdi’s essay connects two aspects of northern African history usually treated separately, namely the historiography of colonialism and the historiography of Ottoman rule. Oualdi explores how the legacies of Ottoman slavery impacted Tunisian society and French colonial administration by uncovering the social strategies of the descendants of mamluks who until the 1840s came from Europe and were converted to Islam in order to serve the Tunisian authorities. These descendants chose different paths: from administrative careers to political opposition. Thus, while some of them stressed certain features of a political culture partly shaped by slavery (obedience, personal loyalty, patronage), others passed on political concepts partly framed by mamluks after the 1840s, such as the notions of “state service,” “the country’s interests,” or the Constitution, which are still relevant today in postrevolutionary Tunisia.

Commemorating the abolition of slavery in Tunisia. The rights of black citizens and the history of slaves of European origin

“…This phenomenon of mamluk and odalisque descendants acquiring high status and distancing themselves from their servile origins was even more visible during the colonial period. Applications of descendants of mamluks for positions in the colonial administration between the 1890s and 1930s show that these descendants were not only interested in being recruited into the ranks of the local and colonial administration (Oualdi 2014). Some sons from mamluk families were also engaged in the Young Tunisians reformist movement in the 1910s or in the ranks of the first Tunisian nationalist party, among them Mongi Slim, a descendant of General Slim, a mamluk of Greek origin.…”