under Ahmed Bey, the Jews wore a particular Asian rather than African. In the late nineteenth century, most Jews, especially those engaged in trade dress, in Europe, but are the fez or hat in red felt truncated cone. Many
roll around the fez a black tie-shaped turban, to distinguish themselves from the Moors who wear the fez with blue tassel. Those who still dress in oriental wear two jackets, braided blue or red bloomers and a little bunting thrown over the shoulder. Only among older Jews who still find the black cap and shawl gray or blue. As
below true believers, they could neither ride nor go in a coach. In the second half of the nineteenth century, these vile red disappeared and the Tunisian code of morals of the inhabitants. One could easily see young Jews mounted on beautiful horses and beautiful Jewish displaying their charms in the cut made by Erler. The Kingpin
Nessim Scemama (Treasurer of the Bey) is a second Jacques Heart much more opulent than its sovereign. It has lent itself, a blow to the government twenty million dollars, and the brave man did not require, in addition to interest 12%, the grade of General and Commander's Cross of Nichan Iftikhar . At about 65, Nessim Scemama got engaged a young girl was happening right in Paris, and might well have sixteen to seventeen spring. Only the Orientals to commit such indiscretions. He would have preferred a Tunisian. It would have taken, in the cradle, these habits of submission which are the first quality of women from the east, which may seem strange to a Parisian. The Kingpin
Nessim is on his fez a sample of all the coins that are current in the Regency. Besides this opulent character fortunes are less apparent, less massive than its own, but still very substantial.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the iniquitous and violent acts can not be made, all the qualities mercantile inborn in Jews, have developed rapidly with the audacity that offers security, and even European officials were afraid in a few years the Jews have monopolized all the public wealth of the Regency. Foreign diplomats have already put a flea in the ear of the Bey and they sought ways to make them disgorge. No reconciliation
have never been held between Jews and Muslims, it follows that each of these two peoples has preserved, with its type and character for its customs, its traditions and prejudices. Relations cases establish that forced them disappear as soon as you set foot outside the bazaar. You'll never see a Jew to walk intermingled with Muslims or a Muslim, Jewish. A mountain rises
them offspring of fanaticism, and reason or interest can not lower it. These two races live in the same walls, and not to be confused at the end of everything, in the bosom of the earth, into the arms of God.
Jews, very ignorant, are superstitious and fanatical, rigid observers of the law and the prophets. All parties specified in the holy books are celebrated with scrupulous accuracy, that of Easter with great pomp, that of Tabernacles, Pentecost, Atonement and, with great zeal.
The Sabbath is observed with any Judaic rigidity. It eats only food prepared the day before; it does not matter. The morning goes to the synagogue, the afternoon is spent. meditation, and the walk is the only distraction we can afford in the evening.
is prohibited take no pleasure of appearing in a public place and even get money. Christian being a diplomat went to attend the synagogue for a religious service, and having been the object of attentive care the most, wanted, before his departure, leaving a sum of money to the poor of the community. His intention had been communicated to the rabbi, any 1'assemblée rose and murmured a prayer in his honor and prosperity, but they would not accept his offering that was postponed until the next day sent a dignitary in order to his hotel.
As Jews have had the ability to monopolize trade, Saturday has become the real holiday in Tunis. All life is then suspended. Christian traders who use them to intermediaries with the natives, unable to do anything without them, profit from these holidays to go hunting, and Muslims to indulge in idleness that appeals to their indolent nature.
a spirit of contradiction and fanaticism the Jews repeat business and turbulence on Friday and Sunday, so that these holy days for Muslims and Christians go unnoticed, and that life is interrupted as once in Jerusalem, the Sabbath. In Christian countries, Jews could not only exercise their industry in public on Sunday, but several of them were burned alive for having been found to work within them.
Muslims who have always respected better than the European human consciousness, never thought their cries in the bazaars and agitation in the streets were a profanation of the Lord's day.
Pilgrimages are also honored in Tunis among Jews than among Muslims. It is also thought to have gone to Jerusalem to Mecca, the indifferent and effeminate in the Holy Land go by sea ardent and austere go there on foot, without shoe and the white stick in hand, through Tripoli, Egypt and the Desert. No travel is more dangerous, the rich are murdered en route by the Bedouins, the poor die of hunger, exhaustion or heat. A select few reach the goal. These disasters
change daily, instead of slowing down the zeal of these fanatics do that excite. The exaltation of religion is still common in these extreme and ardent natures, convinced and compressed, and it produces acts of heroism or folly, depending on your point of view one takes.
As already mentioned, every seven or eight years periodically Tunis was the quiet excitement into a scene of looting and torture. The love of truth obliges us to say that almost always these deplorable acts were caused by a Jewish fanatic who believed in martyrdom be pleasant to the dark and savage God of Israel.
in 1857 and under the wise Ahmed Bey, the last scene of this kind took place. One day a Jew, carter (some versions say it is the coachman Nessim Caid), Samuel Sfez known for having a famous Batu sanctity of his own, had a fight with a Muslim when he traveled the streets of Tunis, spewing torrents of insults against the Prophet and its cons too credulous followers. Imagine the rage that took possession of all people from devout, most numerous in Tunis on any part of the world.
The blasphemer is arrested in flagrante delicto and, according to the Koran, condemned to the stake. This punishment was another century. The European consuls were moved and resolved to avoid this unhappy ordeal required by law, by all humanity in fear that the sight of these horrible scenes did not produce an explosion of Muslim fanaticism, always dangerous for Christians.
Ahmed Bey, wise and enlightened prince, assisting their efforts, commuted the death penalty in eternal exile. It was not the case imams, who asked the name of God blasphemed, the death of the guilty. To this end, they came to the Bardo, the holy book in his hand and uttering threats, demand the execution of the sentence. The riot
growled at the door; Ahmed, forced to crack down, however, spared the horrors of the stake to the unfortunate, who was hanged. It is obvious that this fanatic had sought this tragic end that the decision was tough but fair, and that the prince had given way to the stream only after all efforts to resist, however you do never persuade a Jew Ahmed Bey of Tunis had been that day a terrible tyrant, and that the unfortunate sufferer is a glorious rookie to the legions of Jewish martyrs whose heads Maccabees are incomparable.
continued ...
Bibliography:
- Tunis in the 19th Century (part 2): Marginality and Social Change - Abdelhamid Larguèche
- Algeria and Tunisia - Alfred Baraudon
- History of North Africa (Barbary) - Since the ancient times until the French conquest - Ernest MERCIER
Description - Northern Africa - El Bakri
- Ancient History of North Africa - Stéphane Gsell
- History of French institutions and trade in Africa's Barbary (1560-1793) (Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Morocco) - Paul Masson
- Tunis Description of the Regency - Dr. Louis Frank
- Tunisia - Albert of Berge
- Europeans in Tunis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - Ahmed Saad
- The other through the French newspaper La Tunisia - Hassan El-Annabi
- release or annexation - For crossing paths of Tunisian history - Daniel Goldstein
0 comments:
Post a Comment