TUNISIA

TUNISIA. – An Arab state of North Africa, independent until 1881, then (Treaty of the Bardo) a French protectorate, and since 1946 an associated state within the French Union: France maintains there, alongside the Bey (nominal sovereign), a resident of its own.

I. GEOGRAPHY

The territory (12,180 sq. km.) of Tunisia embraces the eastern extremity of the Atlas region, whose ranges fan out perpendicularly to the coast (from Cape Bon to Ras Agedir): among the valleys facing the sea, the most important is that traversed by the Medjerda, which flows into the wide Gulf of Tunis. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with abundant winter rains in the north (Tell), but increasingly scarce toward the south, where, beyond the High Atlas, steppe and then desert prevail. The Tell is a region of forests (cork) and agriculture (cereals, vines, olives); the Sahel (eastern coast) of olives; the interior, of pasture (sheep and goats); the extreme south, of date palms. The subsoil, rich in phosphates, also yields iron, lead, zinc, and salt. Fishing is notable, carried on by Italians. Industry is modest, devoted chiefly to the processing of agricultural products.

Of the 3.4 million inhabitants (26 per sq. km.), less than one-eighth are Europeans; of these, half (about 100,000) are Italians, alongside an equal number of French and 50,000 Jews. The Italians are overwhelmingly Sicilian peasants who began to settle in Tunisia in the last century. Tunis (365,000 inhabitants), the capital, stands near the site of ancient Carthage; other notable urban centers are Gerba, or Djerba (60,000), Sfax (55,000), and Susa, or Sousse (37,000), all on the eastern coast.

II. CIVIL HISTORY

Modern Tunisia, after having been under the dominion of Carthage, became part of the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, and after more than half a century of Vandal subjection passed in 533 under the Empire of Byzantium. Around 670 the region was invaded by the Arabs, who settled there permanently and founded the city of Kairouan, which became an important religious and cultural center.

The new occupants had to wage a long struggle against the Berbers, and the governors dependent on the caliphs of Damascus and Baghdad repeatedly found themselves compelled to seek help from their lords; finally, during the caliphate of the celebrated Hārūn ar-Rashīd, contemporary of Charlemagne, the Berbers were defeated through the energy of the governor Ibrāhīm ibn al-Aghlab, founder of the Aghlabid dynasty, which held power in Tunisia until 909. Within three centuries four other dynasties followed in succession: the Fāṭimids from 909 until toward the end of the century, the Zīrids until about 1160, then the Almohads, followed in turn by the Ḥafṣids, lords of Tunisia until 1574. In the time of Emperor Charles V, Tunisia began to arouse the interest of European powers, when, faced with the threats of the corsair Barbarossa, who had occupied Bizerte and Tunis, the Ḥafṣid sultan traveled to Spain to seek the armed aid of that monarch. Charles V moved with a large fleet toward Tunis, forced Barbarossa to relinquish his conquests, and restored the throne to the Sultan. By the Treaty of 6 August 1535 the ruler of Tunis was reduced to the status of a vassal of the Emperor. Not only did the Sultan undertake to free all Christian slaves, to grant Europeans full freedom of commerce and religion, and to forbid all acts of maritime piracy, but he also ceded La Goulette to Charles V, assuming the expense of maintaining the Spanish garrison of that base through an annual payment of 12,000 gold escudos, and granted the Emperor in perpetuity the fishing of coral. Charles V, for his part, undertook to protect the Sultan against any aggression. Soon afterward, the Sultan, threatened by various insurrections that broke out following his agreements with the Christians, again requested the Emperor’s support. When he himself went to Spain, his son took advantage of his absence to have himself proclaimed sovereign. The Sultan, made prisoner by his own son, who had him blinded, managed to escape to Europe, where he died in 1542. Meanwhile, the war at sea continued between Andrea Doria and the Turkish corsair Dragut. In 1574, Sinān, sent with a large fleet by Sultan Süleyman I, asserted Turkish sovereignty over Tunisia. The representative of the Porte in Tunisia became a governor with the title of pasha, but in reality the true leaders were the deys, elected by the janissaries, and the beys, commanders of the troops. The Ottoman Empire, however, was not able to maintain its direct sovereignty over Tunisia, which day by day grew more independent of Constantinople, until in 1705 Ḥusayn, head of the janissaries, suppressed the functions of pasha and dey and proclaimed himself bey, conferring sovereign attributes on that office and making it hereditary within his own family, which still reigns today. During the 19th century, after Algeria had been occupied, France displayed an ever-growing interest in Tunisia and worked to implement a program of reforms. Thus in 1857 the bey Muḥammad promulgated the so-called Fundamental Pact, which guaranteed the inhabitants equality before the law and admitted Christians to land ownership. Four years later his successor, Bey Muḥammad as-Sādiq, issued a constitution that defined the functions of the beylicate, hereditary among the members of the Ḥusaynid family not in the direct line but according to the seniority of the family member, and established a Council of Ministers and a Council of Notables. France’s political interest in Tunisia led, despite the opposition of Italian public opinion, which saw in Tunisia an outlet for its emigration, in 1881 to the military occupation of the Regency, followed by the conclusion of the Treaty of the Bardo (12 May

III. RELIGIOUS HISTORY

The Christian Church in Tunisia, which had its center in Carthage, flourished in the first centuries of the Christian era, producing such luminaries as Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. After the Vandal persecutions, the Church was restored under the Byzantines, but the Arab conquest in the 7th century brought about its ruin. In the 9th century, according to some sources, there were still three bishops in Carthage, but in 864 the metropolitan of Ravenna, when passing through Tunisia, lamented that there were not even the three bishops necessary to consecrate another. This last church was then exterminated, and no more bishops were appointed in Carthage.

In 1219 the first Franciscans, Friar Egidio and companions, arrived in Tunisia, but the Christians living there, fearing persecution by the Saracens, advised them to return to Italy. Later, probably as a result of the treaty between Pisa and Tunisia (1229–30), which granted the Pisans a church and a cemetery in the fondaco, Dominicans and Franciscans are found there in 1235, though their ministry was restricted to Christian merchants and slaves. There is also evidence of the presence of Dominicans in Tunisia in the years 1250–70. The Crusade of Louis IX of France against Tunisia destroyed this mission. After the Crusade, the treaty between Tunisia and France allowed the latter a church and a convent, which was built by the Franciscans. Raymond Lull arrived in 1291 and again in 1314 to preach the Gospel to the Muslims; he suffered martyrdom in 1315 in the Kingdom of Bougie. The Franciscan convent lasted until the mid-14th century. From 1392 to 1427 a Benedictine, Placido, is found there. There are no documents proving a further presence of priests in Tunisia during the 15th and 16th centuries, for the country had fallen definitively under Turkish rule in 1574. Priests as slaves are mentioned, however, such as Jerónimo Graciano de la Madre de Dios, O.C.D., and others, who attended to the care of the numerous Christian slaves in the region. The expeditions of Charles V in 1535 and of Juan de Vega in 1550 against Tunisia, one of the principal bases for the slave trade, yielded no results in the missionary field.

Only in 1637 did Propaganda decree a mission of Discalced Augustinians for Tunis, Bona, and Constantine, with its seat at Bastion de France. In 1636 and again in 1638 it decreed a mission of Capuchins for Tunis, Numidia, Bona, and Constantine, with its seat at Tabarca. Both missions disappeared, that of the Augustinians in 1658 and that of the Capuchins in 1652. From 1645 the Lazarist Juline Guérin lived in Tunis as chaplain to the French consul. As in Algeria, so in Tunis the Lazarists from 1647 functioned as French consuls. But this position allowed them to minister among Christian slaves and to ransom them. Jean Le Vacher, C.M., was appointed apostolic prefect in 1648, apostolic vicar of Tunis in 1650, and retained this office even after moving to Algeria, where he was martyred in 1683. In 1672 Propaganda entrusted the mission of Tunis for the second time to the Capuchins, who, after the Treaty of 30 July 1685 between France and Tunis, carried out their activity under French protection. In 1720 the Spanish Trinitarians established a hospice in Tunis for the ransom of slaves. It lasted until 1818.

The Capuchin mission consolidated during the 19th century with the arrival of many Italian immigrants. In 1843 Tunis was erected as an apostolic vicariate. Under the energetic direction of Monsignor Fedele Sutter it developed very well. The Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition founded flourishing schools in the city of Tunis and in other places. In 1881 Tunis fell under French protection, and Monsignor Sutter was obliged to resign. Monsignor Lavigeria was then appointed administrator, and in 1884 archbishop of Carthage, which had been restored as an archdiocese. The Italian and Maltese Capuchins gradually had to leave Tunis: in 1891 the last Capuchin departed.

For further developments in the history of the Church in Tunis

V. CARTONE, ARCIDIOCESI di

See pl. LIX.