The Abolition of Slavery in Ottoman Tunisia

1. The Slave Trade from the Ottoman Period

1 The Slave Trade from the Ottoman Period In the aftermath of the Ottoman conquest in 1574, Ifriqiya (Medieval Tunisia), a country with no deep Saharan hinterland and a comparatively passive recipient of the trans-Saharan commerce, witnessed a gradual revival of the caravan slave trade. Prior to the conquest, the slave trade had been in decline for centuries, starting with the Hilali invasion of the Maghreb at the beginning of the eleventh century. By the time of Hafsid rule of Ifriqiya, commercial, political, and cultural relations began to regain importance for the regions of western and central Sudan. The Ottoman conquest, which absorbed the Hafsid state structures into the new Ottoman province, fueled the momentum of trade revival between Tunisia and the source areas of the slave trade from western and central Sudan. Determining how the caravan slave trade and the abolition of slavery intertwined with reforms and foreign trade after the middle of the eighteenth century necessitates an examination of earlier historical processes, economic structures that strongly influenced Tunisia’s position in the western Mediterranean, and Tunisia’s relationship with the Ottoman Empire, the Levant, and western and central Sudan. This chapter explores these antecedents to the revival of the trans-Saharan slave trade, its suppression, and the eventual abolition of slavery. Understanding these antecedents matters: they provide the politico-religious framework for modern Tunisia, and they determined the role of the  The Slave Trade from the Ottoman Period · 11 trans-Saharan slave trade in the burgeoning Tunisian trade after the 1780s. The Regency of Tunis, 1574–1591 After ousting the Hafsid dynasty in Tunisia in 1574, the new beylerbeyis (military commanders) turned the country into an Ottoman eyalet (province).1 Tunis, like Algiers, was coveted for its strategic and geopolitical position on the Mediterranean coast. To control the province, Sinan Pasha, the grand vizier at the time of the occupation, posted an army of about 4,000 Turkish janissaries to enforce the policies of the new Ottoman government, the same strategy he used in Algiers. The janissaries were divided into units of 100 soldiers, each commanded by a dey (chief military officer). Their military garrisons were structured along the lines of a divan al-'asker (military ruling council), which the beylerbeyi established to administer the province.2 The title “beylerbeyi” symbolized Ottoman imperial power, and this officer presided over the divan al-'asker.3 The deys in charge of these military units also supervised the fiscal administration of the province. This division of labor meant that the beylerbeyis played a largely ceremonial role while the deys were directly involved in provincial administration.4 Besides establishing the divan al-'asker to administer the province, the Turkish janissaries also utilized the Hafsids’ strong existing administrative and judicial organization. The Hafsids had ruled Tunisia from the fourteenth century to the Ottoman conquest. They had instituted the al-Majlis al-shar'i as a complement to the Hafsid divan through which the Hafsid Majlis ruled in concert with the Maliki 'ulama' (scholars).5 The 'ulama', together with the Hafsid rulers, functioned as a religious privy council in the divan. In the newly formed divan al-'asker, however, the Maliki 'ulama' were replaced by Hanafi 'ulama' brought directly from Constantinople (Istanbul).6 As in the Ottoman Empire, the Hanafi rite, known for its flexibility in matters of governance, appealed to the beylerbeyis more than the Maliki rite practiced by the majority of the indigenous population. To replace the Maliki 'ulama', the beylerbeyis created the position of seyhi-ül-Islam (or shaykh al-Islam in Arabic), modeled along the lines of the chief mufti of Islamic law in Istanbul who presided over the Majlis. This new position became an integral component of the Turkish military ruling council.7 12 · The Abolition of Slavery in Ottoman Tunisia Categories of Slaves Kuls Ottoman rule deeply affected the institution of slavery in Tunisia. Soon after the consolidation of Turkish imperial administration, kuls (singular , kul), Ottoman elite slaves, were introduced.8 The kuls were mamluks (military slaves) of eastern European Christian origin, mostly from Georgia, Circassia, Abazah, and other Levantine Mediterranean territories such as Greece.9 They were bought in Istanbul markets from professional slave dealers who specialized in the production and trade of this slave class.10 Once in Tunis, the kuls often converted to Islam and were instructed in the Turco-Muslim tradition, for Turkish rulers preferred to purchase such slaves from Christian...