Native name أحمد بن أبي الضياف Role Author Name Ahmad Abi | Occupation author, historian Nationality Tunisian | |
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Born 1804 Tunisia Books Consult Them in the Matter: A Nineteenth-century Islamic Argument for Constitutional Government : the Muqaddima (introduction) to Ithaf Ahl Al-zaman Bi Akhbar Muluk Tunis Wa ʻahd Al-aman (Presenting Contemporaries the History of the Rulers of Tunis and the Fundamental Pact) | ||
Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf (Arabic: أحمد بن أبي الضياف) (1804, Tunis – 1874), known colloquially as Bin Diyaf, was the author of a chronicle of Tunisian history; he was also a long-time and trusted official in the Beylical government of Tunisia. His multi-volume history, while it begins with the 7th-century arrival of the Arabs, spends more attention on details of the Husainid dynasty (1705–1957), during the 18th and 19th centuries. His writing is informed by his experience as chancellery secretary during the reigns of five Beys in succession. Bin Diyaf himself eventually favored the reform position, which became current in Tunisian politics. His letter in reply to questions about Tunisian women has also attracted notice.
Contents
Life and career
Bin Diyaf was born into a prominent family, his father being an important scribe for the ruling regime. Trained thoroughly in traditional religious studies, Bin Diyaf in his early 20s entered government service (1827). "He was soon promoted to the post of private (or secret) secretary, a position he held under successive beys until his retirement only a short time before his death."
Other tasks were also assigned to him. In 1831 he was sent to the Ottoman Porte in Istanbul regarding fall-out from the 1830 French occupation of Algiers. In 1834 the Bey appointed Bin Diyaf as liaison between the quasi-independent al-Majlis al-Shar'i (supreme religious council) and the Bey's own vizier, regarding a civil war in neighboring Tarabulus and the designs of the Ottoman Empire there. He returned on business to Istanbul in 1842, and accompanied Ahmed Bey to Paris in 1846. His letter on the status of women was written in 1856. As part of his duties, Bin Diyaf also served as a mediator, e.g., to assist in resolving a dispute between two imams at the Zitouna Mosque. Bin Diyaf composed the Arabic version of the ^Ahd al-Aman [Pledge of Security] (prepared originally in French), a version which proved acceptable to the Muslim community, and which Muhammad Bey issued in 1857.
From his current insider perscpective, Bin Dayaf came to understand that the Beys, in common with other Maghriban rulers, governed as functional autocrats. "Even though the personal exercise of power was tempered and circumscribed by religious and traditional restraints, it continued to be arbitrary and total." Bin Diyaf became a "partisan" of the reforms being advanced, off and on, in Tunisia. From 1857 to 1861 and from 1869 to 1877 Khayr al-Din, the high government official, was strongly advocating reform policies. Bin Diyaf collaborated with Khayr al-Din to establish the famous, though short-lived, Constitution of 1861—opposed by the conservative ulama. For a while, as premier (1873–1877), Khayr al-Din managed to initiate institutional changes. Nonetheless Bin Diyaf was personally familiar with, and adept at, the practice of traditions, of the customary etiquette expected of him in his situation. He performed his official position in close proximity with the Bey and the conservative elite, with old distinguished families and with the Muslim ulama who followed "an elaborate code of politesse."
Bin Dayaf had rendered his official services under Husain Bey (1824–1835), Mustafa Bey (1835–1837), Ahmed Bey (1837–1855), Muhammad Bey (1855–1859), and Sadok Bey (1859–1882). His death in 1874 occurred while Khayr al-Din was serving as the premier. The reigning monarch and head of state, under whom Bin Dayaf had labored, attended the funeral ceremony.
Multi-volume chronicle
His work written in Arabic, Ithaf Ahl al-zaman bi Akhbar muluk Tunis wa 'Ahd el-Aman, translated as: Presenting Contemporaries the History of Rulers of Tunis and the Fundamental Pact. A complete version, newly edited, of the Arabic text was published in eight volumes by the Tunisian government during 1963-1966. Recently, this work's relatively short "Introduction" ("Muqaddima") has been translated into English by Princeton professor Leon Carl Brown.
Of eight volumes, the first six address Tunisian history from the arrival of the Muslim Arabs forward. The account is summary until 1705, when the Husainid dynasty commences; here Bin Diyaf draws on his study of the archives and background of the Beys from the 18th century, and on his own experiences as a beylical official during the 19th. These 'Husainid' volumes present "an abundance of personal and accurate information". For example, Bin Diyaf sheds light on the circumstances surrounding the notorious trial of Batto Sfez in 1857. The last two volumes contain over 400 biographies of "leading statesmen and religious figures who died between the years 1783 and 1872." Included are the careers of many ulama and others, holding such offices as: shadhid (witness), katib (clerk), qaid (judge), mufti (jurisconsult), and imam (prayer leader). He labored over the details of this chronicle more than ten years.
Evident in the pages are his "mastery of the customary notions of bureaucratic practice in combination with his access to the inside story... and his undeniable perceptiveness and intelligence".
"Bin Diyaf not only reconstructs the story as seen from within. He reveals himself and, through him, the agonies and hopes of his generation and class. A heightened appreciation of the ideological confrontation between traditional Islam and the intruding West necessarily results."
Bin Diyaf's description of dynasty politics and of the lives of officials "make the work a major reference source for the period."
Epistle on Women
His Risalah fi al'mar'a [Epistle on Women] was a response to a list of 23 questions posed by Léon Roches, then French Consul General in Tunis. Written longhand in 1856, the thirty-page manuscript addresses the social role of women in Tunisia, their legal rights and duites, regarding family and conjugal relations: marriage, divorce, polygamy, public presence (veiling, seclusion, segregation, repudiation), household tasks and management, and lack of education. It was perhaps the most informative writing from the 19th century "on the everyday life of the Muslim woman and on the Tunisian family structure". Although in politics a contemporary reformer, here Bin Diyaf appears as "highly conservative".