Ce que révèlent les contrats de mariage des Français établis ou nés à Bizerte (1897-1918)
Before the establishment of the French Protectorate, Tunisia did not have a civil status law that included all groups residing in the country: Tunisian Muslims were subject to Sharia courts, while Jews performed their civil procedures before rabbinical courts. As for foreigners, they came under cons...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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CNRS Éditions
2025-06-01
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| Series: | L’Année du Maghreb |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/anneemaghreb/15125 |
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| Summary: | Before the establishment of the French Protectorate, Tunisia did not have a civil status law that included all groups residing in the country: Tunisian Muslims were subject to Sharia courts, while Jews performed their civil procedures before rabbinical courts. As for foreigners, they came under consular jurisdictions. However, after the beginning of colonization, a new contractual mechanism emerges. Its civil characteristics is valid for all groups, regardless of nationality or religion; its application is mandatory for the French, while it remains optional for other categories of the population.The promulgation of the decree of June 29, 1886, is one of the most significant indicators of the French authorities’ desire to attract their fellow citizens to the colony by ensuring their stability. Indeed, it clarifies the ambiguity surrounding civil status in Tunisia, defining it more clearly and placing it under the control of French courts. This system fits into a policy aimed at ensuring the demographic growth of an established minority. This decree serves the authorities’ colonial project while safeguarding the interests of French nationals. It is not just about protecting nationality and rights. The decree of June 29, 1886, acts as a mechanism to keep settlers within French law, even when they move outside the metropolis. In this context, we propose to study this decree in order to understand how it regulates the particular issue of marriage and how the parties involved respond to it.The promulgation of the 1886 decree led to the conclusion of thousands of civil marriage contracts in the country, linked to the demographic development of the French population from the early days of the Protectorate. We retained for this study 833 acts of French nationals drafted in Bizerte region, where this community becomes significant at the beginning of the 20th century. These contracts are documented in two civil status registers: the first originates from the Civil Control Office in Bizerte and contains 543 marriage acts, preserved at the Center for Diplomatic Archives in Courneuve; the second has been produced by the municipality and includes 290 contracts, deposited at the Tunisian National Archives. This documentation provides a unique insight into the lives of French nationals married between 1897 and 1918, during the initial phase of their settlement in Tunisia.By using a quantitative and qualitative approach, we compiled the various data contained in these documents to understand matrimonial strategies. We focused particularly on the age, social status, and profession of the French people who married either among themselves or with members of another community (Tunisian or European). We aimed to enter social, political, and legal conditions which influenced such unions in the early decades of the Protectorate.First, we will revisit the regulatory framework governing marriage in Tunisia at the end of the 19th century, examining its rules, logic, and how far it can be considered an extension of the spirit of the Civil Code in force in France. Then, we will focus on matrimonial strategies of the French community in Bizerte, both among its members and in relation to other groups. The study of marriage contracts opens up a field of original data on the ways colonial minorities thought and acted, the central place of the family, and the contours it took in light of these behaviors. |
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| ISSN: | 1952-8108 2109-9405 |