Bargaoui, Sami
From Turks to Hanafiyya
- 2005.
7
In the historiography of Ottoman Tunisia, the K? lughl?-s, born of Turkish fathers and native mothers, are considered an intermediate social category, whose political destiny can help to explain the emergence of the nation. A more attentive examination of sources and categories of actors shows that Turks born during the Regency—“creoles” rather than “mixed race”—continued to refer to themselves as such until the beginning of the eighteenth century. After this point, they invented a particular name for themselves, “ Hg anafiyya,” which distinguished them from both Turks and native Arabs. They also forged their own institutions and their own memorial traditions, linked to both Ottoman history and that of the province.