By looking at the hijab in context in the political, social, and domestic spheres of Tunisia, one gains a clearer understanding of the hijab’s complexity and a clearer understanding of each of those spheres. Politically, the condemnation of the hijab reveals the tension between the dominant, secular party and the Islamist movement, and the political oppression still prevalent in Tunisia. Socially, the wearing of the hijab reveals the tension between Orientalist perceptions of the hijab and the desire of Muslim feminists to create an authentically Islamic meaning of the hijab compatible with feminist ideas. Domestically, the hijab reveals the tension that remains between localized structures of patriarchy and individual women’s pursuit of liberation beyond emancipation and secularization. Despite the reforms established in the Personal Status Code and the secularization campaign by the government, they are not enough to completely alter negative domestic perceptions of women.

By looking at the hijab in context in the political, social, and domestic spheres of Tunisia, one gains a clearer understanding of the hijab’s complexity and a clearer understanding of each of those spheres. Politically, the condemnation of the hijab reveals the tension between the dominant, secular party and the Islamist movement, and the political oppression still prevalent in Tunisia. Socially, the wearing of the hijab reveals the tension between Orientalist perceptions of the hijab and the desire of Muslim feminists to create an authentically Islamic meaning of the hijab compatible with feminist ideas. Domestically, the hijab reveals the tension that remains between localized structures of patriarchy and individual women’s pursuit of liberation beyond emancipation and secularization. Despite the reforms established in the Personal Status Code and the secularization campaign by the government, they are not enough to completely alter negative domestic perceptions of women.

Interactions in culture, science, and technology in early Islamic North Africa are studied through an examination of Maghribi metallurgy. My dissertation, based on the Social/Cultural Construction of Technology (SCOT) model (Bijker 1997), explores the impact of the Islamic religion and culture on scientific and technological change in the spheres of gold and silver minting, copper working, and iron smelting towards reconstructing the role and impact of metals in Islamic society. The purpose of my reconstruction is to define and contextualize early Islamic Maghribi metallurgy for a region and time period poorly defined in the history of metallurgical technology. The development of this history of technology involves the investigation of technical design within a religious framework, presenting explanations for the motivations of the use of certain metals from both their intrinsic and instrumental properties. This specialized history is important in that it provides information of significance on the larger scope of the history of technology and science and on the structure of Islamic society. This study uses multiple lines of evidence, including historical documents, numismatic evidence, and archaeological data in an effort to situate the role of early Islamic Maghribi metallurgy into the framework of the history of African metallurgy. The religious and cultural meanings of metals are outlined through the compilation of their mention in the qur’ān, the Hadīth, and the chronicles of travelers. Coinage survey positions the political and economic role of the Islamic state, and addresses the stability of western-periphery polities within the state and the concerns of a dogmatically motivated bimetal system. The site of al-Basra, Morocco, a state mint under the Idrisid rule (A.D. 788-959), is the source for the excavated metal materials; the metal artifacts, unprocessed minerals, slag, non-metal tools associated with the metal production, and metallurgical facilities are described in their historical context. This dissertation presents, for the first time ever, an English translation of al-dawHa al-mushtabika fī DawābiT dār al-sika (The Intricate Tree in the Realm of the House of Minting). This fourteenth century Arabic text details the meaning, production, and uses of metals in medieval Islamic society, and serves as a unit of study within Maghribi metallurgical technology. An ethnographic study of the metal artisans of Fes, Morocco provides a modern-day reflection to this reconstruction. This study supports the SCOT methodology by identifying the relationships between scientific and technological practices and systems of belief. The Islamic culture and its practices -- which were part codified religion, part belief system -- were subject to change based on the contextual situations of the society. This study demonstrates that the society’s metallurgical practices were subject to the same conditions. The metallurgical know-how within Islamic Maghribi society was, and is, a direct reflection of the unifying themes embedded in the culture.

Les Dalā’il al-Khayrāt forment un recueil de prières en l’honneur du Prophète Muhammad, composé par le mystique marocain Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (m. 869/1465) vers le milieu du IXe/XVe siècle. Peu de temps après son apparition au Maroc, le texte s’est répandu au reste du Maghreb avant de connaître un large succès en Orient, plus particulièrement en Turquie. Souvent comparé au Coran en raison de l’ampleur de sa diffusion, le bréviaire semble avoir été pareillement porté en très haute estime à en juger par le soin avec lequel on le copiait et le décorait. Aussi, il revêt la singulière particularité d’être le seul texte religieux possédant des illustrations dans lesquelles est représentée, sous une forme stylisée, la chambre funéraire du Prophète à Médine. Cette étude propose donc de retracer l’élaboration de la tradition manuscrite d’un bréviaire à succès et son évolution depuis le début Xe/XVIe jusqu’à la fin du XIIIe/XIXe siècle. Pour cela, elle se concentre spécifiquement sur la région de l’Afrique du Nord où a débuté la diffusion du livre. En soumettant un corpus d’exemplaires maghrébins inédits à un examen codicologique et à l’étude de leurs décors, cette recherche définit les traits qui signalent la confection de ces ouvrages. A travers l’analyse iconographique et stylistique des peintures, nous sommes en mesure de comprendre la place de l’image sacrée au Maghreb et les liens qu’elle entretient avec l’imagerie orientale des lieux saints du Ḥijāz. Enfin, à la lumière de cette approche multidisciplinaire, confrontée à l’exploitation des sources textuelles, nous parvenons à saisir l’importance que revêt la dévotion au Prophète au Maghreb à l’époque pré-moderne. / The Dalā’il al-Khayrāt is a prayer book dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad. Written by the Moroccan Sufi Muḥammad b. Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (m. 869/1465) in mid-15th century, it spread to the Islamic West far into South-East Asia and became one of the most successful religious books after the Qur’an. Often compared to the Qur’an because of its extraordinary success, the book seems to have been held in high regard judging by the careful manner in which it was copied and decorated. Moreover, it has the distinctive feature to be the only religious book that contains illustrations. This study proposes to retrace the formation/elaboration of the manuscript tradition of a successful prayer book and its development from the beginning of the 10th/16th century until the end of the 13th/19th century. In order to do so, the study focuses on the region of the Maghrib where the circulation of the book originated. By submitting a corpus of unpublished manuscripts to a codicological analysis and the examination of their decoration, this investigation will define the features that single out the production of these books. Through the iconographical and stylistic study of the paintings, we are able to understand the value of sacred images in North Africa and their relationship to the imagery of pilgrimage places in the Mashriq. Finally, in light of this interdisciplinary approach along with the exploitation of written sources, we succeed in understanding the importance of the devotion of the Prophet in North Africa during the pre-modern period.

Cette thèse examine la relation des Maghrébins avec la mer au Moyen Âge et son rôle dans l’enrichissement de la vie économique, sociale et mentale des habitants du littoral. Mare nostrum des Romains était considéré pendant les premiers siècles de l’Islam comme la mer des Byzantins par opposition à la mer des ténèbres, pour qualifier l’océan Atlantique. Mais pendant les siècles suivants, les musulmans investissent progressivement la Méditerranée et rivalisent avec Byzance et le monde latin pour la maîtrise des techniques de navigation et la domination du commerce maritime. Source de richesse, de conquête et d’affirmation du pouvoir, la mer a généré chez les Maghrébins des représentations à la fois objectives et mythologiques. Héritées d’anciennes civilisations, elles ont été constamment remodelées et enrichies par les Maghrébins au prisme de leurs pratiques quotidiennes, mais aussi grâce à leurs contacts avec le monde extérieur. / This dissertation analyses the relationship of the Maghribis with the sea in the Middle Ages and its role in the enrichment of the economical, social and mental life of the inhabitants of the shore. The Roman Mare nostrum was considered in the first centuries of Islam as the sea of the Byzantines, in opposition to the sea of Darkness, to describe the Atlantic ocean. But during the following centuries, muslims progressively take over the Mediterranean and compete with Byzance and the Latin world to master the technics of navigation and to dominate the maritim trade. Source of wealth, conquests and assertion of power, the sea engendered by the Maghribis both objective and mythological representations. Inherited from ancient civilizations, they have been constantly reshaped and enriched by the Maghribis thanks to their daily practices, but also due to their contacts with external worlds.

Thèse (M.A.) -- Université Laval, 1997. / Bibliogr.: f. 122-127. Publié aussi en version électronique.

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The Moroccan Driss Chraïbi belongs to the most important Francophone authors in the contemporary Maghreb literature. A lot of his works are inspired by autobiography literature and this thesis will study this part of his work. We will consider culture aspects of Driss Chraïbi's texts and focus on characters of mother and father. We will see how the traditional family model is affected by the West one, so by the European culture. The images of father develop from a patriarch tyrant to a friendly man understanding the modern world. Mother, traditionally representing the tradition and the family, becomes in certain texts fighter for the woman liberation and for women's rights. However the author does not seem to reject the tradition. The analysis focuses on these questions. At the beginning we will also introduce the author in the North African literature context and determine the part of the autofiction of Driss Chraïbi's works. Key words: Driss Chraïbi, woman, man, mother, father, Moroccan society, European society

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013