Jews in Tunisia
01: Legends and Roman times
Jews coming from Palestine in Africa Propria -
community life - persecutions under the Christian dogma
- migration movements
from: Tunisia; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 15
presented by Michael Palomino (2007 / 2010)
<TUNIS, TUNISIA, country
in
N. Africa between *Libya and *Algeria.
[Territorial developments
of the Provincia Africa / Africa Propria / Africa]
After their conquest of the country, the Romans named it
Provincia Africa, Africa Propria, or, more generally,
Africa. Roman Africa included, in addition to the
territories of present-day Tunisia, a large stretch of
Algeria's territory to the west, which was called Numidia,
and Libya's coast to the east.
[Legends about Jews coming
from Palestine since 70 AD]
Second Temple Period.
[[According to new Jewish archeology the Second Temple is
the only one, see
Silberman
/
Finkelstein]].
As many scholars have often assumed, it is probable that
Jews lived in Punic *Carthage; a Judeo-African legend has it
that the Jews came to the island in the southeast (e.g., in
the island of *Djerba (Jerba)) in King Solomon's time.
[[According to new Jewish archeology there could nothing be
found from King Solomon, see Silberman / Finkelstein]].
Another legend relates that the kohanim [[sg. kohen, a
subdivision of the Levite tribe according to the Old
Testament (OT)]], escaping from Jerusalem in the year 70
C.E. [[Common Era]], carried one of the Temple's doors to
the island, and it is believed to be walled in the synagogue
called
Ghriba (the
wondrous). However, there is no factual evidence positively
stating that Jews lived in Punic Carthage or its
territories.
[Names: Carthage, Tarshish,
Tunis]
The "*Tarshish" of the Bible has nevertheless been
identified with Carthage by the Septuagint and the Aramaic
Targum of the prophets. On the other hand, for the Arab
authors of the Middle Ages, Carthage - later confused with
Tunis has always been synonymous with "Tarshish". The Talmud
echoes ancient traditions regarding the connection between,
on the one hand, Punic Africa and Canaan's country and the
Jewish world of Erez Israel, on the other.
[Jewish communities in the
"Africa Propria": inscriptions, graveyards - Jewish slaves
and liberation]
Under Roman rule the province of Africa included many Jewish
communities whose existence have been proven by numerous
texts and archaeological findings. From Cyrenaica to
*Morocco a series of Jewish communities have left their
landmarks in these countries. Their center was Africa
Propria, whose living conditions were well known in ancient
rabbinic literature. The most important of these communities
was Latin Carthage which from the second to the fourth
centuries C.E. was the home of such sages as R. Hinna, R.
Hanan, R. Isaac, and R. Abba, who are mentioned in the
Talmud.
A great number of Jewish lamps and many epitaphs [[grave
inscriptions]], mostly written in Latin and accompanied by
the seven-branched
menorah
[[candlestand with 7 candles]], which were discovered in the
cemeteries of Carthage, Marsa, Byrsa, or Gamarth, bear
witness to the existence of a large population of the Jewish
faith in Carthage. The extension of the Jewish necropolis
[[graveyard]] at Gamarth indicates the importance of the
community against which, Tertullian, who knew it intimately,
wrote a special treatise (c. 200-06).
Later, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and many other Christian
authors of Africa Propria wrote against their Jewish fellow
countrymen and the numerous Judaizing sects of ancient
Tunisia.
Jews and Judaizers were widely scattered throughout the
entire country, especially at Naro on the Hammam-Lif beach
where a magnificent synagogue stood, the ruins of which are
well known; at Hippo-Diarrhytus (present-day (col. 1430)
Bizerta), whose governor at the time of the Arab conquest
was, according to the historian al-Qayrawani, a Jew; at
Utica; at Simittu (present-day Chemtou); at Hadrumetum
(present-day Sousse); and at Henchir-Gouana, west of the
site where the present-day Kairouan was to be built.
On the Libyan littoral, included in Africa Propria, there
was a Jewish community at Oea (present-day Tripoli); at
Leptis Magna (present-day Lebda); and at Locus Judeorum
Augusti, also called Scina (Iscina), whose Jews were among
those sent by the Romans as slaves from Erez Israel to
Africa after the war of 70.
After they were set free, they settled in areas granted to
them by the Romans. Inland, according to Ibn Khaldun, the
tribe of Nefusa practiced the Jewish faith before the Arab
conquest. It is known that there were Jewish communities in
Numidia - which also belonged to Carthage - at Hippo Regius
(present-day Bône), at Cirta (Constantine), and at
Henchir-Fouara, not far from Souk-Ahras, the center of
nomadic Jews called Bahusim under Arab rule. Concentrations
of Jews were also found at Thusurus (the present-day
Tozeur), as well as Jewish tribes who lived before the Arab
rule in the mountains of Aures.
[Jewish community life and
professions in Africa Propria province]
<Living and economic conditions of Jews in Africa seem to
have been satisfactory during the Roman era and before
Christianity's triumph. In Carthage especially, the luxury
of the decorations of most of the hypogea in the Jewish
cemeteries of Gamarth bear witness to the prosperity of the
(col. 1431)
community and to the wealth of certain families. It seems
that most of the islands Jews were engaged in agriculture.
In the harbors many Jews were involved in maritime trade:
trade relations between Rome and North Africa were of
exceptional importance owing to the transport of foodstuffs
to Rome, and later on also to Constantinople. This trade -
as much evidence indicates - was almost completely in the
hands of African Jews who lived in Rome on Mount Colius, in
a special district between the Coliseum and the Appian Way.
Jews were entrusted with the transport of foodstuffs
destined for Rome (
annona
urbis), which consisted mainly of cereals and olive
oil; at that time Africa was the main producer in the
Mediterranean; they were then called
navicularii [[ship
owner]]. One of the main tasks of these Jewish owners of big
vessels was to engage in transport for state requirements,
for which they received official honors in Africa Propria,
as elsewhere. Jewish
navicularii
formed a separate corporate body. When the Roman Empire
became Christian, the state took advantage of the Jewish
ship owners and misused them so that their task became an
overwhelming burden.
[The Christian dogma:
persecutions under Constantine and Justinian - migrating Jews to the Berber territories
and to Sicily and southern Italy]
Mass arrivals of Jews to Africa were mainly the aftermath of
the disasters they were subject to in Erez Israel, Egypt,
and Cyrenaica from 70 to 118 C.E. Their number increased as
a consequence of the intense proselytic propaganda
[[propaganda for conversion]] to which they dedicated
themselves, first among the descendants of the Punics, then
among the Berbers. The situation of the Jews facing
Christians changed considerably after the time of
Constantine, when triumphant Christianity became persecutor
in Africa as elsewhere.
When the Vandals dominated Africa Propria, the Jews were
better treated but little is known about their true
condition during that era. there is more information about
their condition during the Byzantine period. In pursuance of
the edicts of 535, applied by *Justinian at the same time to
the Christian heretics, Jews were excluded from all public
office, their worship outlawed, all meeting prohibited, and
their synagogues transformed into churches. By the emperor's
order the Jews of Borion, on Cyrenaica's frontiers, were
forcibly converted, but toward the end of the 6th century
the Byzantine administration slowly let the strictness of
its rules lapse.
The persecutions by Justinian contributed to the expansion
of African Judaism. Tracked down and sometimes even
expelled, many Jews took refuge with the Berbers of the
mountains and of the desert where they doubtlessly met
coreligionists who had already settled there. In those
regions the newcomers again took up their propaganda. This
is probably how the great Judaized Berber tribes of Africa
Propria were established, especially the Jarrawas of the
Aurès mountains and the Nafusas of Libya. According
to some scholars other Jews left Africa for *Sicily and
southern Italy. After the Arab conquest this latent
immigration - started under Justinian - took the form of
mass flight for the Jews of the African coast.> (col.
1432)
Encyclopaedia
Judaica 1971: Tunisia, sources
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Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Tunisia, vol. 15, col.
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