We can
talk about four itineraries of the Moriscos to Tunisia.
The first one is directly from
the port of Alfaques,
and the second is
through the ports of Marseille
and the Italian cities.
And the third is from, also
another French port, its Agde.
But the four itinerary
we can see is an unknown
itinerary,
and we can speak about hundreds of Moriscos that
came to Tunisia through the ports
of the Maghribi cities or through Constantinople.
So we have some cases like the case of Ahmed Sharif al Hanafi,
who came to Tunis through
Constantinople in
the beginning of the 17th century.
Also the case of the famous Ahmed
Ibn Qasim al-Hajari, or Diego
Bejarano, who arrived to Tunis
in 1636, or the case of the family.
Ibn Ashur that also
arrived to Tunis in 1627
from the city of Sale in Morocco.
So this about the itineraries.
Now about the arrival of Moriscos to Tunis.
Almost all sources, Spanish,
local or Maghrebi sources, confirm the
the good reception, of Moriscos in Tunisia.
So there are we can speak about two factors
in this success of the installation of Moriscos
in Tunisia, the first one depend of the
the internal situation of Tunisia in this time.
So Tunisia is living this time,
we can speak about stability situation.
And the second factor is the itineraries, as
we've seen that the expats
arrived to the country through, uh,
through France or Italy and after coordinating it with
with the local governors.
And through this map
of the installation of the Moriscos in Tunisia, you can see that
almost the cities in the north of the country
near to the power and also the Moriscos
installated in the most fertile area in Tunisia,
that means the valley of Mejerda or the cabo bueno, or le cap bon.
Uh, so they dedicated for the agriculture,
but also in another industries specially
the crafts and the craft of
chechia.
And we know
a lot, a very good number of Moriscos that participated
in international commerce, like in 17th century
Mustapha de Cárdenas,
the chief of Moriscos,
also in 18th century
we have the case of Mahmoud al-Sarayiri
who was the haznadar, the hazdnadar
means the prime minister, or the case of Cherife Castelli
So this about the
A economic issue. Now
about the decline of Moriscos.
In my opinion, it was the main reason of the
the dispersion or the division of Moriscos in Tunisian
society or
the lost of their culture is had to do with the Algerians
in 1756 or before
1735,
or in 1705.
So here we can see that
in the end,
in 19th century, almost all the cities or the population,
it was not more Moriscos, but in the beginning
when started this cities or villages, they were Moriso.
But in the in the 19th century is not more the case
because it's a local or a Turkish population.