Praxis of Reform: The Politics of Zaytūna Student Housing in Colonial Tunis

Abstract

This article expands the category of “reform” to encompass a key area of urban infrastructure in colonial Tunis—the housing for students at the Zaytūna Mosque-University. Focusing on the French protectorate in Tunisia (1881–1956), I use documents from the Tunisian National Archives to frame housing as an intra-Zaytūna matter from which French officials withdrew during the interwar period. The housing sector saw Zaytūna students mobilize against their own professors, including prominent reformist intellectuals, who used evictions and other disciplinary tactics to manage and police students. This social history clarifies the praxis of reform, a topic usually studied in terms of intellectual history.