La diáspora sefardí en Túnez: de finales del siglo XV a mediados del siglo XVIII

Abstract

This article tries to study the history of Sephardic Jews in Tunisia, also called by the names of “Grana”, “Livorno” or “Portuguese”. In the first part we have tried to do a state of question to the historiography about Tunisian Sephar­dim. Then, we searched the itineraries of Sephardic Jews who were expelled to Tunisia. There were two main itineraries: the first one, that of those who went to Tunisia after the expulsion from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century; the second one, that of those who came to the country in 17th century mainly from Leghorn. Thirdly, we have tried to study the different aspects of the Sephardic settlement in Tunisia, that is, the arrival of those expelled to the country and the position of the Hafsi State and the Beys, their social and economic relations and communications with the Muslim majority, the Moriscos, and the local Jews (Tuansa). This study has based on a rich bibliography about Tunisian Jews in general, in addition to multiple documents and sources, that is, mainly the unpublished diary of Fray Francesco Ximenez, as well as other Spanish sources; the documents produced by the Por­tuguese community, and some local Tunisian sources.