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Making an Arab-Muslim Elite in Paris: The Pan-Maghrib Student Movement of the 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2021

Shoko Watanabe Open the ORCID record for Shoko Watanabe [Opens in a new window]
Shoko Watanabe*
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
*
Corresponding author. Email: shoko_watanabe@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the scope and limitations of the ideals of Pan-Maghrib nationalism as developed by the Association of North African Muslim Students in France (AEMNAF) in the 1930s. The AEMNAF members’ inclination toward sciences and technology and their emphasis on conserving their mother culture made them consider Arabism and Islam their most important identity markers. Moreover, the AEMNAF created a sense of solidarity among Maghribi students in France and extended its social influence by cooperating with French and Mashriqi opinion leaders in Europe. However, the AEMNAF's narrow definition of Muslim-ness and its elitist nature led to the exclusion of Maghribis with French citizenship from the organization. The dualistic view of technology and culture in Maghribi nationalist thought also contributed to prioritizing Francophones over Arabophones, Muslims over non-Muslims, men over women, and students in the sciences over those in humanities.

Keywords

1930sMaghribnationalismFrancestudent politics
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , August 2021 , pp. 439 - 454
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Founded in France as the Association des Étudiants Musulmans Nord-Africains, the association added “en France” to its name officially in 1937. See Ageron, Charles-Robert, “L'Association des Étudiants Musulmans Nord-africains en France durant l'entre-deux-guerres. Contribution à l’étude des nationalismes maghrébins,” Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 70, no. 258/259 (1983): 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In this paper, the association is abbreviated as AEMNAF, even for the period prior to 1937.

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3 The ENA embraced anti-imperialism and produced Maghribi nationalist leaders such as the Algerian Messali Hadj (1898–1974).

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8 The MTLD (Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques, 1946–54) was a political party founded by Messali Hadj to succeed the Parti Populaire Algérien (1937–39). They represented radical nationalism in Algeria, which produced future leaders of the Front de Libération Nationale (1954–). The Néo-Destour party (founded in 1934) and the al-Istiqlal party (founded in 1943) were the leading nationalist parties in Tunisia and Morocco, respectively.

9 Ageron, “L'Association,” 27.

10 Ibid., 46.

11 Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, 147.

12 When the AEMNAF resumed its activities after the war, its nature was altered from that of a spontaneous student movement to that of a satellite organization of Maghribi political parties. See Mohammed Harbi, Une vie debout: Mémoires politiques, vol. 1, 1945–1962 (Paris: La Découverte, 2001), 98–104.

13 AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929 (Tunis: al-Matbaʿa al-Tunisiyya, 1929), French, 3; Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, 136–48.

14 Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, 142–48.

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16 The conventions took place in Tunis (1931), Algiers (1932), Paris (1933), Tunis (1934), and Tlemcen (1935).

17 AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Muʾtamar al-Khamis, Tilimsan fi Sibtambir 1935 (Tunis: al-Matbaʿa al-Tunisiyya), 4–7.

18 AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929, French, 15.

19 “Association des Étudiants Musulmans Nord-africains de Paris (1 Avril 1935),” report, Archives de la Préfecture de Police de Paris (hereafter APPP), BA 2172, ASS 857–6; Ageron, “L'Association,” 32; Pervillé, Guy, Les étudiants algériens de l'université française, 1880–1962 (Paris: Édition du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984), 91–92Google Scholar.

20 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith li-Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Baris, Sanat 1933 (Tunis: Matbaʿat al-Ittihad), 110–14.

21 Wyrtzen, Making Morocco, 138–48.

22 Ibid., 138–50.

23 “A.s. de l'Association des Étudiants Musulmans Nord-africains en France: Activité politique (18 Juillet 1931),” report, APPP, BA 2172, ASS 857–6.

24 AEMNAF, al-Nashra al-Sanawiyya 1929–1930 (Tétouan: al-Matbaʿa al-Mahdiyya, 1930), Arabic, 7–8.

25 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 114–16. In the original wording, Thamir stated “his [the student's] language (lughat-hu)” to mean al-fuṣḥā.

26 Weil, Patrick, Qu'est-ce qu'un Français: Histoire de la nationalité française depuis la Révolution (Paris: Grasset, 2002), 225–44Google Scholar.

27 The nationalists’ condemnation of naturalized Maghribis was expressed in campaigns against burials of the latter in Muslim graveyards. See Lewis, Mary Dewhurst, “Necropoles and Nationality: Land Rights, Burial Rites and the Development of Tunisian National Consciousness in the 1930s,” Past and Present 205, no. 1 (2009), 105–41CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

28 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 93–94.

29 The reason for the scarcity of Algerian students in France was the very limited availability of scholarships for Algerian Muslims, based on the pretext of the existence of Algiers university. See AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 121; AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Muʾtamar al-Khamis, 17–18.

30 Ben Sliman, Souvenirs, 48–49. Al-Sadiqi school was a modern school for secondary education established in 1875 in Tunisia. Although students from Tunis and the Sahel, the country's wealthiest regions, comprised the majority of al-Sadiqi students, modest families from northern, central, and southern parts of the nation could send their children to the school thanks to scholarships. See Noureddine Sraïeb, Le collège Sadiki de Tunis, 1875–1956: Enseignement et nationalisme (Paris: CNRS, 1995), 202–3, 210.

31 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 92.

32 Harbi, Une vie, 103. Unlike Tunisian and Moroccan students who enjoyed material support (including housing) from their own governments, Algerians, who were considered French, rarely had access to French governmental aid. See also note 29.

33 The al-Saqqa family was a wealthy family from the Sahel region. See Chater, Khalifa, “Les élites du pouvoir et de l'argent: Le cas de la Tunisie aux XIXe–XXe siècles,” Cahiers de la Méditerranée, nos. 46–47 (1993), 162–64Google Scholar.

34 Directeur des renseignements généraux et des jeux, Préfecture de police de Paris au préfet de police, Paris, 10 Février 1930, APPP, BA 2172, ASS 857–5.

35 Ben Sliman, Souvenirs, 49–50.

36 Ibid., 51–54, 250–72.

37 AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929, French, 14; Arabic, 16–17, 20.

38 On colonial policies for the educated Tunisians and Moroccans, see Vermeren, Pierre, La formation des élites marocaines et tunisiennes (Paris: La Découverte, 2002), 118–22Google Scholar; and Bekraoui, Mohammed, “Les étudiants marocains en France à l’époque du protectorat 1927–1939,” in Présences et images franco-marocaines au temps du protectorat, ed. Allain, Jean-Claude (Paris: Harmattan, 2003), 89–111Google Scholar.

39 AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929, French, 7; Arabic, 23–26, 37–38; Nashrat al-Jamʿiyyat li-ʿAmay 1931–1932 (Tunis: Matbaʿat al-Ittihad), 6.

40 AEMNAF, al-Nashra al-Sanawiyya 1929–1930, French, 1–2; Arabic, 3–4; Nashrat al-Jamʿiyyat li-ʿAmay 1931–1932, 8, 14–21.

41 See an article by Ahmed ben Milad in AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929, French, 17–20; Arabic, 27–34. See also Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, 140–42, 145.

42 AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Jamʿiyyat li-ʿAmay 1931–1932, 9–10.

43 Ibid., 28.

44 There were ninety-two Algerian Muslim students registered at Algiers University in the year 1930–31, or 4.5 percent of all students. See Pervillé, Les étudiants, 29–30.

45 Hourani, Albert, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 81, 90Google Scholar; Haj, Samira, Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition: Reform, Rationality, and Modernity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009), 76, 122Google Scholar.

46 Ageron believes that the ENA and the French Communist Party were involved in the creation of the AEMNAF. See Ageron “L'Association,” 28–29; Vermeren, La formation, 97–98.

47 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 166; “Discours prononcés au cours du banquet organisé par les Étudiants Musulmans Nord-africains au Palais de la Mutualité, Salle E, le 29 Décembre 1933 à 21 heures,” report, APPP, BA 2172, ASS 857–5.

48 Denglos, Guillaume, La revue Maghreb (1932–1936): Une publication franco-marocaine engagée (Paris: Harmattan, 2015), 65．Google Scholar

49 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 167.

50 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thani li-Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, al-Jazaʾir, Sanat 1932 (Tunis: Matbaʿat al-Ittihad), 58.

51 Ibid., 85–86. In reply to the inquiry, the president of the convention confirmed that those who had expertise but currently were engaged in activities other than education could become (technical) advisors.

52 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 15–16.

53 AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Jamʿiyyat li-ʿAmay 1931–1932, 29–30.

54 Vermeren, La formation, 87.

55 AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Jamʿiyyat li-ʿAmay 1931–1932, 22–26.

56 Ibid., 31–32.

57 Founded in 1919 in Algiers as the Amicale des Étudiants Musulmans de l'Afrique du Nord, the association represented Algerian Muslims among university students in Algeria and had Ferhat ʿAbbas (1899–1985) as one of its leaders. See Pervillé, Les étudiants, 89.

58 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 162–63.

59 Ibid., 50–51.

60 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thani, 85–109.

61 AEMNAF, Nashrat al-Muʾtamar al-Khamis, 13–15.

62 See AEMNAF, Nashrat Mahadir Jalsat Muʾtamar Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Tunis, Sanat 1931 (Tunis: al-Matbaʿa al-Ahliyya), 23–24. Such division between old and new sciences also has been discussed regarding the Mashriqi countries. See A.Yousef, Hoda, “Reassessing Egypt's Dual System of Education under Ismaʿil: Growing ʿIlm and Shifting Ground in Egypt's First Educational Journal, Rawdat Al-Madaris, 1870–77,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 40, no. 1 (2008): 109–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gesink, Indira Falk, Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), ch. 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 McDougall, History, 113; al-ʿAyyashi, al-Zaytuna, 54–67.

64 Al-Madani was a member of the Association of Algerian Muslim ʿUlamaʾ, a journalist and historian. Al-Fadil ben ʿAshur was a son of Muhammad al-Tahir ben ʿAshur and a scholar from al-Zaytuna.

65 Anderson, Lisa, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830–1980 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986), 167–77Google Scholar; Bekraoui, “Les étudiants,” 109.

66 AEMNAF, al-Nashriyya al-Sanawiyya, 1928–1929, French, 21–23; Arabic, 35–36.

67 For Bousifara, see “A.s. de l'Association des Étudiants,” APPP, BA 2172, ASS 857–6.

68 AEMNAF, Nashrat Mahadir Jalsat Muʾtamar Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Tunis, Sanat 1931, 100–108. Here, qawmī schools refers to private schools created by Maghribi Muslims.

69 AEMNAF, al-Nashra al-Sanawiyya 1929–1930, Arabic, 10–16.

70 AEMNAF, Nashrat Mahadir Jalsat Muʾtamar Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Tunis, Sanat 1931, 107.

71 Chatterjee, Partha, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), ch. 6Google Scholar.

72 Ibid., 117–21.

73 See Leila Ahmed's criticism on Qasim Amin's Liberation of Women (1899) in Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 162–63. See also Shakry, Omnia El, “Schooled Mothers and Structured Play: Child Rearing in Turn-of-the-Century Egypt,” in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, ed. Abu-Lughod, Lila (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 129–30Google Scholar; Lila Abu-Lughod, “The Marriage of Feminism and Islamism in Egypt: Selective Repudiation as a Dynamic of Postcolonial Cultural Politics,” in Remaking Women, 243.

74 Al-Yaʿalawi was an Algerian who grew up in Tunisia. He was already known in Tunisia for his political articles in the 1920s. See Muhammad Butayyibi, Dawr al-Muthaqqafin al-Jazaʾiriyyin fi al-Haraka al-Wataniyya al-Tunisiyya ma bayna 1900–1930 (ʿAin Mlila: Dar al-Huda, 2012), 110–14.

75 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 51.

76 The modern section of al-Zaytuna was created in 1950 and introduced a curriculum comprising religious sciences, history and geography, Arabic literature, philosophy, mathematics, and physics in Arabic. It also included classes on French and English. See ‘Ali al-Zidi, Taʾrikh al-Nizam al-Tarbawi li-l-Shuʿba al-ʿAsriyya al-Zaytuniyya, 1951–1965 (Tunis: Manshurat al-Markaz al-Buhuth fi ʿUlum al-Maktabat wa-l-Maʿlumat, 1986), 165–375.

77 Modernizing reforms introduced in al-Qarawiyyin in the 1930s were met with resistance by students, especially those from rural areas. See Porter, Geoff, “The Qarawiyin Mosque Student Strike of 1937,” Journal of North African Studies 15, no. 4 (2010): 557–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 Grandguillaume, Gilbert, Arabisation et politique linguistique au Maghreb (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1983), 71, 89Google Scholar. For Muhammad al-Fasi's coherence of ideas on education from the colonial period to the time of his service as minister of education, see John Damis, “The Free-School Movement in Morocco, 1919–1970,” (PhD thesis, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1970), 193–204.

79 Grandguillaume, Arabisation, 46–47.

80 Ibid., 64.

81 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Rabiʿ li-Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Tunis ʿAm 1934 (Tunis: al-Matbaʿa al-Tunisiyya), 16.

82 McDougall, History. Algerian Arabization was different from that in Tunisia and Morocco because of more severe exclusion of Arabic from public education during the colonial period and a greater role of private schools in Arabic education. However, even in the Algerian social movement for spreading private Arabic education, there was spontaneous acceptance of the prestige of French public education. See Ouanassa Siari Tengour, “Les écoles coraniques (1930–1950): Portée et signification,” Insaniyat, no. 6 (1998): 85–95.

83 Boutieri, Charis, “In Two Speeds (À Deux Vitesses): Linguistic Pluralism and Educational Anxiety in Contemporary Morocco,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44, no. 3 (2012): 443–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 AEMNAF, Nashrat Mahadir Jalsat Muʾtamar Talabat Shamal Ifriqiya al-Muslimin, Tunis, Sanat 1931, 46.

85 Ibid., 66–67.

86 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thalith, 49–52, 81–82.

87 Ibid., 81.

88 AEMNAF, Nashrat Aʿmal al-Muʾtamar al-Thani, 41–45.

89 Ibid., 49–59.

90 ʿAbd al-Basit al-Ghabiri, Sawt al-Talib al-Zaytuni: Haraka Thaqafiyya Siyasiyya (Tunis: Markaz al-Nashr al-Jamiʿi, 2011).

91 Paye, Lucien, Introduction et évolution de l'enseignement moderne au Maroc (Rabat: Arrissala, 1992), 444–58Google Scholar.

92 Benrabah, Mohamed, Language Conflict in Algeria: From Colonialism to Post-Independence (Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2013), 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the preference of Algeria's industrial sectors for French-educated youth, see ibid., 63, and Abdelhamid Mansouri, “Algeria between Tradition and Modernity: The Question of Language,” (PhD thesis, Department of Political Science, The Nelson A. Rockefellor College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York, 1991), 141.