The Jellaz Affair ( ) () was a violent confrontation in November 1911 between Tunisian protesters and the authorities of the French Protectorate of Tunisia which began at the Jellaz Cemetery. Over the course of two days, it became a series of fights and attacks in the streets, primarily involving Tunisians and Italian settlers. It was the most serious outbreak of violence in Tunis, and the first time French soldiers fired on the civilian population, since the establishment of the Protectorate in 1881. It was therefore a critical juncture in the development of the Tunisian nationalist movement.
Background
Several factors led to the escalation of tension in Tunis in the months before November 1911.
Religious trusts and land ownership
The Jellaz cemetery was of great religious and cultural significance to Tunisians. It was named after Sheikh Abu Abdallah Muhammad Taj ad-Din al-Jallaz (d.1205) who had acquired the land and endowed it as a religious trust, or habous () (known in many other countries as a waqf ()). On the cemetery hill stood the first zawiya founded by the medieval Moroccan sufi Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili, and in 1911 this was the spiritual base for some 5,000 men in Tunis who were members of the Shadhili sufi order he founded. Another zawiya, of Sidi Al Bashir, also stood in the cemetery, and many of the most illustrious families of Tunis had their dead relatives buried there. Under Islamic law, habous property was donated by a benefactor and held in trust for some public benefit; once in trust it could not be bought or sold. However a series of colonial laws since the 1880s had allowed the French in Tunisia to acquire the title or use of growing amounts of habous land. Thus land endowed for the benefit of local communities steadily came under the private control of French landlords and in some instances Tunisians occupying or working the land were displaced.
Nationality laws
Just as changes to the ownership of habous eroded a long-established religious institution and advanced French property rights, so changes to nationality law were divisive of the population. On 3 October 1910, a French Presidential decree significantly broadened the grounds for claiming French nationality, to include volunteering for military services; holding two degrees or the title of doctor of medicine or of law; marrying a French woman, or exceptional service to the French state. This law did not make any explicit provision for Tunisians of the Jewish community, but was understood in Tunisia to be largely of interest to them, It was therefore seen by Arab nationalists as divisive since it encouraged a group of native-born Tunisians to renounce their loyalty to their homeland and identify with the occupier.
Agadir and Tripoli
Developments in neighbouring countries intensified a feeling of anger and injustice among Tunisian Muslims in 1911. First, a rebellion against the Sultan of Morocco led France to deploy troops in Fez in April, precipitating the Agadir Crisis, and as a result, France called up troops in Tunisia to fight in Morocco. As France took effective control there, the other European powers demanded to be 'compensated' in regions they considered vital to their interests, and this led to an Italian declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire on 29 September 1911, followed by the invasion of Libya. Libyan refugees were soon crossing the border into Tunisia, fleeing the invasion.
Tensions with the Italian community
Tensions between Muslim Arabs and Italians in Tunis played a major role in the Jellaz Affair. Italian immigration to Tunisia had grown rapidly under the French Protectorate, and by 1900, Italians made up around seven-eighths of the colony's European population of 80,000 people. In 1903, the Italian consul calculated that here were 80,000 Italians alone, while a 1910 estimate indicated that there were 105,000 Italians in Tunisia, compared with only 35,0000 French people. Many Italians arrived in Tunisia poor and they were banned from employment on public works or in the colonial government unless they adopted French citizenship. Instead they often pursued the trades they had followed in Italy - fishermen, shopkeepers, labourers, farmers and miners. These and similar occupations meant that they were often likely to find themselves in competition with native Tunisian workers and traders.