State Memory and Territory between Memory and History: Tunisia and Morocco before Colonialism.

Abstract

This paper is based on a re-reading of some of the references that shaped the state’s memory in Tunisia and Morocco, in the light of the epistemic debate that exists between memory and history. It seeks to reveal the boundaries of overlap and intersection between them, which requires the deconstruction and review of some of the discourse that has focused on the problem of state building, linking it to the conditions of the state’s inception. This research will focus on two main source materials: Al-Muʾnis fī Akhbār Ifrīqīya wa Tūnis by Ibn Dinar and then Al-ʿAzz wa al-Ṣawla fi Ma’ālim Naẓm al-Dawla by Abd al-Rahman Ibn Zidan. It observes how the authors dealt with the problem of building the state's memory and its scope in the Tunisian and Moroccan experience. This comparative study revolves around three major points: the dialectics of memory and history according to Ibn Dinar and Ibn Zidan, the political centering between memory and history in Tunisia and Morocco, and how the memory of the state and its political centrality is built through the pledge of allegiance (bay’ah), the sultanic tours, and the elitist phenomenon securing the process of political centralization internally.