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The Free-School Phenomenon: The Cases of Tunisia and Algeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

John Damis
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Extract

Indigenously sponsored private schools appeared in many, if not most, countries which experienced a period of colonial rule. The instruction given in these schools was usually confined to the elementary level, and the language of instruction varied according to local circumstances. While these schools have been known under a variety of names, the designation that is perhaps most widely used is ‘free school’.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , September 1974 , pp. 434 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

page 434 note 1 See the author's ‘The Free-School Movement in Morocco, 1919–1970’ (Ph.D. thesis, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1970), currently being revised for publication.Google Scholar

page 435 note 1 For a concise analysis of the Young Tunisian movement, see the treatment by Leon Carl Brown in Micaud, Charles A., Brown, Leon Carl, and Moore, Clement Henry, Tunisia: The Politics of Modernization (New York: Praeger, 1964), pp. 22–37.Google Scholar For more details, particularly concerning relations with the French community in Tunisia, see Julien, Charles-André, ‘Colons Français et Jeunes-Tunisiens (1882–1912)’, Revue française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, vol. LIV (1967), pp. 87–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 435 note 2 Micaud, Brown, and Moore, pp. 30–2.Google Scholar

page 436 note 1 See Julien, pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

page 436 note 2 The habûs was an Islamic institution sanctioned by custom whereby property became an endowment for religious or welfare purposes. In this form the property was inalienable, though the original owners and their heirs might still collect the income. Habûs existed in Morocco and Algeria as well, while in the Arab East the term waqf is generally used for this same institution. In some cases the two terms are used inter-changeably; thus Tunisians writing in Arabic refer to Bashîr Sfar as ra'îs s al-awqâf (see, for example, 'Âshûr, Muhammad al-Fâdil; Ibn, Al-Haraka al-adabiyya wa'l-fikriyya fî Tûnis [Cairo, 1956], p. 85).Google Scholar

page 436 note 3 Micaud, Brown, and Moore, p. 32; Julien, p. 139.Google Scholar

page 436 note 4 Khairallâh ibn Mustafâ, from his paper presented to the Congress on North Africa in Paris, Oct. 1908, quoted in Julien, pp. 138–9.Google Scholar

page 436 note 5 Julien, p. 139; Micaud, Brown, and Moore, p. 33.Google Scholar

page 437 note 1 Julien, p. 140. Tunisian parents responded avidly to the public schools established by the French in the 1880s and 1890s, and by 1897 4,656 Muslim children were attending public schools. This enrollment aroused resentment within the colon community, and it apparently became a matter of French policy at this point to put a brake on the Tunisians'; ‘scholastic passion’. Muslim children were excluded from public schools under a variety of pretexts during the next several years. Ten schools were closed in 1901, and by 1903 Muslim enrollment had dropped below 3,000. (Ibid. pp. 112–16.)

page 437 note 2 Julien, pp. 139–40; Micaud, Brown, and Moore, pp. 33–4.Google Scholar

page 437 note 3 Julien, p. 140; Micaud, Brown, and Moore, p. 33.Google Scholar

page 438 note 1 Paye, Lucien, ‘Enseignement et société musulmane’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Paris, 1957), pp. 224 n., 357–8.Google Scholar

page 438 note 2 Ibid. p. 357.

page 438 note 3 Ibid. pp. 359–60.

page 438 note 4 Ibid. pp. 359–60.

page 439 note 1 Paye, pp. 367–8.Google Scholar

page 439 note 2 Moore, Clement Henry, ‘Politics in a Tunisian Village’, Middle East Journal, vol. XVII (1963), pp. 531, 533.Google Scholar

page 439 note 3 Paye, Lucien, ‘L'enseignement en Tunisie’, Encyclopédie Mensuelle d'Outre-Mer, document no. 8 (May 1952), p. 16.Google Scholar

page 439 note 4 Brown, Leon Carl, ‘Tunisia’, in Coleman, James S. (ed.), Education and Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), p. 151.Google Scholar

page 440 note 1 Moore, p. 531 n.Google Scholar

page 440 note 2 Brown, p. 151 n.; Micaud, Brown, and Moore, p. 34.Google Scholar

page 441 note 1 The fullest treatment of the Islamic reform movement in Algeria in the 1920S and 1930s is the study by Merad, Ali, Le réformisme musulman en Algérie de 1925 à 1940 (Paris: Mouton, 1967).Google Scholar

page 441 note 2 Desparmet, J., ‘Les réformists et l'éducation nationale arabe en Algérie’, in Entretiens sur l'évolution des pays de civilisation arabe, vol. III (Paris, 1938), p. 180;Google ScholarPaye, ‘Enseignement et Société musulmane’, pp. 358–9.Google Scholar

page 441 note 3 Merad, p. 91;Google ScholarBerque, Jacques, French North Africa, trans. Stewart, Jean (New York: Praeger, 1967), pp. 360–1. Mubârak al-Mîlî was a former student of Ibn Bâdîs in Constantine and later became, after Ibn Bâdîs and Ibrâhîmî, perhaps the third most important figure in the Islamic reform movement in Algeria.Google Scholar

page 442 note 1 Merad, p. 338; Berque, p. 361. Merad, after carefully estimating the number of Association schools (70) and classes (100) for the period 1934–5, offers the figure of 30,000 for the total enrollment – either a gross miscalculation or a misprint. The archetype of the cultural clubs or organizations was the Jam'iyyat al-tarbiya which Ibn Bâdîs founded in Constantine in 1929.Google Scholar

page 442 note 2 Merad, pp. 342 n., 350–1. Another consideration which ought to be added here was the attraction which the free schools had for the large number of reformist ‘ulamâ who had refused to adapt to the realities of twentieth-century Algeria. Some of these men affected habits of living, dressing, and speaking — insisting, for example, on using only classical Arabic in everyday conversations — which underlined an extreme Arabism. Others, pretending to ignore the French presence in Algeria, disclaimed any interest in the social and cultural evolution of their country; buttressed by Arabic books and journals, they lived in a world of illusions, an imaginary oriental paradise. For all these men, the ignorance of French, the incomprehension of new ideas, and the inability to follow the rhythm of Algerian life became, paradoxically, a source of pride rather than anxiety (ibid., p. 348). This is a classic example of recurring phenomenon in the Islamic world: when faced with a threatening reality, usually in the form of modernizing changes, traditionally oriented people have often preferred to retreat into the comfort of a mystical, romantic world of illusions, rather than to come to terms with a dispossessing new order.

page 442 note 3 In al-Shihâb, Feb. 1930, p. 38, for example, there is a reference to the ‘fine Tunisian example’ of private Arabic education.Google Scholar

page 443 note 1 Al-Shihâb, Aug. 1931, pp. 494–5, contains the curriculum which the Association asked the free schools to follow. It was composed of three sections: religious, linguistic (i.e., Arabic), and practical. Its main outlines, as well as the recommended textbooks for the first two sections, are listed in Merad, p. 343 n.Google Scholar

page 443 note 2 Merad, pp. 343, 346–7. As for higher education, it is clear from several articles in al-Shihâb that Ibn Bâdîs felt both the content and the spirit of the instruction given in Zaitûtna University left much to be desired (see Merad, p. 345). He often urged that Algeria, like Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, establish an Islamic university of its own. This idea never got off the ground, however, partly because of its hostile reception by the French administration, which had established beginning in 1850 three official ‘médersas’ at Algiers, Tlemcen and Constantine. These provided a double, French–Arabic, culture for future Algerian functionaries and were, by definition, institutes of higher Islamic studies. They were criticized by the Association of ‘Ulamâ’ because of the French content of the curriculum. A charter which the Congress of Algerian ‘Ulamâ’ issued on 7 June 1936 repudiated the official médersas specifically for this reason. (See L'Afrique Française, vol. XLVII [1937], p. 428.) On the other hand, Ibn Bâdîs sometimes spoke very positively about the médersas, whose bilingual instruction approximated what he was urging for Algerian public schools (Merad, p. 349 n.). This discrepancy perhaps derived from whether the reformers’ statements were intended for a public or private audience.Google Scholar

page 443 note 3 L'Afrique Française, vol. XLIII (1933), p. 239.Google Scholar

page 444 note 1 L'Afrique Française, vol. XLIV (1934), p. 545.Google Scholar

page 444 note 2 Desparmet, p. 177.Google Scholar

page 444 note 3 The slogan of the Association of ‘Ulamâ’, for example, was ‘Algeria is my fatherland – Islam is my religion – Arabic is my language.’ Notable among the various chants of the free schools was the ‘Hymn of Youth’ written in a martial tone by Algeria's leading poet, Muhammad al-‘îd, and printed in al-Shihâb, Dec. 1937, pp. 452–3. A prime example of the rallies which accompanied inaugurations was the tumultuous reception given to Ibn Bâdîs in September 1937 on the occasion of the inauguration of the Dâr al-Hadîth school in Tlemcen. This event, with all its anti-French implications, is described in detail in Desparmet, pp. 174–82.Google Scholar

page 444 note 4 Merad, pp. 339–40. The texts of the decrees of 18 October 1892 and 13 January and 8 March 1938 are contained respectively in the Journal Officiel de la République Française, 20 October 1892, p. 50–54; 20 January 1938, p. 855; 15 03 1938, p. 30–71.Google Scholar

page 445 note 1 Merad, p. 340; Paye, p. 359 n.Google Scholar

page 445 note 2 Paye, p. 359. For accounts of the Association's activities in the Aurès mountains in the 1930s, see Marcy, G., ‘Observations sur l'évolution politique et sociale de 1'Aurès’, in Entretiens sur l'évolution des pays de civilisation arabe, vol. III (Paris, 1938), pp. 140–7; ‘Le progrès du réforrnisme musulman dans l'Aurès’, La France méditerranéenne et africaine, vol. I (1938), pp. 87–98.Google Scholar

page 445 note 3 Paye, p. 370.Google Scholar

page 446 note 1 Commandant Jacques Carret, ‘L'enseignement de la langue arabe en Algérie’, mimeo. report, Gouvernement Générale de l'Algérie, June 1956, p. 11. The PPA (Parti du Peuple Algérien) was founded in 1936 and dissolved three years later; the MTLD (Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques) was founded in 1946 from the remnants of the PPA and dissolved in 1954.Google Scholar

page 446 note 2 Le Tourneau, Roger, Évolution politique de l'Afrique du Nord musulmane, 1920–1961 (Paris: Armand Colin, 1962), p. 370; Commandant Jacques Carret, ‘L'enseignement de la langue arabe en Algérie’ (unpublished MS dated 16 Dec. 1960, Centre des hautes études administratives sur l'Afrique et l'Asie modernes [CREAM], Paris), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

page 446 note 3 Paye, p. 367.Google Scholar

page 447 note 1 Bennamoun, A., ‘L'enseignement de l'arabe en Algérie’ (unpublished MS dated January 1956, CHEAM), p. 9; Commandant Jacques Carret, ‘L'enseignement de la langue arabe en Algérie’, statement of 20 March 1957, released by the Gouvernement Générale de l'Algérie, p. 12.Google Scholar

page 447 note 2 Paye, pp. 371–2. The ‘Committee of Thirteen’ functioned at the central level; at the departmental level, it was represented by three inspection boards which coordinated the action of local committees. The higher commission of education of the Association of ‘Ulamâ’ was very similar to the higher committee of education (lajnat al-ta'lîm al-'ulyâ) which functioned within the context of the Moroccan nationalist movement from 1934 until independenee in 1956.Google Scholar

page 448 note 1 Paye, pp. 367–9. The decree of 27 November, 1944 finally eliminated the gap contained in the decrees of December 1887 and 18 October 1892, which had made no provision for elementary schools directed by Muslims in which instruction was given in Arabic. The decree of 1944 is contained in the Journal Officiel de l'Algérie, 8 December 1944, p. 17–62.Google Scholar

page 448 note 2 Paye, pp. 369–70.Google Scholar

page 449 note 1 Commandant Jacques Carret, ‘L'enseignement de la langue arabe en Algérie’ (unpublished MS dated 16 Dec. 1960, CHEAM), p. 11. It should be noted that the department of Tlemcen, a stronghold of the Association of ‘Ulamâ’ and the residence of Bashîr al-Ibrâhîmicirc;, was hardest hit by the wave of closures.Google Scholar