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A shikla or shakila (Arabic : شكيلة), also known under the name alama (Arabic : علامة) is a piece of clothing that the Jews of Tunisia were forced to wear to distinguish themselves from Muslim residents. The shikla was primarily worn, with some interruptions, between the 9th and 19th century in Tunisia and at times also in the rest of the Magrheb.
The word comes from the Jewish surname Bou Shikla, which signifies "one who wears a ring". [1]
From the ninth century onwards, Islamic authorities begun to harden with respect to ghiyār, or the differentiating of non-Muslims from Muslims. As such, al-Mutawakkil ordered that dhimmis (Christians and Jews) wear additionally to the already existing zunnar a honey-coloured outer garment and batch-like patches on their servants' clothing. Thus begun the tradition to differentiate dhimmis by colour. [2]
This approach was also followed in the Maghreb where the semi-independent Aghlabids introduced similar rules around the same time. Ibrahim ibn Ahmad is reported to have ordered in the summer of 888 Christians to wear a patch depicting a pig and Jews one depicting a monkey, symbols they were also supposed to put on the walls of their houses. [3] Ahmad ibn Talib, the Maliki qadi of Kairouan, issued an order for dhimmis to wear additionally to the zunnar a patch (ruq'a) of white cloth on the shoulder of their outer garments, again with the patch for Jews being a monkey and for Christians a pig. [2] According to Muhammad al-Uqbani, those who disobeyed were to be punished with twenty lashes of the whip before being thrown into prison whereas those who disobeyed a second time were to be beaten brutally and thrown into prison indefinitely. [4] It is not clear how long Ibn Talib's humiliating decree remained in force, but it is clear that in the Maghrebi case, the purpose of the patch was not merely ghiyār, but also dhull (humiliation) in keeping with the koranic injunction (Sura 9:29) that non-Muslims should be humbled. [2]
With the arrival of the Banu Hilal to Kairouan in the 12th century, the Jewish community in the area began to face discrimination and intolerance from their new rulers. While Jews and Christians benefited from increased rights under the Fatimids, the same rights were not provided under the Banu Hilal. The new rulers argued that while the hadith in which the prophet Muhammad allowed freedom of religion for People of the Book (ahl al-kitâb); the rule was only in place for a period of 500 years after the Hijrah, which coincided with the year 1107, the date when the Jews of Medina told Muhammad that the Messiah would arrive. The date had long since passed when the Almohad Caliphate settled in Ifriqiya, allowing the new rulers to say there was no longer a reason to keep those privileges for dhimmis. [5]
Among the numerous obligations that Jews suffered was the obligation of wearing a Shikla, on the order of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in 1198, [6] to be able to distinguish them from Muslim citizens and forbid them from certain places, occupations and events. Even Jews who converted to Islam were forced to wear the distinctive headpiece as al-Mansur doubted the sincerity of their conversion. [7] Following the Almohad example, the Hafsid caliph al-Mustansir enforced the laws of the ghiyār (differentiation of non-Muslims) and Jews wore again the shikla, though it is not entirely clear how it looked at the time; it may be that the shikla was both a special patch and an overall attire unique to Jews. [8] Muhammad al-Uqbani, a qadi in Tlemcen around 1450, reported that native Jewish men in the Maghreb wore a distinguishing piece of yellow fabric (shikla) over their outer clothing so that their identity was clear, whereas Jews who had migrated to the Maghreb distinguished themselves by means of a skull-cap topped with a tassel. [4] The Flemish traveller Anselm Adornes reported the same, mentioning that the Jews of Tunis wore a piece of yellow cloth on their head and neck, without which they would be stoned. [8]
The Jews continued to wear the Shikla in Tunisia until the creation of the Pacte fondamental (which removed dhimmi status) following the decree of Mohammed Bey on 14 September 1858. The pact not only abolished the clothing but allowed Jews to wear the Red Chéchia headpiece like the rest of Tunisians. Ibn Abi Dhiaf wrote about the decision: [5]
Prescribing specific attire for the people of the "dhimma" has nothing to do with the foundations of religion. The Prophet never changed the dress of the Jews of Medina.
La prescription d'une tenue spécifique pour les gens de la dhimma n'a rien à voir avec les fondements de la religion. Le prophète n'a jamais changé la tenue des Juifs de Médine.
The requirements for the shikla varied with the different dynasties that ruled over Tunisia. The main goal was simply to distinguish and humiliate Jews in public spaces.
Under the reign of the Almohad Caliphate, it was principally a turban dyed yellow at the end. Jewish converts to Islam were forced to wear a long dark blue tunic with sleeves so large they reached one's feet, and a skullcap in place of a turban. [5] During the mid-fifteenth century the shikla consisted of a piece of yellow fabric. [4]
During the Ottoman rule of Tunisia, the Twansa Jewish community put on black bonnets while the Granas preferred more European headgear to avoid being confused with the indigenous Twansa. [5]
Dhimmī or muʿāhid (معاهد) is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligation under sharia to protect the individual's life, property, as well as freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of the jizya tax, in contrast to the zakat, or obligatory alms, paid by the Muslim subjects. Dhimmi were exempt from military service and other duties assigned specifically to Muslims if they paid the poll tax (jizya) but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation.
The Almohad Caliphate or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa.
People of the Book, or Ahl al-Kitāb, is a classification in Islam for the adherents of those religions that are regarded by Muslims as having received a divine revelation from Allah, generally in the form of a holy scripture. The classification chiefly refers to pre-Islamic Abrahamic religions. In the Quran, they are identified as the Jews, the Christians, the Sabians, and—according to some interpretations—the Zoroastrians. Beginning in the 8th century, this recognition was extended to other groups, such as the Samaritans, and, controversially, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, among others. In most applications, "People of the Book" is simply used by Muslims to refer to the followers of Judaism and Christianity, with which Islam shares many values, guidelines, and principles.
Jizya, or jizyah, is a type of taxation historically levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount, and the application of jizya varied in the course of Islamic history. However, scholars largely agree that early Muslim rulers adapted some of the existing systems of taxation and modified them according to Islamic religious law.
The golden age of Jewish culture in Spain was a Muslim ruled era of Spain, with the state name of Al-Andalus, lasting 800 years, whose state lasted from 711 to 1492 A.D. This coincides with the Islamic Golden Age within Muslim ruled territories, while Christian Europe experienced the Middle Ages.
The yellow badge, also known as the yellow patch, the Jewish badge, or the yellow star, was an accessory that Jews were required to wear in certain non-Jewish societies throughout history. A Jew's ethno-religious identity, which would be denoted by the badge, would help to mark them as an outsider. Legislation that mandated Jewish subjects to wear such items has been documented in some Middle Eastern caliphates and in some European kingdoms during the medieval period and the early modern period. The most recent usage of yellow badges was during World War II, when Jews living in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe were ordered to wear a yellow Star of David to keep their Jewish identity disclosed to the public in the years leading up to the Holocaust.
Kairouan, also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan, is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya ; this is when it became an important centre for Sunni Islamic scholarship and Quranic learning, attracting Muslims from various parts of the world. The Mosque of Uqba is situated in the city.
Ifriqiya, also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna or Oriental Berberia, was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania. It included all of what had previously been the Byzantine province of Africa Proconsularis and extended beyond it, but did not include the Mauretanias.
The Hafsids were a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Berber descent who ruled Ifriqiya from 1229 to 1574.
Abu Zakariya Yahya (Arabic: أبو زكريا يحيى بن حفص, Abu Zakariya Yahya I ben Abd al-Wahid was the founder and first sultan of the Hafsid dynasty in Ifriqiya. He was the grandson of Sheikh Abu al-Hafs, the leader of the Hintata and second in command of the Almohads after Abd al-Mu'min.
The history of the Jews in Tunisia extends nearly two thousand years to the Punic era. The Jewish community in Tunisia grew following successive waves of immigration and proselytism before its development was hampered in late antiquity by anti-Jewish measures in the Byzantine Empire. After the Muslim conquest of Tunisia, Tunisian Judaism went through periods of relative freedom or even cultural apogee to times of more marked discrimination, with Jews being treated as second-class citizens (dhimmi). The community formerly used its own dialect of Arabic. The arrival of Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, often through Livorno, greatly altered the country. Its economic, social and cultural situation has improved markedly with the advent of the French protectorate before being compromised during the Second World War, with the occupation of the country by the Axis.
Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community. Before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, there were about 265,000 Jews in the country, which gave Morocco the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, but by 2017 only 2,000 or so remained. Jews in Morocco, originally speakers of Berber languages, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic or Judaeo-Spanish, were the first in the country to adopt the French language in the mid-19th century, and unlike among the Muslim population French remains the main language of members of the Jewish community there.
The Jewish hat, also known as the Jewish cap, Judenhut (German) or Latin pileus cornutus, was a cone-shaped pointed hat, often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe. Initially worn by choice, its wearing was enforced in some places in Europe after the 1215 Fourth Council of the Lateran for adult male Jews to wear while outside a ghetto to distinguish them from others. Like the Phrygian cap that it often resembles, the hat may have originated in pre-Islamic Persia, as a similar hat was worn by Babylonian Jews.
Zunnar was a distinctive belt or girdle, part of the clothing that Dhimmi were required to wear within the Islamic caliphate regions to distinguish them from Muslims. Though not always enforced, the zunnar served, together with a set of other rules, as a covert tool of discrimination.
Berber Jews are the Jewish communities of the Maghreb, in North Africa, who historically spoke Berber languages. Between 1950 and 1970 most emigrated to France, the United States, or Israel.
The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam is a history book on the dhimmi peoples - the non-Arab and non-Muslim communities subjected to Muslim domination after the conquest of their territories by Arabs by Bat Ye'or. The book was first published in French in 1980, and was titled Le Dhimmi : Profil de l'opprimé en Orient et en Afrique du Nord depuis la conquête Arabe. It was translated into English and published in 1985 under the name The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. The book provides a wealth of documents from diverse periods and regions, many of them previously unpublished and makes a clear distinction between factual history and biased interpretations, providing a comprehensive study of dhimmi populations that draws on numerous original source materials to convey an accurate portrait of their status under Islamic rule.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Maghili, commonly known as Muhammad al-Maghili was a Berber 'alim from Tlemcen, the capital of the Kingdom of Tlemcen, now in modern-day Algeria. Al-Maghili was responsible for converting the ruling classes to Islam among Hausa, Fulani, and Tuareg peoples in West Africa.
Almohad doctrine or Almohadism was the ideology underpinning the Almohad movement, founded by Ibn Tumart, which created the Almohad Empire during the 12th to 13th centuries. Fundamental to Almohadism was Ibn Tumart's radical interpretation of tawḥid—"unity" or "oneness"—from which the Almohads get their name: al-muwaḥḥidūn (المُوَحِّدون).
Maghrebi Arabs or North African Arabs are the inhabitants of the Maghreb region of North Africa whose ethnic identity is Arab, whose native language is Arabic and trace their ancestry to the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. This ethnic identity is a product of the centuries-long Arab migration to the Maghreb since the 7th century, which changed the demographic scope of the Maghreb and was a major factor in the ethnic, linguistic and cultural Arabization of the Maghreb region. The descendants of the original Arab settlers who continue to speak Arabic as a first language currently form the single largest population group in North Africa.
Abū Shujā' Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rūdhrāwarī, also known by the honorific "Zaḥīr al-Dīn", was an 11th-century government official and author who served as vizier for the Abbasid Caliphate twice, once briefly in 1078 and the second time from 1083/4 until 1094. He wrote a continuation to Miskawayh's history Tajārib al-umam. He also wrote a diwan of poetry, of which about 80 verses survive.