After featuring the Sultana of Tarab Music, the Prince of Arabic Violin, the Master of Buzuq, Hajja Zeinab El Mansouria, the rich music of Happy Yemen (8th Century BC-19th Century AD), Happy Yemen in the 20th Century, Songs of Satire, the history of Tunisian music in the 19th century, we proudly introduce the music scene of Tunisia in the 20th Century.
Tunisia, which bridged Islamic and European cultures during the 19th Century, saw the Husainid dynasty's Western-style reforms promote cultural exchange with France and Britain, ultimately impacting local music.
The 1837 military music academy marked a shift, as French influence overshadowed traditional styles. Early 20th-century Egyptian theatre introduced Arabic themes, while nationalism thrived in the media. The Rachidiya movement aimed to preserve ma’lūf while building on the legacy of Baron D’Erlanger and shaping musical identity post-independence.
A growing national movement
The growing sentiment of nationalism was influenced by the Young Turks (1907-1912) and led by the Dostour (Constitution) Party, formed post-World War I.
It was also mobilised by a dynamic social hierarchy of local elites, alongside a diverse middle class and an organised working class that emerged following the reforms of the 19th Century, while not excluding labour unions and the emancipation of women.
Many of these elites were educated at Sadikiya College (1875), affiliated with the historical Zaytouna University and the Khaldounia School (1896).
Tunisian intellectuals created sociopolitical and cultural movements that highlighted the principles of Tunisian identity and modernised Tunisia in the face of a powerful coloniser. The newspaper “Le Tunisien”, published in French, was founded in 1907 by a group of Tunisian intellectuals to challenge the impact of colonial media and promote reforms. It targeted the local French-educated community, French colonial officials, and the public.
Other newspapers followed: “La Voix du Tunisien” (1930) and “L’Action Tunisienne” (1932). The establishment of Radio Tunis in 1938 provided artists with greater opportunities to share their work with wider audiences.
The French authorities closely monitored these changes and viewed them as a form of resistance. Many of which were not to their approval and concern. Censorship and restrictive guidelines were established to prohibit, restrict, or preapprove cultural activities in the public sphere. In particular, it is important to note that La Revue Tunisienne established in 1894 by a circle of French and Tunisian scholars during the French protectorate period, featured the first article written on Tunisian music by Rodolphe d'Erlanger (1872-1932), entitled "On the Subject of Arabic Music in Tunisia" which appears in the 24th year of the journal, in the issue numbered 121 and dates from March 1917.
Painting a new reality
During that time, various cultural sectors in Tunisia experienced a similar trajectory with an overarching national awareness. From 1900 to 1935, Tunisian painting transitioned away from the dominant European Orientalism and the French Academy, embracing a modern style that was deeply rooted in local culture.
This period, highlighted by the emergence of the "École de Tunis," showcased Tunisian artists who depicted everyday life and crafted a unique personal artistic language. Tunisian literature also evolved during this period, primarily influenced by the rise of a nascent nationalist discourse.
Writers focused on themes of identity, colonialism, and social criticism, addressing issues such as social inequalities and the role of religious institutions. Poets, fiction writers, and essayists delved into the complexities of life in Tunisia under French colonial rule, often using both Arabic and French to convey their thoughts.
Among the notable figures was the poet Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabbi (1909-1934), renowned for his impactful poems like “The Will to Life” and “To the Tyrants of the World,” which resonated throughout the Arab world. Another significant voice was essayist Tahar Al-Haddad, known for his progressive views on women articulated in his influential work “Our Women in Sharia and Society” (1930).
The Rachidiya and Ma’lūf
In terms of music, the Association of the Rachidi Institute of Tunisian Music, founded on November 3, 1934, at the Khaldounia Library, with the presence of around 70 musical, literary, professional and social figures. The Rachidiya movement was named after Muhammad Rachid, the third ruler of the Husainid Dynasty, who was a poet passionate about Andalusian songs and nūbāt.
He also established a music school at the Palace of Le Bardo, which was maintained under the rule of his successors. The Rachidiya played a central role in preserving, reviving, and disseminating ma’lūf and Tunisian musical heritage, encompassing Berber (Amazigh), Hijaz, African Sub-Saharan, Hebrew and Moorish music as well as historical interactions and migrations with European cultures from the other side of the Mediterranean.
Ma’lūf is the main indigenous urban tradition prevailing in cities of northern and coastal Tunisia, which is historically closely associated with medieval Andalusian legacies and shared with countries of the Grand Maghreb. It is one of the historical manifestations of the interactions of the country as a crossroads of cultures. The music follows the Maghreban maqam system (tâbi‘) and is characterised by the use of classical Arabic poetry forms (qasida). Ma’lūf encompasses various forms that include muwashshah, zajal (in spoken dialect), and shgul (meaning elaborate), with the nuba (or suite, plural: nubat) constituting the structural heart of this tradition.
The Nubat
The surviving nubat in Tunisia are 13 out of 24, ideally corresponding to the hours of the day and are classified according to the tâbi‘ modes. Each nuba is composed of 7 rhythmical sections. This is contrasted with the number of remaining nubat in Algeria and Morocco, which are respectively 16 and 11.
The instruments traditionally used in the ma'luf are the Tunisian oud (oud ‘arbi). It is distinct from that prevailing in Egypt and the Levant, referred to as oud sharqi and features only four doubled strings tuned in fifths. Playing melodic lines along with the oud is the rabab, a traditional fiddle which the violin and viola have widely replaced, and the fhal and “qasaba”, a flute from the nay family. In terms of percussion, there are the tar, a small tambourine, the derbuka and the naqqarat, which are small kettle drums. More on the oud sharqi and arabi in the linked short video by Salvatore Moora.
The Ma’lūf (Familiar)
Ma’lūf is performed at public events like weddings and circumcision ceremonies.
Under French colonial rule, it was confined to coffee houses, private locations, and Sufi lodges.
The earliest modern encounter with ma’lūf was reported by Baron Rudolf d’Erlanger in a Sufi context around 1914, involving Sheikh Ahmad Al-Wafi (1850-1921).
Breaking out from the margins
Rachidiya was the first secular and national public institution dedicated to music. It was modelled after the French music conservatory and was inspired by the Cairo Congress, just two years before, with its Tunisian participants like Hasan Husni ‘Abd al-Wahhâb (1884-1968), Mannoubi Snoussi (1901-1966) and Khemayis Tarnan (1894-1964). It contributed to the emergence of an eminent cultural life based on local traditions while working to raise the social status of ma’lūf.
It was time for Tunisian music to break out from closed and private spaces such as Sufi lodges and set itself out from the margins imposed by colonial cultural domination, gradually paving the way towards other initiatives towards cultural and political independence. The Rachidiya was established by figures in the caliber of Mustafa Safar (Mayor of Tunisia City) and Othman Ka’ak (historian and director of the National Library), and hosted over the years many of Tunisia’s musical icons, including Khemayis Tarnan, Mohamed Triki (1889-1998), Salah Al-Mahdi (1925-2014), Tahar Gharsa (1933-2003), Mohamed Saada (1937-2005), Shafiya Ruchdi (1910-1989), actress, singer and painter Fethyia Khaïri (1918-1986) and the legendary Saliha (1914-1958).
Saliha and Habiba
It is necessary to mention at this point that Saliha, in addition to Habiba Msika, constitutes one of the main female singers who shaped Tunisian music and culture in the first half of the 20th century.
Saliha (born in El Kef in the northwest of the country) profoundly influenced Tunisian identity before independence and became the benchmark for generations of singers through her repertoire of traditional rural and urban Tunisian songs.
Habiba Msika (born in Testour, Beja Governorate, north of the country) was a boundary-breaking feminist and nationalist icon whose music, acting, and personal defiance made her a potent symbol of resistance and modernity in colonial North Africa despite her early death, burnt alive by her lover.
Both women transformed Tunisian art in complementary ways: Saliha preserved and elevated folk tradition, while Habiba challenged and redefined the very contours of public performance, identity, and resistance. Furthermore, each sheds light on the variances in the diverse musical practices of Tunisian artists and audiences during their respective epochs.
Oral to transcribed: towards a unitary tradition
Ma’lūf gained not only symbolic significance but also a new status in the country, supported by the Radio Tunis. It amplified further the existing circulation system offered by phonograph records, mediated by distributors and artistic directors. Furthermore, radio served, like theatre, as a vehicle to advocate for local language and culture against the colonial cultural policy, while simultaneously acting as an oasis that brought together various traditions and genres. This dimension was further heightened during post-independence with a nationalised Rachidiya Institute later becoming the Institute Supérieur de Musique in 1992, and the marginalisation of Sufi orders, which constitute one of the cradles of ma’lūf.
The government's disposition was to reintroduce ma’lūf as a ‘unitary musical tradition’ grounded in nine volumes of transcriptions. On the other hand, this unification may have erased variances from across the different regions, as per Ruth Davis's observations. This is comparable to preservation approaches in other post-independence Arab countries with nationalistic motivations.
Alla El Kahla notes that the Rachidiya was key in perpetuating the initial efforts of Baron Rudolf d’Erlanger; however, unlike the Baron’s academic preoccupation, Rachidiya’s prime concentration was on musical practice, education, and dissemination rather than primarily scholarly pursuits. El Kahla claims that the repository collected through fieldwork, transcriptions, and documentation conducted by D’Erlanger and fellow ethnomusicologists, the German Robert Lachmann (1892 – 1939) and the Austrian Erich von Hornbostel (1877 – 1935), among others, initiated music field recordings and research in Tunisia using European methods. Moreover, it established the basis for much of what now constitutes Tunisia’s music history and reference points.
The Baron and his disciples
Rodolphe d’Erlanger was a painter and an art sponsor who settled in Sidi Bou Said, near Tunis, for health reasons. He was also an Arabist and a musicologist. His legacy is multifaceted, and his contributions intimately blend research on Tunisian music, Arab music from the Near East, and ancient musical theory.
D’Erlanger’s scientific contribution in research on Tunisian music is available in some early articles in the 1920s, in collaboration with Hasan Husnî ‘Abd al-Wahhâb and Mohammed Sâdiq al-Rizqî, author of a reference book entitled “Tunisian Songs”. He played a critical role in the revival of ma’lūf, paving the way for the foundation of the Rachidiya. He attributed the fragility of the ma’lūf tradition at that time to its complete reliance on oral transmission and the absence of a theoretical framework. From here stems the historical forcefulness of his fieldwork and transcriptions in the revival of this tradition.
The Baron was also among the prime sponsors who initiated the Congress of Arab Music held in Cairo in 1932 under the patronage of King Fuad I, though he passed away before it was held. He even visited Cairo one year earlier to prepare for the conference, where he met the Syrian musician Ali Darwiche (1882 – 1952), who later made a contribution to the development of ma’lūf. The conference also featured a Tunisian ma’lūf ensemble associated with him.
D’Erlanger’s six-volume "La musique arabe" was published in Paris in French from 1930 onwards, after the Baron died in 1932. It was mainly edited by his collaborators, ‘Alî al-Darwîsh and Mannoubi Snousi. The Baron’s book was re-edited in 2001 with the support of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. It has influenced several generations of musicologists and ethnomusicologists in Tunisia and the Arab world. Among them were his collaborators that we have mentioned, Hasan Husnî ‘Abd al-Wahhâb, and Mannoubi Snoussi, d'Erlanger’s second secretary, a historian and a musicologist who made thematic radio broadcasts after d’Erlanger’s death that were documented in a book under the title “Initiation à la musique tunisienne”. Other names that later came to prominence are Salah El-Mahdi, who, as mentioned earlier, was an influential member of the Rachidiya and a key figure in the Ministry of Culture after independence, and Mahmoud Guettat (b.1945), the first director of the Higher Institute for Music (Institut Supérieur de Musique de Tunis - ISMT). Founded in 1982, ISMT is a university-level institution that trains music professionals, conducts research, and organises international conferences and workshops.
Long after d’Erlanger’s death, his palace at Sidi Bou Said became a major cultural institution with a museum, an instrument-making and restoration workshop, under the name of “Ennjema Ezzahra”, established on 20 December 1991.
It is also the home of the Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes (the Centre for Arab and Mediterranean Music, CAMM). In addition to promoting musical research and heritage, CAMM houses the National Sound Archive, including d'Erlanger's archive. In 2023, the paper archives of Baron d'Erlanger were registered as UNESCO Intangible Heritage, five years after the completion of their documentation, digitisation, and online dissemination.
For more on Tunis:
Bernard Moussali, Music from far away and from long ago, AMAR Foundation: https://www.amar-foundation.org/music-from-far-away-and-from-long-ago/
Christian Poche and Jean Lambert, Le Baron Rudolf d’Erlanger (1872-1932), the artist and the savant, AMAR Foundation: https://www.amar-foundation.org/le-baron-rudolf-derlanger/
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