The Hafsids (1228-1574)

Of all the Almohads’ successors, the Hafsids were without doubt the ones who most insistently laid claim to their legacy. Indeed, the dynasty sprang from the Hintata of the High Atlas, a Berber tribe whose chieftain Abu Hafs Umar was one of the most fervent supporters of Ibn Tumart and of the first Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu’min. Thus the members of the Hafsid clan were always numbered among the high-ranking dignitaries of the Almohad regime, and a series of them held the governorship of the province of Ifriqiya from the beginning of the thirteenth century on. In 1228, after the Almohad caliph al-Ma’mun had renounced the cult of the Mahdi ibn Tumart and then massacred numerous Almohad notables of high rank, Abu Zakariya Yahya, the founder of the new dynasty, split from the sovereign of Marrakech. Without proclaiming himself caliph, the first Hafsid set up an effective autonomy with regard to the Almohad power. His son and successor, Muhammad (1249-1277), reaffirmed his independence from the caliphate in Marrakech, then in sharp decline, and claimed the title of caliph, taking the laqab (honorific style) of al-Mustansir bi-llah. The Hafsids came into possession of the eastern part of the former Almohad Empire, extending from Tripolitania to the Chelif valley. In 1270, the young regime in Tunis had to face the crusade of Saint Louis, who attacked Ifriqiya following the failure of his Egyptian campaign. The Crusaders’ adventure ended in defeat and the French monarch died in Carthage.

As of the end of the thirteenth century, the Hafsid power in Tunis fell prey to a long phase of political weakening. The authority of the sovereigns in Tunis was challenged first of all by other members of the Hafsid clan, mainly based in Bougie and Constantine. The decline of the central power allowed tribal forces to gather momentum, particularly those of the Arab nomads, who by now were setting up several little local dynasties on the southern fringes of Hafsid territory, especially at Biskra, Gafsa, Gabes or Tripoli. Besides these internal difficulties, the authorities in Tunis had to cope with interference from the Christian kingdoms, in particular Aragon, strengthened by its recent conquest of Sicily.

In the mid-14th century, Hafsid Ifriqiya had to deal with the expansionist tendencies of the Marinids. Abu l-Hasan managed to occupy Ifriqiya briefly in 1349, but the campaign ended in failure. At the same time, havoc was wrought on the country by the Black Death, with its dire demographic consequences. But the Hafsid restoration in the latter part of the fourteenth century signalled a prosperous period in the dynasty’s history, with two consecutive long and stable reigns, that of Abu Faris (1394-1434) and that of Abu Amr Uthman (1434-1494).

The Almohad legacy is strongly present in Hafsid life: the political regime drew principally on an aristocracy made up of the dignitaries of the Almohad tribes, who also provided the great military leaders. The central administration also contained a chancery diwan (office); the management of public finance (ashghal) often fell to civil servants of Andalusian origin, who were in charge of overseeing habus goods (mortmain goods) and the tax system.

On the religious front, the first Hafsids displayed their official attachment to the Almohad doctrine. But the Malikism en vogue among the religious elites of Ifriqiya finally hastened the abandonment of the Mahdi dogma under Ibn al-Lihyani (1311-1318). From the second half of the same century, a revival in the legal achievements of Malikite scholars, of whom Ibn Arafa (1316-1401) is the most famous, can be observed. Hafsid Ifriqiya was also the birthplace of Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldoun, (1332-1406), the famous historian and theoretician of civilisation (‘umran).

The return of Malikism was favourable to the development of the institution of the madrasa, which in the East was linked for a long time to the context of the Sunnite revival (eleventh-twelfth century). In the Muslim West, the first recorded Madrasa was al-Shammaiyya, founded by the Hafsid Abu Zakariya in 1238. After its founding, numerous colleges appeared throughout the Maghreb.

Under the Hafsids, Tunis acquired its noble distinction. In fact, the city owes its layout to the work of the Hafsids: the original urban core was extended by the construction of two suburbs protected by ramparts. To the west, the Kasbah inherited from the Almohads towered over the town and became the seat of the new dynasty. To the east of the town, the construction of an arsenal and numerous funduqs for Christian merchants remind us of the peculiarly Mediterranean calling of Tunis, that had become since the mid-thirteenth century a haven for Andalusian refugees.

Hafsid art, mirroring the dynasty’s political regime, fused Ifriqiyan traditions with elements derived from the Almohad era. Indeed, the first and foremost accomplishment in terms of religious architecture is to be found within the fortifications of the Almohad Kasbah of Tunis; the Kasbah’s mosque, completed in 1235, consists of a prayer hall whose aisles are roofed with groin vaults. The semicircular arches rest on columns surmounted with imposts, in accordance with a construction-style already attested to in the Aghlabid era. The zone of the mihrab is richly decorated, in particular by carved marble frames or bicoloured key-stones. The square-plan minaret, decorated with a network of interlocking arches resting on arches, is in the pure Almohad tradition. As for the little al-Hawa mosque, built in the mid-thirteenth century, it has a little prayer hall, covered with groin-vaults and resting on massive supports.

The architecture of the Hafsid madrasas is characterised by its sobriety and by its resemblance to domestic architecture. The building of the al-Shammaiyya madrasa (1238) is organised around a central courtyard surrounded by colonnades and giving onto an oratory with a mihrab. On either side of the courtyard, two rooms, whose layout is reminiscent of that of the Iranian iwan, stand out among the cells that served to lodge students. A comparable design can be found in the al-‘Unqiyya madrasa (1341). In al-Muntasiriyya (1437), the courtyard is not surrounded by porticoes, but respects the layout of the iwan, inspired by eastern models.

Little archaeological evidence has come down to us relating to Hafsid palatial and civil architecture. The remains of the Abu Fihr garden, near Tunis, are known above all for the scale of its hydraulic elements, in particular a large basin fed by a derivation from the Roman aqueduct of Carthage, a construction that was restored by the Hafsid al-Mustansir.

Some houses in Tunis are identified as being from the Hafsid period. Built in cut stone and finished with marble, these houses present a floor-plan laid out around a central courtyard without porticoes. The service quarters (kitchens, lavatories or general store-rooms) are consigned to an adjoining area, with or without a little courtyard. There is also a food store and a hydraulic feature (well or cistern).

So far, little is known of Hafsid furniture art. Among the archaeological discoveries from the Kasbah in Tunis, one is struck by the prevalence of blue and brown ceramics, imitating Spanish metallic-lustre pieces. The association of cobalt blue and manganese brown on a white tin-glazed background allows interesting polychromic effects to be obtained. There are various styles of decoration, employing both geometric and floral motifs, and of course elaborate figurative scenes.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Hafsid dynasty was once again subject to a period of political decline. The various sovereigns that succeeded one another on the throne clashed with the Turkish pirates settled in Algiers. Hafsid history was brought to an end by the Ottoman conquest of Tunis, which became in 1574 the administrative centre of a new Ottoman province.

Y.B