... National du Patrimoine, Collection Qsar es-Saïd) This chapter discusses how Nissim Shamama rose to power in the 1840s and 1850s, a period of rapid transformation in Tunisia and the rest of the Ottoman Empire. The turbulence of these decades also produced shifts in the nature of legal belonging. Like...

... ʻAbdallah and the Tunisian government. Rather than agreeing that Nissim Shamama had died stateless—which would have ensured that the will was adjudicated according to Italian law—Mancini insisted that Nissim passed away as an Italian citizen. He argued this from two angles. First, because Nissim descended...

...This chapter explores how the team of lawyers working for the Tunisian government suggested that as a Jew, Nissim Shamama's national law was none other than Jewish law. Because Jews constituted a distinct nation, Nissim's nationality was identical to his faith. The insistence that Judaism...

...This epilogue discusses how the Mediterranean and its Jews offer a preeminent platform from which to launch a new understanding of citizenship. North Africa and the Middle East have long been a foil to the West, just as Jews were the oldest Other in Christendom. Nissim Shamama's life and death...

...In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate. Before Shamama's riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply...

.... Moreover, it permits one to view the modernization of state membership in both North Africa and Europe as an entangled process of legal change that played out across the Mediterranean—rather than an example of a Western invention exported abroad. The sprawling legal battle over the estate of Nissim Shamama...

.... ‘Aziza, Moshe, and Nissim Jr., 1868 (courtesy of Gilles Boulu) Figure 4.5. The crest atop Nissim’s palazzo in Livorno This chapter focuses on Nissim Shamama's move to Livorno, Italy. By Mediterranean standards, Livorno is a modern city. For Jews, Livorno counted among the most famous havens...

...Figure 5.1. and 5.2 Nissim’s tomb, Cimitero Ebraico di Livorno, viale Ippolito Nievo (photos by Roberto Zucchi) Figure 5.3. Turks’ Quadrant, Cimitero Comunale dei Lupi, Livorno This chapter assesses how, in the months after Nissim Shamama's death, various heirs began preparations to claim...

...This chapter describes how Augusto Pierantoni constructed a narrative about Nissim Shamama that diametrically opposed the one presented by Mancini. In Pierantoni's eyes, Nissim died a proud subject of the bey of Tunis; the Livornese court had thus “stripped the cadaver” of his true nationality...

... international loan after another, none of which the treasury could afford. The disastrous effects of these policies included a violent civil war, bankruptcy, and eventually, colonization. As director of finances, Nissim Shamama played a major role in both the negotiations for loans and in the popular uprising...

...Figure 3.3. Brimborion, Nissim Shamama’s estate in Sèvres (from Paul Biver, Histoire du Château de Bellevue ) Figure 3.1. and 3.2 Edition of Kehilot Moshe owned by Nissim Shamama, cover and first page of Exodus (courtesy of Yeshiva University, Mendel...

...In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate. Before Shamama's riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply...

... stranieri e spionaggio, 1940–45, Busta 326, Samama, Elia fu Giuseppe, ACS) This chapter highlights the lives of Nissim Shamama's descendants. Nissim Jr.'s entire career can be understood as a reaction to the lawsuit that consumed his family; instead of running away from his past, he devoted his life...