The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean Marglin Jessica
The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean Marglin Jessica How a nineteenth-century lawsuit over the estate of a wealthy Tunisian Jew shines new light on the history of…
Specifikacia The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean Marglin Jessica
The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean Marglin Jessica
How a nineteenth-century lawsuit over the estate of a wealthy Tunisian Jew shines new light on the history of belongingIn the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. Before Shamama's riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply to his estate--a matter that depended on his nationality. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate.
A subject of the Bey of Tunis? Was he an Italian citizen? Had he become stateless?
Or was his Jewishness also his nationality? Tracing a decade-long legal battle involving Jews, Muslims, and Christians from both sides of the Mediterranean, The Shamama Case offers a riveting history of citizenship across regional, cultural, and political borders.On its face, the crux of the lawsuit seemed simple: To