The Tunisian Mālūf during French Protectorate

This paper focuses on the military repertory of Tunisian Beylical fanfares and Nūbas (suites) that were used for ceremonial occasions during the late nineteenth century. These are featured in the music manuscript entitled Safāyn al-Mālūf al-Tūnisī (1872), through which mālūf, Arab-Andalusian music heritage with its roots in the courtly tradition of medieval Islamic Spain, underwent a process of redefinition, from oral transmission into Western notation. I review ways in which this North African genre has been constructed and discussed in musicological literature and offer a new perspective by examining the tension between French colons and Tunisian natives, public and intimate discourses, since French occupation (1881). I will show how Tunisian musicians contributed significantly to a national resistance against colonial rule by employing publications to disseminate a music reading of Tunisian self-determination.