Les marmites du Bayt al-mâl d’Alger. Charité, pouvoir et droits d’appartenance à l’époque ottomane

This investigation was initiated by the astonishment (surprise) at the apparent incongruity of a large copper tableware estate preserved by an Algerian institution in charge of managing unclaimed property (the Bayt al-mâl).  Its results shed light on the ways in which the pots - and more broadly the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Isabelle Grangaud
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: CNRS Éditions 2020-12-01
Series:L’Année du Maghreb
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/anneemaghreb/6953
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Summary:This investigation was initiated by the astonishment (surprise) at the apparent incongruity of a large copper tableware estate preserved by an Algerian institution in charge of managing unclaimed property (the Bayt al-mâl).  Its results shed light on the ways in which the pots - and more broadly the utensils - used for communal meals were mobilised to form a society. We have highlighted the fact that, in addition to being able to form estates dedicated to a pious institution, the pots themselves could be these pious institutions (to which goods devoted to their cause could be devolved). Furthermore, the pious and charitable use that was made of them had in itself the force of law, it founded their legal status, as well as that of the social bodies that formed around these pious institutions. This enabled us to restore the civic dimension of the rights attached to these pots, whose collective use participated in the production of active social bodies. Indeed, these practices were the place and object of rallies, submissions and reciprocal obligations; they organised powers, affiliations, hierarchies and thresholds of insertion within these social bodies. In short, they were active modes of constructing the rights of belonging to political communities.
ISSN:1952-8108
2109-9405