Today we welcome special guest (and Associate Professor in History at the University of Cambridge) Arthur Asseraf to talk about Mustapha Ben Ismaïl, a terrifyingly ambitious twink who rose from being an illiterate street beggar to Prime Minister on the strength of the king's love for him –– and whose disastrous policies helped bring an end to Tunisia's independence.

Arthur's Twitter.

Arthur's faculty page.

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SOURCES:

Ramy Khouili & Daniel Levine-Spound, Article 230: A History of the Criminalization of Homosexuality in Tunisia, available online: https://article230.com/en/article-320-eng/… Marcel Gandolphe, ‘Une figure tunisienne: Mustapha ben Ismaïl’, Revue tunisienne, 144, mars-avril 1921, p.83-87 Khayr al-Din al-Tunsi, Memoirs, (ed. Mohamed-Salah Mzali and Jean Pignon), Tunis, 1971. Ibn Abi Dhiaf, Ahmad, Ithaf Ahl al-zaman bi Akhbar muluk Tunis wa 'Ahd el-Aman (إتحاف أهل الزمان بأخبار ملوك تونس وعهد الأمان), (1990 edition), Tunis. Jean Ganiage, Les Origines du Protectorat français en Tunisie, Tunis, 1959. Guellouz, Masmoudi, Smida, Histoire générale de la Tunisie: t.3 les temps modernes, Tunis, 1983. Khaled el Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800, Chicago, 2005. Jocelyne Dakhlia, L’Empire des passions: l'arbitraire politique en Islam, Paris, 2005. Kenneth Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Abdelhamid Larguèche, Les Ombres de Tunis: pauvres, marginaux et minorités aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Tunis, 2000. Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, La sexualité en islam, Paris, 1975. Nizar ben Saad, Lella Kmar, le destin tourmenté d’une nymphe du sérail (1862-1942), Tunis. Robert Aldrich, 'Homosexuality in the French Colonies', Journal of Homosexuality, 41:3-4, 2002 Joseph Massad, Desiring Arabs, Chicago, 2007. Sirat Mustafa bin Isma'il (سيرة مصطفى بن اسماعيل ( edited Rashad al-Imam, Tunis, 1981 Our intro and outro music are, respectively, Arpeggia Colorix, by Yann Terrien, and a tune written for us by DJ Michael Oswell Graphic Designer.

Mustapha Ben Ismaïl (with Arthur Asseraf)

Bad Gays