Scribal Networks and Diplomatic Knowledge Production across North Africa

Episode 197: Scribal Networks and Diplomatic Knowledge Production across North Africa

What did trans-Maghribi society look like on the eve of colonialism? Who travelled across these spaces and for what reasons? This interview is an early exploration into Dr. Kitlas’ second project, which proposes a more attentive engagement with the history of a dynamic and multifaceted eighteenth-century trans-maghrib society. Spanning Tunis to Tangier, this project examines the networks of traders, Sufis, consuls, translators, and court advisors that embedded themselves in Maghribi locales outside their home cities and, in doing so, took part in producing a distinct trans-maghrib socio-cultural sphere. Building on his first monograph that focuses on the layers of diplomatic practice in Morocco, this interview thinks through ways to expand these networks and the knowledge production attached to them across localities in the wider Maghrib. The project questions the historiographical focus on north-south movements, and in its place adds a new east-west perspective that transcends stubborn political divides and sheds light on the ways in which a dynamic cultural and intellectual sphere developed, spread, and was sustained across the Ottoman/Moroccan Maghrib.

Peter Kitlas is currently an Assistant Professor of History at the American University of Beirut. His research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history in eighteenth-century North Africa as told through Arabic and Ottoman-Turkish sources. Exploring the intersection of scribal practice and diplomatic knowledge production in Morocco, his first monograph rethinks the influence of Islamic thought on Mediterranean conceptualizations of diplomacy. Peter has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and conducted research in North Africa, Spain, Croatia and Turkey through the support of fellowships from SSRC and Fulbright-Hays. His written work has been published in The Journal of Early Modern History, Mediterranean Studies Journal, The Journal of North African Studies, and The Encyclopedia of Islam Three.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on the 25th of October, 2023, at the Centre d’Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) s with Luke Scalone, CEMAT Chargé de Programmes.

We thank our friend Ignacio Villalón for his guitar performance for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast.

Production and editing: Lena Krause, AIMS Resident Fellow at the Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis.