Facing Tunis
This book explores an anonymous sixteenth-century portrait of Muley al-Hassan, the Hafsid king of Tunis (ca. 1528–1550), that bears witness to relations between North Africa, the Habsburgs, and the Ottomans. While Muley al-Hassan appears frequently in the vast literature on Charles V Habsburg, he is overshadowed by the emperor. Here he emerges as a protagonist, a figure whose shifting reputation can be traced well into the seventeenth century. Images of the King of Tunis circulated in broadsheets, ephemeral images made for triumphal entries, manuscripts, tapestry designs, engravings, and books. The ceaseless production of Tunisian imagery allowed Europeans to face their North African counterparts through scenes of battle but also through imaginary encounters and festive cross-dressing. This book shows how portraits of Hafsid rulers challenge assumptions about the absolute divide between Christian and Muslim, sovereign and subject, the familiar and the foreign, and they put a face onthe entangled histories of the early modern Mediterranean.
“This is an ambitious book, realized through a remarkable investment in the close reading of primary sources in Italian, Spanish, Latin and Arabic––some well-thumbed, others rarely consulted. For scholars across disciplines, Facing Tunis represents the culmination of a Herculean task: the creation of a veritable archive of material for the study of Mediterranean entanglements that promises to animate scholarship for years to come.” (Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, caareviews.org, June 23, 2025)
“Baskin’s masterful work has found a fitting home in the Palgrave Macmillan series New Transculturalisms, 1400-1800. … Baskin’s prose is very readable and her narrative genuinely gripping. Altogether, these attributes will make Baskins’s new monograph at home in early modern history and art history graduate seminars. I also foresee recommending this book to especially curious and intrepid undergraduates interested in the multicultural early modern world. Baskins’s contribution will enrich education on the Mediterranean for years to come.” (Frank Lacopo, Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 47 (4), 2024)
“The book can open the doors of unexplored research topics, as the author has raised many issues and often answered them. In other cases, her questions about those issues seem like a generous invitation to add directly to the work of research and the analysis of the topic.” (Hespéris-Tamuda, Vol. 58 (2), 2023)
In this book, Baskins places Muley Hassan, the ruler of Tunis, center-stage in an analysis of the evolution and production of portraiture and the representation of Hafsid-Hapsburg-Ottoman confrontation. Portraits capture…the multi-faceted struggle for prestige, patronage, and sovereignty in Mediterranean courts.
—Palmira Brummett, Professor Emerita, History, University of Tennessee, USA
Baskins’ interdisciplinary book opens new directions for the study of portraits and Habsburg visual propaganda about North African campaigns. She also breaks with traditional studies of the 'Muslim other' and presents a case study of fluid permeability and alterity in the Mediterranean.
—Borja Franco Llopis, Associate Professor, Art History, National Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain
“This work is distinguished by its use of a variety of primary sources, and its multifaceted approach, combining history and art history. It is an important addition to the study of early modern Tunisia in particular, and to acculturation in the Mediterranean in general.
—Houssem Eddine Chachia, Assistant Professor, History, University of Tunis, TunisiaCristelle L. Baskins is Associate Professor Emeritus, Tufts University, USA.
Book Title: Hafsids and Habsburgs in the Early Modern Mediterranean
Book Subtitle: Facing Tunis
Authors: Cristelle L. Baskins
Series Title: New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05079-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05078-7Published: 25 November 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05081-7Published: 25 November 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-05079-4Published: 24 November 2022
Series ISSN: 2946-5338
Series E-ISSN: 2946-5346
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 313
Number of Illustrations: 31 b/w illustrations, 36 illustrations in colour
Topics: History of Early Modern Europe, History of North Africa, Cultural History, History of the Book
