Paul Sebag (

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian (), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'', "Tunisian" or ''Maghrebi Arabic, Derja'' (; meaning "common or everyday dialect") t ...

: پول صباغ) (26 September 1919 – 5 September 2004) was a French-Tunisian sociologist and historian.

Biography

After his studies in law and philosophy in Paris were interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the anti-Jewish laws of the

Vichy regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

, Paul Sebag returned to Tunisia and took an important part in the action of the

Tunisian Communist Party The Tunisian Communist Party ( ' ; ) was a Marxist political party in Tunisia. The PCT was founded on 21 May 1934 as the Tunisian federation of the French Communist Party, and it was later converted into an independent organization. The party was ...

(PCT) against the partisans of Vichy. Arrested and tortured, he was sentenced by a

Bizerte Bizerte (, ) is the capital and largest city of Bizerte Governorate in northern Tunisia. It is the List of northernmost items, northernmost city in Africa, located north of the capital Tunis. It is also known as the last town to remain under Fr ...

court for life, but spent only ten months in prison. Released in the aftermath of the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

' landings in North Africa on 8 November 1942, he resumed his political activity in the PCT illegally. In 1943, after the Liberation, he became a journalist and edited the party newspaper. He then completed his studies and became, from 1947 to 1957, professor of letters at Lycée Carnot in Tunis. He also published several studies in

urban sociology Urban sociology is the sociological study of cities and urban life. One of the field’s oldest sub-disciplines, urban sociology studies and examines the social, historical, political, cultural, economic, and environmental forces that have shaped ...

that led him to teach at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Tunis and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Tunis. In 1977, due to the non-renewal of his contract by the Tunisian authorities, he obtained a job at the

University of Rouen The University of Rouen Normandy (''Université de Rouen Normandie'') is a French university, in the Academy of Rouen. History and demographics Located not in Rouen, but in the suburb of Mont-Saint-Aignan (a "township" in the Normandy region), t ...

, where he worked for two years before retiring. He devoted himself to his work as a historian and published on the history of Tunis and the

Tunisian Jews The history of the Jews in Tunisia dates back nearly two thousand years to the Ancient Carthage, Punic era. The Jewish community of Tunisia grew following successive waves of immigration and proselytism before its development was hampered by the ...

. In 1994, he was awarded the Tunisian Order of Cultural Merit. A volume of posthumous homages is published in his honor in 2008.

Main publications

Personal works

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Collaborative works

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Text editions

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sebag, Paul Tunisian Jews French people of Tunisian-Jewish descent Jewish historians French communists French Marxist historians French sociologists Jews in the French resistance Communist members of the French Resistance Jewish Tunisian history 20th-century French journalists Academic staff of Tunis University Academic staff of the University of Rouen Normandy 20th-century French historians 1919 births 2004 deaths