La première intervention européenne dans l'exploitation du corail maghrébin: les Catalans et les Siciliens à Tabarka (1446-1448)

Abstract

In 1446 Hafsid king Othman assigns the coral exploitation of north African coasts to a Catalan merchant living in Tunis, Rafaël Vives. The fishing grounds lay off Tabarka island and the fishers, mostly of Catalan origin, come from Sicily and Sardinia. This two years exploitation is one of the last evidence of the Catalan vitality in north Africa, harmed by genoese expansion in the second part of the XVth century. In the Hafsid kingdom this Catalan company is the first of many European settlements (Catalan, Genoese, Provençal and French) involved in the exploitation of coral in Maghreb until the XlXth century, in spite of ancient local traditions.