Biographical/Historical Note
Arrangment
Acquisition Information
Access
Preferred Citation
Scope and Content of Collection
Processing History
Publication Rights
Digitized Material
Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Al Djazair and Tunis album
Creator: Al-Wahhāb, Abdu Rabbih
Identifier/Call Number: 2001.R.20
Physical Description: 1 album(s)(107 photographs)
Date: 1881
Abstract: The album, compiled by a person identified as Abdu Rabbih al-Wahhāb, contains photographs of the Maghreb region of North Africa.
The first half of the album features views of Algeria and Tunisia, while the second half is devoted to portraits of North
Africans. These are primarily studio portraits of women from various ethnic groups, although some male occupational portraits,
as well as portraits of dignitaries such as the Agha and Califa of Ouargla are included.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in Arabic and Judeo-Arabic.
Biographical/Historical Note
The title page lists a person known as Abdu Rabbih al-Wahhāb as the "author" of the album. This may be a pseudonym or fictitious
name.
Arrangment
Arranged in a single series: Series I. Al Djazair and Tunis Album.
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2001.
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Preferred Citation
Al Djazair and Tunis album, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2001.R.20.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2001r20
Scope and Content of Collection
The album contains 107 albumen photographs of the Maghreb region of North Africa. The first half of the album features views
of Algeria and Tunisia taken in and around Tlemcen, Algiers, Biskra, Blida, Béjaïa, El Kantara, Carthage, Lambessa, and Ouargle.
There are images of mosques, tombs, and palaces, as well as local neighborhoods and streets. Natural sites, such as gorges,
oases, and desert areas are also depicted, as are views of Roman ruins. The second half is devoted to portraits of North African
peoples. These are primarily studio portraits of women from various ethnic groups, although some male occupational portraits,
as well as portraits of dignitaries such as the Agha and Califa of Ouargla are included. Many of the sitters are identified
by name. A few scenes of daily life showing coffee houses, shops, markets, and street life are interspersed among the portraits.
The album was seemilngly compiled from a North African perspective, as only a few images containing portions of French buildings
allude to a western presence. This fact, along with the album's elaborate box and covers, suggests that it may have been compiled
for a high ranking official or wealthy North African.
The photographs are unsigned and the photographer(s) have not been identified.
The covers of the album are made of carved wood and tooled and painted leather set into brass backings and closed with brass
hinges; decorations are in a North African artisanal style comprising calligraphic and geometric elements. On the front cover
a tugra (i.e. in the style of an Ottoman ruler's signature) written in a combination of colloquial and classical Arabic reads:
Algiers / Tunis. Do not look at the beauty of appearances, look at your deeds. Appearance is not as important as the inner
self.
The first sura of the Qur'an is inscribed in the center of the brass inner cover: I start with the name of God; and in the
border: In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
The title page reads: Author: Abdu Rabbih al-Wahhāb - Fernand tunisi baldati min Kusa [?] (called Gabriel the Christian, in
the year 1881). The date of compilation is significant in that 1881 marked the end of over three centuries of Ottoman rule
in the Maghreb.
The album is housed in a carved wooden box. Carved on the box cover, also as a tugra, are the names of two brothers, Kheireddine
and Arrouj (Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis), infamous sixteenth-century corsairs.
The titles of the individual photographs are from the captions written on the mounts. Most captions are in Arabic; some mounts
bear Judeo-Arabic captions as noted; a few images are uncaptioned and titles for these were devised by the archivist. The
Arabic captions were translated by Karim Boughida and David Brafman. The Judeo-Arabaic captions were translated by Jona Sabir.
Processing History
Processed and cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn in 2001. Finding aid encoded by Linda Kleiger and Guynn. The finding aid was updated
by Guynn in 2021.
Publication Rights
Digitized Material
The collection was digitized in 2015 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2001r20
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Clothing and dress -- Algeria
Clothing and dress -- Tunisia
Architecture, Islamic -- Algeria
Architecture, Islamic -- Tunisia
Women -- Tunisia
Women -- Algeria
Streets -- Algeria
Tombs -- Algeria
Occupations -- Algeria -- History -- 19th century
Occupations -- Tunisia -- History -- 19th century
Indigeneous peoples -- Tunisia -- Portraits
Mosques -- Algeria
Gorges -- Algeria
Indigenous peoples -- Algeria -- Portraits
Tunisia -- Antiquities -- Roman
Tunisia -- Description and travel
Tunisia -- Social life and customs
France -- Colonies -- Africa
Algeria -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Algeria -- Antiquities, Roman
Photographs, Original
Algeria -- Description and travel
Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
Studio portraits -- Tunisia -- 19th century
Studio portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Albumen prints -- Tunisia -- 19th century