The Constitutional Liberal Party ( ar, الحزب الحر الدستوري, '), most commonly known as Destour, was a Tunisian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, founded in 1920, which had as its goal to liberate

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

from French colonial control.

History

The term ''Destour'' is usually translated as ''constitutional'', and referred to the Tunisian constitution of 1863—the first in the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

. It is probably of Persian origin through the presence of Turkish in Northern Africa during the 17th to the 19th century. There is no trace of this word in the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

spoken during the pre-

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ma ...

period, nor in the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

s, nor in the Arabic language literature during the period preceding the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

, during which this word began to be used in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. The party wanted to remove all French influence from Tunisia and return to an earlier time. The students, faculty, and alumni of the University of Ez-Zitouna became an integral part of the 1920s Destour party. As time passed, graduates from

Sadiki College Sadiki College, also known as ''Collège Sadiki'' ( aeb, المدرسة الصادقية, "El-Sadqiya High School"), is a '' lycée'' (high school) in Tunis, Tunisia. It was established in 1875. Associations formed by its alumni played a major r ...

took the high level positions in the party, while Zitouna graduates were the lower and medium cadres of it.Micaud 93. In 1934, a radical wing of the party, led by

Habib Bourguiba Habib Bourguiba (; ar, الحبيب بورقيبة, al-Ḥabīb Būrqībah; 3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of ...

, split away and founded the

Neo-Destour The New Constitutional Liberal Party ( ar, الحزب الحر الدستوري الجديد, '; French: ''Nouveau Parti libéral constitutionnel''), most commonly known as Neo Destour, was a Tunisian political party founded in 1934 by a group ...

, which would quickly become the leading force in the Tunisian nationalist movement in the following years. After Tunisia's independence Destour progressively fell into irrelevance and was eclipsed by Neo-Destour. It continued to publish its newspaper ''Al Istiklal'' until 1960 and was eventually disbanded in 1963, when Neo-Destour was declared the only legal party in Tunisia.

Founding members

* Ahmed Taoufik El Madani *

Ahmed Essafi Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

Salah Farhat (, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba with ...

Ali Kahia ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

* Mohieddine Klibi * Hamouda Mestiri * Ahmed Sakka * Abdelaziz Thâalbi * Habib Zouiten * Hassen Guellaty

Notes

References

* Micaud, Charles A. "Bilingualism in North Africa: Cultural and Sociopolitical Implications." ''

The Western Political Quarterly ''Political Research Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers the field of political science. The editor-in-chief is Charles Anthony Smith (University of California, Irvine); with associate editors: Andrew Flores (Ameri ...

''. March 1974. Volume 27, Issue 1. p. 92–103
Available on

Jstor JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

External links

History of the beginning of the Destour
{{Tunisian political parties Arab nationalism in Tunisia Arab nationalist political parties Destourian parties Political parties established in 1920 Political parties disestablished in 1934 Defunct political parties in Tunisia Pan-Arabist political parties

History

Founding members

See also

Notes

References

External links