Une forme d’acculturation de la communaute maltaise de Monastir : la consignation charaique du partage successoral du Maltais naturalise Anglais Francisco dit ‘chokkou fils de Paolo Cassar’

Abstract

The present study is based on a nineteenth century unpublished notarial document discovered by chance. This records the activities of a Maltese merchant living in the coastal town of Monastir in Tunisia, naturalised English subject and named Fransisco, son of Paolo Cassar, and known as Chokkou [Cikku in Maltese – edit. note]. Most importantly, the recorded distribution of the estate in great detail has now allowed us to reveal several matters of primary importance: the successful integration of this merchant in his host town (Monastir); his marriage with Adélaide, a Jewish woman –which in itself is an an indication of the permeability of the Jewish community in relation to other social groups; the continous success in the consolidation of his welfare and interests through his matrimonial alliances both with the Maltese (Diacono, Debono) and the French (Carmélia Cassar married to Napoléon Sezoni, vice-consul of France in Monastir); the importance of foreclosures in the constitution of the Maltese patrimony by the end of the nineteenth Century.