Tunisian National Library hosts Ottoman Empire archive exhibition
Mr. Abderraouf el Basti, Minister of Culture and Heritage Preservation, Mr. Naji Ekinci Ambassador of Turkey in Tunisia, the mayor of Tunis Mr. Mohsen Abbas, and the Director of the National Library announced the launch of the exhibition held under the motto “Living together under the same sky”.
The event was organized by the Embassy of Turkey in Tunisia and the Turkish prime ministry’s General Directorate of archives.
Mr. Abderraouf El Basti explained that the event is aiming at highlighting the values of tolerance and coexistence that characterized the period of Ottoman rule that governed peoples from different ethnic background and cultures through several centuries.
For his part, the Turkish Ambassador, highlighted the importance of the event, which coincides with the celebrations of the 22nd anniversary of the November 7, 1987 Change, and the 86th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.
Visitors will no doubt be interpellated by the remarkable spirit of religious tolerance found in one of the Fermans issued by the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1458, concerning the demand of the priest of Jerusalem to parctice their religious life in freedom:
“I have given the previous rights and privileges concerning the Holy places like the Church of Bethlehem in which Jesus was born and the Church of Kamame in Jerusalem back to Atnasyos, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, and his priests asking for the same rights and privileges they had since the Prophet Muhammad and the Caliph Omar. Do not let anyone hurt them. Be the object of God and his messenger’s rage whoever wanted to abolish this rule.”
