Nissim Shamama, a Tunisian Jew, passed away in Livorno in 1873: he left an enormous estate and no direct heirs. The result was a legal battle that dragged on for over a decade in Italian courts. Lawyers, Tunisian officials, rabbis, and distant relatives from across the Mediterranean converged in Livorno, where they engaged in a fierce debate over nationality, identity, and sovereignty. At the crossroads of Italian law, Tunisian law, Islamic law, Jewish law, and international law, the cause célèbre of Shamama’s inheritance tells a story about the Mediterranean on the cusp of a new world order.

Jessica Marglin is the National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Rome Prize Fellow in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome and assistant professor of religion in the School of Religion at the University of Southern California.

The shoptalk will be held in English. You can watch this event livestreamed at https://livestream.com/aarome.