page_title: Thala-Kasserine Disturbances
section_title: Events of 26–27 April
hierarchical_section_title: Thala-Kasserine Disturbances / Events of 26–27 April
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Contrôle civil de Thala en Tunisie vers 1925
context_page_description: The Thala-Kasserine Disturbances were an episode of unrest in April 1906 in western Tunisia, the first violent resistance against authority under the French protectorate since its establishment in 1881. Inspired by an Algerian marabout, insurgents killed three French settlers in the Kasserine region before a gunfight in Thala left around a dozen of them dead and the rest in custody.
context_section_description: On 26 April some dozens of Fraichiche bedouin from the Ouled Néji, Gmata, Hnadra and Hrakta subclans who were encamped on the plain of Foussana, near Kasserine, attacked the farm of a French settler named Lucien Salle who was known as a violent, brutal, and greedy man. They were unaware that Salle himself was absent, and when they arrived at his farm they were met by his brother Henri, who was quickly killed with a single shot. When his servant Domenico Mira tried to help him, he was stabbed and his life only spared because he recited the shahada. Salle's mother had her throat cut while she lay in bed. Another servant, Tournier, was taken prisoner and he too saved his life by reciting the shahada, whereupon he was forcibly circumcised. The farm was looted, and three employees, Graffaud, Martin and Sagnes, who lived nearby on a stud farm, were taken prisoner after accepting forced conversion to Islam.
  The insurgents now moved on to another farm owned by a settler named Bertrand.  In contrast with Salle, Bertrand had worked to establish good relations with his Fraichiche neighbours.  At this farm three occupants all converted to avoid death but one, an Italian named Delrio, refused, so he was killed and his body burned.  The farm was not however looted and the bedouin moved on to the mines at Jebel ech Chambi where all the Europeans were summoned to convert. All the prisoners were made to wear Tunisian dress and sent to the marabout Amor ben Othman, who had remained behind at the encampment.
  The next day, encouraged by their success, they decided to attack the French civil administration office in Thala, Tunisia, a symbol of colonial rule. Ben Othman had convinced them they were invincible, telling them that the sticks they were carrying would spit fire when pointed at the infidels, and that the bullets of the settlers would melt like drops of water when they touched their bodies.  However, when they reached Thala they found themselves facing a well-defended base where dozens of armed French settlers and Italian workers fired on them at close range, leaving between ten and fourteen of them dead. They were routed.
  Amor Ben Othman and his accomplices offered no resistance when they were arrested, and all their prisoners were set free.
caption: French civil administration office in Thala around 1925.
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