In the midst of the political chaos that prevailed in 17th century Tunisia, on a background of poverty, famine and epidemics appeared a sublime and unique character in the annals of the country:  Aziza Othmana.

She was born in one of the wealthiest families who exercised their discretionary power over the country. She seems to have had a remarkable education and a highly religious instruction during her childhood. Despite the dangers the journey involved she completed the pilgrimage to Mecca and came back to spend the rest of her life in Tunisia.

Towards the end of her life, dedicated to prayer and charity, she left her huge fortune to the poor to ease their misery. The income from more than 90,000 acres of planted or sown land would be used for various humanitarian movements: slave emancipation and liberation of prisoners.

She didn’t forget orphans: every year on the day of Achoura, she paid for a great number of the children to be (according to traditional ceremony) circumcised. She also cared for orphan girls, too poor to have dowry: a huge part of her legacy was used for this purpose.

At a time when the mental patients were usually treated roughly she thought about the calming effects of music and dedicated part of her fortune to organize weekly concerts for them.

At the end of the 17th Century, part of the gains from her inheritance was used to found a hospital. Practically overnight, our heroin became famous and attracted numerous blessings. All over the country people spoke of the “Aziza Othmana Borstal” where one could get healed and get back the joy of living. Set up at 101 Kasbah Street in Tunis, it also served as a hospice, an asylum, and a reformatory. On January 1st, 1880 it was moved to the current building attributed by the Minister Kherredine a few months earlier.

However, Aziza Othmana remains little known by her contemporaries. No one knows the date of her birth, archives mention 1724 as the date of her death but trustworthy historians such as M. Robert Brunschig say she actually died 14 years earlier. No one knows if she was Youssef Dey’s wife as some documents seem to indicate, or the wife of Hammouda Pacha le Mouradite, according to M. Hasny Abdulwahab.

Experts say she was the daughter of Othman Dey but she might have been his grandaughter according to ‘’ les femmes Tunisiennes célèbres ‘’ (Famous Tunisian women) where she is referred to as Aziza Bent Ahmed Ben Othman Dey).

Was she the sister of Fatma Othmana, first wife of Hassine Ben Ali, the first Husseinite Bey, according to Mohamed Esseghir Ben Youssef, or her grandmother, if we have to believe data collected Bechir Ghallousi ?

Her private life and the motivations for her generosity remain a mystery. Perhaps, her tomb in the Medina section of Tunis provides some information about the life of this charitable woman.

At the end of impasse Echchammaia, next to the Medersa, stands a house shrouded in tranquility. It is her mausoleum. A cool, gentle and peaceful atmosphere greets you as you come in. The tombs of Aziza Othmana and her close relatives lie under two domes in two adjoining rooms.

Unfortunately we cannot find any inscription that could answer the questions that spring to our minds. Her last bed and the sculptures around it have been covered in whitewash and bear no indication of a date or name. In the next room, still untouched, the tiles, the walls, the elegant edges of the domes reveal nothing about her.

But her anonymous tomb must be here, among her relatives whose tombs bear numerous epitaphs in their names. And the whole mausoleum is included in her inheritance. The mausoleum is particularly remarkable because the tombs were built between the ground floor and the first floor as if hanging between the sky and the earth, rather than underground.

Summarized from Essaraya website