The founder
A journal born of a conviction: the primacy of the cultural over the political. A portrait of the man who, in March 1993, gathered young academics around a free, collective and multilingual research.
Biography
Philosopher, editor, conveyor of ideas
Mohammed Ali al Kebsi is a Tunisian professor holding a doctorate in political philosophy from the University of Tunis. Founder and editor-in-chief of the journal, he is a member of the UNESCO Chair and vice-president of the Arab Philosophy Union (Iraq, Lebanon) in Tunisia since 2001.
He is the author of numerous works, among them Readings in Contemporary Philosophical Thought, an essay on Michel Foucault, and The Chemistry of the Tunisian and Arab Spring.
At the origins
March 1993, the founding session
The first manifesto was handed to the press on 3 May 1993, and has since been adopted as a fundamental law, printed on the cover of every issue.
Founding text
Why “Madarat”
The founding text, in the three languages of the journal. Culture as a setting-straight — from the Arabic root thaqafa, “to cultivate, to make upright.”
The importance of culture commands such unanimity that no one could contest its contribution to the constitution of personality, which lies at the foundation of the social order — on the national as well as the universal plane. Encompassing the whole of social structures and of artistic, religious and intellectual expression, culture acts in distinctive ways upon the question of identity.
The cultural rests on the strength of the institutions that should ensure its adequate and effective unfolding. Associations are organizations through which individual effort can be exercised for the benefit of the group — a true consecration of associative life, the cornerstone of civil society. Awareness of such a situation lay at the origin of the birth of Madarat Maarifia “Cognitive Orbits.”
Objectives:
- Undertake a deconstructive analysis of the various discourses in order to bring to light the deepest workings that preside over their elaboration.
- Read and appropriate the Arab-Muslim cultural heritage without fanaticism, and open onto universal knowledge.
- Work toward publishing a journal that serves as a voice of creation and an echo of joint efforts.
- Establish and consolidate relations with Arab and foreign scholars for a better deployment of knowledge.
Life of the association
Encounters & media
From the founding session to the studios of Radio Tunis Culturelle, the journal carries « طريق المعرفة » — the path of knowledge — into the public sphere.
Election · June 2026
The 2026 decennial election
Every ten years, the association renews its governing bodies. Photographs and video from the June 2026 election — the previous one was held in 2016.
