Beylik of Tunis

The Beylik of Tunis was the Tunisian state from 1705 to 1881, ruled from Tunis by the Husainid dynasty of beys. Formally a province of the Ottoman Empire, it gradually behaved as a hereditary monarchy of its own, with its own army, currency and flag. In the nineteenth century it attempted some of the earliest constitutional reforms in the Arab world before debt and foreign pressure led to a French protectorate in 1881.

Tunisia at the start of the eighteenth century was unsettled. Ibrahim Sharif had overthrown the Muradid beys and combined the offices of bey and pasha, but after a defeat by the dey of Algiers he was carried off to Algiers. On 10 July 1705 an officer, al-Husayn ibn Ali, seized power as Hussein I. He ruled with full judicial authority, favoured local Maliki jurists over the Hanafi judges preferred in Istanbul, curbed the janissaries, encouraged olive planting and built mosques and schools. In 1715, when an Ottoman fleet arrived with a replacement governor, a council of local leaders backed Hussein, and the sultan let him stay.

In 1735 Hussein's nephew Ali I took the throne; Hussein was killed in 1740. Hussein's sons returned in 1756 with help from the governor of Constantine, and Muhammad I Rashid and then Ali II ruled. The office of prime minister dates from 1759. Interference from the Regency of Algiers continued until Hammouda Pasha, bey from 1782, defeated an Algerian invasion in 1807. His reign was also the high point of Tunisian corsair raiding in the Mediterranean, which European treaties and congresses steadily restricted until the bey agreed to end it in 1819.

The beys balanced several interests: the distant Ottoman court, a Turkish-speaking elite, and Tunisia's own notables, scholars, landowners and tribal chiefs. Religious ties to the Ottoman caliph were kept for prestige, while tribal forces gradually replaced some janissary units. Many senior officials were mamluks, men of foreign origin raised from childhood to serve the dynasty. Arabic grew in use at court, and people of mixed Turkish and Tunisian descent gained access to high office.

Ahmad I Bey modernised the army on French lines after France occupied neighbouring Algeria in 1830, opening a military school at Bardo in 1840 and sending some 4,000 troops to the Crimean War. He banned the export of slaves in 1841 and declared the full abolition of slavery in a decree of 23 January 1846. A flag, still Tunisia's flag today, had been adopted in 1831. In 1857 Muhammad II issued the Fundamental Pact, declaring equality before the law and in taxation and freedom of religion and trade. The constitution of 1861 followed, a 114-article text creating a Supreme Council with legislative powers, the first written constitution in the Arab world.

Reform came with heavy borrowing, lavish spending and embezzlement, notably by the prime minister Mustapha Khaznadar. A doubled head tax provoked the Mejba revolt of 1864, and the constitution was suspended that May. The state declared bankruptcy in 1869, and an international commission representing France, Britain and Italy took control of its revenues. The reforming minister Kheireddine Pasha replaced Khaznadar but was forced out in 1877. France and Italy competed for influence, and after the Congress of Berlin in 1878 France was given a free hand. In April 1881 French troops entered Tunisia, and on 12 May Sadok Bey signed the Treaty of Bardo, creating the protectorate.

The Husainid beys remained nominal sovereigns under French rule and through independence, until a republic was declared on 25 July 1957. The modern state of Tunisia keeps the beylik's flag.

Our maps label the state "Tunis" and draw it in 1715, 1783, 1800 and 1815. Algiers lies to the west, and by our 1878 map the territory is shown within the Ottoman Empire again.