Beylik of Tunis

The sense of urgency for such reform stemmed from the intrusion of modernism. The cultural stream of interest and invention coming from the Christian Europeans caused many Muslims to search for a proper and adequate response. Merely to learn the foreign ways risked becoming alienated from one's own people and faith, yet modern science and technology, and perhaps government and social culture also, were becoming an ever-increasing challenge. The desire to reform appeared across the Muslim world, among the Ottomans and among the more remote Iranians and Mughals, as well as the Arabs. If for no other reason than the performance of European armies and fleets, these modern ways were necessary to master. Devout Muslims realized that a proper place must be located in their tradition for this wealth of the new.

Several early reformers presented different remedies, which when repeated were often expressed as general ideologies, e.g., the pan-Islamic, the pan-Arabic, the pan-Turkic, the nationalist. Some Islamic reforms were sourced wholly within Islam and actually pre-dated the modern, making no reference to it, e.g., wahabism. Yet reformed or not, Muslims were adopting the European inventions one piece at a time, day after day, year after year. If Muslim societies continued to so evolve under the influence of the modern, yet without a context of understanding, the coherence of tradition might come apart. Christians, too, of Europe and of the Americas, were faced with similar dilemmas, had been for centuries; their various solutions were complex and not always satisfactory, nor for everyone. Yet for Muslims the problem was different. Christians experienced modernity as generated mainly by their own creativity, which gave its possessors an initial edge over others. Muslims noticed in them a widespread increase in non-belief.[14]

Idealized depiction of first Ottoman constitution, issued by the sultan, effective 1876 to 1878; flying angel shows motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity[15]

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman rulers pursued a broad range of difficult reforms, e.g., in education, in justice, in government, and not least in the military.[16] The second major wave of reform, called the Tanzimat [Turkish: "regulations"], began in the early 19th century and lasted into the 20th. In 1839 the well-known Hatt-i Sherif [Turkish: "Noble Decree"] was ceremoniously read from the Gülhane ["Rose Garden"] to an assembled elite;[17] it outlined anticipated changes in several substantive policies: a) taxes, their fair assessment and collection (avoiding the use of monopolies to raise revenue and terminating the tax farm); b) the military, the conscription of soldiery to be equitable and proportionately spread over the provinces; c) civil liberties, citizens to be secure in their property, criminal procedure to be public, and the different religions treated equally; and, d) the new Council of Judicial Ordinances (established in 1838) designated as the consultative and legislative body, and charged to carry out this work. This articulation of broad principles led to its very gradual and fragmented implementation during the next 40 years.[18] The course of Ottoman reform was erratic, the source of division among elites, and while continuously pursued could prove dangerous to its proponents.[19]

Starting early in the 19th century, Tunisia under came increasingly under European influence. Under the Husaynid Beys, trade and commerce with the Europeans increased year after year. Permanent residences were established in Tunis by many more foreign merchants, especially Italians. In 1819 at French insistence the Bey agreed to quit with finality corsair raids. Also the Bey agreed with France to terminate his revenue policy whereby government agents dominated foreign trade by monopolizing the export of Tunisian goods; this change in policy opened the country to international commercial firms. In 1830 the Bey (as in theory head of a de jure Ottoman province) reluctantly accepted responsibility to enforce in Tunisia the capitulation treaties negotiated by France, and various other European powers, with the Ottoman Empire over the course of several centuries.[20] Under these treaties, European merchants enjoyed extraterritorial privileges while within Ottoman domains, including the right to have their resident consuls act as the judge in legal cases involving their national's civil obligations.[21] Also in 1830 the French royal army occupied the central coastal lands in neighboring Algeria.[22] At that time, they were inexperienced about and lacked the knowledge of how to develop a colony.[23]

Ahmad Bey, tenth Husaynid Bey of Tunisia (1837–1855)

Ahmad Bey (1806–1855, r.1837–1855) assumed the throne during this complex and evolving situation. Following the examples of the Ottoman Empire under sultan Mahmud II (r.1808–1839), and of Egypt under Muhammad Ali (r.1805–1849), he moved to intensify a program to update and upgrade the Tunisian armed forces. A military school was founded and various new industries started to supply an improved army and navy. In a major step, the Bey initiated the recruitment and conscription of individual Tunisians (instead of foreigners or by tribes) to serve in the army and navy, a step which would work to reduce the customary division between the state and its citizens. Yet the corollary of tax increases for these military innovations were not popular, nor adequate.[24]

Regarding the Ottoman relationship, Ahmad Bey continued the previous beylical policy, in that he would decline or reject political attachment to the Ottoman state in order to remain free of imperial control, yet he welcomed religious ties to the Ottoman Caliphate for the prestige it brought him domestically and to discourage European state interference. Accordingly, Ahmad Bey repeatedly refused to apply in Tunisia the Ottoman Tanzimat legal reforms concerning citizen rights, i.e., those of the Hatt-i Sherif of 1839. Instead, he instituted progressive laws of his own, showing native Tunisian authority in the modernizing project and hence the redundancy of importing any of the Ottoman reforms. The Slave trade was abolished in 1841, slavery in 1846. Yet for many Tunisians these civil law reforms had limited application.[25][26]

As part of his maneuvering to maintain Tunisia's sovereignty, Ahmad Bey sent 4,000 Tunisian troops against the Russian Empire during the Crimean War (1854–1856). In doing so he allied Tunisia with Turkey, France, and Britain.[27] {IN PROGRESS}

Hayreddin Pasha

Hayreddin Pasha (Khayr al-Dīn al-Tūnisī) (1820-1890) led the Tunisian government as its chief minister (1873–1877). He was a pragmatic activist who reacted against poor conditions in Muslim states, and looked to Europe for solutions. He applied the Islamic concept of "maṣlaḥah" (or public interest), to economic issues. He emphasized the central role of justice and security in economic development. He was a major advocate of "tanẓīmāt" (or modernization) for Tunisia's political and economic systems.[28]