Ahmad I ibn Mustafa

Ahmad I ibn Mustafa
Bey of Tunis
Reign10 October 1837 – 30 May 1855
PredecessorMustafa ibn Mahmud
SuccessorMuhammad II ibn al-Husayn
Born2 December 1805
Tunis, Beylik of Tunis
Died30 May 1855 (aged 49)
La Goulette, Beylik of Tunis
Burial
DynastyHusainides
FatherMustafa ibn Mahmud
ReligionIslam

Ahmad I (Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد باشا باي), born 2 December 1805 in Tunis[1] died 30 May 1855 at La Goulette,[2] was the tenth Husainid Bey of Tunis, ruling from 1837 until his death.[1] He was responsible for the abolition of slavery in Tunisia in 1846.[3]

He succeeded his father Mustafa Bey on 10 October 1837.[4] He had grand ambitions - to expand his army and create a modern navy; to build a new royal residence (Mohamedia Palace), a mint and modern institutions of education but neither he nor his brother-in-law the young Mustapha Khaznadar who served as his finance minister, had a clear idea of what such initiatives would cost. As a result, many of his projects became expensive failures which damaged the financial health of the country.[5]

  1. ^ a b Ibn Abi Dhiaf, Présent des hommes de notre temps. Chroniques des rois de Tunis et du pacte fondamental, vol. IV, éd. Maison tunisienne de l'édition, Tunis, 1990, p. 12
  2. ^ Ibn Abi Dhiaf, op. cit., p. 184
  3. ^ Montana, Ismael Musah (2024). "Ahmad Bey's 1846 Istiftāʾ: Its Dual Legislative Framework and Religio-Political Context". Law and History Review. 42: 31–48. doi:10.1017/S0738248023000573. ISSN 0738-2480.
  4. ^ Hédi Slim, Ammar Mahjoubi and Khaled Belkhodja, Histoire générale de la Tunisie, vol III « Les temps modernes », ed. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 2007, p. 369
  5. ^ Ibn Abi Dhiaf, op. cit., p. 160