Search

International audience; Prime Minister Muṣṭafā Khaznadār, a Mamluk born in the Greek island of Chios, became the most influential public figure of the Ottoman province of Tunis between 1837 and 1873. Both his ascendancy and the consecutive marginalization of his sons in the immediate afterwards of his fall may be analyzed as an example of the emerging relationship forged between an important family of the time and the provincial beylical authority. This new political balance was itself profoundly transformed both by the Ottoman reforms and the French colonial domination. Surely, the Khaznadār did take great advantages from the beylical power, especially through its patrimonial dimensions. But he also knew how to deal with the new constitutional regime established in 1861. However, his elder sons, although prepared for administrative careers, hardly found their ways in the beginnings of the French protectorate. Interestingly enough, their names and their ascendancy were not of blessed memory in the Modern Tunisian records.; Mamelouk d’origine grecque, le vizir Muṣṭafā Khaznadār s’imposa comme le personnage le plus influent de la province ottomane de Tunis entre 1837 et 1873. Sa prépondérance puis la marginalisation de ses fils après sa disgrâce constituent un exemple de réaménagement des relations entre une grande famille et l’autorité provinciale des beys de Tunis alors transformée par les réformes ottomanes puis le protectorat français. Le Khaznadār sut tirer profit de l’exercice patrimonial du pouvoir et de la mise en place d’un système constitutionnel à partir de 1861. Mais ses fils aînés, pourtant destinés à l’exercice de charges administratives, eurent du mal à trouver leur place au début du protectorat. Leur ascendance et leur nom rappelaient trop de mauvais souvenirs aux sujets et aux nouveaux maîtres français du pays.