Ali III ibn al-Husayn

Ali Bey (Arabic: أبو الحسن علي باشا باي بن الحسين‎‎) (La Marsa 14 August 1817 - La Marsa 11 June 1902) was the Husainid Bey of Tunis from 1882 until his death. He was the first ruler under the French protectorate.

He was named Bey al-Mahalla (Heir Apparent) on 23 August 1863 by his brother Muhammad III as-Sadiq and was made a divisional General and placed at the head of an army column operating in the interior of the country (known in Tunisian Arabic as the 'mhalla') to assert beylical authority in remote regions, rendering justice in the name of the sovereign and collecting taxes from local tribes. A keen horseman, Ali Bey took personal charge of this work and undertook it thoroughly, twice a year - in the north of the country during the summer in Béja and El Kef, and in the south during the winter, in Kairouan and the towns further south. During the Mejba Revolt in 1864, while his ineffective brother remained in the Bardo palace, Ali put down the rebellion with Generals Ahmed Zarrouk, Rustum and Uthman.

Following the French conquest of Tunisia and the signing of the Treaty of Bardo, Ali Bey succeeded his brother Muhammad III as-Sadiq on 29 October 1882. At the same time, he became an honorary Marshal in the army of the Ottoman Empire, as Tunisia was still nominally an Ottoman province. His first act as sovereign was to accept the resignation of his father's old mamluk, the minister Mohammed Khaznadar, and replaced him, for the first time in the country's history, with a Grand Vizier of native (i.e. non-Turkish) extraction, Mohammed Aziz Bouattour.

On 8 June 1883, together with French Resident General Paul Cambon, he signed the Conventions of La Marsa in which he formally renounced his power while retaining nominal authority., The country remained under the occupation of the French expeditionary force of General Forgemol. The entire administration of the country, as well as control of the army, police and foreign affairs, was taken over by the colonial power.

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