Revolutions of Tunis

The Revolutions of Tunis or the Muradid War of Succession was a period of troubles and civil wars in Ottoman Tunisia. It ran from the death of the Muradid sovereign Murad II Bey in 1675 until the seizure of power by the Husainid sovereign Al-Husayn I ibn Ali at-Turki in 1705. The belligerents were Ali Bey al-Muradi and Muhammad Bey al-Muradi (sons of Murad II Bey), their uncle Muhammad al-Hafsi al-Muradi (Pasha of Tunis), several Deys of Tunis, the Turkish militia in Tunis and the Dey of Algiers.

Historians agree that the revolutions originated from the constant power conflict between the Muradid dynasty, which attempted to detach itself from Ottoman control and the Turkish militia in Tunis (headed by the divan), which challenged the primacy of the Beys and refused to submit to their increasingly monarchical rule. The Deys of Tunis found themselves in the middle of the storm, sometimes on the side of the militia if they could gain the confidence of the divan and sometimes on the side of the Muradids, who attempted more than once to place one of their proteges in charge of the divan.

Since the Ottoman conquest of 1574, the regency of Tunis had been organised so that the power of the Beys (the Muradids throughout the period in question) was counterbalanced by the divan of the Turkish militia, who elected the Dey, the de facto master of the country, since the pasha was limited to a purely honorific role. This system was undermined by Murad II Bey, son of Hammuda Pasha Bey, who had forced the Dey and the divan of the Turkish militia to recognise him as Bey before his death. Murad II seized prerogatives of the divan, such as the election of the Dey, acts avoided by his predecessors, who had respected the separation of powers established over the previous century of Ottoman rule in Tunis.

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