Ali I Bey

Ali I Bey , born the June 30th 1688 and deceased the September 22nd 1756, is Bey de Tunis of 1735 with 1756.

Invested as crown prince the January 17th 1706, it receives the title of pasha in 1724. Replaced by his cousin like heir in 1726, he arrives, with the assistance of the troops of the Dey of Algiers, to deposit his uncle Hussein I Bey the September 8th 1735: he makes his solemn entry in Tunis, preceded by his Younès oldest son, by promising to the inhabitants that their goods would be respected.

Installation of the new capacity

What does not prevent, during the following days, the army of the dey d' Alger, camping under the walls of the city, to plunder the stores and the particular residences. To obtain the departure of these bands, Ali Pasha pays a strong war indemnity in silver coins with which one charges 35 mules and commits itself pouring an annual tribute of 50.000 piastres with the dey. When Ali Pasha reaches the capacity, its partisans garner the benefit of them while those remained faithful to Hussein I Bey, the legitimate bey, are carried out. He also makes put at dead the notable ones, Savant S and descendants of the prophet according to Mohammed Seghir Ben Youssef. However Hussein Bey, cut off with Kairouan, tries to control, with the shelter of the ramparts of the Holy City, the part of the kingdom which remains to him faithful (Sousse and the the Tunisian Sahel). But Ali Bey gives the order to his Younès son to make the seat city. Kairouan resists during five years but the attack of Younès succeeds finally and the latter carries out Hussein. Its two sons, which controlled the Sahel have time to take refuge one with Constantine and the other in Algiers.

This new civil war leaves deep traces in the country which is divided consequently into two opposite parties: partisans of Hussein and partisans of Ali whose reciprocal hostility appears during very a long time and until on the steps of the throne. The oldest son of Ali, Younès, becomes a kind of national hero: he goes twice the year, in the capacity as Bey of the camp, rising the taxes inside the country. Us thus are described his glorious returns in the capital: Each time it returned from a forwarding, the women most distinguished from Tunis came to greet it, the face discovered, avoided flowers and fardées as of promised in marriage which enter the first time in their husband. When of them it liked one, he smiled to him, she answered his smile…

Family revolt

This prince ends up rebelling against his father following a competition with his brother. He leaves clandestinely Bardo and succeeds in seizing by surprised the Kasbah Tunis. Then, joining together a Militia and the authorities of the city, it is made proclaim bey without opposition and makes provisions of defense to resist in the médina and the kasbah the troops which his/her father launched against him. With the assistance of the militia and inhabitants, Younès pushes back all the attacks during nearly two months but its partisans weaken little by little. Ali Bey ends up penetrating in the médina by an open breach of with dimensions of Bab Souika. Younès manages nevertheless to flee and gain the Algérie. The troops of Ali, mistresses of the médina, plunder the city and devote themselves to all kinds of atrocities.

Return of the Algerians

Taken refuge in Algeria, princes Mohammed and Ali, wire of late Hussein Bey, succeed in gaining with their cause the dey of Algiers which complains about the processes of Ali who reigns in Tunis. An Algerian army, under the command of the bey of Constantine, is started towards Tunis in order to allow the two princes to recover the throne of their father. This army is presented soon in front of Tunis that Ali Bey made strengthen with haste as soon as he learned the intentions from the regency of Algiers. The ramparts of the médina are restored and one destroys all the houses contiguous to the enclosure. On their site, one digs a Fossé which makes it tower of the city. The Faubourg southern is connected extremely of Djellaz (extremely of Sidi Belhassen) by a long wall in Pisé which also circumvents the Zaouïa S of Sidi Belhassen. One also completes the fort of Djellaz, of El Sawara (extremely of the Andalusians) and that of El Rabta (thus called because it protects the silos or one locks up the Orge and the Blé collected during the summer. These Fortification S and the soldiers who defend them do not prevent the Algerian army from taking the city by storm the August 31st 1756. Captive fact by the Algerians, Ali is deposited the September 2nd. Brought back to Algiers connected, he is strangled by partisans of his Mohammed cousin the September 22nd.

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