THE Casbah in Tunis's Old City, hard by the ancient Az-Zaytouna mosque and university, is where the Turkish bey once exercised a shaky control over his militias.
By the 17th century a distinct elite bearing the title of bey had emerged, which consisted largely of Mamlūk emirs.
While the beys continued to acknowledge the authority of the Ottoman viceroy and to send tribute to Constantinople, the strongest single figure in Egypt was the bey who held the newly coined title of shaykh al-balad ("chief of the city"), which signified that he was recognized by the other beys as their chief.
Such a success was won at just the opportune moment: news came that Algiers had fallen to a French expeditionary force sent to punish the bey for assorted transgressions.
The bey was deposed, while Bourguiba, accused of collaboration with the Nazis, escaped imprisonment by fleeing in disguise to Egypt in 1945.
The only advantage that the bey, as tribal war leader, had over the chiefs surrounding him was the pençik ("fifth"), or right to collect an extra fifth of the booty taken by his followers.
The French met little resistance from the bey, Muḥammad as-Sadiq, and on May 12 , 1881 a treaty was concluded, authorizing indefinite French military occupation, restricting the bey's authority to domestic affairs, stipulating a reorganization of Tunisian finances, and providing for a French minister resident, who would act as liaison between French and Tunisian authorities.
Following the final Mongol defeat of the Seljuqs in 1293, Osman emerged as prince (bey) of the border principality that took over Byzantine Bithynia in northwestern Anatolia around Bursa, commanding the ghazis against the Byzantines in that area.
Continued civil disturbances and corruption prompted the British and French to force the bey to issue the Fundamental Pact (ʿAhd al-Amān; September 1857), a civil rights charter modeled on the Ottoman rescript of 1839.
ʿAlī earned the confidence of his master, who later freed him and advanced him to the rank of bey (district governor).
