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The Beylicate in Seventeenth-Century Tunisia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
Extract
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the beylicate in Tunisia was a minor executive office. In the course of this century Tunisia's political institutions underwent a gradual change, the outcome of which was the emergence of the beylicate as the country's dominant ruling institution. This development involved a twofold process: the transformation of the beylicate into a hereditary institution having roots in native Tunisian society, and the gradual isolation and reduction of the authority of the foreign military class which had usurped power from the representative of the Ottoman sultan.from the representative of the Ottoman sultan. In this study I will analyse the meagre data available for this period of Tunisian history in order to explain the historical circumstances and local forces which account for this development.
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References
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