Mustapha Khaznadar

Mustapha Khaznadar (مصطفى خزندار, 1878–1817), was Prime Minister of the Beylik of Tunis from 1837 to 1873. He was one of the most influential people in modern Tunisian history.

Early life

Mustapha Khaznadar was born of Greek ancestry as Georgios Kalkias Stravelakis on the island of Chios in 1817. In January 1822, the Greeks of Chios declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sultan soon sent an army of ten thousand to the island of Chios, where roughly twenty thousand Greek inhabitants were massacred and many women and children were taken into slavery. During the Chios massacre, Georgios's father the sailor Stephanis Kalkias Stravelakis was killed, Georgios along with his brother Yannis were captured and sold into slavery by the Ottomans. He was then taken to Smyrna and then Constantinople, where he was sold as a slave to an envoy of the Husainid Dynasty

Religious conversion and political career

A painting of Mustapha Khaznadar and his son and a photograph of an elderly Mustapha Khaznadar during his career as Prime Minister of the Beylik of Tunis.

Stravelakis as a slave was converted to Islam and was given the name Mustafa and was raised in the family by Mustapha Bey, then by his son Ahmad I Bey while he was still crown prince. Initially, he worked as the prince's private treasurer before becoming Ahmad I Bey's treasurer (khaznadar). He managed to climb to the highest offices of the Tunisian state and married Princess Lalla Kalthoum in 1839 and was promoted to lieutenant-general of the army, made bey in 1840 and then president of the Grand Council from 1862 to 1878. In 1864, Mustapha Khaznadar then Prime Minister attempted to squeeze more taxes out of the Tunisian peasants, the countryside rebelled and rose in the Mejba Revolt, nearly overthrowing the regime, however the government was swift to act and ultimately suppressed the uprising through a combination of brutality and guile. Mustafa Khaznadar retained memories of his Greek origin and contact with his native Greece, even sending ten thousand riyals from the state treasury to pay for his two Greek nephews he was educating in Paris. Khaznadar died in 1878 and is buried in the mausoleum of Tourbet el Bey, in the heart of the Medina of Tunis.