Mahmoud Djellouli

Mahmoud Djellouli (1755–1839) was a trader and Tunisian diplomat. He was a member of the same clan as and among the important figures of his time.

The life of Djellouli illustrates the role played by the Mediterranean Sea in developing the financial and political power of Tunisian beys under the Ottoman Empire. He was a trader and also collected levies on the corsairs who became known as the Barbary pirates. He wielded great influence over Tunisian socioeconomic and political developments between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.

Mahmoud Djellouli was born into the influential and patrician Djellouli family, which dated back to the Hafsid dynasty, according to historian Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf. They were Sfax nobility of Arab origin, merchants and shipowners at the end of the 16th century, and became farmers and qaids in the 17th century, then part of the Capital Tunis aristocracy at the beginning of the 19th century.

Mahmoud Djellouli began his career by taking over his father's business and administrative responsibilities: he succeeded his father Baccar, who died in 1782, as qaid of Sfax and later also added responsibility for Sousse and for the Sahel. He relied on trade to acquire key positions. His business is linked to exported farm products to Europe and the Levant: leathers, olive oil, grain, wool and so on. His agricultural estates supplied his business above all and participated also in the collective fiscal surplus.

Rivalries between France and Britain at the end of the 18th century offered him the opportunity to participate in arming the corsairs. · He was among the four forces in the arms market at the time, along with the beys, the Ben Ayed family and Saheb Ettabaâ.

In 1804, he gained control of the custom houses of the regency. Between 1808 and 1810 he invested 600,000 piastres for his sons Mohammed, Farhat, Hassan and Hussein in this enterprise. In 1805 he became the qumrugi or head of customs. He had a monopoly on the principal exports and also held the seal that had to be applied to permits or teskérès.

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