Memoirs of Kheireddine Pacha (Second edition)

Most readers have limited themselves to what was presented in “Aqwam Al Masalik Fi Ahwal Al Mamalek” (The Surest Path to Knowledge Concerning the Conditions of Countries) when analysing Kheireddine’s reformist ideas. This has sometimes led them to misunderstand him and not give him his due.

And perhaps that is due to the fact that they were most likely unable to access his memoirs, which he wrote in French and dictated to his private secretary. Mohamed Salah Mzali was able to obtain the notebooks containing these memoirs as well as most of his documents and correspondence in Arabic and French, from his son Mohamed Taher Kheireddine .

Even though these memoirs were published in French in 1971 in a limited number of copies, they were quickly sold out. This made it essential to translate them into Arabic. This translation would allow new generations of researchers and readers to access them and to reconsider Kheireddine’s stance on his brother-in-law Mustafa Khaznadar and his disgraceful injustices. It would also shed light on Kheireddine’s position regarding the Ottoman Empire and France as well as his endeavour to maintain a kind of balance to protect Tunisia from occupation, the signs of which began to appear in his last days when he was the Grand Vizier to Sadok Bey.

The documentary value of these memoirs is invaluable, as they provide an accurate understanding of the multidimensional project of the reformer Kheireddine Pasha, rooting the concept of modernity that we urgently need and honoring his role and his rational, open-minded ideas. Furthermore, they are a devotion to the value system capable of fostering a society that knows no bounds to intellectual renaissance and continuous reform.