Background
Mustapha Khaznadar was born of Greek ancestry as Georgios Kalkias Stravelakis on the island of Chios in 1817.
Mustapha Khaznadar was born of Greek ancestry as Georgios Kalkias Stravelakis on the island of Chios in 1817.
He was one of the most influential people in modern Tunisian history. He was then taken to Smyrna and then Constantinople, where he was sold as a slave to an envoy of the Husainid Dynasty who were Beys of Tunis and originally of Greek origin. Religious conversion and political career
Initially, he worked as the prince"s private treasurer before becoming Ahmad I Bey"s treasurer (khaznadar).
In 1864, Mustapha Khaznadar then Prime Minister attempted to squeeze more taxes out of the Tunisian peasants, the countryside rebelled and rose in a 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 a mausoleum at Tourbet El Bey, in the heart of the Medina of Tunis.