Word: beys
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...days, no one ever dared arrest a member of the ruling dynasty of Tunisia. But last week Prince Salaheddine, boisterous third son of the Bey of Tunis, languished in a jail charged with attempted murder of a police inspector (he had played once too often his favorite game of driving full speed toward a cop and slamming on the brakes just in time). Salaheddine's arrest was a sign that the end was near. Before the week was out the 76-year-old Bey, whose family has ruled Tunisia for 250 years, was unceremoniously toppled from his throne...
...Trouble. The descendants of a Greek renegade first placed on the throne by the Turkish masters of the Ottoman Empire, the Husseinite Beys of Tunis became in later years little more than abject puppets of French colonial rule. With personal prerogatives rivaling those of true oriental potentates and on a half-million-dollar-a-year allowance (almost ten times what France pays its own President), the Beys had only to pile up their wealth and stay out of trouble. Since dynastic law provided that each Bey should be succeeded by the eldest male relative on his father's side...
...Office. During the early years of insurgent Tunisian nationalism, El Amin refused to put his royal seal on a few French decrees. The irritated French ringed his palace with soldiers to put him back in line. The Bey's gesture was enough to keep him on the throne for a while after Tunisia got its independence. But Tunisia's modern-minded new Premier, Habib Bourguiba, 54, was obviously not going to tolerate the antique dynasty for long. Gradually the Premier cut down on the royal prerogatives. Two weeks ago, Bourguiba announced in a weekly broadcast: "The hour...
...year in salary and allowances for himself and his family, aged El Amin played his part to perfection. He was regal and dignified at hand-kissing ceremonies, built fancy palaces and went roaring through town in a royal limousine with a screaming siren (reports have it that El Amin Bey had a foot pedal in the back of his car with which he himself could sound the siren). Most important, El Amin kept himself out of political mischief by spending his days tinkering with old clocks and watches and later, when his hobbies turned more modern, with an expensive...
...Amin Bey was always May 15, the anniversary of his accession when, amidst the panoply of his royalty, his subjects, his ministers and the full diplomatic corps gathered to do him homage. When last year Tunisia became an independent nation under Premier Habib Bourguiba. the Bey's allowance was cut to a puny $500,000 and the special laws protecting his family were repealed (one cousin was promptly sent to jail for pushing narcotics). Last week a two-line communique from government headquarters announced that May 15 was no longer to be considered a public holiday. Reduced to accepting...