The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Tunisia

This page contains a list of the greatest Tunisian Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 52 of which were born in Tunisia. This makes Tunisia the birth place of the 58th most number of Politicians behind Latvia, and Chile.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Tunisian Politicians of all time. This list of famous Tunisian Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Tunisian Politicians.

1. Hannibal (-183 - -183)

With an HPI of 83.10, Hannibal is the most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 112 different languages on wikipedia.

Hannibal (; Punic: 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, romanized: Ḥannībaʿl; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, was a leading Carthaginian general during the First Punic War. His younger brothers were Mago and Hasdrubal; his brother-in-law was Hasdrubal the Fair, who commanded other Carthaginian armies. Hannibal lived during a period of great tension in the Mediterranean Basin, triggered by the emergence of the Roman Republic as a great power with its defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. Revanchism prevailed in Carthage, symbolized by the pledge that Hannibal made to his father to "never be a friend of Rome". In 218 BC, Hannibal attacked Saguntum (modern Sagunto, Spain), an ally of Rome, in Hispania, sparking the Second Punic War. Hannibal invaded Italy by crossing the Alps with North African war elephants. In his first few years in Italy, he won a succession of victories at the Battle of Ticinus, Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae, inflicting heavy losses on the Romans. Hannibal was distinguished for his ability to determine both his and his opponent's respective strengths and weaknesses, and to plan battles accordingly. His well-planned strategies allowed him to conquer and ally with several Italian cities that were previously allied to Rome. Hannibal occupied most of southern Italy for 15 years. The Romans, led by Fabius Maximus, avoided directly engaging him, instead waging a war of attrition (the Fabian strategy). Carthaginian defeats in Hispania prevented Hannibal from being reinforced, and he was unable to win a decisive victory. A counter-invasion of North Africa, led by the Roman general Scipio Africanus, forced him to return to Carthage. Hannibal was eventually defeated at the Battle of Zama, ending the war in a Roman victory. After the war, Hannibal successfully ran for the office of sufet. He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. Those reforms were unpopular with members of the Carthaginian aristocracy and in Rome, and he fled into voluntary exile. During this time, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III the Great in his war against Rome. Antiochus met defeat at the Battle of Magnesia and was forced to accept Rome's terms, and Hannibal fled again, making a stop in the Kingdom of Armenia. His flight ended in the court of Bithynia. He was betrayed to the Romans and committed suicide by poisoning himself. Hannibal is considered one of the greatest military tacticians and generals of antiquity, alongside Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio Africanus, and Pyrrhus. According to Plutarch, Scipio asked Hannibal "who the greatest general was", to which Hannibal replied "either Alexander or Pyrrhus, then himself".

2. Habib Bourguiba (1903 - 2000)

With an HPI of 70.85, Habib Bourguiba is the 2nd most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 66 different languages.

Habib Bourguiba ( ; Arabic: الحبيب بورقيبة, romanized: el-Ḥabīb Būrgībah; 3 August 1903 – 6 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia (1956–1957) then as the first president of Tunisia (1957–1987). Prior to his presidency, he led the nation to independence from France, ending the 75-year-old protectorate and earning the title of "Supreme Combatant". Born in Monastir to a poor family, he attended Sadiki College then Lycée Carnot in Tunis, before obtaining his baccalaureate in 1924. He graduated from the University of Paris and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in 1927 and returned to Tunis to practice law. In the early 1930s, he became involved in anti-colonial and Tunisian national politics, joining the Destour party and co-founding the Neo Destour in 1934. He rose as a key figure of the independence movement and was repeatedly arrested by the colonial administration. His involvement in the riots of 9 April 1938 resulted in his exile to Marseille during World War II. In 1945, Bourguiba was released and moved to Cairo, Egypt, to seek the support of the Arab League. He returned to the country in 1949 and rose to prominence as the leader of the national movement. Although initially committed to peaceful negotiations with the French government, he had an effective role in the armed unrest that started in 1952 when they proved to be unsuccessful. He was arrested and imprisoned on La Galite Island for two years, before being exiled in France. There, he led negotiations with Prime minister Pierre Mendès France and obtained internal autonomy agreements in exchange for the end of the unrest. Bourguiba returned victorious to Tunis on 1 June 1955, but was challenged by Salah Ben Youssef in the party leadership. Ben Youssef and his supporters disagreed with Bourguiba's "soft" policies and demanded full independence of the Maghreb. This resulted in a civil war that opposed Bourguibists, who favored a stepwise policy and modernism, and Youssefists, the conservative Arab nationalist supporters of Ben Youssef. The conflict ended with the Sfax Congress of 1955 in favor of Bourguiba. Following the country's independence in 1956, Bourguiba was appointed prime minister by king Muhammad VIII al-Amin and acted as de facto ruler before proclaiming the Republic, on 25 July 1957. He was elected interim President of Tunisia by parliament until the ratification of the Constitution. During his rule, he implemented a strong education system, worked on developing the economy, supported gender equality and proclaimed a neutral foreign policy, making him an exception among Arab leaders. The main reform that was passed was the Code of Personal Status which implemented a modern society. He set a strong presidential system which turned to be a twenty-year one-party state dominated by his own party, the Socialist Destourian Party. A cult of personality also developed around him, before he proclaimed himself president for life in 1975, during his fourth 5-year term. The end of his 30-year rule was marked by his declining health, a war of succession, and the rise of clientelism and Islamism. On 7 November 1987 he was removed from power by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and kept under house arrest in a residence in Monastir. He remained there to his death and was buried in a mausoleum he had previously built.

3. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1936 - 2019)

With an HPI of 70.09, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is the 3rd most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 75 different languages.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Arabic: زين العابدين بن علي, romanized: Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn bin ʿAlī, Tunisian Arabic: Zīn il-ʿĀbdīn bin ʿAlī; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali (بن علي) or Ezzine (الزين), was a Tunisian politician who served as the second president of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tunisian revolution, he was overthrown and fled to Saudi Arabia. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987. He assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba by declaring him incompetent. Ben Ali led an authoritarian regime. He was reelected in several non-democratic elections where he won with enormous majorities, each time exceeding 90% of the vote; his final re-election coming on 25 October 2009. Ben Ali was the penultimate surviving leader deposed in the Arab Spring; he was survived by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, the latter dying in February 2020. On 14 January 2011, following a month of protests against his rule, he fled to Saudi Arabia along with his wife Leïla Ben Ali and their three children. The interim Tunisian government asked Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant, charging him with money laundering and drug trafficking. A Tunisian court sentenced Ben Ali and his wife in absentia to 35 years in prison on 20 June 2011 on charges of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewelry, which was put up for auction. In June 2012, a Tunisian court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for inciting violence and murder and another life sentence by a military court in April 2013 for violent repression of protests in Sfax. He served none of those sentences, subsequently dying in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 19 September 2019 at the age of 83 after nearly a decade in exile.

4. Gordian II (190 - 238)

With an HPI of 68.33, Gordian II is the 4th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 60 different languages.

Gordian II (Latin: Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus; c. 192 – April 238) was Roman emperor with his father Gordian I in 238 AD, the Year of the Six Emperors. Seeking to overthrow Maximinus Thrax, he died in battle outside Carthage. Since he died before his father, Gordian II likely had the shortest reign of any Roman emperor, at 22 days, possibly second only to Quintillus, who ruled for no less than 17 days.

5. Masinissa (-238 - -148)

With an HPI of 67.71, Masinissa is the 5th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Masinissa (Numidian: , Masnsen; c. 238 BC – 148 BC: 180, 183 ), also spelled Massinissa, Massena and Massan, was an ancient Numidian king best known for leading a federation of Massylii Berber tribes during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), ultimately uniting them into a kingdom that became a major regional power in North Africa. Much of what is known about Masinissa comes from the Livy's History of Rome, and to a lesser extent Cicero's Scipio's Dream. As the son of a Numidian chieftain allied to Carthage, he fought against the Romans in the Second Punic War, but later switched sides upon concluding that Rome would prevail. With the support of his erstwhile enemy, he united the eastern and western Numidian tribes and founded the Kingdom of Numidia. As a Roman ally, Masinissa took part in the decisive Battle of Zama in 202 BC that effectively ended the war in Carthage's defeat; he also allowed his wife Sophonisba, a famed Carthaginian noblewoman who had influenced Numidian affairs to Carthage's benefit, to poison herself in lieu of being paraded in a triumph in Rome.: 180–181 After inheriting a larger, more powerful kingdom now backed by Rome, Masinissa played a decisive role in provoking Carthage into triggering the Third Punic War, which ended in the city's complete destruction, and left Numidia the sole power in northwest Africa. He ruled for 54 years until his death at age 90. He was regarded as a staunch ally of Rome, and an unusually vigorous ruler, leading troops until his death and fathering some 44 sons.: 181 His tomb in Cirta (modern-day Constantine in Algeria) bears the inscription MSNSN, read Mas'n'sen, or "Their Lord". The Greek historian Polybius, who wrote extensively about the Punic Wars and is reputed to have met Masinissa, described him as "the best man of all the kings of our time", writing that "his greatest and most divine achievement was this: Numidia had been before his time universally unproductive, and was looked upon as incapable of producing any cultivated fruits. He was the first and only man who showed that it could produce cultivated fruits just as well as any other country". In the following centuries, Numidia would become known as the breadbasket of Rome. In addition to his legacy as a major figure in the Punic Wars, Masinissa is largely viewed as an icon by the Berbers, many of whom consider him their forefather.

6. Mago Barca (-243 - -203)

With an HPI of 67.49, Mago Barca is the 6th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Mago Barca (Punic: 𐤌𐤂‬𐤍 𐤁𐤓𐤒‬, MGN BRQ; died 202 BC) was a Barcid Carthaginian who played an important role in the Second Punic War, leading forces of Carthage against the Roman Republic in Iberia and northern and central Italy. Mago was the third son of Hamilcar Barca, was the brother of Hannibal and Hasdrubal, and was the brother-in-law of Hasdrubal the Fair. Little is known about his early years, except that, unlike his brothers, he is not mentioned during the ambush in which his father was killed in 228 BC.

7. Clodius Albinus (150 - 197)

With an HPI of 65.98, Clodius Albinus is the 7th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.

Decimus Clodius Albinus (c. 150 – 19 February 197) was a Roman imperial pretender between 193 and 197. He was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania after the murder of Pertinax in 193 (known as the "Year of the Five Emperors"). Initially Albinus cooperated with another contender for the throne, Septimius Severus, but the two turned on each other in 196 and commenced a civil war. Albinus died in battle the following year.

8. Beji Caid Essebsi (1926 - 2019)

With an HPI of 65.95, Beji Caid Essebsi is the 8th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 63 different languages.

Beji Caid Essebsi (or es-Sebsi; Arabic: الباجي قائد السبسي, romanized: Muhammad al-Bājī Qā’id as-Sibsī, ; 29 November 1926 – 25 July 2019) was a Tunisian politician who served as the sixth president of Tunisia from 31 December 2014 until his death on 25 July 2019. Previously, he served as the minister of foreign affairs from 1981 to 1986 and as the prime minister from February 2011 to December 2011.Essebsi's political career spanned six decades, culminating in his leadership of Tunisia in its transition to democracy. Essebsi was the founder of the Nidaa Tounes political party, which won a plurality in the 2014 parliamentary election. In December 2014, he won the first regular presidential election following the Tunisian Revolution, becoming Tunisia's first democratically elected president.

9. Aemilianus (207 - 253)

With an HPI of 64.98, Aemilianus is the 9th most famous Tunisian Politician. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages.

Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus (c. 210 – September 253), also known as Aemilian, was Roman emperor for three months in 253. Commander of the Moesian troops, he obtained an important victory against the invading Goths and was, for this reason, acclaimed emperor by his army. He then moved quickly to Roman Italy, where he defeated Emperor Trebonianus Gallus at the Battle of Interamna Nahars in August 253, only to be killed by his own men a month later when another general, Valerian, proclaimed himself emperor and moved against Aemilian with a larger army.

10. Sophonisba (-300 - -203)

With an HPI of 62.75, Sophonisba is the 10th most famous Tunisian Politician. Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Sophonisba (in Punic, 𐤑𐤐𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋 Ṣap̄anbaʿal) (fl. 206 - 203 BC) was a Carthaginian noblewoman who lived during the Second Punic War, and the daughter of Hasdrubal Gisco. She held influence over the Numidian political landscape, convincing king Syphax to change sides during the war, and later, in an act that became legendary, she poisoned herself rather than be humiliated in a Roman triumph.

People

Pantheon has 56 people classified as Tunisian politicians born between 471 BC and 1975. Of these 56, 17 (30.36%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Tunisian politicians include Moncef Marzouki, Mohamed Ghannouchi, and Fouad Mebazaa. The most famous deceased Tunisian politicians include Hannibal, Habib Bourguiba, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. As of April 2024, 3 new Tunisian politicians have been added to Pantheon including Ahmed Hachani, Najla Bouden, and Sitt al-Mulk.