Ahmad I (Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد باشا باي), 2 December 1805 [1] – 30 May 1855[2]) was the tenth Husainid Bey of Tunis, ruling from 1837 until his death.

[5] Soon after his accession, Ahmad Bey received the traditional Firman from the Sublime Porte which formally invested him with authority to rule from the Ottoman Empire and furnished him with the insignia of office.

[6] The following day, Osman Bey made his official entry into Tunis on horseback, preceded by all the ministers of the beylical cabinet who went before him until he was two leagues from the city.

Ahmad Bey also permitted the Christian community of Tunis, consisting mainly of European merchants, to enlarge their small church near the Bab el Bhar.

[9] In June and July 1846 the Duke of Montpensier, son of King Louis Philippe of France visited Tunis and Carthage.

This visit was organised by his advisor Giuseppe Raffo (whose sister was married to his uncle) and the French consul, and took place in November 1846.

At certain times Mahmoud Ben Ayed also served as Trade Minister, Kuchuk Muhammad in the honorific post of Minister in charge of the security home of Ahmad Bey's reforms wasted money, such as the large frigate built at La Goulette that could not make it through the channel to the sea.

All were appointed and salaried by the state and placed under the control of a sharia council dominated by the two leading jurists of their time, Sidi Brahim Riahi, the Maliki Grand Mufti and Mohamed Bayram IV, who was both the Hanafi Grand Mufti and the first in Tunisia to bear the title Shaykh al-Islam.

[19] Although he had a great desire for reform, particularly in economic and military matters, his initiatives ultimately had little success because of a poor understanding of their financial consequences and the lack of expertise in his government.

[22] He died in 1855 in the summer palace of Sharfiya, at La Goulette, and was buried in the Tourbet el Bey in the Medina of Tunis.