The results were examined first by a commission of the Board of Education, which selected the submissions of the hymn poet Jalaleddine Naccache and the composer and director of the Conservatoire of Tunis Salah El Mahdi.

To be completely sure, officials held another larger popular assembly in Monastir, the birth city of the president, where all 23 melodies were played.

The song by Naccache and El Mahdi won, and the nation formally adopted it on 20 March, Tunisia's Independence Day, that year.

"Ḥumāt al-Ḥimā" replaced "ʾAlā Khallidī", following the 1987 Tunisian coup d'état, which brought Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to power on 7 November 1987.

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