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Mohamed Ben Othman Snoussi

Mohamed Ben Othman Snoussi (better known as Mohamed Snoussi), born September 18, 1851 in Tunis and died November 17, 1900, is a Tunisian academic, writer and senior civil servant. From Sadiki College, he became a professor at Zitouna University at just 20 years old. He also worked as a notary before choosing teaching. His reputation earned him the appointment of tutor to Prince Naceur Bey. Major publications Anthology of Tunisian poets: anthology accompanied by biographies and bibliographical notes, the result of five years of work A treatise on prosody composed in verse (1880) An important biographical directory devoted to Tunisian jurisconsults In 1876, he published the poetic works of his master Mahmoud Kabadou Political commitment In 1881, with the establishment of the French protectorate, he lost his position as editor of the Tunisian Official Journal. He then went to Mecca and contacted Emir Abd el-Kader in Damascus and Kheireddine Pasha in Istanbul. Returning to Tunisia in 1884, he became imam of the Hammouda-Pacha mosque and engaged in protesting colonial policies: On April 6, 1884, he organized a public meeting at the Sidi Mahrez mosque and wrote a petition against the new customs policy which replaced Tunisian civil servants with French ones and suppressed Arabic in the administration. In April 1885, he led a bourgeois demonstration against municipal regulations deemed fiscally oppressive and detrimental to Muslim worship. For these actions, he was exiled to Gabès (while his colleague Hassouna Ben Mustapha was exiled to Kef). He was then reinstated as secretary of the mixed real estate court for the Arabic language in 1886.