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Muhammad VII al-Munsif, (; 4 March 1881 in La Manouba – 1 September 1948 in Pau)El Mokhtar Bey, De la dynastie husseinite. Le fondateur Hussein Ben Ali. 1705 - 1735 - 1740, éd. Serviced, Tunis, 1993, p. 70 commonly known as Moncef Bey () was the Bey of Tunis between 19 June 1942 and 14 May 1943. He was the penultimate ruler of the Husainid dynasty.
As a young man Moncef Bey distinguished himself during the events of April 1922 when he supported the nationalist Destour movement and prevailed on his father Naceur Bey to receive its representatives. He was invested as Bey al-Mahalla on 30 April 1942 and succeeded his first cousin once removed, Ahmed Bey, on the latter's death on 19 June of the same year. Paul Sebag, Tunis. Histoire d'une ville, éd. L'Harmattan, Paris, 1998, p. 493
On 12 October 1942 at the Eid al-Fitr ceremonies in the palace of La Marsa, Moncef Bey expressed his surprise that there was not a single Tunisian among the senior government personnel who were attending with the French Resident General, Admiral Jean-Pierre Esteva. Esteva replied 'seuls les Français sont aptes aux postes de commande' ('only the French are suited to positions of authority'). The Bey then sent a telegram to Marshal Pétain asking for Esteva to be recalled. and tension continued to mount between the Bey and Esteva Henri Grimal, La décolonisation de 1919 à nos jours, éd. Complexe, Bruxelles, 1985, p. 100 In December 1942, a confrontation blew up during a session of the Council of Ministers between Esteva and the Minister of Justice Abdeljelil Zaouche, after the Minister expressed reservations about funding for the National Gendarmerie and Esteva angrily rejected any criticism of the gendarmerie. Moncef Bey considered that the Resident General's tone was an insult to his representative and thus to his own person.
Axis powers troops arrived in Tunisia on 16 November 1942 and the Tunisian Campaign turned much of the country into a battlefield. Moncef Bey was confronted by demands from Pétain to remain loyal to France and from Roosevelt to allow free passage for Allied troops. Moncef Bey proclaimed Tunisian neutrality while secretly informing Roosevelt that Tunisia would support the Allies. He also refused an offer from the Italian ambassador Bombieri to repudiate the Treaty of Bardo and enter into a new treaty with Italy.
On 1 January 1943 the Bey named as his new Prime Minister Mohamed Chenik, who was described as 'half-American' by the German representative Rudolf Rahn. Chenik headed a government which included the Salah Farhat, the Neo Destour Mahmoud El Materi and an independent, Aziz Djellouli.Jean-François Martin, Histoire de la Tunisie contemporaine. De Ferry à Bourguiba. 1881-1956, éd. L’Harmattan, Paris, 1993, p. 151
Moncef Bey was sent to Laghouat in southern Algeria, where he formally abdicated on 8 July. He was then moved to the small town of Ténès, in the north of the country and on 17 October 1945 he was moved again to Pau where he remained until his death on 1 September 1948.Akram Ellyas et Benjamin Stora, Les 100 portes du Maghreb : l’Algérie, le Maroc, la Tunisie. Trois voies singulières pour allier islam et modernité, éd. Atelier, Paris, 1999, p. 237 His remains were brought back to Tunis and he was buried with full honours in the Jellaz Cemetery unlike other ruling members of his family, who were mostly buried in Tourbet el Bey.
He is commemorated today in the Place Moncef-Bey in La Marsa, formally named on 1 September 2012 by President Moncef Marzouki. « À La Marsa, inauguration de la place Moncef-Bey au lieu du 7-Novembre », Tuniscope, 1/9/2012
After Lalla Traki's death in 1919 he married Lalla Zoubaida (née Azzouz) and then another cousin, Lalla Habiba (1888-1969), whom he divorced. His last wife was Lalla Arbiya in August 1942, and she followed him into exile, dying in 1974.
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