When a single spiritual leader headed both Jewish communities in Tunis the chief rabbi was always a native of the country or a personality whose ancestors were of African origin. There was, however, one exception: the renowned talmudist R. Isaac Lombroso, who was born in Tunis but was of Leghorn parentage. His teachers, however, were Tunisians: R. Ẓemaḥ Serfati and R. Abraham Tayeb (d. 1714), the famous "Baba Sidi" who exerted a great influence on the whole of Tunisian Jewry. The grandson of the latter, also named R. Abraham, wrote Ḥayyei Avraham (1826), a voluminous commentary on the Talmud accompanied by important notes on Alfasi , Rashi , and Maimonides . His son R. Ḥayyim Tayeb wrote Derekh Ḥayyim (1826) and R. Isaac Tayeb (1830) was also the author of several valuable works. The Bordjel family were Leghorn Jews of Tunisian origin. Their ancestor, R. Abraham Bordjel (d. 1795), was a well-known author and dayyan in Tunis. Members of this family ranked among the leaders of Tunisian Jewry for two centuries. The most famous, R. Elijah Bordjel , simultaneously held the positions of chief rabbi and qa'id of the Jews. From 1750–1850 the Bonan family, Leghorn Jews of African origin, presided over the destinies of the "Grana" of Tunis, who were also headed by other Africans, such as members of the Darmon family. In the sphere of learning and Jewish studies all enmity between the two factions disappeared.

The authority of the rabbis of Tunis was very broad: they supervised the strict observance of religious precepts and the moral conduct of the individual, also issuing regulations pertaining to clothing and condemning the fancy of young women for elegance, jewelry, and fineries. These rabbis were widely known and were consulted from Ereẓ Israel and other countries. They were the first to abolish flogging in Tunis, substituting a heavy fine on behalf of the poor for it; they also compelled the members of all the communities to donate one tenth of their annual profits to charitable and religious institutions. Furthermore, they encouraged marriage between the "Grana" and the "Touansa." From the 17th century Tunis became an important center of Jewish learning: there was a particularly brilliant revival of the study of Talmud and Kabbalah . Ḥ.J.D. Azulai , who visited Tunis in 1773, was impressed by the extensive learning and piety of Tunisian scholars, such as that of his hosts the Cohen-Tanoudjis family, among whom there were scholars and qa’īds. He also became acquainted with the chief rabbi of Tunis, R. Mas ʿ ud Raphael al-Alfasi (d. 1776), author of the novellae Mishnah de-Revuta (1805), and his two sons, Solomon (d. 1801) and Ḥayyim (d. 1783), author of Kerub Mimeshaḥ (1859). In Tunis there were other eminent scholars, such as R. Uzziel Al-Haik (Alhayk ), the author of Mishkenot ha-Ro'im (1760), a rabbinic code in the form of an encyclopedia which deals with every category of problem encountered in the internal and public life of the Jews of Tunisia during the 17th–18th centuries and thus constitutes a valuable source of information that is indispensable to the writing of the history of the Jews of Tunisia. R. Mordecai Carvalho (d. 1785) was a wealthy merchant in Tunis who devoted a large part of his life to rabbinical studies. In 1752 he was appointed rabbi of the Leghorn community and as such was widely known as a rabbinical authority. Of his works, the To'afot Re'em (1761), a commentary on the works of R. Elijah Mizraḥi , is the best known. R. Abraham Boccara (d. 1879), author of Ben Avraham (1882), was also a leader of the "Grana."