In this paper, I examine the revisiting of Tunisian nationalist figure Abdelaziz al-Thaalbi’s legacy in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. Specifically, I compare attempts by Tunisian “Islamists” and “progressives” - and those sympathetic to their causes - to claim Thaalbi as their forefather. Relying on documentaries, political speeches and books, all released post-January 2011, this paper argues that Tunisian Islamists have attempted to recast Thaalbi as a more religiously conservative forefather of the Tunisian nation, in the place of Habib Bourguiba, by focusing on Thaalbi’s later years. Conversely, Tunisian progressives have focused on some of the lesser-known aspects of Thaalbi’s young adult life, including his 1904 blasphemy trial, to claim him as a free-thinker, skeptical of the religious establishment. The paper concludes with my own evaluation of Thaalbi’s legacy, based on some private archives newly available to researchers. I point out that, in both of these retellings of the the emergence of the Tunisian nation, Tunisian Islamists and progressives have ignored Thaalbi’s shifting, and sometimes favorable, attitudes towards the French protectorate in favor of a firmer anti-French position.