History of Tunisia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The History of Tunisia is subdivided into the following articles:

Outlines of early Tunisia
Outlines of early Tunisia
The History of early Tunisia predates the punic era, and was eventually shaped and characterized by the Berber culture. The Berbers lived as an independent people in 'prehistory'. Later they became unassimilated 'hosts' to long-term settlers from Phoenicia, called here Punic, who ruled over the...
History of Punic era Tunisia
History of Roman era Tunisia
History of Roman era Tunisia
History of Roman-era Tunisia describes first the Roman Africa Province. Rome took control of Carthage after the Third Punic War . There was a period of Berber kings allied with Rome . Lands surrounding Carthage were annexed and reorganized, and the city of Carthage rebuilt, becoming the third city...
History of early Islamic Tunisia
History of early Islamic Tunisia
The History of early Islamic Tunisia opens with the arrival of the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam, and its calendar. The Arab conquest followed strategy designed by the Umayyad Caliphate regarding ist long-term conflict with the Byzantine Empire...
History of medieval Tunisia
History of medieval Tunisia
The medieval era opens with the commencement of a process that would return Ifriqiya, i.e., Tunisia, and the entire Maghrib to local Berber rule. The precipitating cause was the departure of the Shia Fatimid Caliphate to their newly conquered territories in Egypt. To govern Ifriqiya in their stead,...
History of Ottoman era Tunisia
History of French-era Tunisia
History of modern Tunisia
History of modern Tunisia
In its modern history, Tunisia has become a sovereign republic, called the al-Jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah. Tunisia has over ten million citizens, almost all of Arab-Berber descent. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north and east, Libya to the southeast, and Algeria to the west. Tunis is the capital...

Names

Tunisia, al-Jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah, is a sovereign republic. Yet the country's proper name has changed radically more than once over the course of millenia. Hence, such a term as "ancient Tunisia" is frankly anachronistic. Nonetheless, "Tunisia" will be used throughout this history for the sake of continuity.

Undoubtedly, the most ancient Berbers

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

had various names for their land and settlements

Outlines of early Tunisia

The History of early Tunisia predates the punic era, and was eventually shaped and characterized by the Berber culture. The Berbers lived as an independent people in 'prehistory'. Later they became unassimilated 'hosts' to long-term settlers from Phoenicia, called here Punic, who ruled over the...

here, one early Punic-era Berber name being Massyli

Massylii

The Massylii or Maesulians were a Berber federation of tribes of eastern Numidia which was formed by an amalgamation of smaller tribes during the 4th century BC. They were ruled by a king. On their loosely defined western frontier was the powerful rival the kingdom of the Masaesyli. To their east...

. After the Phoenicians arrived, their city of Carthage

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

evolved to asume a dominant position over much of the western Mediterranean; this city-state gave its name to the region. Following the Punic Wars, the Romans established here their Province of Africa, taking the then not-widely-known name of Africa from a Berber word for 'the people'. The Roman capital was the rebuilt city of Carthage. After the Arab and Muslim

History of early Islamic Tunisia

The History of early Islamic Tunisia opens with the arrival of the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam, and its calendar. The Arab conquest followed strategy designed by the Umayyad Caliphate regarding ist long-term conflict with the Byzantine Empire...

conquest, this name continued in use, as the region was called in Arabic Ifriqiya
Ifriqiya
In medieval history, Ifriqiya or Ifriqiyah was the area comprising the coastal regions of what are today western Libya, Tunisia, and eastern Algeria. This area included what had been the Roman province of Africa, whose name it inherited....

. Its capital was relocated to the newly-built city of Kairouan

Kairouan

Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...

. The Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

s later moved the capital of Ifriqiya to Mahdia

Mahdia

Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate.- History :...

, a city they founded, but then the Zirid

Zirid

The Zirid dynasty were a Sanhadja Berber dynasty, originating in modern Algeria, initially on behalf of the Fatimids, for about two centuries, until weakened by the Banu Hilal and finally destroyed by the Almohads. Their capital was Kairouan...

s returned it to Kairouan.

In the twelfth century the Berber Almohad

History of medieval Tunisia

The medieval era opens with the commencement of a process that would return Ifriqiya, i.e., Tunisia, and the entire Maghrib to local Berber rule. The precipitating cause was the departure of the Shia Fatimid Caliphate to their newly conquered territories in Egypt. To govern Ifriqiya in their stead,...

s [al-Muwwahids] conquered the country and began to rule it from Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, an ancient but until-then unimportant city, which thus rose to become the capital. The whole country then came to be called Tunis after this city (near the ruins of ancient Carthage). Tunis continued as the capital under Turkish rule, and remains so today. Only in the last years of the nineteenth century, under the French protectorate

History of French era Tunisia

The History of French-era Tunisia commenced in 1881 with the French protectorate and ended in 1956 with Tunisian independence. The French presence in Tunisia came five decades after their occupation of neighboring Algeria. Both of these lands had been possessions of the Ottoman Empire for three...

, did the current name Tunisie [in French] or Tunisiyya [in Arabic], (Tunisia in English), come into common use.

During these millennia of history under different states, the names for the country changed. They include: Massyli, Carthage, Africa, Ifriqiya, Tunis, Tunisia.

History Outline

Its long history may be very briefly outlined or summarized. Here a reverse chronological order is employed. |8| The two presidential regimes of independent Tunisia have fostered and steered the country's economic development, and navigated the state in the once bipolar now post–Cold War world. Tunisia has retained close ties both to Arab countries and to the West. |7| Earlier the French

French colonial empire

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

had incorporated Tunisia into their sphere (1881–1956), preceded by many Italian

Tunisian Italians

The Italian Tunisians were the Italians living in Tunisia who promoted the possession of this northern African country by the Kingdom of Italy and even promoted a form of Italian irredentism of Tunisia during the era of Fascism....

settlers, merchants and farmers. Modernizing of methods in business and industry was achieved. |6| Before that, Tunisia was under the Ottoman Turks

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

who had seized lasting control in 1574 after a brief Spanish occupation. The Ottomans eventually held Tunisia indirectly, through the Muradid

Muradid Dynasty

The Muradid Dynasty was a dynasty which ruled over Tunisia from 1613 to 1705.-History:The dynasty was founded by Murad Bey, a janissary of Corsican origin. Ramdan Bey, ruler of Tunis, had sponsored the Corsican Murad since his youth. After Ramdan's death in 1613, Murad then followed his...

and Husaynid Beys. The Ottoman Empire used the Turkish language; with it arrived a multi-ethnic influx. |5| Prior to the Turkish era, the long medieval period had seen a cultural renaissance under the rule of native Berbers, already Arabized. First the Zirid

Zirid

s (973-1160) had ruled as vassals of the Fatimid

Fatimid

s who had relocated along the Nile; later the Zirids established an independent Ifriqiya, by breaking with the Fatimid

Fatimid

s. Next the Almohad

Almohad

The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...

movement succeeded in uniting the entire Maghrib, including Ifriqiya. Then the local Hafsid dynasty (1227-1574) of Tunis followed, ruling for many centuries during times both prosperous and lean, contested and peaceful. Their lands stretched form Constantine

Constantine, Algeria

Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. It was the capital of the same-named French département until 1962. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, on the banks of Rhumel river...

to Tarabulus.

|4| The Islamic era had opened with the arrival of the Arabs (late seventh century). The Arabs brought their language and the religion of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, and its new calendar. The Arabs also renewed the region's cultural ties with the Semitic east. Later the Fatimid

Fatimid

s, a Shi'a state, arose in Ifriqiya, circa 909; the Fatimds eventually conquered and ruled Egypt. |3| During the last pre-Islamic centuries the Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

ruled, along with Berbrer vassals, and before them the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

(439-533). Over two thousand years ago the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

had arrived, initially allied with Berber kingdoms; their cosmopolitan Empire long governed this Africa region as part of an integrated Mediterranean world. |2| Before the Romans, came the Phoenicians, by sea from the eastern Mediterranean about three thousand years ago. The Phoenicians founded here the celebrated city of Carthage. Punic culture interacted continuously with the native Berbers, but the two did not then merge. |1| Earlier came migrations from surrounding territories including the north, the east, and the Sahel

Sahel

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

region of Africa. Perhaps eight millennia ago, already there were peoples established here, among whom the proto-Berbers (coming overland generally from the east) mingled and mixed, and from whom the Berbers

Berber people

would spring, during an era of their ethno-genesis.

Climate change

Earlier in an era of prehistory the Sahara region to the south was not an arid desert, but rather in places grasslands grew with seasonal lakes, and corresponding flora and fauna

Outlines of early Tunisia

. Yet during its recorded history the physical features and environment of the land now called Tunisia have remained fairly constant; however, there were differences, e.g., the northern forests during ancient times grew more abundantly, the land being perhaps watered better.

Geography

Weather in the far north is temperate, enjoying a Mediterranean climate

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

, with mild rainy winters and hot dry summers. The natural terrain is fertile, the fields often broken by woodlands, e.g., with cork, oak, and pine. Bizerta on the north coast has a large, developed harbor. Nearby lies the large lake of Ichkeul, a favored stop used by hundreds of thousands of migrating birds. The fertile river valley of the Medjerda (Wadi Majardah) (anciently called the Bagradas) flows eastward and empties into the sea north of Tunis

Tunis

. The Medjerda and vicinity have been very productive throughout history and today remain valuable farmland. Grain is grown in the upper Medjerda, while on the lower Medjerda and in spots surrounding Tunis, vinyards and vegetables.

Along the eastern sea coast the sahel

Sahel, Tunisia

Sahel is an area of Tunisia. It forms the central part of the eastern shore, from the south of Hammamet to Mahdia. Its main town is Sousse, called "the Pearl of the Sahel".-Politics:* Habib Bourguiba;* Zine El Abidine Ben Ali;* Kamel Morjane;...

enjoys a moderate climate, less rainfall but with heavy dew; these coastlands currently support orchards (predominately olive, also various fruit trees), and livestock grazing. The port cities of Hammamet, Sousse

Sousse

Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...

, Monastir

Monastir, Tunisia

-Areas within Monastir:Monastir's north-eastern territories lead into a place called Route de la Falaise, through which you will reach its most notable suburb, Skanes, which is 6 miles from Monastir's town centre...

, Mahdia

Mahdia

Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate.- History :...

are here; further south are Sfax

Sfax

Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...

[Safaqis], Gabès

Gabès

Gabès , also spelt Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, the ancient Tacape, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate, a province of Tunisia. It lies on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 116,323 it is the 6th largest Tunisian city.-History:Strabo refers to Tacape as an...

[Qabis], and also the island of Djerba

Djerba

Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...

. In and around Djerba lie lands continuing the Sahel. Mineral wealth is extracted from various sites, e.g., phosphates (near Gafsa

Gafsa

Gafsa is the capital of Gafsa Governorate of Tunisia. Its name was appropriated by archaeologists for the Mesolithic Capsian culture. With a population of 84,676, it is the 9th Tunisian city.-Overview:...

) and hydrocarbons (in the desert south). Near the mountainous Algerian border in the west rises Tunisia's highest point, Jebel ech Chambi at 1544 meters. From this area the high tell

Tell

A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...

descends northeastward to the coast, continuing through Cape Bon, east of Tunis. Called the Dorsale, Tunisia's mountain range is interrupted by several passes, including the Kasserine

Kasserine

Kasserine is the capital city of the Kasserine Governorate, in west-central Tunisia. It is situated below Jebel ech Chambi, Tunisia's highest mountain. Its population is 76,243 . In classical antiquity it was a Roman colony known as Colonia Cillilana or plain Cillium.- See also :* Battle of the...

.

Between the coastal sahel and the high mountains lies the bled, seasonally-parched plains that are more sparsely populated, but where the sacred city of Kairouan

Kairouan

is situated. In the near south, cutting east-west across the low-lying country, are the Tunisian salt lakes

Tunisian salt lakes

The Tunisian salt lakes are a series of lakes in central Tunisia, lying south of the Atlas Mountains at the northern edge of the Sahara. The lakes include, from east to west, the Chott el Fedjedji, Chott el Djerid, and Chott el Gharsa....

(called chotts or shatts), which continue westward far into Algeria. This region forms the Djerid; quality dates are cultivated here in substantial quantities, due to use of subsurface aquifers. Further south lies the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

desert; here Tunisia touches the north-eastern edge of vast sand dunes comprising the Grand Erg Oriental
Grand Erg Oriental
The Grand Erg Oriental is a large erg in the Sahara desert. Situated for the most part in Saharan lowlands of northeast Algeria, the Grand Erg Oriental covers an area some 600 km wide by 200 km north to south...

.

Until the arrival of the Ottomans, Tunisia included additional lands to the west, and to the east. The region surrounding Constantine, Algeria

Constantine, Algeria

(anciently, western Numidia) was formerly ruled primarily from Tunis. The coastlands by Tripoli, Libya [also called Tarabulus] also had been, before the Turks, in long political association with Tunis.

Today Tunisia has 163,610 square kilometers (63,170 square miles). It fronts the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

to the north and east, Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

extends to the southeast, and Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

is west. The capital Tunis

Tunis

is located near the coast, roughly between the mouth of the Medjerda river to the north and Cap Bon

Cap Bon

Cap Bon , also Watan el-kibli, is a peninsula in far northeastern Tunisia. It is located at around . It is surrounded by the Gulf of Tunis in the north. Towns located on the peninsula include Nabeul, Kelibia and Menzel Temime. The ruins of the Punic town Kerkouane are located here....

(Watan el-Kibli). With a population now of about 800,000, Tunis has been the principal city in the region for over eight centuries. The second largest city Sfax

Sfax

is noted for industry, with about 350,000 people.

Population

The present day Republic of Tunisia includes about ten million inhabitants, chiefly of Arab-Berber descent. Yet also a substantial minority composes a broad ethnic mix, coming from throughout the Mediterranean region, both east and west, many dating to the Phoenician, Roman, or Ottoman eras, e.g., Sicilians and Greeks, Corsicans and French, Spanish and Germans, Egyptians and Jews, Circassians, Iranians, and Turks; also in this mix are Tunisians whose ancestry traces southward across the deserts to Black Africa. Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

became the primary language following the 7th-century Muslim conquest, with French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

also widely spoken. Islam is the religion, 99% are said to be Sunni Muslims.