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Tunisia has a privileged
position in the heart or the Mediterranean. It has a diversified
landscape and climate, with rainy mountains in the North, a sand
desert in the South and sandy beaches that stretch along 1,300
kilometres of coastline.
Located at the
north-eastern tip of Africa, Tunisia is bathed in the north and east
by the Mediterranean which gives it its mild temperate climate.
Algeria borders it to the west and Libya to the south.
Its first inhabitants
were the Libycs or Libyans, later called the Berbers; through the
centuries they mixed with different ethnic groups, particularly the
Arabs who became dominant starting in the 8th century. The Tunisian
people is the result of this mixture.
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In 814 BC the Phoenicians
who came from Tyre founded the city of Carthage and, with the local
peoples, created a new civilisation: the Punic civilisation.A
rivalry that grew in time between Carthagenians and Romans for the
control of the Mediterranean led to the Punic Wars (264-146 BC).
The victorious Romans
seized Carthage, burned it to the ground and occupied the territory
until 439 AD when the Vandals conquered the ancient province of
Africa and occupied it until 533 AD.
The Byzantine people established their rule over the country until
the middle of the 7th century which marks the beginning of the Arab
conquest.
The city of Kairouan was founded in 670 and became the political and
cultural centre of the country and the seat of the first independent
Arab dynasty: the dynasty of the Aghlabides (800-909). |
 LIt
was succeeded by the Fatimide dynasty (909-973) which established
its first capital of Ifriqia in Mahdia before moving on to Egypt
where Cairo was established as the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate
(973).
Under Zirid rule
(973-1160) the country went through a period of economic prosperity
but great political instability that ultimately led to the downfall
of the dynasty
The Almohad Caliph
Abdelmoumin Ibn Ali came from Morocco to oust the Normans in 1160
and attach Tunisia to his kingdom. Tunis, which was then ruled by
the local dynasty of Beni Khorassane (1108-1158), became the
country's capital. Before returning to Morocco Abdelmoumen
designated a Berber leader as Governor or Ifriqia; he was Abou
Mohamed Abdelwahid Ibn Abi Hafs whose son Abou Zakaria was going to
found the Hafsid dynasty (1236-1570). |
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