Kairouan
In 670, for the third time in thirty years, the Arabs who had subdued Egypt, invaded Ifriquiya (Roman Africa which had become a Byzantine province). This time they made just one excursion but it was a serious one: conquest followed by occupation.
A great soldier, Oqba Ibn Nafi led them to victory. The Arabs had wider plans; they aimed to subdue the whole Maghreb region. Oqba needed a base to operate from. A base well placed in the interior with an Islamic capital that was not rooted with foreigners.
The famous historian of the 14th century, Ibn Khaldoun, tells how Oqba decide on Kairouan: his armies arrived one day in front of an impenetrable wood “this is what we are looking for” he said. But his companions cried out against the choice saying that it was not only swampy but also overrun with snakes and wild beasts. So Oqba gathered up the 18 members of his ranks who were followers of the Prophet and ordered the animals to disappear, which they did. At this, the rest of his men, formerly Berbers became Islamic converts on the spot.
At once, Oqba outlined the foundations of Kairouan. In 800, an Arab chief, Ibn el Aghalab took away from the Califs of Baghdad, sovereigns of Ifriquiya, the title of Emir and bestowed it on himself. The Aghlabite dynasty was born and it was going to continue in its splendor for a century. Kairouan adorned herself with ramparts, gardens, monuments and admirable mosques.
The holy town became a place of pilgrimage. In 910, the Berbers seized Kairouan and established the Hafcides dynasty in Ifriquiya. This regime was to last more than three centuries. But the reign of Kairouan had ended, that of Tunis was about to begin. The thing left to Kairouan is her spiritual side, a reputation for being a great religious center. Even today, seven pilgrimages to Kairouan are equal, in the eyes of the believers, to one trip to Mecca.
Tunis
Until the VIIth century and the Arab invasion, Tunis was overshadowed by Carthage. Spared by the Byzantins and the Arabs, she grew, while Carthage was dying a slow and agonizing death. By the time the crusades arrived, she was a proud and powerful city. The siege was to end after a month with the Death of Saint Louis in Tunis. A treaty dawn up at the time and always scrupulously adhered to, gave to the Christians the right to have their churches there and to trade on the same terms as Muslims. Under the Hafcides, Tunis was to live her golden age. A city of 100,000 people, which intellectually and religiously rivaled with Cairo and Baghdad.
In the redoubtable fortified port, the corsairs brought back to their sultan the captured Christian ships. In the medina, where each guild had its own souk, all the Mediterranean people (Spaniards, Jews, Venetians, Marseillais and Genoans) trade together in mutual tolerance. But the beginning of the XVIth century saw the arrival of the dreaded Barberousse brothers who sieved the Mediterranean of its treasures and took Tunis for their masters, the sultans of Constantinople. The power of the Hafcides had reached its end. But the troops of Charles Quint, chased the Turks in full force and re-established the Hafcides prince Moulay Hassan. This was the best way of keeping him under control and for thirty years, Tunis, where Cervantes was to be stationed, was a Spanish protectorate.
At the end of the century, the Turks returned and installed a Bey who founded the first Beylical dynasty. In 1705, the Bey broke away from the Turkish Empire, then in decline, and reigned until 1881 when the French protectorate was established. On the 20th March 1956, the French government recognized the independence of Tunisia.
The Bardo museum in Tunis is considered as one of the richest museums in the world. Housed in one of the former Husseinite palaces, it encloses all the treasures of Tunisian history: from pre-historic times to Punic civilization, to the roman era,to christianism times, to muslim civilization and up to the twentieth century.
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