In the earliest known period of its history, the region now
called Tunisia was part of the Carthaginian Empire (see
Carthage). According to tradition, Phoenician traders founded
the city of Carthage in 814 bc at a location slightly
northeast of the site of modern Tunis. In subsequent centuries
Carthage became the center of a mighty empire that dominated
most of northern Africa and intermittently ruled the southern
part of the Iberian Peninsula, Sardinia, and parts of Sicily.
Beginning in 264 bc Carthage clashed with the expanding Roman
Empire in a series of bloody struggles known as the Punic
Wars. In the last of these, the Third Punic War (149-146 bc),
Rome defeated the Carthaginians and completely destroyed their
capital.
From the 12th century BC the
Phoenicians had a series of trading posts and ports of call on
the North African coast. Carthage was founded in the 8th
century BC in the general vicinity of present-day Tunis, and
by the 6th century the Carthaginian kingdom encompassed most
of present-day Tunisia. Carthage became part of Rome's African
province in 146 BC after the Punic Wars. Roman rule endured
until the Muslim Arab invasions in the mid-7th century AD.
Since then Tunisia has been fought over, won, and lost by the
'Abbasids; their vassals the Aghlabids; the Shi'ite Fatimids;
the Almohads; the Hafsids; Spain; and finally the Ottoman
Turks, who conquered the place in 1574 and held it until their
own decline in the late 19th century.
The region was overrun by Arab
adherents of Islam in the 7th century. The Arab conquerors
ruled from the late 7th to the early 16th century. During that
period they replaced the Roman-Christian culture with a Muslim
way of life. During the Muslim era a succession of dynasties
wielded power, notably the Aghlabites (800-909), the Fatimids
(909-973), and the Zeirids (10th century). In the latter part
of the 12th century the Normans, led by the Sicilian ruler
Roger II, briefly occupied a number of important coastal
points. The Arabs recovered the region later in the century,
and the Arab Almohad (12th century) and Hafsite (1228-1574)
dynasties succeeded to power.
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