History of medieval Tunisia

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The present day Republic of Tunisia, al-Jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah, 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; it is located near the ancient site of the city of Carthage.

Throughout its recorded history the physical features and environment of the land of Tunisia have remained fairly constant. Weather in the north is temperate, enjoying a Mediterranean climate, with mild rainy winters and hot dry summers, the terrain being wooded and fertile. The Medjerda river valley (Wadi Majardah, northeast of Tunis) is currently valuable farmland. Along the eastern coast the central plains enjoy a moderate climate, less rainfall but with heavy dew; these coastlands are currently used for orchards and grazing. Near the mountainous Algerian border rises Jebel ech Chambi, the highest point at 1544 meters. In the near south, an east-west belt of salt lakes cuts across the country. Further south lies the Sahara desert, including sand dunes of the Grand Erg Oriental.^[1][2][3]

The medieval era opened with the arrival of the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam, and its calendar.^[4] The first local Islamic ruling house, the Aghlabids, consisted primarily of rule by leading members of this Arab tribe. Next came the Shia Fatimids, who later were to expand their rule and found a dynasty in Egypt. The Almohades followed, a religious movement founded by a Berber religious leader in the western Maghrib, whose empire spread to include Ifriqiya (Tunisia). After them, their heir in Tunis was the local Berber dynasty, the Hafsid, whose rule would continue for centuries with varying success until the Ottoman era.

Contents 1 Umayyad Caliphate in Ifriqiya 1.1 Islamic conquest 1.2 Berber role 2 Aghlabid Dynasty under the Abbasids 2.1 Political culture 2.2 Institutions and Society 3 Fatimids: Shi'a Caliphate, and the Zirids 3.1 Maghribi Origin of the Fatimids 3.2 Zirid succession 3.3 Perspectives and trends 4 Almohads (al-Muwahiddin) 4.1 Movement and Empire 4.2 Rule of the Maghrib 5 Hafsid dynasty of Tunis 5.1 Political chronology 5.2 Commerce and Trade 5.3 Society and culture 5.4 Ibn Khaldun 6 Reference notes 7 See also

[edit] Umayyad Caliphate in Ifriqiya

By 661 the Umayyads had taken firm control of the new Muslim state, which it ruled from Damascus. The Caliph Mu'awiya could see the foreign lands west of Egypt in terms of the Muslim contest with the Byzantine Empire.

[edit] Islamic conquest

In 670 an Arab Muslim army under Uqba ibn Nafi, who had commanded an earlier incursion in 666, entered the region of Ifriqiya (Arabic for the Province of Africa). Arriving by land the Arabs passed by Byzantine fortified positions along the Mediterranean coast. In the more arid south, the city of Kairouan [stronghold in Arabic] was established as their base, and the building of its famous Mosque begun. From 675 to 682 Dinar ibn Abu al-Muhadjir took command of the Arab Muslim army.^[5] In the late 670s, this army defeated the Berber forces (apparently composed of sedentary Christians mainly from the Awreba tribe and perhaps the Sanhadja confederation) led by Kusaila, who was taken prisoner.

In 682, Uqba ibn Nafi reassumed command. He defeated an alliance of Berber forces near Tahirt (Algeria), then proceeded westward in military triumph, eventually reaching the Atlantic coast, where he lamented that before him there was no more land to conquer for Islam. Episodes from his campaigns became legend throughout the Maghrib. Yet the Berber leader held prisoner, Kusaila, escaped. Later Kusaila led a fresh Berber uprising, which interrupted the conquest and claimed the Arab leader's life. Kusaila then formed an enlarged Berber kingdom. Yet Zuhair b. Qais, the deputy of the fallen Arab leader, enlisted Zanata tribes from Cyrenaica to fight for the cause of Islam, and in 686 managed to overturn Kusaila's newly formed kingdom.^[6][7][8]

Under the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705), the Umayyad conquest of North Africa was to advance close to completion. In Egypt a new army of forty thousand was assembled, to be commanded by Hassan ibn al-Nu'man (known to Arabs as "the honest old man"). Meanwhile, the Byzantines had been reinforced. The Arab Muslim army crossed the Cyrene and Tripoli without opposition, then quickly attacked and captured Carthage.

The Berbers, however, continued to offer stiff resistance, then being led by a woman of the Jarawa tribe, whom the Arabs called the prophetess ["al-Kahina" in Arabic]; her actual name was approximately "Damiya".^{[9][10][11][12]} On the river Nini, an alliance of Berbers under Damiya defeated the Muslim armies under al-Nu'man, who escaped returning to Cyrenaica. Thereupon, the Byzantines took advantage of the Berber victory by reoccupying Carthage. Unlike the Berber Kusaila ten years earlier, Damiya did not establish a larger state, evidently being content to rule merely her own tribe. Some commentators speculate that to Damiya the Arabs appeared interested in booty primarily, because she then commenced to ravage and disrupt the region, making it unattractive to raiders looking for spoils of war; of course, it also made her unpopular to the residents. Yet she did not attack the Muslim base at Kairouan. From Egypt the Caliph 'Abdul-Malik had reinforced al-Nu'man in 698, who then reentered Ifriqiya. Although she told her two sons to go over to the Arabs, she herself again gave battle. She lost; al-Nu'man won. It is said that at Bir al-Kahina [well of the prophetess] in the Auras, Damiya was killed.^{[13][14][15][16]}

In 705 Hassan b. al-Nu'man stormed Carthage, overcame and sacked it, leaving it destroyed. A similar fate befell the city of Utica. Near the ruins of Carthage he founded Tunis as a naval base. Muslim ships began to dominate the Mediterranean coast; hence the Byzantines made their final withdrawal from al-Maghrib. Then al-Nu'man was replaced as Muslim military leader by Musa ibn Nusair, who substantially completed the conquest of al-Maghrib. He soon took the city of Tangier and appointed as its governor the Berber Tariq ibn Ziyad.^[17]

[edit] Berber role

The Berber people, also known as the Amazigh, "converted en mass as tribes and assmilated juridically to the Arabs," writes Prof. Hodgson; he then comments that the Berbers were to play a rôle in the west parallel to that played by the Arabs elsewhere in Islam.^[18] For centuries the Berbers lived as semi-pastoralists in or near arid lands at the fringe of civilization, sustaining their isolated identity somewhat like the Arabs. "The Maghrib, islanded between Mediterranean and Sahara, was to the Berbers what Arabia... was to the Arabs."^[19] Hodgson explains: although the Berbers enjoyed more rainfall than the Arabs, their higher mountains made their settlements likewise difficult to access; and though the Imperial cities were more proximous, those cities never incorporated the countryside with a network of market towns, but instead remained aloof from the indigenous rural Berbers.^[20]

A counter argument would be that the Berbers merely imitated the success of the Arab Muslims; the better historical choice would be more uniquely ethnic and authentic, i.e., to articulate their own inner character and fate.^[21][22] Prof. Abdallah Laroui interprets the North African panorama as indicating that the Berbers did in fact carve out for themselves an independent rôle. "From the first century B.C. to the eighth century A.D. the will of the Berbers to be themselves is revealed by the continuity of their efforts to reconstitute the kingdoms of the Carthaginian period, and in this sense the movement was crowned with success."^[23] By choosing to ally not with nearby Europe, familiar in memory by the Roman past,^[24] but rather with the newcomers from distant Arabia, the Berbers knowingly decided their future and historical path. "Their hearts opened to the call of Islam because in it they saw a means of national liberation and territorial independence."^[25]

Environmental and geographic parallels between Berber and Arab are notable, as Hodgeson adumbrates. In addition, the languages spoken by the semitic Arabs and by the Berbers^[26] are both members of the same world language family, the Afro-Asiatic, although from two of its different branches.^[27][28][29] Perhaps this linguistic kinship shares a further resonance, e.g., in mythic explantions, popular symbols, and religious preference,^[30][31][32] in some vital fundamentals of psychology,^[33][34] and in the media of culture and the context of tradition.^[35]

Evidently, long before and after the Islamic conquest, there was some popular sense of a strong and long-standing cultural connection between the Berbers^[36] and the Semites of the Levant, naturally with regard to Carthage^[37][38] and in addition with regard to links yet more ancient and genetic.^[39] These claims of a remote ancestral relationship perhaps facilitated the Berber demand for equal footing with the Arab invaders within the religion of Islam following the conquest.^[40]

From Cyrenaica to al-Andalus, the somewhat-Arabized Berbers continuously remained in communication with each other throughout the following centuries. As a group their distinguishing features are easy to discern within Islam; e.g., while the ulama in the rest of Islam adopted for the most part either the Hanafi or the Shafi'i school of law, the Berbers in the west chose the Maliki madhhab, developing it in the course of time after their own fashion.^[41][42]

Also inducing the Berbers to convert was the early lack of rigor in religious obligations, as well as the prospect of inclusion as warriors in the armies of conquest, with a corresponding share in booty and tribute. A few years later, in 711, the Berber Tariq ibn Ziyad would lead the Muslim invasion of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania. Additionally, many of the Arabs who came to settle in al-Maghrib were religious and political dissidents, often Kharijites who opposed the Umayyad rulers in Damascus and embraced egalitarian doctrines, both popular positions among the Berbers of North Africa.^[43] Also, to locate its historical and religious context, the Arab conquest and Berber conversion to Islam followed a long period of polarization of society in the old province of Africa, in which the Donatist schism within Christianity proved instrumental, with the rural Berbers prominent in their dissent from the urban orthodoxy of the Roman church.^[44] The Berbers were initially attracted to the Arabs because of their "proclivity for the desert and the steppes".^[45][46]

After the conquest and following the popular conversion, Ifriqiya constituted a natural and proximous center for an Arab-Islamic regime in North Africa, the focus of culture and society. It was then the region with the most developed urban, commercial and agricultural infrastructure, essential for such a comprehensive project as Islam.

[edit] Aghlabid Dynasty under the Abbasids

Main article: Aghlabid Dynasty

During the years immediately preceding the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus (661-750),^[47] revolts arose among the Kharijite Berbers in Morocco which eventually disrupted the stability of the entire Maghrib. Although the Kharijites failed to establish lasting institutions, the results of their revolt persisted. Direct rule by the Caliphs over Ifriqiya became untenable, even following the rapid establishment of the new Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad in 750. Also, after several generations a local Arab-speaking aristocracy emerged, which became resentful of the distant caliphate's interference in local matters.^[48]

[edit] Political culture

The Muhallabids (771-793) negotiated with the 'Abbasids a wide discretion in the exercise of their governorship of Ifriqiya. One such governor was al-Aghlab ibn Salim (r. 765-767), a forefather of the Aghlabids. Yet Muhallabid rule came undone. A minor rebellion in Tunis took on a more ominous turn when it spread to Kairouan. The Caliph's governor was unable to restore order.

Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, a provincial leader (and son of al-Aghlab ibn Salim), was in command of a disciplined army; he did manage to reestablish stability in 797. Later he proposed to the 'Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, that he be granted Ifriqiya (as the Arabs called the former Province of Africa) as a hereditary fief, with the title of amir; the caliph acquiesced in 800.^[49] Thereafter, the 'Abbasids received an annual tribute and their suzerainty was named in the khubta at Friday prayers,^[50] but their control was largely symbolic, e.g., in 864 the Caliph al-Mu'tasim "required" that a new wing be added to the Zaituna Mosque near Tunis.^[51]

From 800 to 909, Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab (800-812) and his descendants, known as the Aghlabids, ruled in Ifriqiya, as well as in Algeria (to the west) and in Tripolitania (to the east), yet in theory their rule was on behalf of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. The Aghlabids were predominantly of an Arab tribe the Bani Tamim. Their military forces were drawn from: (a) Arab immigrant warriors (those recently sent against the Kharajite revolts, and descendants of earlier Arab invasions), (b) Islamized and bilingual natives (Afariq), and (c) black slave soldiers. It was on their black soldiery that the rulers often relied.^[52][53]

Despite the political peace and stability, followed by an economic expansion and prosperity, and despite a developing culture and grand construction projects, many in the Arabic-speaking elite developed an increasingly critical attitude toward the Aghlabid regime.

First, the Arab military officer class was dissatisfied with the legitimacy of the regime and often fell to internal quarreling which could spill over into violent struggles. Their latent hostility surfaced when they began making extortionist demands on the population, as well as by their general insubordination. A dangerous revolt from within the Arab army (the jund) broke out near Tunis and lasted from 824 until 826. The Aghlabids retreated to the south and were saved only by enlisting the aid of Berbers of the Kharajite Jarid. (Another revolt of 893, provoked by the cruelty of the ninth Aghlabid amir, Ibrahim II Ibn Ahmad (r. 875-902), was put down by the black soldiery.)^[54]

Second, the Muslim ulema looked with reproach on the ruling Aghlabids. Aggravation in religious circles arose primarily from the un-Islamic lifestyle of the rulers. Disregarding the strong religious sentiments held by the many in the community, often the Aghlabids led lives of pleasure and, e.g., were seen drinking wine (against Islamic law). Another issue was Aghlabid taxation not sanctioned by the Maliki school of Islamic law. Other opponents criticized their contemptuous treatment of mawali Berbers who had embraced Islam. The Islamic doctrine of equality regardless of race was a cornerstone of the Sunni movement in the Maghrib, and also of the Maliki school of law as developed in Kairouan; these principles formed the core of the hostility of Ifriqiya toward rule from the east by the Caliph.^[55]

As recompense, the Aghlabid rulers saw that mosques were constructed or augmented, e.g., at Tunis (the Olive Tree [Zaituna] Mosque, as well as its famous university, Ez-Zitouna); at Kairouan (Mosque of the Three Doors), and at Sfax. Also a well known ribat or fortified monastery was built at Monastir, and at Susa (in 821 by Ziyadat Allah I); here Islamic warriors trained.^[56]

In 831 the son of Ibrahim, Ziyadat Allah I (r. 817-838), launched an invasion of Sicily. Placed in command was Asad ibn al-Furat, the qadi or religious judge; the military adventure was termed a jihad.^[57] This expedition proved successful; Palermo was made the capitol of the region captured. Later raids were made against the Italian peninsula; in 846 Rome was attacked and the Basilica of St. Peter sacked. In orchestrating the invasion of Sicily, the Aghlabid rulers had managed to unite two rebellious factions (the army and the clergy) in a common effort against outsiders.^[58] Later Islamic rulers in Sicily severed connections with Ifriqiyah, and their own Sicilian Kalbid dynasty (948-1053) governed the Emirate.^[59] The invasion of Sicily had worked to stabilize the political order in Ifriqiya, which progressed in relative tranquility during its middle period. In its final decline, however, the dynasty self-destructed, in that its eleventh and last amir, Ziyadat Allah III (r. 902-909) (d. 916), due to insecurity stemming from his father's assassination, ordered his rival brothers and uncles executed. This occurred during the assaults made by the Fatimids against the Aghlabid domains.^[60]

[edit] Institutions and Society

In the Aghlabid government generally, the high positions were filled by "princes of the blood, whose loyalty could be relied on." The judicial post of Qadi of Kairouan was said to be given "only to outstanding personalities notable for their conscientiousness even more than their knowledge."^[61] On the other hand, the administrative staffs were composed of dependent clients (mostly recent Arab and Persian immigrants), and the local bilingual Afariq (mostly Berber, and which included many Christians). The Islamic state in Ifriqiya paralleled in many respects the government structure formed in Abbasid Baghdad,^[62] There was the vizier [prime minister], the hajib [chamberlain], the sahib al-barid [master of posts and intelligence], and numerous kuttab [secretaries] (e.g., of taxation, of the mint, of the army, of correspondence). Leading Jews formed a small elite group. As in an earlier periods (e.g., under Byzantine rule), the majority of the population consisted of rural Berbers, distrusted now because of Kharajite or similar tendencies.^[63]

Kairouan (or Qayrawan) had become the cultural center of not only of Ifriqiya but of the entire Maghrib. A type of volume then current, the tabaqat (concerning the handling of documents), indirectly illuminates elite life in Aghlabid Ifriqiya. One such work was the Tabaqat 'ulama' Ifriqiya [Classes of Scholars of Ifriqiya] written by Abu al-'Arab.^[64][65] Among the Sunni Muslim ulema, two learned professions then came to the fore: (a) the faqih (plural fuqaha) or the jurist; and (b) the 'ābid or the ascetics.

The fuqaha congregated at Kairouan, then the legal center of al-Maghrib.^[66] The more liberal Hanafi school of law at first predominated in Ifriqiyah, but soon a strict form of the Maliki school came to prevail, becoming in fact the only widespread madhhab, not only in Tunisia but throughout North Africa, a situation which continues (despite several interruptions) to be the norm today. The Maliki school was introduced to Ifriqiya by the jurist Asad ibn al-Furat (759-829), who nonetheless wavered between these two schools of law. The Mudawanna, written by his disciple Sahnun ('Abd al-Salam b. Sa'id) (776-854), provided a "vulgate of North-African Malikism" during the period in which this madhhab won the field against its rival, the Hanafi.^[67] Abu Hanifa (700-767) drew out fiqh that was perhaps better suited to its origin in Baghdad, the sophisticatd imperial capital; Malik ibn Anas (716-795) initiated the school bearing his name in Medina.^[68][69] By choosing the Maliki school, Ifriqiya obtained more discretion in defining its legal culture. The Maliki jurists were often at odds with the Aghlabids, e.g., over their personal immorality, and over issues of taxation regarding agriculture (i.e., of a fixed cash levy instead of a tithe in kind).^[70] Also the Maliki fuqaha was understood to act in the interests of the Berbers for a local autonomy, by filtering out potential intrusions into Ifriqiya by Arab power and influence from the east.^[71][72]

Foremost of the 'ābid scholars or ascetics was Buhlul b. Rashid (d. 799), who reputedly despised money and refused the post of grand judge; his fame spread throughout the Islamic world. By virtue of their piety and independence, the abid won social prestige and a voice in politics, speaking especially for the cities, criticizing the regime's finance and trade decisions.^[73] Although substantially different, the status of the 'ābid relates somewhat to the much later figure of the Maghribi saint, the wali, who as keeper of baraka (spiritual charisma) became the object of veneration by religious believers, and whose tomb would be the destination of pilgrimage.^[74]

Ifriqiya flourished under Aghlabid rule. Extensive improvements were made to the pre-existing water works in order to promote olive groves and other agriculture (oils and cereals were exported), to irrigate the royal gardens, and for livestock. Roman aqueducts to supply the towns with water were rebuilt under Abu Ibrahim Ahmad, the sixth amir. In the Kairouan region hundreds of basins were constructed to store water for the raising of horses.^[75]

Commercial trade resumed under the new Islamic regime, e.g., by sea, particularly to the east with the Egyptian port of Alexandria. Also, improved trade routes linked Ifriqiya with the continental interior, the Sahara and the Sudan, regions regularly incorporated into the Mediterranean commerce for the first time during this period. Evidently camels on a large scale had not been common to the region until the fourth century, and it was not until several centuries later that their use in the Saharan trade became generally recognized.^[76][77] The trade began in earnest. The desert city of Sijilmasa near the Atlas mountains in the far west [maghrib al-aqsa] served as one of the primary trading junctions and entrepôts, e.g., for salt and gold. Yet Wargla was the primary desert link to Gafsa and Kairouan. Also Ghadames, Ghat, and Tuat served the Saharan trade to Ifriqiya.^[78]

A prosperous economy permitted a refined and luxurious court life and the construction of the new palace cities of al-'Abbasiya (809), and Raqada (877) for the residences of the ruling amir. The architecture was later imitated in Fez, Tlemcen, and Bougie. The location of these Aghlabid government centers was outside of Kairouan, a city dominated by Muslim clerical institutions.

Ifriqiyah during the era under the Aghlabid Dynasty (799-909) for the most part continued its leading rôle in the Maghrib, due generally to its peace and stability, recognized cultural achievements, and material prosperity.^[79][80][81]

[edit] Fatimids: Shi'a Caliphate, and the Zirids

As the Fatimids grew in strength and numbers nearby to the west, they began to launch frequent attacks on the Aghlabid regime in Ifriqiya, which of course contributed to its political instability and general unrest.^[82] The Fatimids eventually managed to capture Kairouan in 909, forcing the last of theb Aghlabid line, Ziyadat Allah III, to evacuate the palace at Raqadda. On the east coast of Ifriqiaya facing Egypt, the Fatimids built a new capital on top of ancient ruins, calling the seaport Mahdiya after their mahdi.^[83]

[edit] Maghribi Origin of the Fatimids

The Fatimid movement had originated locally in al-Maghrib, among the Kotama Berbers in Kabylia (Setif, south of Bougie, eastern Algeria). However, both founders of the movement were recent immigrants from the Islamic east, religious dissidents: Abu 'Abdulla ash-Shi'i, originally from San'a in al-Yemen; and, coming from Salamiyah in Syria, 'Ubaidalla Sa'id (who claimed descent from Fatima the daughter of the prophet Muhammad, and who was to proclaim himself the Fatimid Mahdi). Their religious affiliation was the Ismaili branch of the Shia.

By agreement, the first founder to arrive (circa 893) was Abu 'Abdulla, the Ismaili Da'i or propagandist, who found welcome in the hostility against the Caliphate in Baghdad freely expressed by the Kotama Berbers.^[84] After his success in recruitment and in building the organization, Abu 'Abdulla was ready in 902 to send for 'Ubaidalla Sa'ed, who (after adventures and imprisonment) arrived in 910, proclaimed himself Mahdi, and took control of the movement. Abu 'Abdulla was killed in a dispute over leadership.^[85]

From the start the Mahdi was focused on expansion eastward, and he soon attacked Egypt with a Fatimid army of Kotama Berbers led by his son, once in 914, and again in 919, both times quickly taking Alexandria but then losing to the Abbasids. Probing for weakness, the Mahdi then sent an invasion westward, but his forces met with mixed results. Many Sunnis, including the Umayyad Caliph of al-Andalus and the Zenata Berber kingdom in Morocco, effectively opposed him because of his Ismaili Shi'a affiliation. The Mahdi did not follow Maliki law, but taxed harshly, incurring further resentment. His capital Mahdiya was more a fort than a princely city. The Maghrib was disrupted, being contested between the Zenata and the Sanhaja favoring the Fatimids.^[86][87]

After the death of the Mahdi, there came the Kharijite revolt of 935, which under Abu Yazid (nicknamed "the man on a donkey") was said by 943 to be spreading chaos far and wide.^[88] The Mahdi's son, the Fatimid caliph al-Qa'im, became besieged in Mahdiya. Eventually Abu Yazid was defeated by the next Fatimid caliph, Ishmail, who then moved his residence to Kairouan. Fatimid rule continued to be under attack from Sunni Islamic states to the west, e.g., the Umayyad Caliphate in Al Andalus.^[89]

In 969 the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz sent his best general Jawhar al-Rumi leading a Kotama Berber army against Egypt. He managed the conquest without great difficulty. The Shi'a Fatimids founded al-Qahira (Cairo) ["the victorius" or the "city of Mars"]. In 970 the Fatimids also founded the world famous al-Azhar mosque, which later became the leading Sunni theological center.^[90] Three years later al-Mu'izz the caliph left Ifriqiyah for Egypt, taking everything, "his treasures, his administrative staff, and the coffins of his predecessors."^[91] Once centered in Egypt the Fatimids expanded their possessions further, northeast to Syria and southeast to Mecca, while retaining control of North Africa. From Cairo they were to enjoy relative success; they never returned to Ifriqiyah.^[92]

[edit] Zirid succession

After removing their capital to Cairo, the Fatimids withdrew from direct governance of al-Maghrib, which they delegated to a local vassal, namely Buluggin ibn Ziri a Sanhaja Berber of the central Magrib. As a result of civil war following his death, the Fatamid vassalage split in two: for Ifriqiya the Zirid (972-1148); and for the western lands [present day Algeria]: the Hammadid (1015-1152).^[93] Civic security was chronically poor, due to political quarrels between the Zirids and the Hammadids, and attacks from Sunni states to the west.

Although the Maghrib remained submerged in political confusion, at first the Fatimid province of Ifriqiya continued relatively prosperous under the Zirids. Soon however the Saharan trade began to decline, caused by changing consumer demand, as well as by encroachments by rival traders from the Fatimids to the east and from the rising power of the al-Murabit movement to the west. This decline in the Saharan trade caused a rapid deterioration to the city of Kairouan, the political and curltural center of the Zirid state. To compensate, the Zirids encouraged the commerce of their coastal cities, which did begin to quicken; however, they faced tough challenges from Mediterranean traders of the rising city-states of Genoa and Pisa.^[94]

In 1048, for economic and popular reasons, the Zirids dramatically broke with the Shi'a Fatimid suzerainty from Cairo; instead the Zirids chose to become Sunni (always favored by most Maghribi Muslims) and declaring their allegiance to the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. Many shia were killed in disturbances throughout Ifriqiya. The Zirid state seized Fatimid coinage. Sunni Maliki jurists were reestablished as the prevailing school of law.^[95] In retaliation, the Fatimids sent against the Zirids an invasion of nomadic Arabians who had already migrated into Egypt; these bedouins were induced by the Fatimids to continue westward into Ifriqiya.^[96][97]

The arriving Bedouins of the Banu Hilal defeated in battle Zirid and Hammadid armies and sacked Kairouan in 1057. It has been said that much of the Maghrib's misfortunes to follow could be traced to the chaos and regression occasioned by their arrival, although opinion is not unanimous.^[98] In Arab lore Abu Zayd al-Hilali the leader of the Banu Hilal is a hero, as in the folk epic Taghribat Bani Hilal. The Banu Hilal originated from the tribal confederacy of the Banu 'Amir, located generally in southwest Arabia.^[99] As the Banu Halali tribes took control of the plains, the local sedentary people were forced to take refuge in the mountains; in prosperous central and northern Ifriqiya farming gave way to pastoralism. Even after the fall of the Zirids the Banu Hilal were a source of disorder, as in the 1184 insurrection of the Banu Ghaniya.^[100][101] These rough Arab newcomers did constitute a second large Arab immigration into Ifriqiya, and accelerated the process of Arabization, with the Berber languages decreasing in use in rural areas as a result of this Bedouin ascendancy.^[102]

Substantially weakened, the Zirids lingered on, while the regional economy declined, with civil society adrift.

[edit] Perspectives and trends

The Fatimids were Shi'a (specifically, of the more controversial Isma'ilis branch), whose leadership came from the then unpopular east. Today, of course, the majority of Tunisians now identify as members of the opposing Sunni. The Fatimids did initially inspire the allegiance of Berber elements. Yet once installed Fatimid rule greatly disrupted social harmony in Ifriqiya; they imposed high, unorthodox taxes, leading to the Kharijite revolt.^[103] Later, the Fatimids relocated to Cairo. Although originally a client of the Fatimid Shi'a Caliphate in Egypt, eventually the Zirids expelled the Fatimids from Ifriqiya. In return, the Fatimids managed to send the destructive Banu Hilal to Ifriqiya, which led to chaotic, ragged social conditions, during a period of economic decline. The Zirid dynasty has been viewed historically as a Berber kingdom, essentially founded by a Sanhaja Berber leader.^[104] Also, from the far west of al-Maghrib, the Sunni Ummayyad Caliphate of Córdoba long opposed and battled against the Shi'a Fatimids, whether based in Ifriqiya or in Egypt.^[105] Accordingly, Tunisians may evidence faint pride in the great extent and relative endurance, the peace and prosperity that Fatimid rule brought to Egypt, and in the Fatimid Caliphate in Islamic history.

During the interval of Shi'a rule, the Berber people appear to have moved ideologically, from a popular antagonism to the Sunni east, toward an acquiescence to its orthodoxy, though of course mediated by their own Maliki law (viewed as one of the four orthodox madhhab by the Sunni). In addition to the above grivences against the Fatimids, during the Fatimid era the prestige of exercizing cultural leadership within al-Maghrib shifted decisively away from Ifriqiya and instead came to be the prize of al-Andalus.^[106]

[edit] Almohads (al-Muwahiddin)

Anarchy in Ifriqiya (Tunisia) made it a target for the Norman kingdom in Sicily,^[107] which between 1134 and 1148 seized Mahdia, Gabes, Sfax, and the island of Jerba. The only strong Muslim power then in the Maghreb was that of the newly emerging Almohads, led by their caliph a Berber Abd al-Mu'min. He responded in several military campaigns which by 1160 compelled the Christian retreat back to Sicily.^[108][109]

[edit] Movement and Empire

The Almohad movement [Arabic al-Muwahhidun, "the Unitarians"] ruled variously in the Maghrib starting about 1130 until 1248 (locally until 1275).^{[110][111][112]} This movement had been founded by Ibn Tumart (1077-1130), a Masmuda Berber from the Atlas mountains of Morocco, who became the mahdi. After a pilgrimage to Mecca followed by study, he had returned to the Maghrib about 1218 inspired by the teachings of al-Ash'ari and al-Ghazali.^[113] A charismatic leader, he preached an interior awareness of the Unity of God.^[114] A puritan and a hard-edged reformer, he gathered a strict following among the Berbers in the Atlas, founded a radical community, and eventually began an armed challenge to the current rulers, the Almoravids (1056-1147).^[115] These Almoravids [Arabic al-Murabitum, from Ribat, e.g., "defenders"] had also been a Berber Islamic movement of the Maghrib,^[116][117] which had run its course and since become decadent and weak.^[118] Although the Almoravids had once ruled from Mauritania (south of Morocco) to al-Andalus (southern Spain), Almoravid rule had never reached to Infriqiya.^[119]

Following Ibn Tumart's death, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi (c.1090-1163) became the Almohad caliph, cerca 1130.^[120] Abd al-Mu'min had been one of the original "Ten" followers of Ibn Tumart.^[121] He immediately had attacked the ruling Almoravids and had wrestled Morocco away from them by 1147, suppressing subsequent revolts there. Then he crossed the straits, occupying al-Andalus (in Spain).^{[122][123][124]} In 1152 he successfully invaded the Hammadids of Bougie (in Algeria). His armies intervened in Zirid Ifriqiya, removing the Christian Sicilians by 1160.^[125] Yet Italian merchants from Genoa and Pisa had already arrived, continuing the foreign presence.^[126][127]

"Abd al-Mu'min briefly presided over a unified North African empire--the first and last in its history under indigenous rule".^[128] It would be the high point of Maghribi political unity. Yet twenty years later, by 1184, the revolt by the Banu Ghaniya had spread from the Balearic Islands to Ifriqiya (Tunisia), causing problems for the Almohad regime for the next fifty years.^[129]

[edit] Rule of the Maghrib

Ibn Tumart the Almohad founder left writings in which his theological ideas mix with the political. Therein he claimed that the leader, the mahdi, is infallible.^[130][131] Ibn Tumart created a hierarchy from among his followers which persisted long after the Almohad era (i.e., in Tunisia under the Hafsids), based not only on a specie of ethnic loyalty,^[132] such as the "Council of Fifty" [ahl al-Khamsin], and the assembly of "Seventy" [ahl al-Saqa], but more significantly based on a formal structure for an inner circle of governance that would transcend tribal loyalties, namely, (a) his ahl al-dar or "people of the house", a sort of privy council, (b) his ahl al-'Ashra or the "Ten", originally composed of his first ten forminable followers, and (c) a variety of offices. Ibn Tumart trained his own talaba or ideologists, as well as his huffaz, who function was both religious and military. There is lack of certainty about some details, but general agreement that Ibn Tumart sought to reduce the "influence of the traditional tribal framework." Later historical developments "were greatly facilitated by his original reorganization because it made possible collaboration among tribes" not likely to otherwise coalesce.^[133][134] These organizing and group solidarity preparations made by Ibn Tumart were "most methodical and efficient" and a "conscious replica" of the Medina period of the prophet Muhammad.^[135][136]

The mahdi Ibn Tumart also had championed the idea of strict Islamic law and morals displacing unorthodox aspects of Berber custom.^[137][138] At his early base at Tinmal, Ibn Tumart functioned as "the custodian of the faith, the arbiter of moral questions, and the chief judge." ^[139] Yet because of the narrow legalism then common among Maliki jurists and because of their influence in the Almoravid regime,^{[140][141][142]} Ibn Tumart did not favor the Maliki school of law; nor did he favor any of the four recognized madhhabs.^[143][144] In practice, however, the Maliki school of law survived and by default eventually functioned in an official fashion (except during the reign of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (1184-1199) who was loyal to Ibn Tumart's teachings). After of century of oscillation, the caliph Abu al-'Ala Idris al-Ma'mun broke with the narrow ideology of prior Almohad regimes (first articulated by the mahdi Ibn Tumart) that had continued to function on and off, and for the most part, at the end, poorly; circa 1230, he affirmed the reinstitution of the then-reviving Malikite rite, perennially popular in al-Maghrib.^{[145][146][147]}

The Muslim philosophers Ibn Tufayl (Abubacer to the Latins) of Granada (d.1185), and Ibn Rushd (Averroës) of Córdoba (1126-1198), who was also appointed a Maliki judge, were dignitaries known to the Almohad court, whose capital became fixed at Marrakech. The Sufi master theologian Ibn 'Arabi was born in Murcia in 1165. Under the Almohads architecture flourished, the Giralda being built in Seville and the pointed arch being introduced.^[148]

"There is no better indication of the importance of the Almohad empire than the fascination it has exerted on all subsequent rulers in the Magrib."^[149] It was an empire Berber in its inspiration, and whose imperial fortunes were under the direction of Berber leaders. The unitarian Almohads had gradually modified the original ambition of strictly implementing their founder's designs; in this way the Almohads were similar to the preceding Almoravids (also Berber). Yet their movement probably worked to deepen the religious awareness of the Muslim people across the Maghrib. Nonetheless, it could not suppress other traditions and teachings, and alternative expressions of Islam, including the popular cult of saints, the sufis, as well as the Maliki jurists, survived.^[150][151]

The Almohad empire (like its predecessor the Almoravid) eventually weakened and dissolved. Except for the Muslim Kingdom of Granada, Spain was lost. In Morroco, the Almohads were to be followed by the Merinids; in Ifriqiya (Tunisia), by the Hafsids (who claimed to be the heirs of the unitarian Almohads).^[152]

[edit] Hafsid dynasty of Tunis

The Hafsid dynasty (1230-1574) succeeded Almohad rule in Ifriqiya, with the Hafsids claiming to represent the true spiritual heritage of its founder, the Mahdi Ibn Tumart (c.1077-1130). Under the Hafsids, Tunisia would eventually regain for a time cultural primacy in the Maghrib.

[edit] Political chronology

Abu Hafs 'Umar Inti (or: al-Hintati)^[153] was one of the Ten, the crucial early adherents of the Almohad movement [al-Muwahhidun], circa 1121. These Ten were companions of Ibn Tumart the Mahdi, and formed an inner circle consulted on all important matters. Abu Hafs 'Umar Inti, wounded in battle near Marrakesh in 1130, was for a long time a powerful figure within the Almohad movement. His son 'Umar al-Hintati was appointed by the Almohad caliph Muhammad an-Nasir as governor of Ifriqiya in 1207 and served until his death in 1221. His son, the grandson of Abu Hafs, was Abu Zakariya.^[154]

Abu Zakariya^[155] (1203-1249) served the Almohads in Ifriqiya as governor of Gabès, then in 1226 as governor of Tunis. In 1229 during disturbances within the Almohad movement, Abu Zakariya declared his independence: hence, the start of the Hafsid dynasty. In the next few years he secured his hold on the cities of Ifriqiya, then captured Tripolitania (1234) to the east, and Algiers (1235) to the west and later added Tlemcen (1242). He solidified his rule among the Berber confederacies. Government structure of the Hafsid state followed the Almohad model, a rather strict centralization. Abu Zakariya's succession to the Almohads was briefly acknowledged in Friday prayer by several states in Al-Andalus and in Morocco. Diplomatic relations were opened with Venice, Genoa, Sicily, and Aragon. Abu Zakariya became the foremost ruler in the Maghrib.^[156]

For an historic moment, the son of Abu Zakariya and self-declared caliph of the Hafsids, al-Mustansir^[157] (r.1249-1277), was recognised as caliph by Mecca and the Islamic world (1259-1261), following termination of the Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols (in 1258). Yet the moment passed; the Hafsids remained a local sovereignty.^[158][159]

In 1270 King Louis IX of France, whose brother was the king of Sicily, landed an army near Tunis; disease devastated their camp.^[160] Later, Hafsid influence was reduced by the rise of the Moroccan Marinids of Fez, who captured and lost Tunis twice (1347, and 1357).^[161] Yet Hafsid fortunes would recover; two notabe rulers being Abu Faris (1394-1434) and his grandson Abu 'Amr 'Uthman (r. 1435-1488).^[162]

Toward the end, internal disarray within the Hafsid dynasty created vulnerabilities, while a great power struggle arose between Spaniard and Turk over control of the Mediterranean. The Hafsid dynasts became pawns, subject to the rival strategies of the combatents. By 1574 Ifriqiya had been incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.^[163]

[edit] Commerce and Trade

The entire Maghrib, as well as Tunisia under the early Hafsids, enjoyed an era of prosperity due to the rise of Saharan-Sudanese as well as the Mediterranean trade, the latter including trade with Europe.^[164] Across the region, repeated buy and sell dealings with Christians led to the development of practices and structured arrangements that were crafted to ensure security, customs revenue, and commercial profit.^[165] The principal customs ports were then: Tunis, Sfax, Mahdia, Jerba, and Gabés (in modern Tunisia); Oran, Bougie (Bejaia), and Bône (Annaba) (in modern Algeria); and Tripoli (in modern Libya). Generally at such ports, the imports were off loaded and transferred to a customs area from where they were deposited in a sealed wharehouse, or funduq, until the duties and fees were paid. The Tunis customs service was a stratified bureaucracy. At its head was often a member of the ruling nobility or musharif, called al-Caid, who not only managed the staff collecting duties but also might negotiate commercial agreements, conclude treaties, and would act as judge in legal disputes involving foreigners. The amount of the duties varied, usually five or ten percent. It was possible for an arriving ship to deliver its goods and pick-up the return cargo in several days time. Christian merchants of the Mediterranean, usually organized by their city-of-origin, set up and maintained their own trading facilities in these North African customs ports to handle the flow of merchandise and marketing.^[166]

Islamic law during this era had developed a specific institution to regulate community morals, or hisba, which included the order and security of public markets, the supervision of market transactions, and related matters. The urban marketplace [Arabic souk, pl. iswak] was generally a street of shops selling the same or similar commodities (vegetables, cloth, metalware, lumber, etc.).^[167] The city official charged with these responsibilities was called the muhtasib.^[168][169] In effecting public order in the urban markets, the muhtasib enforced fair commercial dealing (merchants truthfully quoting the local price to rural people, honest weights and measures, but not quality of goods nor price per se), keeping roadways open, regulating the safety of building construction, ensuring the metal value of existing coinage and minting new coin. The authority of the muhtasib, with his group of assistants, was somewhere between a qadi (judge) and the police, or on other occasions perhaps between a public prosecutor or trade commissioner and the mayor or a high city official. Often a leading judge or mufti held the position. The muhtasib did not hear contested litigation, but nonetheless could order the pain and humiliation of up to 40 lashes, remand to debtor's prison, order a shop closed, and expel from the city. The authority of the muhtasib did not extend into the countryside.^[170]

During this period from al-Andalus came Muslim and Jewish immigrants with appreciated talents, e.g., trade connections, crafts, and agricultural techniques. Regarding general prosperity, however, there was a sharp economic decline starting in the fourteenth century due to a variety of factors.^[171] Later, Mediterranean trade gave way to corsair raidng activity. {IN PROGRESS}

[edit] Society and culture

As a result of the initial prosperity, Al-Mustansir transformed his capital Tunis, construction a palace and the Abu Fihr park; he also created an estate near Bizerte (said by Ibn Khaldun to be without equal in the world).^[172] An unfortunate divide, however, developed between the governance of the cities and that of the countryside; at times the city-based rulers would grant rural tribes autonomy ('iqta') in exchange for their support in intra-maghribi struggles.^[173][174] This tribal independence of the central authority meant also that when the center grew weak, the periphery might still remain strong and resilient.^[175] {IN PROGRESS}

Bedouin Arabs^[176] continued to arrive into the 13th century; with their tribal ability to raid and war still intact, they remained influential. The Arab language came to be predominant, except for a few Berber-speaking areas, e.g., Kharijite Djerba, and the desert south. Also, Arab Muslim and Jewish migration continued to come into Ifriqiya from al-Andalus, especially after the fall of Granada in 1492, the last Muslim state ruling on the Iberian peninsula. These newly arriving immigrants brought infusions of the developed arts of al-Andalus.^[177] The Andalusian tradition of music and poetry was discussed by Ahmad al-Tifasi (1184-1253) of Tunis, in his Muta'at al-Asma' fi 'ilm al-sama' [Pleasure to the Ears, on the Art of Music], in volume 41 of his encyclopedia.^[178]

After an hiatus under the Almohads,^[179] the Maliki school of law resumed its full traditional jurisdiction over the Maghrib. During the 13th century, the Maliki school had undergone substantial liberalizing changes due in part to Iraqi influence.^[180] Under Hafsid jurisprudents the concept of maslahah or "public interest" developed in the operation of their madhhab. This opened up Maliki fiqh to considerations of necessity and circumstance with regard to the general welfare of the community. By this means, local custom was admitted in the Sharia of Malik, to become an integral part of the legal discipline.^[181] Later, the Maliki theologian Muhammad ibn 'Arafa (1316-1401) of Tunis studied at the Zaituna library, said to contain 60,000 volumes.^[182]

Education was improved by the institution of a system of madrasah. Sufism, e.g., Sidi Bin 'Arus (d. 1463 Tunis) founder of the Arusiyya tariqah, became increasingly established, linking city and countryside.^[183][184] Poetry blossomed, as did architecture. For the moment, Tunisia had regained cultural leadership of the Maghrib.^[185]

[edit] Ibn Khaldun

Main article: Ibn Khaldun

A major social philosopher, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is recognized as a pioneer in sociology, historiography, and related disciplines. Although having Yemeni ancestry, his family enjoyed centuries-long residency in al-Andalus before leaving in the 13th century for Ifriqiyah. As a native of Tunis, he spent much of his life under the Hafsids, whose regime he served on occasion.

Ibn Khaldun entered into a political career early on, working under a succession of different rulers of small states, whose designs unfolded amid shifting rivalries and alliances. At one point he rose to vizier; however, he also spent a year in prison. His career required several relocations, e.g., Fez, Granada, eventually Cairo where he died. In order to write he retired for awhile from active political life. Later, after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he served as Grand Qadi of the Maliki rite in Egypt (he was appointed and dismissed several times). While he was visiting Damascus, Tamerlane took the city; this cruel conquorer interviewed the elderly jurist and social philosopher, yet Ibn Khaldun managed to escape back to his life in Egypt.^[186]

The history and historiography written by Ibn Khaldun was informed in theory by his learning as a faylasuf [philosopher].^[187] Yet it was his participation in the small unstable governments of the region that inspired many of his key insights. His history seeks to account for the apparent cyclical progression of historical states of the Maghrib, whereby: (a) a new ruling association comes to power with strong loyalties, (b) which over the course of several generations fall apart, (c) leading to the collapse of the ruling strata. The social cohesion necessary for the group's initial rise to power, and for the group's ability to maintain it and exercise it, Ibn Khaldun called Asabiyyah.^[188]

His seven-volume Kitab al-'Ibar [Book of Examples]^[189] (shortened title) is a telescoped "universal" history, which concentrates on the Persian, Arab, and Berber civilizations. Its lengthy prologue, called the Muqaddimah [Introduction], presents the development of long-term political trends and events as a field for the study, characterizing them as human phenomena, in quasi-sociological terms. It is widely considered to be a gem of sustained cultural analysis. Unfortunately Ibn Khaldun did not attract sufficient interest among local scholars, his studies being neglected in Ifriqiyah; however, in the Persian and Turkish worlds he acquired a sustained following.^[190]

In the later books of the Kitab al-'Ibar, he focuses especially on the history of the Berbers of the Maghrib. The perceptive Ibn Khaldun in his narration eventually arrives at historical events he himself witnessed or encountered.^[191] As an official of the Hafsids, Ibn Khaldun experienced first hand the effects on the social structure of troubled regimes and the long term decline in the region's fortunes.

[edit] Reference notes

[edit] See also

• History of Tunisia: Ancient
• Umayyad conquest of North Africa
• Ifriqiya
• Aghlabid dynasty
• Fatimid Caliphate
• Zirid dynasty
• Almohad dynasty
• Hafsid dynasty
• Ibn Khaldun
• History of Tunisia: Modern
• Tunisia
• History of Africa

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