Tunisia
History
Tunisia is a North African country, located between Algeria and Libya. It contains the ruins of Carthage, and the people became Muslim and Arabic speaking following the Islamic conquest.
Geography and Climate
Tunisia is situated on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Delta. It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Libya on the south east. It lies between latitudes 30° and 38°N, and longitudes 7° and 12°E. An abrupt southward turn of the Mediterranean coast in northern Tunisia gives the country two distinctive Mediterranean coasts, west-east in the north, and north-south in the east. Though it is relatively small in size, Tunisia has great environmental diversity due to its north-south extent. Its east-west extent is limited. Differences in Tunisia, like the rest of the Maghreb, are largely north-south environmental differences defined by sharply decreasing rainfall southward from any point. The Dorsal, the eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains, runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula in the east. North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, again an extension of mountains to the west in Algeria. In the Khroumerie, the northwestern corner of the Tunisian Tell, elevations reach 1,050 metres (3,440 ft) and snow occurs in winter. The Sahel, a broadening coastal plain along Tunisia's eastern Mediterranean coast, is among the world's premier areas of olive cultivation. Inland from the Sahel, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert. Tunisia has a coastline 1,148 kilometres (713 mi) long. In maritime terms, the country claims a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles (44.4 km; 27.6 mi), and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi). Tunisia's climate is Mediterranean in the north, with mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The south of the country is desert. The terrain in the north is mountainous, which, moving south, gives way to a hot, dry central plain. The south is semiarid, and merges into the Sahara. A series of salt lakes, known as chotts or shatts, lie in an east-west line at the northern edge of the Sahara, extending from the Gulf of Gabes into Algeria. The lowest point is Chott el Djerid at 17 metres (56 ft) below sea level and the highest is Jebel ech Chambi at 1,544 metres (5,066 ft).
Islamic Conquest and Berber Resistance
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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 in the Auras, Damiya was killed. 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.
Conquest Aftermath: Berbers Become Arabs
The Berber people, also known as the Amazigh, converted en mass as tribes and assmilated juridically to the Arabs. 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. 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. Environmental and geographic parallels between the Berbers and the Arabs are notable. In addition, the languages spoken by the Semitic Arabs and by the Berbers are members of the same language family, Afro-Asiatic, although from two of its different branches. Evidently, long before and after the Islamic conquest, there was some popular sense of a strong and long-standing cultural connection between the Berbers and the Semites of the Levant, naturally with regard to Carthage and in addition with regard to links yet more ancient and genetic. 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. 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. 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. 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. The Berbers were initially attracted to the Arabs because of their "proclivity for the desert and the steppes". 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.
Aghlabid Dynasty under the Abbasids
During the years immediately preceding the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus (661-750), 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. 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. Thereafter, the 'Abbasids received an annual tribute and their suzerainty was named in the khubta at Friday prayers, 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. 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. 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.) 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 that Aghlabid taxation was 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. 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. 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. 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. Later Islamic rulers in Sicily severed connections with Ifriqiyah, and their own Sicilian Kalbid dynasty (948-1053) governed the Emirate. 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.
Fatimids
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. The Fatimids eventually managed to capture Kairouan in 909, forcing the last of the 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. 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. 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. 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. After the death of the Mahdi, there came the Kharijite revolt of 935, which under Abu Yazid was said by 943 to be spreading chaos far and wide. 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. In 969, the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz sent his best general Jawhar al-Rumi to lead a Kotama Berber army against Egypt. He managed the conquest without great difficulty. The Shi'a Fatimids founded al-Qahira (Cairo). In 970, the Fatimids also founded the world famous al-Azhar mosque, which later became the leading Sunni theological center. 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." 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.
Zirids
After removing their capital to Cairo, the Fatimids withdrew from the 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). 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 cultural 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. 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. 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. The arriving Bedouins of the Banu Hilal defeated in battle the 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. 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. 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. These rough Arab newcomers constituted 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. Substantially weakened, the Zirids lingered on, while the regional economy declined, with civil society adrift.
Almohads
Anarchy in Ifriqiya (Tunisia) made it a target for the Norman kingdom in Sicily, 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 named Abd al-Mu'min. He responded in several military campaigns which by 1160 compelled the Christians to retreat back to Sicily. The Almohad movement (Arabic al-Muwahhidun, "the Unitarians") ruled variously in the Maghrib starting about 1130 until 1248 (locally until 1275). 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. A charismatic leader, he preached an interior awareness of the Unity of God. As 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). These Almoravids (Arabic al-Murabitum, from Ribat, e.g., "defenders") had also been a Berber Islamic movement of the Maghrib, which had run its course and since become decadent and weak. Although the Almoravids had once ruled from Mauritania (south of Morocco) to al-Andalus (southern Spain), their rule had never reached Ifriqiya. Following Ibn Tumart's death, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi (c.1090-1163) became the Almohad caliph, cerca 1130. Abd al-Mu'min had been one of the original "Ten" followers of Ibn Tumart. 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). In 1152, he successfully invaded the Hammadids of Bougie (in Algeria). His armies intervened in Zirid Ifriqiya, removing the Christian Sicilians by 1160. Yet Italian merchants from Genoa and Pisa had already arrived, continuing the foreign presence. Abd al-Mu'min briefly presided over a unified North African empire--the first and last in its history under indigenous rule. 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. 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. The Almohad empire (like its predecessor the Almoravid) eventually weakened and dissolved. Except for the Muslim Kingdom of Granada, Spain was lost. In Morocco, 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).
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. Abu Hafs 'Umar Inti was one of the Ten, the crucial early adherents of the Almohad movement, 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. Abu Zakariya (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. For an historic moment, the son of Abu Zakariya and self-declared caliph of the Hafsids, al-Mustansir (r.1249-1277), was recognised as caliph by Mecca and the Islamic world (1259-1261), following the termination of the Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols (in 1258). Yet the moment passed; the Hafsids remained a local sovereignty. As a result of the initial prosperity, Al-Mustansir transformed his capital Tunis, constructin 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). 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. This tribal independence of the central authority meant also that when the center grew weak, the periphery might still remain strong and resiliant. In 1270, King Louis IX of France, whose brother was the king of Sicily, landed an army near Tunis; disease devastated their camp. Later, Hafsid influence was reduced by the rise of the Moroccan Marinids of Fez, who captured and lost Tunis twice (1347, and 1357). Yet Hafsid fortunes would recover; two notable rulers being Abu Faris (1394-1434) and his grandson Abu 'Amr 'Uthman (r. 1435-1488). Bedouin Arabs 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. 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 combatants. By 1574, Ifriqiya had been incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
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