Tunis (Arabic: تونس, Tūnisⓘ) is the capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. As of 2020, it was the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casablanca and Algiers) and the fifteenth-largest in the Arab world.
Situated on the Gulf of Tunis, behind the Lake of Tunis and the port of La Goulette (Ḥalq il-Wād), the city extends along the coastal plain and the hills that surround it. At its core lies the Medina, a World Heritage Site. East of the Medina, through the Sea Gate (also known as the Bab el Bhar and the Porte de France), begins the modern part of the city called "Ville Nouvelle", traversed by the grand Avenue Habib Bourguiba (often referred to by media and travel guides as "the Tunisian Champs-Élysées"), where the colonial-era buildings provide a clear contrast to smaller, older structures. Further east by the sea lie the suburbs of Carthage, La Marsa, and Sidi Bou Said.
As the capital of the country, Tunis is the focus of Tunisian political and administrative life and also the center of the country's commercial and cultural activities.
Etymology
Different explanations exist for the origin of the name Tunis. Some scholars relate it to the Carthaginian goddess Tanith ('Tanit or Tanut), as many ancient cities were named after patron deities. However, the placename is attested on Neo-Punic coins as 𐤕𐤅𐤍𐤑𐤍 TWNṢN, which is spelled differently from 𐤕𐤉𐤍𐤕 TYNT ("Tanit"), making any connection between the two impossible. Some scholars claim that it originated from Tynes, which was mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Polybius in the course of descriptions of a location resembling present-day Al-Kasbah, Tunis's old Berber village.
Another possibility is that it was derived from the Berber verbal root ens which means "to lie down" or "to pass the night". The term Tunis can possibly mean "camp at night", "camp", or "stop", or may have referred to as "the last stop before Carthage" by people who were journeying to Carthage by land. There are also some mentions in ancient Roman sources of such names of nearby towns as Thinisa in Numidia (now El Kala), Thunusuda (now Sidi-Meskin), Thinissut (now Bir Bouregba), Thunisa (now Ras Jebel) and Cartennae (now Ténès). As all of these Berber villages were situated on Roman roads, they undoubtedly served as rest-stations or stops.
History
Carthage and early settlements
The historical study of Carthage is difficult. Because its culture and records were destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War, very few Carthaginian primary historical sources survive. While there are a few ancient translations of Punic texts into Greek and Latin, as well as inscriptions on monuments and buildings discovered in Northwest Africa, the main sources are Greek and Roman historians, including Livy, Polybius, Appian, Cornelius Nepos, Silius Italicus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius, and Herodotus. These writers belonged to peoples in competition, and often in conflict, with Carthage. Greek cities contended with Carthage over Sicily, and the Romans fought three wars against Carthage. Not surprisingly, their accounts of Carthage are extremely hostile; while there were a few Greek authors who took a favourable view, these works have been lost. The area was originally a Berber settlement. The existence of settlements in and around the area of Tunis is attested by sources dating from the 4th century BC. Situated on a hill, its location served as an excellent point from which the comings and goings of naval and caravan traffic to and from Carthage could be observed. It was one of the first towns in the region to fall under Carthaginian control, and in the centuries that followed the settlement was mentioned in the military histories associated with Carthage. Thus, during Agathocles' expedition, which landed at Cape Bon in 310 BC, the town changed hands on various occasions.
During the Mercenary War, it is possible that the town served as a center for the native population of the area, and that its population was mainly composed of peasants, fishermen, and craftsmen. Compared to the ancient ruins of Carthage, the town's ancient ruins are not as large. According to Strabo, it was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC during the Third Punic War. Both the town and Carthage were destroyed; the former, however, was rebuilt first under the rule of Augustus and became an important town under Roman control and the center of a booming agricultural industry. The township is mentioned as Thuni in the Tabula Peutingeriana. In the system of Roman roads for the Roman province of Africa, the town had the title of mutatio ("way station, resting place"). The borough, increasingly Romanized, was also eventually Christianized and became the seat of a bishop. However, it remained modestly sized compared to Carthage during this time.
Foundation and early Islamic period
In the late 7th century, the Arab Muslims conquered the region, and in 698 a commune and a mosque were established at the outskirts of the ancient ruins, founded by Hassan ibn al-Nu'man, which would become the city of Tunis and the Zaytuna Mosque. The Medina of Tunis, the oldest section of the city, dates from this period, during which the region was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate. The city had the natural advantage of coastal access, via the Mediterranean, to the major ports of southern Europe. Early on, Tunis played a military role; the Umayyads recognized the strategic importance of its proximity to the Strait of Sicily, with a dockyard built upon the founding of the city by order of Caliph Abd al-Malik. From the beginning of the 8th century, Tunis was the administrative center of the area: it became the Umayyad, and later the Abbasids' naval base in the western Mediterranean Sea, and took on considerable military importance. Under the Aghlabids, the city gained significance and benefited from economic improvements and became one of the most important in the caliphate, and was briefly the national capital from the end of the reign of Ibrahim II, from 902 until 909, when control over Ifriqiya was handed to the newly founded Fatimid Caliphate.
Local opposition to the authorities began to intensify in September 945, when Kharijite insurgents occupied Tunis, resulting in general pillaging. With the rise of the Fatimid-viceregal Zirid dynasty the Sunni population tolerated Shi'ite rule less and less, and carried out massacres against the Shi'ite community. In 1048 the Zirid ruler Al-Muizz ibn Badis rejected his city's obedience to the Fatimids and re-established Sunni rites throughout all of Ifriqiya. This decision infuriated the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mustansir Billah. To punish the Zirids, he unleashed the Banu Hilal Arab tribe on Ifriqiya; a large part of the country was set to the torch, the Zirid capital Kairouan was razed in 1057, and only a few coastal towns, including Tunis and Mahdia, escaped destruction.
Exposed to violence from the hostile tribes that settled around the city, the population of Tunis repudiated the authority of the Zirids and swore allegiance to the Hammadid prince El Nacer ibn Alennas, who was based in Béjaïa, in 1059. The governor appointed by Béjaïa, having reestablished order in the country, did not hesitate to free himself from the Hammadids to found the Khurasanid dynasty with Tunis as its capital. This small independent kingdom picked up the threads of trade and commerce with other nations and brought the region back to peace and prosperity.
New capital of Tunisia
In 1159, the Almohad 'Abd al-Mu'min took Tunis, overthrew the last Khurasanid leader, and installed a new government in the kasbah of Tunis. The Almohad conquest marked the beginning of the dominance of the city in Tunisia. Having previously played a minor role behind Kairouan and Mahdia, Tunis was promoted to the rank of provincial capital.
In 1228, Governor Abu Zakariya seized power and, a year later, took the title of Emir and founded the Hafsid dynasty. The city became the capital of a Hafsid kingdom stretching towards Tripoli and Fez. Walls were built to protect the emerging principal town of the kingdom, surrounding the medina, the kasbah, and the new suburbs of Tunis. In 1270 the city was taken briefly by Louis IX of France, who was hoping to convert the Hafsid sovereign to Christianity. King Louis easily captured Carthage, but his army soon fell victim to an outbreak of dysentery. Louis himself died before the walls of the capital and his army were forced out. At the same time, driven by the reconquest of Spain, the first Andalusian Muslims and Jews arrived in Tunis and would become of importance to the economic prosperity of the Hafsid capital and the development of its intellectual life.
During the Almohad and Hafsid periods, Tunis was one of the richest and grandest cities in the Islamic world, with a population of about 100,000. Like the Almohads, the Hafsids maintained Christian mercenaries who lived in a neighbourhood closed off with a gate near the Hafsid palace complex. They worshipped in a church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi which visitors described as "very beautiful and great" and which was allowed to ring the bell, a practice forbidden by the so-called Pact of Umar and a privilege not granted to the Genoese and Venetian merchants who maintained chapels in their merchant quarters. When Jean Adorno visited Tunis in 1470, he described these Christians as assimilated culturally and linguistically into Tunisian society, though they remained Christians and would sing in Latin during mass.
During this period, one of the famous travelers to Tunis was Ibn Battuta. In his travel account, when Ibn Battuta and his group arrived in Tunis, the population of the city came out to meet him and the other members of his party. They all greeted them and were very curious, many were asking questions, however, no one in Tunis personally greeted Ibn Battuta, greatly upsetting him. He felt very lonely and could not hold back the tears coming from his eyes. This went on for a while until one of the pilgrims realized he was upset, he went up and greeted and talked to Ibn Battuta until he entered the city. At the time, the Sultan of Tunis was Abu Yahya and during Ibn Battuta's stay, the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast was taking place. The people in the city assembled in large numbers to celebrate the festival, in extravagant and most luxurious outfits. Abu Yahya arrived on horseback, where all of his relatives joined him. After the performance, the people returned to their homes.
Spanish occupation and Ottoman control
The Ottoman Empire took nominal control of Tunis in 1534 when Hayreddin Barbarossa captured it from the Hafsid Sultan Mulai Hassan, who fled to the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. Charles, suffering losses from the corsairs operating out of Djerba, Tunis, and Algiers, agreed to reinstate Mulai Hassan in exchange for his acceptance of Spanish suzerainty. A naval expedition led by Charles himself was dispatched in 1535, and the city was recaptured. The victory against the corsairs is recorded in a tapestry at the Royal Palace of Madrid. The Spanish governor of La Goulette, Luis Pérez de Vargas, fortified the island of Chikly in the lake of Tunis to strengthen the city's defenses between 1546 and 1550.
The Ottoman Uluç Ali Reis, at the head of an army of janissaries and Kabyles, retook Tunis in 1569. However, following the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Spanish under John of Austria succeeded in retaking the city and re-establishing the Hafsid sovereign in October 1573. Following these conflicts, the city finally fell into Ottoman hands in August 1574. Having become an Ottoman province governed by a Pasha who was appointed by the Sultan based in Constantinople, the country attained a degree of autonomy. After 1591, the Ottoman governors (Beys) were relatively independent, and both piracy and trade continued to flourish. Under the rule of deys and beys, the capital sprang into new life. Its population grew by additions from various ethnicities, among which were Moorish refugees from Spain, and economic activities diversified. To traditional industry and trade with distant lands was added the activity of the Barbary pirates, then in their golden age. Profits obtained from the trade in Christian slaves allowed the rulers to build sumptuous structures that revived the architectural heritage of the Middle Ages.
In April 1655 the English admiral Robert Blake was sent to the Mediterranean to extract compensation from states that had been attacking English shipping. Only the Bey of Tunis refused to comply, with the result that Blake's fifteen ships attacked the Bey's arsenal at Porto Farina (Ghar el Melh), destroying nine Algerian ships and two shore batteries, the first time in naval warfare that shore batteries had been eliminated without landing men ashore.