Tunisia

From Carthage to the cradle of the Arab Spring

Tunisia occupies the fertile hinge of the Mediterranean where the Phoenician city of Carthage once rivalled Rome. Across three thousand years the land was Punic, Roman, Christian, Vandal and Byzantine before the Arab conquest planted Islam and founded the holy city of Kairouan in 670. A succession of dynasties — Aghlabid, Fatimid, Zirid and Hafsid — made Ifriqiya a centre of learning before Ottoman governors and the Husaynid beys ruled from Tunis. France imposed a protectorate in 1881; Habib Bourguiba's Neo-Destour won independence in 1956; and in 2010–2011 the Jasmine Revolution overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and lit the fuse of the Arab Spring.