THE ARRIVAL OF ISLAM & THE ARABS Visit Tunisia Tour Tunisia Travel to Tunisia

The History of early Islamic Tunisia begins with the arrival of the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam . In the mid-7th century AD , the armies of the new religion of Islam permanently changed the face of North Africa . Islam entered Egypt by AD 640 - just eight years after Prophet Mohammed's death - and soon after , Tripoli was in Muslim hands . After nearly 30 years , Islamic rule was secured in Tunisia . For three years , beginning in AD 669 , Okba ibn Nafaa al-Fihri swept across North Africa , stopping on the way to establish Qayrawan (Kairouan) , a city that is considered by many Sunni Muslims to be Islam's fourth holiest city (after Mecca , Medina and Jerusalem) . The Arabs then defeated the Byzantines' Tunisian armies and the Berbers eventually converted to Islam , and fundamental elements of Islamic civilization were established .

Although accepting Islam , many Berbers nonetheless resisted Arab rule . In AD 683 , after Okba was defeated and killed by a combined Berber-Byzantine army . the Arabs abandon North Africa for a while . The leader of the victors

was the Berber chieftain Qusayla who then founded his own Islamic kingdom at Kairouan .

The Arabs then regrouped and succeeded in retaking Kairouan in AD 689 and further dismissed the Byzantines from Carthage in AD 698 . Berbers however continued their resistance . They were rallying behind the legendary princess AI-Kahina who succeeded in defeating the Arabs at Tebessa (Algeria) in AD 696 , however she was finally defeated and killed after a legendary last stand at EI-Jem in AD 701 , and thus North Africa became a province of the expanding Islamic state under Umayyad caliphs , based in Damascus .

The Berbers made another rebellion because of some tyrannical actions of Arab militia along with other inflaming matters like the Berbers' affinity for the teachings of the Kharijites who were divided into a variety of feuding factions and their beliefs which were contrasting sharply with that of the Umayyads .