Hafsid dynasty

The Hafsids were a Berber dynasty that ruled Ifriqiya, today's Tunisia with eastern Algeria and western Libya, from 1229 to 1574. Based in Tunis, they were the longest-lasting of the dynasties that succeeded the Almohad Caliphate, and under them Tunis became one of the great cities of the Mediterranean.

The family took its name from Abu Hafs Umar al-Hintati, a Masmuda Berber chief and one of the closest companions of Ibn Tumart, founder of the Almohad movement. His descendants governed Ifriqiya for the Almohad caliphs. In 1229, as the Almohads weakened and one caliph rejected Ibn Tumart's doctrine, the governor Abu Zakariya Yahya declared his independence, presenting himself as the true heir of Almohad orthodoxy. He took Constantine, Bejaia and Algiers, and the rulers of Tlemcen and Morocco briefly recognised him.

His son Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Mustansir took the title of caliph in 1253. After the Mongols destroyed the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258, the sharif of Mecca briefly recognised him as caliph. He maintained relations with European states, including Aragon, Sicily and Genoa, and Tunis traded with Italian merchants.

In 1270 King Louis IX of France, Saint Louis, launched a crusade against Tunis, perhaps hoping to convert al-Mustansir or use Tunisia as a base against Egypt. His army landed near the ruins of Carthage, where dysentery or plague struck the camp, and Louis died. His brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, arrived and negotiated a treaty with al-Mustansir, who paid tribute and allowed Christian merchants and priests, and the crusaders withdrew.

Tunis grew into a cosmopolitan city, with mosques, madrasas and souks, many around the Zaytuna mosque, a major centre of learning. The Hafsids built the first madrasas in Ifriqiya. Andalusian refugees, fleeing the Christian conquests in Spain, settled in Tunisia, bringing crafts, agriculture and culture. Ibn Khaldun, the great historian and author of the Muqaddimah, was born in Tunis in 1332 to an Andalusian family and served the Hafsids before travelling to Fez, Granada and Cairo. Trade with Italian cities, Aragon and others flourished, and privateering against Christian shipping was also important.

The Hafsid realm often split, with rival rulers in Tunis, Bejaia and Constantine. The Marinids of Morocco occupied Tunis in 1347 and 1357. In the fifteenth century, Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz, who ruled from 1394 to 1434, and Abu Amr Uthman, from 1435 to 1488, restored unity and prosperity, and launched raids against Malta and Sicily.

In the sixteenth century, the Hafsids were caught between Spain and the Ottoman Empire. Spain took Bejaia in 1510 and Tripoli in 1510, and the Ottoman corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa took Algiers. In 1534 Hayreddin seized Tunis. In 1535 Emperor Charles V led a great expedition, retook Tunis, sacked it and restored the Hafsid ruler Muley Hassan as a Spanish vassal. The Ottomans retook Tunis in 1569, Spain recaptured it in 1573, and in 1574 an Ottoman force under Sinan Pasha took Tunis and the fortress of La Goletta, ending the Hafsid dynasty. Tunisia became an Ottoman province, later ruled by beys.

Our maps show the Hafsids from 1279 to 1500. Their largest outline, about 690,000 square kilometres on the 1300 map, is drawn mostly in today's Algeria, with the rest in Libya and Tunisia. Tunis lies inside it throughout, and Algiers and Tripoli until 1492. On the 1530 map the region is part of the Ottoman Empire, though Hafsid rule survived until 1574.