The Algerian Sahara Atlas (p. [170]) extends to the N.E. from Jebel Bou Roumane (5250 ft.) and Jebel Zebissa (4167 ft.) near Tebessa (p. [315]) to Cape Bon (p. [153]), broken by stony plateaux (Hammada, Kalaâ, Dyr), and finally descends abruptly to the sea. Its most important peaks in Tunisia are Jebel Chambi (5217 ft.), Jebel Bireno (4655 ft.), Jebel Rekaba (or Râs Ali Bou-Mouzine, 4987 ft.), Jebel Serd (4511 ft.), and, beyond the deep depression of Jebel Faroua (2362 ft.), Jebel Zaghouan (4249 ft.), which last is the most striking landmark for mariners in all Tunisia. The S. slope of the Sahara Atlas is remarkable for its terraced formation due to the action of water. The whole country consists mainly of great basins with floors of clay or sand of recent origin, separated from each other by elliptically shaped hills of more solid rock, chiefly of chalk formation. The Oued Hathob (pp. [362], 370) flows through no fewer than six basins of the kind.
From the Gulf of Hammamet, on the S. margin of the peninsula of Cape Bon, to the Lesser Syrtis, now the Gulf of Gabes, extends an alluvial plain of marine formation. This steppe-like tract, with its large fresh-water lake (Lac de Kelbia, p. [370]) and many salt-marshes (Sebkha, comp. p. [169]), is thinly peopled by nomads only, except on the strip of coast, with its lagoons, flanking the Sahel. To the W. of the Gulf of Gabes lies the region, 250 M. long, of the Shotts (Chotts el-Fedjedj, Djerid, and Rharsa), belonging to the great Bassin du Melrir (p. [170]); it forms the N. fringe of the desert, lying largely below the sea-level, and contains the finest palm-oases in Barbary. The transition from the shotts to the highlands of Tripoli is formed by Jebel Tebaga (1608 ft.), and by the Monts des Ksour (2460 ft.), famed ever since the time of Herodotus for their troglodytes or cave-dwellers, and bounded on the S.W. by the Erg Oriental (p. [285]).
Tunisia, unlike its neighbour Algeria, which is shut in all round by high mountains, covered with snow in winter, opens due E. upon the Mediterranean and enjoys a mild winter climate, but in summer and autumn is directly exposed to the sirocco (Arabic samûm), the burning wind from inland Africa, which is hotter and drier here than in Algeria. The mean temperature of January is at Tunis 51° Fahr. (minimum 28½°), at Aïn-Draham 42½° (min. 9½°), at Le Kef 45° (min. 23°), at Kairwan and Tozeur 50° (min. 25°), at Djerba 54½° (min. 35½°). The mean temperature of August at Tunis is 81° (maximum 122°), at Kairwan 85° (max. 120°), at Djerba 81° (max. 115°), and at Tozeur reaches 91° (max. 120°). The greatest rainfall in N. Africa is in the region of the Kroumirie (65 inches per annum at Aïn-Draham); to the S. of the Medjerda it decreases to 20–24 inches (at Le Kef 21½ in.); it is still lower at Tunis (17¾ in.), on the E. coast (Susa 16½, Sfax 9¾ in.), and particularly in the district of the shotts (at Tozeur 5 in.). The rain falls in short, torrential showers; owing to the destruction of the forests and the paucity of reservoirs the water rushes down unhindered to the salt-lakes and the sea, inundating the plains on its way. A few hours after each shower the thirsty soil is as dry as before, but the devastation caused by erosion is aggravated.
The fauna and flora are almost identical with those of Algeria (p. [171]). The chief products of Tunisia are the tanner’s bark and cork of the Kroumirie, early vegetables from the environs of Tunis, cereals from the Medjerda valley and from the dales of the Sahara Atlas (here horse and cattle breeding also thrive), alfa or esparto grass (p. [171]), olive-oil from the Sahel and from Sfax, and dates from the oases of the Sahara. Fish abound on the coast and the sponge fishery also is productive, while the coral-fishing has sunk into complete insignificance. The principal ores worked here are zinc, lead, iron, and copper. At Kalaât es-Senam, Kalaâ-Djerda, Metlaoui, Redeyef, and Aïn-Moularès there are immense deposits of phosphate, the yield of which has rapidly increased the traffic of Tunis and Sfax, and is expected greatly to augment that of Susa after the completion of its harbour.
Tunisia owes its ancient culture, the earliest in Barbary, to its numerous Phœnician colonies, such as Utica, Kambe, Hadrumetum (Susa), Leptis Minor, and Carthage. The Carthaginians wisely introduced the irrigation system of Mesopotamia into N. Africa and promoted the corn and vine culture, but the agricultural prosperity of the country was confined chiefly to the littoral, inhabited by Libyan-Phœnicians, a mixed Berber and Phœnician race, and to the valley of the Medjerda. The contiguous region of Numidia was first opened up to Punic culture by Masinissa (B.C. 201–149), the most distinguished of the ancient Berber kings.
The Roman republican period was unfavourable for the development of the new province of Africa. The chief events were the war with Jugurtha (111–106), the grandson of Masinissa, and the battles between Pompey, whose adherents were aided by Juba I., and Cæsar, which, after the battle of Thapsus (p. [369]), led to the annexation of Numidia as the province of Africa Nova. The marvellous progress of the country during the first centuries of the Roman empire is evidenced by the colonization of the central Tunisian and S. Algerian steppe, a triumph of Roman enterprise. A great network of roads was constructed, chiefly from the reign of Hadrian onwards, to connect Carthage, the new capital, and other towns with Tebessa, Hippo Regius (p. [309]), Tripolitania, and even the distant Mauretania Tingitana (p. [95]), and numerous towns were founded in the interior of Tunisia and Numidia. But soon (about 238) a period of decline set in. Its causes were manifold. The Berbers were constantly rebelling, the Roman soldiers quarrelled, advancing Christianity and expiring paganism were struggling fiercely for the mastery, and the Christians, at length victorious, persecuted with the greatest ferocity. To add to these troubles, the terrible peasant-war of the so-called Circumcelliones broke out in the 4th cent., followed in the 4th and 5th cent. by the religious wars between Catholics and Donatists.
Once more, however, the ancient glory of Tunisia revived, though for but a brief period (439–77), under Genseric, the Arian king of the Vandals. After he had completed his victorious expedition from S. Spain to Carthage (429–39) he proceeded, in alliance with the Donatist Berbers and with the still Punic speaking inhabitants of the coast, to attack the effete western empire. With his newly formed fleet he conquered Sicily (440), Rome (455), Tripolitania, Malta (456), and Sardinia (458), and in 476, after the overthrow of the W. Roman empire, was recognized by Zeno, the E. Roman emperor, as lord of the whole western Mediterranean. But the incompetence and intolerance of his successors soon shattered this new empire, and in 533 king Gelimer was defeated by Justinian’s able general Belisarius. Even in Justinian’s time, however, the new rulers were incessantly attacked by the Berbers of the mountains, while the Byzantine governors (534–698) persecuted Donatists and Arians alike, with the result, according to Procopius’s estimate, that five millions of the inhabitants of N. Africa perished. The fate of the country was thus sealed and its conquest by Islam greatly facilitated.
After eight successive campaigns (647–98) the first Arabian governors (representing the caliphs), Abdallah ibn Saâd, Moauya ibn Hodeij, Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi (founder of Kairwan, p. [372]), Zoheir ibn Kaïs, and Hassan ibn en-Nôman (destroyer of Carthage, p. [346]), drove the Byzantines out of ‘Ifrikia’ and overcame the desperate resistance of the Berber mountaineers, thus sweeping Christianity from African soil and destroying the last vestiges of Punic and Roman culture. Ere long, however, their ineradicable love of independence led the Berbers, who after the conquest of Andalusia (p. [50]) had formed the sect of the Kharijites and later that of the Shiites, to unite in opposing the orthodox Arabs and to found (about 740) several small states of their own, such as that of the Ibadites in Tiaret (p. [208]) and that of the Sofrites in Sijilmassa (Tafilet, p. [96]). In Tunisia the Aglabides (800–909), a Berber dynasty, who were originally governors under Hârûn er-Rashid, declared themselves independent, and in 827 they proceeded to conquer Sicily. Under the Fatimites, who also were Berbers, the seat of government was transferred in 916 from Kairwan to Mehdia (p. [369]), and in 973, after the conquest of Egypt, it was removed to Cairo (comp. p. [443]). The revolt of the Zirites, a new dynasty of Tunisian governors, named after Bologgîn ez-Ziri, led in 1045 to the fateful irruption of the Beni Hilal (Hilalides) and Beni Soleïm, two marauding tribes of nomadic Arabs. At the instigation of the Fatimites they overran Barbary like a swarm of locusts, defeated the allied Zirites and Hammadites (p. [270]), destroyed Kairwan and many other towns, demolished most of the forests and the irrigation-works, and drove the Berbers back to their mountains. After a time the Zirites partly succeeded in subduing these hordes, but in 1148 the whole of the Sahel with its capital Mehdia was wrested from them by the Normans of Sicily (p. [148]). In 1160 the Normans were expelled by Abd el-Mûmen (p. [95]), and Tunisia was incorporated with the great empire of the Almohades. At length, under the Hafsides (1206–1573), Tunisia regained independence, with Tunis as the capital. Towards the end of this period troubles began anew. After interminable wars with the Merinides (p. [95]) Tunis was captured by Kheireddin (p. [221]) in 1534, and was attacked, though without permanent success, by the crusading Maltese knights (p. [398]), by Emp. Charles V. (in 1535), by Juan de Vega (1551), and by Don John of Austria (1573). From 1574 to 1650 Tunisia was governed by Turkish officials (pashas, deys, beys), after which the dynasty of the Husseinites was founded by Hussein Ali ben-Turki. From 1705 onwards Tunisia, often only a nominal dependency of Turkey, degenerated into a mere pirate-state, which down to 1830 took an active part in the marauding expeditions of its barbaresque Algerian neighbours.
Since 1881 the French protectorate has paved the way for a new period of prosperity and opened up the greatly impoverished and thinly peopled country to European trade and culture. The present bey is Sidi Mohammed en-Nasr (born in 1855). The minister for foreign affairs is the French resident-general, and the minister of war is the commandant of the French garrison. Finance, postal arrangements, public works, and education are all superintended by French officials, with whom are associated a Mohammedan prime minister and a secretary of state. Europeans and their dependents are under the jurisdiction of the French law-courts; the natives are dealt with by the courts of the Ouzara and the ‘Shaâra’. The bey is allowed a body-guard of 600 men of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, uniformed like the Zouaves.
Lovers of art will find Tunisia a most attractive country. As in Algeria and Morocco, so here also the megalithic monuments (dolmens, basinas, etc.), built of huge blocks of stone, are the chief memorials of the Libyan (or ancient Berber) culture. The Punic art of Tunisia, at first under Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek influence, but exclusively Greek after the first campaigns in Sicily, has become better known of late, especially since the rich yield of the rock-tombs of Carthage. Apart from the tomb at Dougga (p. [355]), as little of Punic architecture remains as in Algeria. On the other hand no other country can boast of such a profusion of Roman ruins (called by the Mohammedans Henshir) as Tunisia.