Editing Tunis (section)

== Etymology ==
''Tunis'' is the transcription of the [[Arabic]] name {{lang|ar|تونس}} which can be pronounced as "Tūnus", "Tūnas", or "Tūnis". All three variations were mentioned by the 12th-century [[Arab]] geographer [[Yaqut al-Hamawi]] in his ''[[Mu'jam al-Buldan|Mu'jam al-Bûldan]]'' (''Dictionary of Countries'').

Different explanations exist for the origin of the name ''Tunis''. Some scholars relate it to the Carthaginian goddess ''[[Tanit]]h'' ('Tanit or Tanut), as many ancient cities were named after patron deities.<ref name="adrian">
{{cite book
  | last = Room
  | first = Adrian
  | title = Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites
  | publisher = McFarland
  | year = 2006
  | page = 385
  | isbn = 0-7864-2248-3 }}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
  | last = Taylor
  | first = Isaac
  | title = Names and Their Histories: A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature
  | publisher = BiblioBazaar, LLC
  | year = 2008
  | page = 281
  | isbn = 978-0-559-29668-0 }}
</ref> 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.<ref name="ej-brill">
{{cite book
  | last = Houtsma
  | first = Martijn Theodoor
  | title = E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936
  | publisher = Brill
  | year = 1987
  | page = 838
  | isbn = 90-04-08265-4 }}
</ref><ref name="hann-war">
{{cite book
  |author=Livy |translator=John Yardley |editor=Dexter Hoyos
  | title = Hannibal's War: Books Twenty-one to Thirty
  | publisher = Oxford University Press
  | year = 2006
  | page =705
  | isbn = 0-19-283159-3 }}
</ref>

Another possibility is that it was derived from the [[Berber languages|Berber]] verbal root ''ens'' which means "to lie down" or "to pass the night".<ref name="peter-ross">
{{cite book
  | first1 = Peter M.
  | last1 = Rossi
  | first2 = Wayne Edward
  | last2 = White
  | title = Articles on the Middle East, 1947–1971: A Cumulation of the Bibliographies from the Middle East Journal
  | publisher = Pierian Press, [[University of Michigan]]
  | year = 1980
  | page = 132 }}
</ref> 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 ''Tuniza'' (now [[El Kala]]), ''Thunusuda'' (now [[Sidi-Meskin]]), ''Thinissut'' (now Bir Bouregba), and ''Thunisa'' (now [[Ras Jebel]]). As all of these Berber villages were situated on Roman roads, they undoubtedly served as rest-stations or stops.<ref name="Sebag54">{{harvp|Sebag|1998|p=54}}</ref>