Editing Carthage (section)

===Islamic period===
{{main|Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Battle of Carthage (698)}}

The Roman [[Exarchate of Africa]] was not able to withstand the seventh-century [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]]. The [[Umayyad Caliphate]] under [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] in 686 sent a force led by [[Zuhayr ibn Qays]], who won a battle over the Romans and [[Berbers]] led by King [[Kusaila]] of the [[Kingdom of Altava]] on the plain of [[Kairouan]], but he could not follow that up. In 695, [[Hassan ibn al-Nu'man]] captured Carthage and advanced into the [[Atlas Mountains]]. An imperial fleet arrived and retook Carthage, but in 698, [[Hasan ibn al-Nu'man]] returned and defeated Emperor [[Tiberios III]] at the [[Battle of Carthage (698)|698 Battle of Carthage]]. Roman imperial forces withdrew from all of Africa except [[Ceuta]]. Fearing that the Byzantine Empire might reconquer it, they decided to destroy Roman Carthage in a [[scorched earth policy]] and establish their headquarters somewhere else. Its walls were torn down, the water supply from its aqueducts cut off, the agricultural land was ravaged and its harbors made unusable.<ref name="Edmund">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UB4uSVt3ulUC&q=carthage+walls+aqueducts+698&pg=PA536|last=Bosworth|first=C. Edmund|title=Historic Cities of the Islamic World|year=2008|publisher=Brill Academic Press|isbn=978-9004153882|page=536}}</ref>

The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to the Byzantine Empire's influence in the region.

It is clear from archaeological evidence that the town of Carthage continued to be occupied, as did the neighborhood of Bjordi Djedid. The [[Baths of Antoninus]] continued to function in the Arab period and the eleventh-century historian [[Al-Bakri]] stated that they were still in good condition at that time. They also had production centers nearby. It is difficult to determine whether the continued habitation of some other buildings belonged to Late Byzantine or Early Arab period. The Bir Ftouha church may have continued to remain in use although it is not clear when it became uninhabited.<ref name="Ediguplia">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qO7mlDvtuZ0C&pg=PA179|title=Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest|author=Anna Leone|pages=179–186|isbn=978-8872284988|year=2007|publisher=Edipuglia srl }}</ref> [[Constantine the African]] was born in Carthage.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H13CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT145|title=A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century|isbn=978-0486169286|last1=Singer|first1=Charles|date=2013|publisher=Courier Corporation }}</ref>

The [[Medina of Tunis]], originally a Berber settlement, was established as the new regional center under the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] in the early 8th century. Under the [[Aghlabid]]s, the people of Tunis revolted numerous times, but the city profited from economic improvements and quickly became the second most important in the kingdom. It was briefly the national capital, from the end of the reign of [[Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya|Ibrahim II]] in 902, until 909, when the [[Shi'ite]] [[Berber people|Berbers]] took over [[Ifriqiya]] and founded the [[Fatimid Caliphate]].

[[Carthage (episcopal see)|Carthage]] remained a residential see until the [[high medieval period]], and is mentioned in two letters of [[Pope Leo IX]] dated 1053,<ref>''[[Patrologia Latina]]'' {{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=r8EUAAAAQAAJ| title = vol. 143, coll. 727–731| last1 = (Contractus)| first1 = Hermannus| year = 1853}}</ref> written in reply to consultations regarding a conflict between the bishops of Carthage and [[Africa (Roman province)#Episcopal sees|Gummi]]. In each of the two letters, Pope Leo declares that, after the Bishop of Rome, the first archbishop and chief metropolitan of the whole of [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]] is the bishop of Carthage. Later, an archbishop of Carthage named Cyriacus was imprisoned by the Arab rulers because of an accusation by some Christians. [[Pope Gregory VII]] wrote Cyriacus a letter of consolation, repeating the hopeful assurances of the primacy of the Church of Carthage, "whether the Church of Carthage should still lie desolate or rise again in glory". By 1076, Cyriacus was set free, but there was only one other bishop in the province. These are the last of whom there is mention in that period of the history of the see.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bouchier|first1=E.S.|title=Life and Letters in Roman Africa|date=1913|publisher=Blackwells|location=Oxford|page=117|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifelettersinrom00boucuoft#page/116/mode/2up|access-date=15 January 2015}}</ref><ref>François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa(James Clarke & Co, 2011) p. 200.</ref>

The fortress of Carthage was used by the Muslims until [[Hafsid]] era and was captured by the Crusaders during the [[Eighth Crusade]]. The inhabitants of Carthage were slaughtered by the Crusaders after they took it, and it was used as a base of operations against the Hafsids. After repelling them, [[Muhammad I al-Mustansir]] decided to raze Cathage's defenses in order to prevent a repeat.<ref name="Mustansir">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHlUDwAAQBAJ&q=carthage+mustansir+walls&pg=PA113|title=Crusades – Medieval Worlds in Conflict |editor=Thomas F. Madden |editor2=James L. Naus |editor3=Vincent Ryan |pages=113, 184|isbn=978-0198744320 |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>