Editing Ceuta (section)

===Medieval===
[[File:Interior de los Baños Árabes de Ceuta.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[Arab Baths (Ceuta)|Arab Baths of Ceuta]], built between the 11th and 13th centuries]]
[[File:Murallas_meriníes_de_Ceuta.jpg|thumb|The [[Marinid Walls of Ceuta|Marinid Walls]], built by order of [[Abu Sa'id Uthman II]] in 1328]]
[[Vandal Kingdom|Vandals]], probably invited by [[Bonifacius|Count Boniface]] as protection against the [[Galla Placidia|empress dowager]], crossed the strait near Tingis around 425 and swiftly overran [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman North Africa]]. Their king, [[Gaiseric]], focused his attention on the rich lands around [[Carthage]]; although the Romans eventually accepted his conquests and he continued to raid them anyway, he soon lost control of Tingis and Septem in a series of Berber revolts. When [[Justinian I|Justinian]] decided to [[Vandalic War|reconquer the Vandal lands]], his victorious general [[Belisarius]] continued along the coast, making Septem a westernmost outpost of the [[Byzantine Empire]] around 533. Unlike the former ancient Roman administration, however, Eastern Rome did not push far into the [[hinterland]] and made the more defensible Septem their regional capital in place of Tingis.

[[Plague of Justinian|Epidemics]], less capable successors and overstretched supply lines forced a retrenchment and left Septem isolated. It is likely that its [[comes|count]] (''{{lang|la|comes}}'') was obliged to pay homage to the [[Visigoth Kingdom]] in Spain in the early 7th century. There are no reliable contemporary accounts of the end of the [[Islamic conquest of the Maghreb]] around 710. Instead, the rapid [[Muslim conquest of Spain]] produced [[medieval romance|romances]] concerning [[Count Julian]] of Septem and his betrayal of Christendom in revenge for the dishonor that befell his daughter at [[Roderic|King Roderick]]'s court. Allegedly with Julian's encouragement and instructions, the Berber convert and freedman [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]] took his garrison from Tangiers across the strait and overran the Spanish so swiftly that both he and his master [[Musa bin Nusayr]] fell afoul of [[Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik|a jealous caliph]], who stripped them of their wealth and titles.

After the death of Julian, sometimes also described as a king of the [[Ghomara people|Ghomara Berbers]], Berber converts to Islam took direct control of what they called Sebta. It was then destroyed during [[Berber Revolt|their great revolt]] against the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] around 740. Sebta subsequently remained a small village of Muslims and Christians surrounded by ruins until its resettlement in the 9th century by Mâjakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived [[Banu Isam]] dynasty.<ref name="GibbKramers1994">{{citation|first=Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen |last=Gibb |author2=Johannes Hendrik Kramers |author3=Bernard Lewis |author4=Charles Pellat |author5=Joseph Schacht |title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BZXrAAAAMAAJ |year=1994 |publisher=E.J. Brill |page=690 }}.</ref> His great-grandson briefly allied his tribe with the [[Idrisid]]s, but Banu Isam rule ended in 931<ref>{{Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition|volume=8|title=Sabta|page=690|last=Ferhat|first=Halima|authorlink=Halima Ferhat}}
</ref> when he abdicated in favor of [[Abd ar-Rahman III]], the Umayyad ruler of [[Córdoba, Spain]].

Chaos ensued with the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031. Following this, Ceuta and Muslim Iberia were controlled by successive North African dynasties. Starting in 1084, the [[Almoravid]] Berbers ruled the region until 1147, when the [[Almohad]]s conquered the land. Apart from [[Ibn Hud]]'s rebellion in 1232, they ruled until the Tunisian [[Hafsid]]s established control. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and Ceuta's inhabitants eventually expelled them in 1249. After this, a period of political instability persisted, under competing interests from the [[Marinids]] and [[Emirate of Granada|Granada]] as well as autonomous rule under the native [[Banu al-Azafi]]. The Fez finally conquered the region in 1387, with assistance from [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]].