Islam Spreads Across North Africa

In about 670 AD, Arab Muslim armies founded the garrison city of Kairouan in what is now Tunisia, creating the first lasting Islamic base in the Maghreb. The city became the launching point for the conquest of North Africa and for the gradual conversion of its people. Over the following centuries, the region shifted from a mostly Christian, Berber-speaking and Latin- or Punic-influenced world into one that was predominantly Muslim and increasingly Arabic-speaking, a transformation that still shapes the identity of the region today.

The background lay in the astonishing speed of early Islamic expansion. After the Prophet Muhammad died in 632, the caliphs based in Medina and later Damascus sent armies out of Arabia. Syria and Egypt fell to Muslim forces within roughly a decade, with Alexandria taken in the 640s. North Africa to the west was then divided between the Byzantine Empire, which held coastal cities such as Carthage, and various Berber peoples inland, who often held considerable autonomy. Early raids from Egypt probed the region, but they were more about plunder and tribute than permanent settlement.

The establishment of Kairouan, traditionally credited to the commander Uqba ibn Nafi under the Umayyad caliphate, marked a change of strategy. Rather than raid and withdraw, the Arabs built a fortified camp far enough from the coast to be safe from Byzantine naval power. Later accounts describe Uqba's dramatic ride to the Atlantic coast, but these stories were written down long afterward and are partly legendary. Resistance was real and fierce. Berber leaders, including the figure known as Kusayla and, later, a woman remembered as al-Kahina, fought the invaders, and Arab control remained contested for decades. Carthage did not fall until the late 690s.

Conversion was not instant or uniform. Many Berbers eventually embraced Islam and joined the conquering armies, taking part in the invasion of Iberia in 711. Yet resentment over taxation and unequal treatment by Arab rulers was widespread. Many Berbers were drawn to Kharijite and other dissenting forms of Islam that preached equality among believers, and a major Berber revolt in the 740s weakened Umayyad authority in the west. Christian communities persisted for centuries, though they slowly dwindled.

The legacy was lasting. Kairouan grew into a major center of learning and religion, and its Great Mosque remains one of the oldest in the Islamic world. Local dynasties, from the Idrisids to the Almoravids and Almohads, later built powerful states that drew on both Berber and Arab traditions. North Africa became a bridge linking the Mediterranean, the Sahara, and West Africa, carrying religion, trade, and scholarship across the desert.