The Kasbah of Béja is a historical citadel in the

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

n city

Béja Béja ( ') is a city in Tunisia. It is the capital of the Béja Governorate. It is located from Tunis, between the Medjerdah River and the Mediterranean, against the foothills of the Khroumire, the town of Béja is situated on the sides of D ...

. The

Kasbah A kasbah (, also ; , , Maghrebi Arabic: ), also spelled qasbah, qasba, qasaba, or casbah, is a fortress, most commonly the citadel or fortified quarter of a city. It is also equivalent to the term in Spanish (), which is derived from the same ...

was built in the 2nd century BC, and still exists today, which makes it one of oldest citadels in the region.

Location

The Kasbah was built on top of a hill 305 meters tall in northern Béja, This site was chosen so the castle can overlook the city and its surrounding plains and countryside.

History

Antiquity and Middle Ages

The first citadel of Béja was built in 2nd century BC by the

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

. At that time, Béja was called

Vaga VAGA is an artists collective dedicated to improving mental health and fighting cognitive decline through art therapy. The organisation brings together artists, clinicians and academic psychologists to foster research collaboration and the develo ...

, and was an important agriculture town. Because of that, Carthage needed to protect

(especially from barbarian raids), but after the decline of the Carthaginian power, especially after the

third Punic war The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome. The war was fought entirely within Carthaginian territory, in what is now northern Tunisia. When the Second Punic War ended in 20 ...

, the city fell under the influence of the

Numidians The Numidians were the Berber population of Numidia (present-day Algeria). The Numidians were originally a semi-nomadic people, they migrated frequently as nomads usually do, but during certain seasons of the year, they would return to the same ...

and their king

Jugurtha Jugurtha or Jugurthen (c. 160 – 104 BC) was a king of Numidia, the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa. When the Numidian king Micipsa, who had adopted Jugurtha, died in 118 BC, Micipsa's two sons, Hiempsal and Adherbal ...

made the fortress his center of reign. In 109 BC, the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

took power over the castle and then destroyed it. In 14 BC, the Romans rebuilt the fort and improved it adding a garrison, walls, and 22 towers. The fort was once again razed to the ground by the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

, during the Vandal invasion of North Africa, and the building only raised again by the Byzantines after the

Vandalic War The Vandalic War (533–534) was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire) and the Germanic Vandal Kingdom. It was the first war of Emperor Justinian I's , wherein the ...

, when the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

ordered Count Paulos to reconstruct the castle. The expansion of the fort continued after the

Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The conquest of the Maghreb by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century ...

where the new Muslim rulers of the country gave it the name "Kasbah" and made it the official center of their representatives of the northern-region. The expansion continued during the rule of the

Aghlabids The Aghlabid dynasty () was an Arab dynasty centered in Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia) from 800 to 909 that conquered parts of Sicily, Southern Italy, and possibly Sardinia, nominally as vassals of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Aghlabids ...

. In 943 the Kasbah suffered major damage when Béja was sacked by the

Kharijite The Kharijites (, singular ) were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the conflict with his challeng ...

rebels, led by

Abu Yazid Abū Yazīd Makhlad ibn Kaydād Dajjal (; – 19 August 947), was a member of the Ibadi sect. He opposed the Ismaili Shia rule of the Fatimids in North Africa and sought to restore Ibadi dominance in the region. Known as the Man on the Donke ...

, and was restored by the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

Caliph

al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah Abu Tahir Isma'il (; January 914 – 18 March 953), better known by his regnal name al-Mansur Billah (), was the thirteenth Imamate in Ismaili doctrine, Isma'ili imam and third caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya, ruling from 946 until hi ...

in 946.

Early modern and modern era

In the 16th century, during the reign of

Ahmed III Ahmed III (, ''Aḥmed-i sālis''; was sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, ...

, the Kasbah was fortified by adding 14 canons to the fort. The

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

too contributed to the expansion of the citadel by establishing a

flanking tower A flanking tower is a fortified tower that is sited on the outside of a defensive wall or other fortified structure and thus forms a flank. From the defensive platform and embrasures the section of wall between them (the curtain wall) could b ...

that protected the southern parts of the Kasbah and

Janissary A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted dur ...

garrison, and in 1677 the Tunisian monarch

Ali I Bey Abu l-Hasan Ali I (; 30 June 1688 – 22 September 1756), also known as Ali Bash or Ali Bey I,) was the second leader of the Husainid Dynasty and the ruler of Tunisia from 1735 to 1756. Biography He was a grandson of Ali Turki, governor of Kef ...

supported the garrison by a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

of 500

Spahis Spahis () were light-cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel ...

. After the

French occupation of Tunisia The French conquest of Tunisia occurred in two phases in 1881: the first (28 April – 12 May) consisting of the invasion and securing of the country before the signing of a treaty of protection, and the second (10 June – 28 October) consistin ...

in 1881, the Kasbah become a

Gendarmerie A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...

barracks from September 21, 1888, until the independence of the country in 1957.

Current use

After the independence of Tunisia from France, the fortress was turned into a cultural center, but today the Kasbah is in bad conditions. Restorations started in 2005 and directed by the Tunisian National Heritage Institute, but it has stopped for lack of funding.

Gallery

File:Bejaaaa 01234 06.JPG, File:Murailles beja 01.jpg, File:Forteresse Béja007.jpg, File:Bejaaa123457123 09.JPG, File:Beja tours 07.JPG,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasbah of Beja Béja Buildings and structures completed in the 2nd century BC Kasbahs in Tunisia Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Tunisia Byzantine forts Islamic architecture in Africa