The Vandals and Islam

By the 5th century AD, the power of Rome was weakening and the province known as Africa fell to a Teutonic tribe, the Vandals, in about AD430. The Vandals ruled for a century before Rome, under Belisarius, re-captured it in about AD534.

Arab invaders conquered the region in the 7th century AD, and the former Romano-Christian culture was replaced by Islam.

The land was now known as Ifriqiya, and power was wielded by a succession of ruling dynasties, including the Aghlabites, the Fatimids and, by the 10th century, the Zeirids. The capital was moved from Carthage to al-Kaiouan. Later invasions were made by the Sicilian Normans under Roger II in the 12th century and by the Spanish in the first half of the 16th century.