Rome, Istanbul, and Alexandria are still large cities, and the first two are some of the most significant in Europe. However, Tunis has a population of only a million people, not much larger than the estimated maximum Carthaginian population of 700,000.
What happened?
Carthage went from being the second most important city in the West in 400 to being the seat of the Vandal Kingdom, to being the seat of an Exarchate (thus being important but not part of the heartland) of the Byzantine Empire.
When the Arabs took it (for the second time) they destroyed it and moved the population and materials to Tunis.
With the Umayyads and Abbasids split for good, it looks like Tunisia became relatively cut of from the economic powerhouses of the Mediterranean - too far from Spain, Egypt, and the Levant, and cut off from Italy by religion. Once the Caliphate of Córdoba fractured, the Berbers in Tunis were Sunni, next to the Shi'a Fatimids, which may well have cut them out of even more trade.
Hello everyone,
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