Chebba

Submitted by editor on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 20:52

Chebba

Chebba
Chebba is located in Tunisia
Chebba
Location in Tunisia
Coordinates: 35°14′14″N 11°06′54″E / 35.23722°N 11.115°E / 35.23722; 11.115
Country Flag of Tunisia.svg Tunisia
Governorate Mahdia Governorate
Population (2004)
 - Total 19,883
Time zone CET (UTC1)

Chebba (La Chebba, Ash Shabbah, aš-Šābbah, Sheba) is a small city in the Mahdia Governorate of Tunisia in North Africa on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

History

Ruined tower of Bordj Khadidja at Ras Kaboudia

The city of Chebba derives its name from the headland 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east, which was classically known as Caput Vada (headland above the shoals).

The Byzantine general Belisarius landed here in 533 and went on to inflict a devastating defeat on the Vandals. The town of Chebba was founded by Justinian about 534 CE after the defeat of the Vandals, and named Justinianopolis.

The headland (Caput Vada) is now known as Ras Kaboudia and is site of the ruins of the bordj (harbor fortress) of Bordj Khadidja, which was built upon Byzantine foundations. The fortress guarded the harbor entrance and was one of a chain of similar forts built by the Abbasids along the coast of North Africa in the 8th century. It was later renamed after Khadija Ben Kalthoum, a poetess of the eleventh century, who was born in Chebba.

Notes

  1. ^ "Tunisia: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population" World Gazetteer
  2. ^ Jacobs, Daniel and Morris, Peter (2001) The rough guide to Tunisia Rough Guides, London, page 235, ISBN 1-85828-748-0
  3. ^ a b c Hannezo, G. (1905) "Chebba et Ras-Kapoudia: Notes Historique" Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Sousse 3(5): pp. 135–140; in French
  4. ^ The shoals (Latin vada) refer to the shallows between the headland and the Kerkennah Islands, see Hannezo (1905)
  5. ^ In a footnote Gibbons says The Caput Vada of Procopius (where Justinian afterwards founded a city — Da Ædific. l. vi. c.6) is the promontory of Ammon in Strabo, the Brachodes of Ptolemy, the Capaudia of the moderns, a long narrow slip that runs into the sea (Shaw's Travels, p. 111). Gibbons, Edward (1854) The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire John Murry, London, volume 5 page 105, OCLC [1]
  6. ^ Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell) (1923) "Chapter XVII: The Reconquest of Africa" History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I. to the death of Justinian: Volume 2 Macmillan, New York, page 130, OCLC 499411636
  7. ^ Guérin, Victor (1862) Voyage archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis, Volume 1 Henri Plon, Paris, page 150, OCLC  23427230; in French
  8. ^ Carton, Louis Benjamin Charles (1905) "Le Bordj Khadidja (Chebba)" Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Sousse 3(5): pp. 127–134; in French
  9. ^ Sadiqi, Fatima et al. (2009) Women writing Africa: The Northern region Feminist Press at The City University of New York, New York, page 89, ISBN 978-1-55861-588-5


All text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. (See Terms of Use for details.)