The Greek Community in Tunis through 16th – 17th Centuries

The region of North Africa, because of its geographical position in the Mediterranean basin, was a perpetual field of cultural osmosis and religious syncretism. Since Tunisia is located in the centre ofthe Mediterranean Sea and the North African coast, people of different nationalities, races and religions used to live there. The 16th century, marked by the conflicts of the Spanish kings with the Ottoman Empire for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea. In the early 16th century, the North Africa coast was the base for the pirates acting in the Mediterranean such as the Barbarossa brothers, who, after the conquest of Algiers, took the place of the trustee in the name of the High Port. In the second half of the 16th century, Spain took under control several coastal cities, but only for only a short period, since they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The first Ottoman conquest ofTunis took place in 1534 under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, the younger brother of Oruq Reis, who was the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Fleet during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. However, only in 1574, Kapudan Pasha UluqAli Reis managed to integrate Tunisia into the Ottoman Empire (Spencer 1995: 73; Braudel 1976: 1066-1068). The Ottoman reign established permanently in the area, creating the eyalets of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli (Hess 2010: 253). The expansion of the Ottomans in North Africa, from Libya to Algeria, and the suppression of the Admiral Sinan Pasha of the Knights of Malta