Africa (city)

The city of Mahdia, about 190 kilometers south of Tunis, was known in Dati's day as Africa (different from the continent of Africa). It was the capital of the Muslim Zirid dynasty in the 11th century until a joint Genoese-Pisan attack in 1087 burned most of the Muslim fleet, giving European Christians greater naval control of the Western Mediterranean. Another campaign by European forces in 1390—led by the Genoese but including English, French, and Spanish participants—is known as the Barbary Crusade or the Mahdia Crusade; this was inconclusive and both sides claimed victory. Campbell #1674.