Pirates and Crusaders: The fight for Mahdia in the Middle Ages

In 1087, 1148, and again in 1390, the Tunisian city of Mahdia was set upon by bands of Christian Europeans. Italians, Normans, and Frenchmen all vied to capture this town on the Mediterranean. This thesis attempts to ascertain the various motives of these men in their efforts to seize Mandia and what these three sieges mean in terms of the state of Christian-Muslim relations at the same time as the Crusades were being waged at the other end of the Mediterranean. At the same time, it will endeavor to shed light on the larger picture of commercial and diplomatic interactions by looking at the history of these attacks within their economic and strategic milieu. This paper will argue that the common drive to take Mahdia, aside from religion, selfish ambition, and chivalry, i.e., the knightly compulsion to fight the enemies of church and state, was to maintain the status quo which allowed for the exchange of goods between North Africa, Europe, and the Near East without the constant harassment of Mahdia-based piracy.