History
The city as it is today developed on the site of an ancient Roman city called Gerba or Girba, which shared its name with the island. Many besides the Romans lived there, including Numidians, Punics, Arabs, Spanish, and Turks; the town was also home to many merchants and pirates for many years. The Battle of Djerba took place in the northern part of the city. Close to the fort is a large village which served as a market; cattle and woolen cloth were traded there, as were dried grapes. Under the French protectorate (1881–1956) the island was divided into twelve sheikhates. French soldiers entered the town on July 28, 1881, and it remained a garrison until 1890, when its administration passed to civil French authority. In 1956, upon Tunisian independence, it became the capital of Djerba.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)