View source for Chebba

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|official_name          =Chebba
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|native_name            = الشابة
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'''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]].<ref name="Jacobs">Jacobs, Daniel and Morris, Peter (2001) ''The rough guide to Tunisia'' Rough Guides, London, [https://books.google.com/books?id=k2By-NdV93AC&q=Chebba+Kaboudia page 235], {{ISBN|1-85828-748-0}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Tower-ruin-Bordj-Khadidja.png|thumb|left|225px|Ruined tower of Bordj Khadidja at Ras Kaboudia.]]
The city of Chebba derives its name from the [[headland]] {{Convert|3|km|mi|1}} to the east, which was [[Classical antiquity|classically]] known as Caput Vada (''headland above the shoals'').<ref name="Hannezo">Hannezo, G. (1905) [https://books.google.com/books?id=PVJNAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA135 "Chebba et Ras-Kapoudia: Notes Historique"] ''Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Sousse'' 3(5):&nbsp;pp.&nbsp;135&ndash;140; in French</ref><ref>The shoals (Latin ''vada'') refer to the shallows between the headland and the [[Kerkennah Islands]], see Hannezo (1905)</ref><ref>In a footnote [[Edward Gibbon|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 [https://books.google.com/books?id=XrUUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA105 page 105], {{OCLC|}}</ref>

The Byzantine general [[Belisarius]] landed here in 533 and went on to inflict a devastating defeat on the [[Vandals]].<ref>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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JxWifqqPtUcC&pg=PA130 page 130], {{OCLC|499411636}}</ref> The town of Chebba was founded by Justinian about 534 CE after the defeat of the [[Vandals]],<ref name="Hannezo" /> and named '''Justinianopolis'''.<ref>Guérin, Victor (1862) ''Voyage archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis, Volume 1'' Henri Plon, Paris, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ygp1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA150 page 150], {{OCLC|	23427230}}; in French</ref>

The headland (Caput Vada) is now known as Ras Kaboudia<ref name="Hannezo" /> and is site of the ruins of the ''bordj'' (harbor fortress) of Bordj Khadidja, which was built upon [[Byzantine]] foundations.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q124213003}}</ref>  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 poet of the eleventh century, who was born in Chebba.<ref>Sadiqi, Fatima ''et al.'' (2009) ''Women writing Africa: The Northern region'' Feminist Press at The City University of New York, New York, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VWsLAQAAMAAJ&q=Zirids page 89], {{ISBN|978-1-55861-588-5}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.maplandia.com/tunisia/region-5/mahdia/chebba/ "Chebba Map — Satellite Images of Chebba"] Maplandia World Gazetteer
* {{Commons-inline}}

{{Clear}}

{{Communes of Tunisia}}

[[Category:Populated places in Mahdia Governorate]]
[[Category:Communes of Tunisia]]