Algeria, and Tunisia. These modern divisions may not be perfectly natural, and the borders ebb and flow, but we are not that far from the modern divisions. Morocco originally looks the most likely to retain the unity of the region, and briefly holds it, but otherwise is the most durable unit, with a continuous succession of rulers, despite some moments of anarchy or transition, down to the present.The H.afs.id Amirs, Caliphs, or Sult.ans of TunisiaYah.ya I1229-1249Muh.ammad I1249-1277Seventh Crusade by St. Louis IX, 1270Yah.ya II1277-1279Ibrahim I1279-1283'Abd al-'Aziz1283Ah.mad1283-1284'Umar I1284-1295Muh.ammad II1295-1309Abu Bakr I1309Khalid I1309-1311, d.1313Zakariya' I1311-1317Muh.ammad III1317-1318Abu Bakr II1318-1346Ah.mad I1346-1347'Umar II1347Marinid rule, 1347-1350al-Fad.l1350Ibrahim II1350-1369Khalid II1369-1370Ah.mad II1370-1394'Abd al-'Aziz1394-1434Muh.ammad IV1434-1435'Uthman1435-1488Yah.ya III1488-1489'Abd al-Mu'min1489-1490Zkariya' II1490-1494Muh.ammad V1494-1526Muh.ammad VI1526-1534, 1535-1542Ottoman occupation, 1534-1535; vassal of Charles V, 1635-1569Ah.mad III1542-1569Ottoman rule, 1569-1573Muh.ammad VII1573-1574vassal of Spain, 1573-1574; Ottoman conquest& direct rule, 1574-1705The Zayyanid or Ziyanid Amirs of AlgeriaYaghmurasan ibn Ziyan or Zayyan1236-1283'Uthman I1283-1304Muh.ammad I1304-1308Musa I1308-1318'Abd ar-Rah.man I1318-1337Marinid rule, 1337-1348'Uthman II & al-Zaim1348-1352Marinid rule, 1352-1359Musa II1359-1389'Abd ar-Rah.man II1389-1394Yusuf I1394Yusuf I1394-1395Muh.ammad II1395-1400'Abdallah I1400-1402Muh.ammad III1402-1411'Abd ar-Rah.man III1411Sa'id1411'Abd al-Wah.id1411-1424, 1428-1430Muh.ammad IV1424-1428Ah.mad I1430-1462Muh.ammad V1462-1469Abu Tashufin1469Muh.ammad VI1469-1504Muh.ammad VII1504-1517vassal of Spain, 1512Musa III1517-1528Ottoman presence, 1518'Abdallah1528-1540Muh.ammad VIII1540-1541Ah.mad II1541-1543, 1544-1550Spanish occupation, 1543-1544al-H.asan1550-1555Ottoman conquest, 1555; Barbary StatesFrench occupation, 1830-1871; French annexation; 1871-1962; Republic of Algeria, 1962-present These tables are based on both The New Islamic Dynasties by Clifford Edmund Bosworth [Edinburgh University Press, 1996] and the Oxford Dynasties of the World by John E. Morby [Oxford University Press, 1989, 2002]. Bosworth has all of the rulers listed, while Morby gives only the Marinids [p.183] and H.afs.ids [p.185]. Morby has a clearer presentation, but Bosworth also has a brief discussion of the history.With the Crusades, Francia begins to develop the seapower that enables it to return to North Africa. On the Seventh Crusade in 1270, St. Louis IX of France lands in Tunisia, formally as a preparation to return to Egypt but apparently simply at the self-interested urging of his brother, Charles of Anjou, who wanted to enlarge his Mediterranean empire. He dies instead and accomplishes nothing for Charles -- it is also the last Crusade.After completing the expulsion of Islam from Spain, both Spain and Portugal become intent on expanding into North Africa. Various cities get taken and held for a time, and local rulers become temporary vassals, but nothing permanent gets accomplished and it seems impossible to establish a durable or extensive presence on the continent.It is not Europe but Turkey that actually does this. Both the H.afs.ids and Ziyands come to an end with the Turkish conquest. Indeed, in the last stages, the local rulers sometimes relied on the Christians as allies against the Turks. North Africa thus became a theater of the larger conflict between Christendom and the Ottomans.North Africa, however, was a long way from Constantinople. And as the Turkish reach slackened with time, local governors and princes began to run their own operations. This came to mean piracy and slaving. We enter the period of the Barbary States, a good three hundred years, when corsairs, from Algeria especially, were a plague on the surrounding seas, with ship after ship taken, and Christian crews and passengers sold on the slave