ABSTRACT
During the middle ages, blacks were an ethnic minority in Ifriqiya (now Tunisia). Their crossing of the Sahara towards the north was against their will, being within a particular economic context, mainly dependent on the slave trade. Though our study is mainly related to slavery, we are particularly interested in the great change embodied in the fact that blacks gave up their original culture and adopted a new one, the success of which resulted in them abandoning their original identity and acquiring a completely different one based on Arabic and Islam.
