Annaba (Ar. ʿAnnāba), formerly Bône (Ar. Būna), is a city on the Mediterranean coast of eastern Algeria. As an urban center it goes back to Punic times. Known as Hippo Regius under the Romans, it was the home of St. Augustine. Jews apparently lived there in his lifetime, and he occasionally consulted with them on questions pertaining to the Hebrew text of Scripture.

The medieval Arabic name of the town, Būna, derived from its Byzantine name, Hippona. Leo Africanus (1494–1554) mentions that the area was nicknamed Bilād al-ʿUnnāb (Ar. land of jujubes) because of the fruit grown in a…