The Story of the Barbary Corsairs | Page 8

a land which was, now to become a
nest of pirates? Yet, as though this were not sufficient, one more virtue
was added. The coast was visited by terrible gales, which, while
avoidable by those who had experience and knew where to run, were
fatal to the unwary, and foiled many an attack of the avenging enemy.
It remains to explain how it was that the Corsairs were able to possess
themselves of this convenient territory, which was neither devoid of
inhabitants nor without settled governments.
North Africa--the only Africa known to the ancients--had seen many
rulers come and go since the Arabs under Okba first overran its plains
and valleys. Dynasty had succeeded dynasty; the Arab governors under
the Khalifs of Damascus and Baghd[=a]d had made room for the
Houses of Idr[=i]s (A.D. 788) and Aghlab (800); these in turn had
given way to the F[=a]tim[=i] Khalifs (909); and when these
schismatics removed their seat of power from their newly founded
capital of Mahd[=i]ya to their final metropolis of Cairo (968), their
western empire speedily split up into the several princedoms of the
Zeyr[=i]s of Tunis, the Ben[=i] Hamm[=a]d of Tilims[=a]n, and other
minor governments. At the close of the eleventh century, the
Mur[=a]bits or Almoravides, a Berber dynasty, imposed their authority
over the greater part of North Africa and Spain, but gave place in the
middle of the twelfth to the Muwahhids or Almohades, whose rule
extended from the Atlantic to Tunis, and endured for over a hundred
years. On the ruins of their vast empire three separate and long-lived
dynasties sprang up: the Ben[=i] Hafs in Tunis (1228-1534), the Ben[=i]
Ziy[=a]n in Central Maghrib (1235-1400), and the Ben[=i] Merin in
Morocco (1200-1550). To complete the chronology it may be added
that these were succeeded in the sixteenth century by the Corsair
Pashas (afterwards Deys) of Algiers, the Turkish Pashas or Beys of

Tunis, and the Sher[=i]fs or Emperors of Morocco. The last still
continue to reign; but the Deys of Algiers have given place to the
French, and the Bey of Tunis is under French tutelage.
Except during the temporary excitement of a change of dynasty, the
rule of these African princes was generally mild and enlightened. They
came, for the most part, of the indigenous Berber population, and were
not naturally disposed to intolerance or unneighbourliness. The
Christians kept their churches, and were suffered to worship
unmolested. We read of a Bishop of Fez as late as the thirteenth century,
and the Kings of Morocco and Tunis were usually on friendly terms
with the Pope. Christians were largely enrolled in the African armies,
and were even appointed to civil employments. The relations of the
rulers of Barbary with the European States throughout the greater part
of this period--from the eleventh century, when the fighting
F[=a]tim[=i]s left Tunis and went eastward to Egypt, to the sixteenth,
when the fighting Turks came westward to molest the peace of the
Mediterranean--were eminently wise and statesmanlike. The Africans
wanted many of the industries of Europe; Europe required the skins and
raw products of Africa: and a series of treaties involving a principle of
reciprocity was the result. No doubt the naval inferiority of the African
States to the trading Republics of the Mediterranean was a potent factor
in bringing about this satisfactory arrangement; but it is only right to
admit the remarkable fairness, moderation, and probity of the African
princes in the settlement and maintenance of these treaties. As a general
rule, Sicily and the commercial Republics were allied to the rulers of
Tunis and Tilims[=a]n and Fez by bonds of amity and mutual
advantage. One after the other, Pisa, Genoa, Provence, Aragon, and
Venice, concluded commercial treaties with the African sovereigns,
and renewed them from time to time. Some of these States had special
quarters reserved for them at Tunis, Ceuta, and other towns; and all had
their consuls in the thirteenth century, who were protected in a manner
that the English agent at Algiers would have envied seventy years ago.
The African trade was especially valuable to the Pisans and Genoese,
and there was a regular African company trading at the Ports of Tripoli,
Tunis, Buj[=e]ya, Ceuta, and Sal[=e]. Indeed, the Genoese went so far
as to defend Ceuta against Christian crusaders, so much did commerce

avail against religion; and, on the other hand, the Christian residents at
Tunis, the western metropolis of Islam, had their own place of worship,
where they were free to pray undisturbed, as late as 1530. This
tolerance was largely due to the mild and judicious government of the
Ben[=i] Hafs, whose three centuries' sway at Tunis was an unmixed
benefit to their subjects, and to all who had relations with them.
Not that the years passed by without war and retaliation, or that treaties