# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Regency of Tunis

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TUNIS, Regency of, formerly one of the Barbary states of north Africa, but since 1881 a dependency of France, whose resident-general exercises all real authority in the nominal dominions of the bey. Is bounded on the west by Algeria, on the north by the western basin of the Mediter ranean, on the east from Cape Bon to the Gulf of Gabes (Kabis) by the eastern basin of the same sea, and on the south-east by the province of Tripoli. On the south the boundary is the Sahara and the frontier line is indefinite. The greatest breadth from east to west is about 1 50 miles, the length from north to south about 300 miles. The population does not exceed a million and a half.
Physical Features. Tunis is formed by the prolongation towards the east of the two great mountain chains of ALGERIA (q.v.), and closely resembles that country in its physical features, products, and climate; see AFRICA, vol. i. p. 265. The northern Algerian chain (the Little Atlas) is prolonged through Tunis to Ras Sidi All al-Makkl, the highest summits never attaining an altitude of 4000 feet. It forms a picturesque, fertile, and well -watered region, with extensive cork woods in its western parts, and sepa rated from the southern mountains by the valley (the ancient Zeugitana) of the Mejerda (the ancient Bagradas), the most important river of north Africa, which after a tortuous course of nearly 300 miles falls into the Gulf of Tunis at Porto Farina. The basin of the Mejerda, which is now tra versed by the railway from Algiers to Tunis, is very fertile, and many important ruins testify to its prosperity in Roman times. The rich lacustrine deposits in the Dakhila, or plain of Bulla Regia, show that it was only in relatively recent times that its upper waters found a passage to the sea by ​cutting a deep gorge through the cretaceous barrier that shuts in this upland plain upon the east. The southern wall of the Mejerda valley and of the Gulf of Tunis is formed by a branch of the southern Algerian chain, connected with Jebel Auras (Mount Aures) by the plateau of Tebessa (Theveste) and running north-east to Cape Bon. Its highest summits (Zilk and Zaghwan) rise above 5000 feet. Another branch of the southern chain runs from the Sahara side of Mount Aures south-east towards the head of the Lesser Syrtis or Gulf of Gabes. Between these two branches lies a mountainous plateau, whose waters descend eastward but do not reach the sea. Arrested by a line of hills running parallel to the coast, they form a chain of lakes and marshes, which for the most part dry up in summer. It is to this region of inland drainage (the ancient Byzacene) that the plain of Kairwan belongs. Its southern part from Sbeitla (Sobaitala) to the Syrtis is relatively sterile, and even in antiquity appears to have formed an exception to the general fertility of the country, which was one of the granaries of Rome. The upland district from Tebessa southward sinks into the desert by a step-like series of great plateaus, separated by nigged walls of variegated marls, sands, and alluvium, torn into fantastic shapes, and scored with deep ravines by streams which at some remote period of copious rainfall poured down into the Sahara. Farther east the plateaus disappear and the mountains rise like a rampart from the Sibakh (sing. Sebkha), or Saharian marshes and salt-flats. The depression to which the Sibakh belong terminates to the east in the Shott (Shatt) al-Jerid, which is separated from the Lesser Syrtis only by a narrow isthmus; see SAHARA, vol. xxi. p. 151. Even the Sahara of Tunis abounds in fertile oases.
Climate.—The mean annual temperature at Susa is 75 Fahr., the mean of the winter or rainy season 60 and of the hot season 97. At Tunis the temperature rarely exceeds 90, except with a wind from the Sahara. The prevailing winds from May to September are east and north-east and during the rest of the year north west and east. A rainy season of about two months usually begins in January; the spring season of verdure is over in May; summer ends in October with the first rains. Violent winds are common at both equinoxes.
Flora and Fauna.—Both are generally the same as those of Algeria (q.v.). The lion and panther are almost extinct, but the sportsman finds in abundance the wild boar, partridge, Carthage fowl, quail, and snipe. The African moufflon still exists in the southern mountains. Herds of buffaloes are found in the district of Mater. The stag occurs in the eastern districts. The camel, now so important, was hardly known here before the Roman sovereignty. Red mullet, tunny, and other fish abound around the coast; and fishing stations are numerous. The town of Bizerta and the Kerkenna Islands are mainly dependent on their fisheries. The coral and sponge fisheries, of which Sf ax and the island of Jerba (Djerba) are centres, are also considerable. Of noxious creatures may be named the scorpion, much more formidable than that of Algiers, a venomous tree snake (Echis carinata), in the sandy lands between Kafsa and Sfax, and a species of python called taguerga, which infests some parts of the southern mountains.
Cork and "zen" trees cover about 360,000 acres towards the Algerian frontier, and the pine and deciduous oak almost as large an area south of the Mejerda; but the country is much less wooded than in antiquity. The richness of the grain crops is still remark able, in spite of imperfect cultivation. Olives and many excellent fruits are largely produced, and vineyards have been much extended since the French occupation. Esparto grass abounds in the uplands. The oases of the Jerid are devoted to the date palm and produce the best dates known in the European market.
Minerals.—The mineral wealth of Tunis, like that of Algeria, is considerable, but it has been imperfectly explored. The iron mines of the northern mountains and the argentiferous lead mines of Al-Resas near Tunis were worked in antiquity, as were also the marble quarries of Simittu (Chemtou), on the upper Mejerda, which are now in the hands of a Belgian company. The thermal springs of Hammam al-Anf on the Bay of Tunis are supposed to have healing virtues; they are now connected with the capital by rail.
Inhabitants.—The industrious Berbers (Kabyles), the oldest stock in the country, are less sharply marked off from the Arabs than in Algeria, but are distinguishable by their lighter complexion and often fair hair. They form a large part of the population in the northern and eastern mountains, and in the island of Jerba (Jirba). They are organized in tribes with purely democratic self-government, and laws of their own, which are not those of the Koran. The pastoral Arab nomads are descended from the second Arab invasion, which began in the 11th century (see below). They have little agriculture and are still as indolent and unruly as their ancestors. The Arabs of the towus are usually known as Moors; among them the Spanish Moors, descendants of the Andalusian refugees, form an exclusive and aristocratic class. The pure Turks and the Kuluglis (sons of Turkish fathers by Moorish women or slave girls) are no longer numerous. Of Europeans there are some 10,000 Italians, 8000 Maltese, and 4000 French (exclusive of the army). The Jews number some 50,000, of whom perhaps half are in the capital. The trade of the country is largely in their hands.
Towns.—For the capital Tunis, see below. Of the coast towns Sfax and Susa have separate notices; Bizerta (Benzert), the ancient Hippo Zarytus, is the chief place on the north coast, with 5000 in habitants. It stands on a canal connecting the sea with a lake which might easily be converted into a magnificent land-locked harbour. On the east coast are Hammamet (Hamámát), with 3700 inhabitants; Monastir, with 5600 inhabitants and a trade in cereals and oils; Mahdíya (Mehedia), with 6300 inhabitants, the fallen city of the Fatimites, which since the French occupation has begun to rise again, and has a new harbour; and Gabes (Kabis) on the Syrtis, a group of small villages, with an aggregate population of 14,000, the port of the shott country and a dep6t of the esparto trade. Of the inland towns the holy city of Kairwan (q.v.) is the most remarkable. Its fine mosques are now open to visitors. Sbeitla (Lat. Sufetula), in the mountains south-west of Kairwan, is remarkable for its magnificent Roman remains, the triumphal arch of Constantino, and the three temples which form the hieron. The principal towns of the Mejerda basin are Bedja (Baja), the ancient Vaga, an important corn market, and higher up, near the border, the fortress of Kef (Sicca Veneria), with 4000 inhabitants, boldly perched on the steep slope of a volcanic mountain.
Commerce.—The total imports of the regency in 1885 were valued at £1,098,047, of which about 27 per cent were British goods, chiefly cotton fabrics. In 1884 the imports were valued at £1,157,182. The most important export is olive oil, and after it come wheat, esparto grass, barley, sponges. The value of the total exports in 1884 was £745,554, and in 1885 £882,946. In 1885 1,035 vessels (71,133 tons) entered the port of Goletta, and the entries at other ports were 3033 (55,050 tons).
History.—The history of Tunis begins for us with the establishment of the Phoenician colonies; see vol. xviii. p. 806, PHŒNICIA and Carthage. The Punic settlers Semitized the coast, but left the Berbers of the interior almost untouched. The Romans entered into the heritage of the Carthaginians and of the vassal kings of Numidia, and Punic speech and civilization gave way to Latin, a change which from the time of Cæsar was helped on by Italian colonization. Rich in corn, in herds, and in later times also in oil, and possessing valuable fisheries, mines, and quarries, the province of Africa, of which Tunis was the most important part, attained under the empire a prosperity to which Roman remains in all parts of the country still bear witness. Carthage was the second city of the Latin part of the empire, " after Rome the busiest and perhaps the most corrupt city of the West, and the chief centre of Latin culture and letters." In the early history of Latin Christianity Africa holds a more important place than Italy. It was here that Christian Latin literature took its rise, and to this province belong the names of Tertullian and Cyprian, of Arnobius and Lactantius, above all of Augustine. Lost to Rome by the invasion of the Vandals, who took Carthage in 439, the province was recovered by Belisarius a century later (533-4), and remained Roman till the Arab invasion, for which see vol. xvi. p. 567. The conqueror Okba founded the city of Kairwan (c. 670), which was the residence of the governors of Africa under the Omayyads and there after the capital of the Aghlabite princes, the conquerors of Sicily, who ruled in merely nominal dependence on the Abbasids (see vol. xvi. p. 579).
The Latin element in Africa and the Christian faith disappeared in a single generation; the Berbers of the mountains, who had never been Latinized and never really Christianized, accepted Islam without difficulty, but showed their stubborn nationality, not only in the character of their Mohammedanism, which has always been mixed up with the worship of living as well as dead saints (mara bouts) and other peculiarities, but also in political movements. The empire of the Fatimites (see vol. xvi. p. 587) rested on Berber support, and from that time forth till the advent of the Turks the dynasties of north Africa were really native, even when they claimed descent from some illustrious Arab stock. When the seat of the Fatimite empire was removed to Egypt, the Zirites, a house of the Sanhaja Berbers, ruled as their lieutenants at Mahdiya, and about 1050 Mo izz the Zirite, in connexion with a religious movement against the Shi'ites, transferred his very nominal allegiance to the Abbasid caliphs. The Fatimites in revenge let loose upon Africa a vast horde of Bedouins from Upper Egypt (B. Hilál and Solaim), ​the ancestors of the modern nomads of Barbary. All Africa was ravaged by the invaders, who, though unable to found an empire or overthrow the settled government in the towns, forced the agricultural Berbers into the mountains, and, retaining from generation to generation their lawless and predatory habits, have ever since made order and prosperity almost impossible in the open parts of the country. The Zirite dynasty was finally extinguished by Roger I. of Sicily, who took Mahdiya in 1148 and established his authority over all the Tunisian coast. Even Moslem historians speak favourably of the Norman rule in Africa; but it was brought to an early end by the Almohade caliph 'Abd al-Mu'min, who took Mahdiya in 1160. The Almohade empire soon began to decay, and in 1336 Abu Zakaríyá, prince of Tunis, was able to proclaim himself independent and found a dynasty, which subsisted till the advent of the Turks. The Hafsites (so called from Abú Hafs, the ancestor of Abu Zakaríyá, a Berber chieftain who had been one of the intimate disciples of the Almohade mahdi) assumed the title of Prince of the Faithful, a dignity which was acknowledged even at Mecca, when in the days of Mostanṣir, the second Hafsite, the fall of Baghdad left Islam without a titular head. In its best days the empire of the Hafsites extended from Tlemcen to Tripoli and they received homage from the Merinids of Fez; they held their own against repeated Frankish invasions, of which the most notable were that which cost St Louis of France his life (1270) and that of the duke of Bourbon (1390), when English troops took part in the unsuccessful siege of Mahdiya. They adorned Tunis with mosques, schools, and other institutions, favoured letters, and in general appear to have risen above the usual level of Moslem sovereigns. But their rule was troubled by continual wars and insurrections; the support of the Bedouin Arabs was imperfectly secured by pensions, which formed a heavy burden on the finances of the state; and in later times the dynasty was weakened by family dissensions. Leo Africanus, writing early in the 16th century, gives a favourable picture of the "great city" of Tunis, which had a flourishing manufacture of fine cloth, a prosperous colony of Christian traders, and, including the suburbs, nine or ten thousand hearths; but he speaks also of the decay of once flourishing provincial towns, and especially of agriculture, the greater part of the open country lying waste for fear of the Arab marauders. Taxation was heavy, and the revenue very considerable: Don John of Austria in a report to Philip II. states that the land revenue alone under the last Hafsite was 375,935 ducats, but of this a great part went in pensions to the Arabs.
The conquest of Algiers by the Turks gave a dangerous neighbour to Tunis, and after the death of Mohammed the Hafsite in 1525 a disputed succession supplied Khair al-Dín Barbarossa with a pretext for occupying the city in the name of the sultan of Constantinople. Al-Ḥasan, the son of Mohammed, sought help from the emperor, and was restored in 1535 as a Spanish vassal, by a force which Charles V. commanded in person, while Andrea Doria was admiral of the fleet. But the conquest was far from complete, and was never consolidated. The Spaniards remained at Goletta and made it a strong fortress; but the interior was a prey to anarchy and civil war, until in 1570 'Alí Pasha of Algiers utterly defeated Ḥámid, the son and successor of Ḥasan, and occupied Tunis. In 1573 the Turks again retreated on the approach of Don John, who had dreams of making himself king of Tunis; but this success was not followed up, and in the next year Sultan Selim II. sent a strong expedition, which drove the Spaniards from Tunis and Goletta, and reduced the country to a Turkish province. The civil administration was now placed under a pasha; but in a few years a military revolution transferred the supreme power to a dey elected by the janissaries, who formed the army of occupation. The government of the deys lasted till 1705, but was soon narrowed or overshadowed by the authority of the beys, whose proper function was to manage the tribes and collect tribute. From 1631 to 1702 the office of bey was hereditary in the descendants of Murád, a Corsican renegade, and their rivalry with the deys and internal dissensions kept the country in constant disorder. Ibrahim, the last of the deys (1702-1705), destroyed the house of Murád and absorbed the beyship in his own office; but, when he fell in battle with the Algerians, Ḥosain b. 'Alí, the son of a Greek renegade, was proclaimed sovereign by the troops under the title of "bey," and, being a prince of energy and ability, was able to establish the hereditary sovereignty, which has lasted without change of dynasty to the present time.
Frequent wars with Algiers, which need not detain us, form the chief incidents in the internal history of Tunis under the beys. Under deys and beys alike Tunis was essentially a pirate state. Occasional acts of chastisement, of which the bombardment of Porto Farina by Blake in 1655 was the most notable, and repeated treaties, extorted by European powers, checked from time to time, but never put an end to, the habitual piracies, on which indeed the public revenue of Tunis was mainly dependent. The powers were generally less concerned for the captives than for the acquisition of trading privileges, and the beys took advantage of the commercial rivalry of England and France to play off the one power against the other. The release of all Christian slaves was not effected till after the bombardment of Algiers; and the definite abandonment of piracy may be dated from the presentation to the bey in 1819 of a collective note of the powers assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle. The Government had not elasticity enough to adapt itself to so profound a change in its ancient traditions; the finances became more and more hopelessly embarrassed, in spite of ruinous taxation; and attempts at European innovations in the court and army made matters only worse, so long as no attempt was made to improve the internal condition of the country. In the third quarter of the 19th century not more than a tenth part of the fertile land was under cultivation, and the yearly charge on the public debt exceeded the whole annual revenue. In these circumstances only the rivalry of the European powers that had interests in Tunis protracted from year to year the inevitable revolution. The French had long regarded the dominions of the bey as their natural inheritance, and in 1881, having got a grievance against the bey in a commercial transaction of the French African Society, with the execution of which he had interfered (the affair of the Enfida estate), a French force crossed the Algerian frontier under pretext of chastising the independent Kroumir or Khomair tribes in the north-east of the regency, and, quickly dropping the mask, advanced on the capital and compelled the bey to accept the French protectorate. The actual conquest of the country was not effected without a serious struggle with Moslem fanaticism; but all Tunis was brought completely under French jurisdiction and administration, supported by military posts at every important point. The power of the bey is null and his dignity merely nominal,—a fact acknowledged by Great Britain by the surrender in 1883 of Her Majesty's consular jurisdiction in the regency.
Literature.—Of Arabic sources accessible in translations the geographical works of Ya'kubí (Descriptio al Magribi, by De Goeje, Leyden, 1860), Al-Bakrí (Descr. de l'Afrique septentr. by De Slane, Paris, 1859; Arabic text, ibid., 1857), and Edrísí (Descr. de l'Afrique, &c., by Dozy and De Goeje, Leyden, 1866) belong to the 10th, llth, and 12th centuries respectively; the history of Ibn Khaldún (Hist. des Berbères, by De Slane, 4 vols., Algiers, 1852-56) includes the earlier Hafsites, that of Al-Kairawání (Hist. de l'Afrique, by Pellissier and Rémusat, Paris, 1845, in Expl. Scient. de l'Algérie, vol. vii.; Arabic text, Tunis, 1286 a.h.) deals especially with Tunis, and goes down to 1681. The geography of Tunis is treated by E. Pellissier (Explor. Scient. de l'Algérie, vol. xvi., Paris, 1853), C. Tissot (Géog. Comparée de la Province Romaine d'Afrique, vol. i., Paris, 1884), and Piesse (Itinéraire de l'Algérie, &c., new ed., Paris, 1887), and in Murray's Handbook, by Sir R. Playfair (1887), who has also published Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce, in Alg. and Tunis (London, 1887). A French survey is in progress, and some of the maps are published. For the modern history, see Rousseau, Annales Tunisiennes (Algiers, 1864), and Broadley, Tunis Past and Present (Edinburgh, 1882); for the archaeology, Davis, Carthage and her Remains (London, 1860), Guérin, Voyage Archéologique (1862), and D'Herisson, Mission Archéol. en Tunisie (Paris, 1881). The excellent description of Africa by Leo Africanus is in Ramusio and Purchas. Shaw's Travels (1738) may still be consulted. Of other books of travels Maltzan's Reise (Leipsic, 1870) deserves mention.