Upon the ruins of this rich and powerful city, which had so long and so obstinately disputed the supremacy of the masters of the world, had risen another that almost rivalled its predecessor in commercial importance and architectural splendor. Founded one hundred and one years after the triumph of Scipio, it yielded in prestige and luxury only to the great capitals of Italy and Egypt, and was justly regarded as one of the most valuable possessions of the Roman colonial empire. Its advantages of location, the agricultural wealth of the country, the settlement of many noble Italian families—fugitives from imperial oppression and barbarian violence—and the glorious example of former ages, soon raised the new metropolis to a position scarcely inferior to that of the old. Its edifices could vie with even the proudest monuments of the Eternal City; the wealth, intelligence, polished manners, and boundless excesses of its inhabitants made its name proverbial throughout antiquity. In the seventh century it divided with Alexandria the commerce of the Mediterranean, and was greatly its superior in rank, population, and power. The head of the civil magistracy of Africa, and the seat of a large military garrison, it almost monopolized the taste and refinement, the learning, the philosophy, and the jurisprudence, of the Western world. Universities with chairs of the liberal arts, academies which afforded instruction in every language and every science, flourished within its walls; its circus and its amphitheatre were crowded daily with the wit and beauty of the city, whose pleasure-loving society, unspeakably corrupt, had added to the dissolute habits inherited from Punic times the unnatural vices imported by patrician refugees and colonists from the orgies of decadent Rome. For perversity of disposition, for shameless effrontery, for perfidious disregard of faith and contempt of honor, and for brazen immodesty, the most debauched communities of the East and West, by universal consent, conferred upon the population of Carthage the unenviable distinction of unapproachable infamy. The Vandals had plundered its treasures and enslaved its people, but had spared its noble buildings, and exempted its walls from the destruction which had usually befallen those of other towns conquered by these barbarians. Such was the city which interposed a formidable and hitherto insuperable barrier to the enterprise of the Moslems; and whose transcendent influence has left its stamp upon the habits, the creeds, and the opinions of every subsequent age; to which ancient commerce was indebted for its development, and from which modern belief has derived some of the most popular of its dogmas; among them the doctrines of St. Augustine and the leading principles of patristic theology, that even now control ecclesiastical councils and prescribe the rules of Christian discipline.
His preparations completed, the Moslem general, seconded by the enthusiasm of his splendid army, and confident of success, prepared at once for an assault. The ladders were planted, and despite the terrors of Greek fire, and the valor of the Byzantine garrison which behaved with unusual spirit, the city was taken. But, in the mean time, news of the danger of the colony had reached the Bosphorus; the Court was aroused from its lethargy; a powerful fleet was equipped; and the Moslems had scarcely rested from. their efforts before the arrival of this new enemy compelled them to retreat. A few months later, however, reinforcements having been received by Hassan, Carthage was again stormed; a decisive victory was gained by the Moslems over the Greeks, who imprudently risked an engagement in the open field; the city was plundered and burnt; and the jurisdiction over its territory passed away forever from the hands of the corrupt and pusillanimous sovereigns of the Eastern Empire.
But the destruction of the capital, a political measure to secure supremacy, while producing a decisive moral effect upon the remaining colonies of the Greeks, was far from intimidating the Berbers, whose omnipresent squadrons remained the masters of all the region situated beyond the fortified towers of the frontier. A female impostor of princely lineage—whose name, Dhabba’, has been abandoned by subsequent chroniclers for the popular appellation Kahina, or Sorceress—had, by her mysterious arts, obtained unbounded influence over her countrymen; and, inspiring them with a certain degree of patriotism, had appeased their feuds and united the roving tribes of the Atlas in an extensive and powerful confederacy. Animated by her teachings and allured by her promise of booty, the Berbers pressed upon the forces of Hassan until the latter, after great losses, were finally expelled, and repairing to Barca, remained there in a state of inglorious inactivity for nearly five years. It is related that as soon as the enemy had passed the borders, the sorceress-queen ordered the fertile region of the coast, which, in the days of its prosperity, had furnished the supplies of the Empire, and whose beauty had been celebrated by every traveller, to be utterly desolated, as a precaution against future invasion. The fields were laid waste, the towns depopulated, the harvests burnt, the orchards cut down, the plantations transformed into a wilderness. This irrational act of violence was not viewed with complacency by the land-holders and other civilized inhabitants of the country, and, from time to time, emissaries were despatched to the Arab Viceroy of Africa, promising him in return for his interference the assistance and future allegiance of the persecuted colonists. At length the order to advance arrived from Damascus, and Hassan, with the most numerous army that had ever invaded Africa, encountered the priestess at the head of her adherents near Mount Auras. In the battle that ensued, Kahina was killed; the Berbers were overwhelmingly defeated; and the whole of the refractory province again invoked the clemency of the victor. But the same evil genius which, from first to last, attended the administration of the Moslem governors of Africa, now began to disturb the fortunes of Hassan. Abd-al-Aziz, the brother of the Khalif, was appointed to the viceroyalty of Egypt, upon which the jurisdiction of Africa was made dependent; and Hassan was summoned to Damascus, to answer serious accusations of tyrannical conduct which had been lodged against him. But the sight of the spoil wrested from the Berbers, the present of female captives of extraordinary beauty, the plausible explanations of his conduct which his fertile ingenuity suggested, and the glowing accounts of his successes, soon restored the distinguished commander to the favor of his sovereign, and Hassan was reinvested with the government of Africa with increased authority. On the return of the latter, while passing through Egypt, Abd-al-Aziz demanded the surrender of his commission under color of the supremacy formerly attached to the viceroyalty of that country, and by which the rest of Mohammedan Africa was claimed as a dependency. Enraged by his refusal, the governor arbitrarily deprived Hassan of his commission, tore it in pieces before his face, and, in defiance of the royal authority, declared the office vacant, and appointed at his own instance Musa-Ibn-Nosseyr commander of the armies of the West.
The history of this famous soldier is tinged with a coloring of adventure, unusual even in the romantic atmosphere of the Orient. A hundred miles directly west of Ctesiphon is Ain-Tamar, now an oasis frequented by wandering banditti, but in the seventh century a prosperous settlement enriched by the trade of Syria and Persia, and the seat of a Nestorian church and monastery. Attracted by the reports of its wealth, an expedition headed by Khalid himself surprised it, after a long and painful march over the desert. In the cloisters of the monastery were found a number of youths of high rank, who were nominally pursuing their studies under the direction of the monks, but were in reality hostages selected from the most distinguished families of Asia Minor. When offered the customary alternative of slavery or apostasy, the majority chose the latter, and two of them, Sirin and Nosseyr, became the fathers of sons who exerted a wide-spread influence over the destinies of Islam. From Sirin descended Mohammed the learned doctor of Bassora, and one of the most famous authorities of Islamic literature; and Nosseyr was the parent of Musa, the conqueror of Africa and Spain. Nosseyr was attached to the family of Abd-al-Melik by the right of capture and Mohammedan custom, and his son occupied the same relation to Abd-al-Aziz, the heir of the Khalif, who bestowed upon him marks of distinguished favor, and shared with him a friendship rare indeed in the families of princes. Educated in the best schools of Syria, which had already attained a high and well-deserved reputation, Musa early developed a precocity of intellect, and a talent for negotiation, which led to his employment in diplomatic affairs of the greatest importance. Under the reign of Abd-al-Melik, he was appointed vizier to the governor of Bassora, but having been convicted of peculation, he only escaped with his life through the intercession of his protector Abd-al-Aziz, who also paid for him the fine of one hundred dinars of gold—fifty times the amount of the theft—which the wrath of the Khalif had imposed upon the defaulter. Residing afterwards at the court of Egypt, and acting as the trusted councillor of the viceroy, history is silent as to the fields in which he acquired the experience in arms that subsequently gained for him such enduring renown. Of a hardy constitution, inured to hardship, plain in his attire, frugal and abstemious in his habits, his form presented an example of robust health, although he had long since passed the meridian of life; and under his locks, whitened by the snows of many winters, still smouldered the ardent passions of youth, and the powerful incentives of ambition and adventure. Sagacious in council, prompt in execution, fearless in battle, implacable in revenge, his character was, however, tarnished by cruelty, by suspicion, and by ingratitude; and he never hesitated to risk the sacrifice of power and position, in the gratification of the avarice which seemed to dominate his being, almost to the exclusion of every other passion. Unrivalled in tact and instinctive knowledge of human nature, by his powers of persuasion he made even his enemies subservient to his designs; while the strict observance of the ceremonies of his religion, although he became liable at times to imputations of inconsistency, yet procured for him in general the reputation of profound and sincere piety. In his military operations, he displayed the qualities of a skilful and wary leader, and his dispositions were made with remarkable prudence; realizing the demands of successful warfare, he annihilated the power of his adversaries by massacre or wholesale captivity; and by rapid and sudden advances after a battle he never failed to secure the uncertain fruits of victory. Such was the character of the man to whom were now committed the destinies of the Moslem armies of the West.
The veterans who had served under the banner of Hassan, who had scaled the walls of Carthage, and dispersed the army of the Berber sorceress, looked with little favor upon their new commander. Calling them together, Musa paid them their arrears three times over, and addressing them in a speech in which the eloquence of the orator, the humility of the devotee, and the art of the demagogue were shrewdly blended, said: “I am a soldier, like yourselves; applaud and imitate my good deeds; censure and reprove my failures, for none of us are free from weakness and error.” Impressed not only with the politic generosity of their chief, but gratified as well by the unwonted condescension he displayed, the soldiers greeted him with applause, and he became henceforth the idol of his army. Without unnecessary delay, and with his accustomed vigor, he opened the campaign. At the very outset an incident occurred which not only secured the gratitude of his followers, but, in that superstitious age, seemed to invest their general with supernatural powers. A long-continued drought had dried up the springs and wells, and the army, now far advanced into the desert, was threatened with death by thirst. In the midst of the troops solemnly assembled, Musa prayed long and fervently for relief. Tradition relates that the supplication was almost immediately granted; and the identical prayer which evoked this apparent miracle was repeated for nine centuries afterwards by the Spanish Moors when their country suffered from a scarcity of rain. The Berbers, elated by their former successes, ventured upon a pitched battle, and were defeated. Thousands were killed; the fugitives who took refuge in the mountains, where the natural obstacles of the locality made their defences the more formidable, were besieged and forced to surrender. The policy of Musa, different from that of his predecessors, was marked by unusual severity. If resistance was offered, the tribe was enslaved, its property confiscated, and its villages burnt to the ground; but, on the other hand, a ready submission guaranteed protection and favor, and the stoutest warriors were at once enrolled in the Moslem ranks. Twelve times already had the Berbers professed adherence to Islam, and apostatized; and Musa, conscious of their instability, now provided his new troops with teachers learned in the Koran, who could give them daily instruction in their religious duties. Their new associations, the trust reposed in them, the separation from their kindred, and the boundless prospect of plunder and glory, soon transformed these unruly bands into a serviceable force, capable of the greatest exploits. The seizure of the horses, cattle, and sheep, which constituted the wealth of the Berbers, compensated the victors, in some degree, for the absence of the costly booty which had rewarded the courage of their brethren in Syria and Egypt; while the prodigious number of slaves, resulting from the depopulation of entire provinces, provided a source of wealth whose profits were easily realized in the markets of Alexandria and Damascus. The royal fifth of the latter reserved by Musa amounted to sixty thousand, a number so vast as to be incredible, and which caused the Khalif to regard the announcement as false when he received it. With characteristic munificence, he directed Musa to reimburse himself for the fine which he had formerly paid as the penalty for his dishonesty, and, at the same time, he granted to him and the most distinguished soldiers of the army pensions commensurate with their services.
The invasion and sack of Medina by the Syrians, bent upon retribution for the murder of Othman, had caused a great emigration from Arabia, and thousands of the descendants of the proudest families of the Holy Cities had established themselves in Africa, and had rendered great aid to the projects of Musa. Their incorporation into the armies of Al-Maghreb and Iberia sensibly affected the fortunes of the latter country, and indirectly led to the restoration of the dynasty of the Ommeyades. Four sons of Musa had accompanied him in his campaign, and now deputing his authority to the two eldest, he despatched them to the South and West, where a few remaining Berber tribes still asserted their independence. Following the example of their father they exterminated such tribes as dared to resist, and in a few months returned to Kairoan, whither Musa had retired with considerable spoil and a large number of captives. In the mean time, the latter, recognizing the supreme importance of naval operations, and treating with contempt the absurd prejudice of his countrymen whose superstitious dread of the sea amounted at times to absolute terror, ordered the refitting of the dock-yards and harbors of Carthage, whose substantial quays had been little impaired by the successive calamities which had befallen the city. A hundred vessels were built, launched, and manned; Abdallah was appointed admiral; the fleet cruised along the coast of the Mediterranean, and crossing to Sicily, sacked the city of Linosa and returned in triumph with a booty of twenty thousand pieces of gold. Four years afterwards a descent was made by Abdallah on the Balearic Isles, and Majorca was, after a short campaign, added to the dominions of the Khalif.
Their incorrigible duplicity and restlessness, and the absence of a competent military force, again impelled the tribes of the interior to revolt. Taking the field at the head of a picked force, Musa, with trifling difficulty, took Tangier, the last fortified post held by the Greeks in Al-Maghreb; and sending his son Merwan with five thousand cavalry against Sus-al-Aska, the head-quarters of the insurgents, soon had the satisfaction of learning that the rebellion was subdued, and the recalcitrant Berbers punished with a rigor unexampled even in the sanguinary wars of Africa. After making two attempts to capture Ceuta, one of the keys of the strait separating Africa from Europe, both of which the gallant behavior of the governor, Count Julian, rendered ineffectual, Musa appointed Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad, a Berber convert, formerly his slave, and now one of his most trusty officers, to the command of Tangier, and returned to Kairoan.
With the surrender of Tangier the Byzantine domination in Africa came to an end. Sixty years of warfare, the destruction of fleets, the annihilation of armies, the devastation of provinces, the enslavement of nations, had been required to accomplish this result, never for a moment lost sight of by the Moslems amidst the imbroglios of courts and the revolts of pretenders to the Khalifate of Damascus. The abnormally perfidious and martial character of the Berber placed him outside the category of ordinary enemies. No reverses, however severe, could break his spirit. He ignored the obligation of treaties. No resource remained, therefore, but depopulation. The number of slaves made by the Mussulmans in Africa excited the amazement of their brethren in the East. A successful campaign often yielded two hundred thousand of these unfortunates. Such wholesale captivity was without precedent even in the annals of Rome. The fortresses, with the exception of Ceuta, which was nominally a dependency of the Visigothic kings of Spain—though held by a feeble and uncertain tenure—were now in the possession of the Saracens.
The Berbers either paid tribute to the Khalif or, serving under their own commanders, were enrolled in his armies. Already, after the expiration of only two generations, during which the laws and customs of Mohammedan life can be said to have been established, the momentous effects of polygamy were strikingly noticeable. The children of the pagan slaves who filled the harems of the conquerors were educated in the doctrines of the Koran, and idolatry had totally disappeared, save, perhaps, in some sequestered valley of the Atlas Mountains, where the half-savage devotee bowed before a rude and lonely altar, and with mystic incantations invoked the aid of some misshapen image. Islam, which, even by the reluctant testimony of Christian missionaries, exalts the character of the Negro and invests him with a sense of personal dignity and self-respect which no other religion has been able to inspire, soon gained the professed allegiance of the Berbers; and like the Arab, the more suspicious and clannish they had been in their Age of Ignorance, the more patriotic and enterprising they became as Mohammedans—the very isolation and irreconcilable antagonism of their former condition seemed to insensibly impress them with a realization of the imperative necessity and paramount value of national union. The call to prayer of the muezzin everywhere rang out from the towers of pagan temple and Christian church, whose magnificent decorations, bestowed by penitent Goth and Vandal, had once glittered as trophies amidst the splendid pageantry of a Roman triumph. But, despite community of interest, ethnological resemblance, and identity of religious belief, the environment of the inhabitants of Africa seems to be hostile to the permanent improvement of the human species, and before attaining to the highest degree of development of which the race is elsewhere susceptible, it begins to retrograde. The natural state of this great continent, determined largely by climatic and other physical conditions, is essentially and eternally barbarous. Unlike Europe, which has reaped something of value even from its misfortunes, and, by the example of its achievements in art and letters, subdued its very enemies, the institutions and influence of no polished people have ever impressed upon the natives of Africa any enduring traces. The astounding expansion of the Arab intellect—the crowning phenomenon of the Middle Ages—was as transitory in its effects upon them as the thrift and refinement of Carthage or the more solid and majestic influence of Rome. In some respects resembling Asia—whose voluptuous idleness tends inevitably to physical and mental degeneracy—Africa, with its vast mineral resources, its unsurpassed facilities for commercial intercourse, and its inexhaustible agricultural wealth, has—with the exception of Egypt, whose isolation rendered it practically a foreign country—been of little use to its inhabitants, alike incapable of appreciating these manifold advantages and of systematically employing them for their own benefit or for the general profit of mankind.