Travels in the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis

by Sir R. Lambert Playfair

SBEITLA.

The modern name of Sbeitla, like so many others in Tunis, is simply an Arab corruption of the ancient one, Sufetula. That, again, is probably a diminutive of Sufes, the modern Sbiba. Though originally smaller than Sufes, it soon became a place of very much greater importance. No city in Africa possessed finer specimens of architecture, and even as late as the Arab invasion it continued to be one of the most considerable cities in Byzacene, and the centre whence all the roads leading through the country radiated. Bruce is of opinion that the name is derived from the Suffetes, a magistrature in all countries dependent on Carthage. Sbeitla is the scene of the romantic account given by several Arab writers, amongst others En-Nowairi, of the first great and disastrous encounter between Christianity and Mohammedanism in North Africa. The story is certainly apocryphal in some of its details, though the main facts are probably accurate.[146]

In the twenty-seventh year of the Hedgira (A.D. 647) the Khalifa Othman determined to effect the conquest of Africa, and on the arrival of the Arab army in Egypt a detachment was sent on to Tripoli.

The Patrician Gregorius, as Theophanes calls him, was at this time Exarch or governor of Africa. He had been originally appointed by Heraclius, Emperor of the East, whose father had held the same office, and who himself had started from Africa on the expedition which resulted in the overthrow of the Emperor Phocas and his own elevation to the purple. Gregorius subsequently revolted from the Byzantine empire, and by the aid of the native Africans made himself Tyrannus, or independent sovereign of the province. Ibn Khaldoun says that his authority extended from Tripoli to Tangiers, and that he made Sbeitla his capital.[147]

The command of the expedition was given to the brother of the Khalifa, Abdulla ibn Saad, under whose orders were placed the élite of the Arab troops, to whom were added 20,000 Egyptians. The number of the whole force did not certainly exceed 40,000 men. On entering the country occupied by the Romans the Arab general sent on a detachment to Tripoli commanded by Ez-Zohri. On their arrival before the city they found it too strong to be carried by assault, and they continued their march to Gabes.

A message was sent to Gregorius offering him the usual conditions—to embrace Islamism or to accept the payment of tribute, both of which he indignantly refused. The invaders continued their march till they met the Byzantine army on the plain of Acouba, situated about a day and a night’s march from Sbeitla.

The army of Gregorius is said to have numbered 120,000 men, but this immense multitude was probably composed of naked and disorderly Moors or Africans, amongst whom the regular bands of the Empire must have been nearly lost.

For several days the two armies were engaged from dawn of day till the hour of noon, when fatigue and the excessive heat obliged them to seek shelter in their respective camps.

The daughter of Gregorius, a maiden of incomparable beauty, fought by her father’s side; and her hand, with 100,000 dinars, was offered to whomsoever should slay Abdulla ibn Saad. The latter retaliated by offering the daughter of Gregorius and 100,000 dinars to anyone who would slay the Christian prince, her father. The combatants had been in the habit of discontinuing the battle every day at noon, but on one occasion, the Mohammedan leader, having kept a considerable portion of his troops concealed and in reserve, recommenced the action with these at midday, and utterly defeated the Christian force. Gregorius and a vast number of his followers were killed, the camp was pillaged, and the beautiful daughter of the prince was captured and allotted to Ibn ez-Zobeir, who had slain her father. Ibn Saad next lay siege to Sbeitla, which was speedily taken and destroyed. The booty found here was so great that every horseman got 3,000 dinars and every foot-soldier 1,000!

Even before this time Christianity had begun to decline; henceforth it almost immediately ceased to exist. Gibbon remarks, ‘The northern coast of Africa is the only land, in which the light of the Gospel after a long and perfect establishment has been totally extinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage and Rome, were involved in the cloud of ignorance, and the doctrines of Cyprian and Augustine ceased to be studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals and the Moors. The zeal and number of the clergy declined, and the people, without discipline or knowledge or hope, submissively sank under the yoke of the Arabian prophet. Within fifty years from the expulsion of the Greeks, Abdoul Rahman, Governor of Africa, wrote to the Caliph Abdoul Abbas, the first of the Abbassides, that the tribute of the infidels was abolished by their conversion. In the next age, A.D. 837, an extraordinary mission of five bishops was sent from Alexandria to Cairoan by the Jacobite patriarch to revive the dying embers of Christianity; but the interposition of a foreign prelate, an enemy to the Catholics and a stranger to the Latins, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African hierarchy. In the eleventh century, A.D. 1053-1076, the unfortunate priest, who was seated on the ruins of Carthage, implored the protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains that his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens. Two epistles of Gregory VII. are destined to soothe the distress of the Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince; but the complaint, that three bishops could not be found to consecrate a brother, announces the speedy and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order. About the middle of the twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the succession of pastors was abolished along the whole coast of Barbary.’[148]