Spanish Herald, Thirteenth Century
Naturally the Arabs were drawn into all the disputes that arose between the different sovereigns of Africa, but they experienced no serious results from any of them. Once in 1347, and again in 1359, the Merinid chiefs had succeeded in overcoming Tlemcen and Tunis; but the deposed rulers soon recovered their thrones and continued to reign over the populations they had trained to obedience. Of the three African dynasties that of Abu Hass experienced the fewest turmoils and disorders. While in Maghreb two rivals of equal force disputed for supremacy over the capitals of Fez and Morocco, and in Tlemcen the Beni Zian were obliged to resist the encroachments of formidable neighbours, the kings in Tunis were powerful enough to command the respect of all other cities near, and to wrest Tripoli from the warlike mamelukes of Egypt, the rulers who had succeeded to the Eyyubid sultans.
Having apparently accomplished their mission, the Arabs no longer sought to make the cause of Islam triumph, but little by little withdrew to the obscurity and monotony of a desert life. Even in 1270, at the time of the last crusade of St. Louis, they displayed nothing like the courage that had characterised them on former occasions, being content to sign a disadvantageous treaty with Charles of Anjou, by which they bound themselves to receive French and Italian merchandise free of duty, and to permit the free practice of Catholicism throughout their states.
[1343-1534 A.D.]
Later the Spaniards and the Portuguese conquered the African cities which command the Straits of Gibraltar, and sent into the interior as many troops as the Africans had formerly sent into Spain. When they had become masters of Algeciras and Tarifa, the Portuguese, who first undertook these enterprises, seized Alemtejo and Algarve and then decided to carry into other countries that spirit of adventure which had led them to demand on sea the wealth and power that were denied them on land. In 1415 they took possession of Ceuta, which they had to defend against Edward, second of the house of Braganza, but were finally able to retain by allowing to remain in irons a child that they had delivered over as hostage. Between 1439-1481 Alfonso V conquered the important cities of Tangiers and Arzillo. Nevertheless the Portuguese had little thought of extending their conquests further, but were devoting themselves to commerce and navigation, in the interests of which they made those maritime discoveries that were to raise them so high among nations and send their ships into so many unknown waters of the globe.
It has not been sufficiently pointed out how fatal to the Arabs of Spain was the occupancy by the Portuguese of Tangiers, Ceuta, and Arzillo. Hitherto the Moslems in Maghreb could come to the assistance of their brothers in Spain without looking upon themselves as interested parties to the dispute. But after the Portuguese came to command the strait, with power to intercept all communications between the two continents, the last blow to Mohammedan unity was struck by the Christian princes.
Once the Catholic sovereigns had become masters of the Mediterranean ports of the peninsula, they enlarged their navy that the Moslem fleets might be constantly held in check, and after the fall of the monarchy of Granada they penetrated deep into Africa. In 1504 Diego of Cordova took several places between Ceuta and Oran, and in 1509 Cardinal Ximenes, minister to Ferdinand of Aragon, organised and directed a much more important expedition. Instead of attacking the younger branch of the Merinids at Morocco, he advanced on Tlemcen and Algiers, the double realm of the Beni Zian, and taking the city of Oran established there a strong garrison.
These encroachments on the part of Christians must be stopped at any cost. Meeting with nothing but supineness and indifference among the Moors and Arabs whom he approached, Eutemi, king of Algiers, finally implored the assistance of Horuj, the celebrated pirate of Mytilene, who was at the head of a considerable fleet. Accepting these overtures with alacrity, Horuj repaired to Algiers with a force of five thousand men (1516); but after entering the city he caused Eutemi to be assassinated, and himself usurped the government. He further profited by the terror he had caused to attack Tlemcen and drive forth the Beni Zian; but in 1518 the Spaniards engaged him in a battle in which he lost his life, leaving Tlemcen in the hands of his enemies.
In no wise discouraged by this reverse, the brother of Horuj, Khair ad-Din, better known under the name of Barbarossa, succeeded in getting himself acknowledged ruler by the inhabitants of Algiers and establishing his dominion on solid foundations throughout the country; he drove the Spaniards back into Oran, where he kept them confined. Fear, nevertheless, of the superior numbers of the Christians and the mutability of the Arab spirit caused him to seek for his states the protection of the supreme ruler who, at his request, sent him troops of Turkish militia from Constantinople. Barbarossa then took the title of regent, and in the name of the Ottoman sultan exercised the highest authority over all the states of Algiers.
We have witnessed in Asia the gradual substitution of the Turks for the Arabs as defenders of the Moslem faith; and we shall now assist at a repetition of the same process in Africa. This was, too, the epoch of greatest power of the sultans in Constantinople. Suleiman, master of Egypt, of Asia Minor, of Greece, and Bulgaria, threatened simultaneously Persia and Hungary, and he alone was capable of protecting Africa against the redoubtable might of Charles V. Far from injuring the cause of Islam, the arrival of these new auxiliaries in the Maghreb should have given it a fresh impetus; but exactly the reverse took place. From the day the Arabs came under subjection to the Turks, all the noble sentiments and generous impulses that had before characterised them gave place to a hopeless condition of servility and degradation; bowed under the yoke of an insolent military body that enforced obedience at the point of the sword, they lost that natural pride that had set them apart from other races, and little by little fell into the brutish torpor that has been their prevailing state in modern times, and which has caused us to judge them wrongfully as showing antagonism to all ideas of civilisation.