[1534-1541 A.D.]
The Turks had sway not only over Algiers but over Tunis and Tripoli, and it was to Barbarossa that they owed these further triumphs. Placed by Suleiman in command of the Ottoman fleet, the brother of Horuj thought it necessary to repay this distinction by brilliant services. Having given refuge in Algiers to a deposed prince of the house of Abu Hass, Barbarossa presented himself at Tunis, ostensibly for the purpose of re-establishing its legitimate ruler, but in reality to pave the way for Ottoman dominion. Suleiman, acquainted with his designs, publicly conferred the investiture on the restored prince, who was immediately afterward spirited away: and Barbarossa seized the fort and town of Goletta, and put down the revolt of the inhabitants in the name of the Ottoman ruler, to whom they remained long under subjection.
Meanwhile Christian sovereigns looked on with anxiety while the capitals of the Barbary states were passing into the possession of a power already so formidable; and Charles V, king of Spain and emperor of Germany, determined to check at once the increase of Ottoman dominion. Taking sides with the Abu Hass he embarked in 1535 with troops gathered from the Netherlands, Italy, and Sicily, and landed not far from the ruins of Carthage. Barbarossa had been able to provision the fort of Goletta, but could not rally to his standard the Arab tribes; and Goletta, bravely defended by Sinan, the renegade Jew, was taken by the Christian forces. Tunis itself, Barbarossa being defeated, was forced to open its doors to the victors, and all its riches became the prey of the European soldiers. The prince of the house of Abu Hass, whose interests Charles V had espoused, was reinstated on the throne under the following conditions: (1) that he was to hold the kingdom of Tunis as a fief to the crown of Spain; (2) that all Christian slaves should be restored to liberty without ransom; (3) that the subjects of the emperor in his domain should be free to engage in commerce and practise the Christian religion; (4) that twelve thousand crowns should be contributed towards the maintenance of a Spanish garrison in Goletta; and (5) that all the ports of the kingdom of Tunis should be delivered over into the hands of the emperor. Brilliant as was this expedition, it did not completely destroy African piracy, Algiers having been left still undisturbed. Barbarossa’s successor, Hassan Aga, committed new depredations, and soon intercepted all the commerce of the Mediterranean Sea. It became necessary to establish guards along the coasts of Italy, Sicily, and Spain to keep off the incursions of Barbary pirates who, it was asserted, were secretly encouraged by the Arabs still residing on the continent. Charles V got together a new fleet and undertook to reduce Algiers (1541). But the elements were against him from the start, and being assailed at a propitious moment by the Algerian Turks and certain tribes of Arabs whose religious fanaticism had been excited, the imperial army suffered complete and disastrous defeat.
[1541-1800 A.D.]
This unfortunate enterprise also restored the preponderance to the Turks. As soon as circumstances permitted they sent a fleet against the knights of St. John whom Charles V had made masters of Tripoli and reconquered the state in 1551. The government was given into the hands of the celebrated Dragut, who ten years later in concert with Piali Pasha was to achieve another great naval victory.
After the battle of Lepanto, John of Austria marched on Tunis, which offered but a feeble resistance; hardly had he turned his back, however, on the conquered domain, when Sinan Pasha hurried from Tripoli and everywhere re-established the authority of the sultan. Henceforth the Turks were masters over all Tunis and Algiers, and expeditions directed against them had no longer any object save to demand reparation or to punish them for acts of piracy.
Morocco, on the other hand, always remained independent of the Ottoman rule. The Merinids were succeeded in the fifteenth century by the Oatazes, who were in turn replaced by the Sherifs, whose dynasty continues to this day. The adroit personages who had created the grandeur of Morocco were looked upon as the legitimate descendants of Mohammed, and to the brothers of the reigning king, not his children, fell the succession to the throne. This law was the cause of much disturbance in the state, and in 1578 it formed the pretext for a famous expedition directed against Morocco by Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal. The sherif Abdallah having died, his son, Mulei Muhammed, had at first had the advantage over his uncle in the dispute for the succession; but being at last defeated Muhammed betook himself to Portugal, where he hoped to persuade the king, by the promise of large rewards, to assist him in gaining the crown. Carried away by enthusiasm, Sebastian embarked; and having in his possession the coat of arms worn by Charles V at his entry into Tunis, he imagined that he should exceed all that emperor’s exploits, and perhaps place the cross over the mosques of Morocco and Fez. He was taken at a disadvantage, however, by the Arabs at Kasr al-Kebir, and he and his little troop found themselves confronted by the dire alternative of achieving victory or meeting death. In this supreme moment Sebastian’s courage did not desert him; it served to make illustrious his defeat and dying moments. The two competitors also perished the same day; one by drowning in the river Mucazin, and the other as the result of a fever which he had disregarded in the haste and ardour of his preparations. Made wise by this terrible experience, the Portuguese did not renew their attempts against Africa, and the sherifs had further only to repress the internal dissensions that so frequently arose in their domains.
Such was the situation of the Arabs in Africa during the seventeenth century. They had still a sort of preponderance in Morocco; but in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli the Turks had become masters of the cities of the coast, and imposed upon them the severest rule. The different tribes, armed against each other by the astute policy of their oppressors, and terrorised by frequent and sanguinary executions, paid the tribute demanded of them without daring to murmur, and never even dreamed of throwing off the yoke under which they laboured.
We will return now to the Arabs in Spain, who had struck the first and most damaging blow at the empire of the Almohads. In addition to the garrisons the Africans placed among them, the populations had still to resist the domination of the Christians; and in order to effect this the most perfect unity would have been necessary, with the complete sacrifice of all private interests to the national welfare. But, as we have seen, instead of possessing a strongly constituted central government, the Spanish Arabs were divided up into a number of independent states, and the Catholic princes took advantage of this dismemberment to separately overcome them. James I, not content with the conquest of the Balearic Isles, undertook to gain possession of Valencia, and in his enthusiasm for this project abstained from urging against Thibaut de Champagne the rights his birth gave him to the crown of Navarre, thus gaining for himself an ally in the person of a prince who could furnish him with substantial aid. The king of Valencia struggled hard to defend his possessions, but the disunion among the Moslems and the bad faith of the walis, who for bribes delivered over to the enemy all the cities adjacent to the capital, caused Valencia finally to be invested both by land and by sea. Too feeble to resist longer, the Moslem king invoked the aid of the other sovereigns of Africa, but all were too busy with their own affairs, and Valencia fell into the hands of James (Jayme), under conditions that enabled the inhabitants to leave in freedom, or to remain with full protection for their property and religious liberty (1238).
[1238-1245 A.D.]