THE TRIUMPH OF THE TURKS.
The Sultan Selim was soon persuaded to gratify the wishes of his Divan,
and attempt the liberation of Tunis from Spanish supremacy. Sinan the
corsair was selected to complete the task which Kheir-ed-Din the corsair
had begun. The pachas of Tripoli and Algiers, as well as the little
garrison at Kairwán, prepared with alacrity to co-operate in the pious
undertaking of the Caliph. De Cerballon had hardly time to recall the
troops from Bizerta (occupied by the Spaniards ever since the departure
of Charles V.), when the Turks appeared before Goletta, which almost
immediately fell into their hands. The fortress on the island of Shikli,
in the Bahira lake, was easily taken, and on the 3d September 1573 the
citadel of Tunis finally capitulated to Sinan Pacha, who once more
hoisted over its half-ruined battlements the banner of the crescent.
Before consenting to a surrender, De Cerballon saw his followers reduced
to thirty fighting men.
Although nearly ten thousand Spaniards were killed or made prisoners
during this disastrous campaign, the Turks were allowed to enjoy their
conquest in peace, and Sinan Pacha lost no time in organising an
administration in the name of the Sublime Porte. Hidder or Hyder, the
Turkish captain of Kairwán, was appointed the first Governor-General,
with a Divan or Council after the manner of that already existing in
Algiers. The troops were henceforward to be controlled exclusively by
Aghas or Deys, forty in number, and a Cadi was to determine civil
differences, according to the tenets of Moslem jurisprudence. Seventeen
years later an internal revolution placed the executive power in the
hands of a single Dey, who was declared to have authority alike over the
city and the army, and to whom the Pacha, Governor-General, or Bey, was
to be completely subordinate. In all public documents and proclamations
belonging to this period, the whilom kingdom of the Beni Hafs is
uniformly styled the Odjak or Eyalet of Tunis, a term which in later
times was freely translated by the word Regency. Ever since the 3d of
September 1573, the _kutba_ or Friday’s prayer has been uniformly
recited in the name of the reigning sultan of the Osmanlis, while the
current coin has always borne his cipher. From that day to this, all
Tunisian rulers have received the _caftan_ or robe of investiture from
Stamboul, have governed in virtue of a Turkish _firman_ or patent of
appointment, and have ever girded to their side the sword of honour,
which is transmitted invariably to regents, lieutenants, and viceroys by
the supreme head of the Ottoman Empire.