TRIPOLI IN THE WEST.
The appearance of “Trabulus Gharb,” or “Tripoli of the West,” as viewed
from the sea is scarcely more imposing than that presented by the
principal towns on the Tunisian coast. The city is built on a rocky
promontory stretching out into the Mediterranean, and forming a small
bay on its eastern side, which is capable of being converted at any time
into an important harbour by the filling up with masonry of the openings
in a long line of rocks running from the south-west to the north-east,
and commonly known to navigators as the Siboun Shinal. The Pashas of
Tripoli, however, have not viewed the projects for carrying out any such
scheme with much satisfaction; indeed, one of them told an enterprising
contractor that the rocks were far too old to bear any additional weight
upon them. Large steamers are able to enter the port even now; but the
present state of the Siboun Shinal shoal renders it an unsafe place of
anchorage during the prevalence of certain winds. The city borders the
shore, and has the form of an irregular pentagon, surrounded by a
crenellated _enceinte_ wall in a somewhat dilapidated condition. A line
of small, half-ruined forts is supposed to protect one side of the
harbour, and the Borj or castle of the Pasha the other. The desert
almost touches the western side of the city; while on the east is the
verdant oasis of Meshiya, where, amid luxuriant groves of palm-trees,
are still to be seen the tombs of the Caramanlian sultanas, and the
twelve-domed _marabout_ of Sy Hamouda. In the town itself there are
seven principal mosques, six of them possessing more or less lofty
minarets built after a purely Turkish model. The streets are narrow,
dirty, and unpaved. European quarter there is none. What Tunis was
twenty years ago, Tripoli is now—a typical Moorish city. Still the
capital of an important province, it can boast of an historical past of
no small interest. After falling successively into the hands of the
Phœnicians, Romans, Vandals, and Greeks, Tripoli was finally conquered
by the Arabs twelve centuries ago, and has remained a Moslem State ever
since. For many years it formed part of the dominions of the Caliphs of
Kairwán. It finally became independent, but in 1510 it was taken by
Ferdinand the Catholic, and given by him thirteen years later to the
Knights of St. John, who remained there for thirty years, until they
were expelled from it in 1553 by the Turkish corsairs Dragut and Sinan.
The former became its pasha and ruled Tripoli as the vassal or vali of
the Sublime Ottoman Porte, till his death in Malta. Then came the days
when the Tripolitan pirates grew to be the terror and scourge of the
Mediterranean, and half the States of Europe sent their fleets to
bombard the capital in vain. In 1714, while Heussein Ben Ali was
founding the present line of the Beys of Tunis, Ahmed Pasha the
Caramanli achieved practical independence, and his descendants governed
Tripoli until 1835. On the 20th May of that year the Turks took
advantage of the breaking out of a civil war to assert once more their
authority, and Yusef, the last of the Caramanlis, died a state prisoner
at Constantinople. Since 1835 Tripoli has been governed by a succession
of pashas or valis sent there periodically by the Sultan.
It is difficult to overrate the commercial importance of the Tripolitan
Pashalik. It is at the present time the undoubted centre of the caravan
trade of Northern Africa. All efforts to divert the usual route followed
by the traders of the desert have been wholly unavailing. The coast of
Tripoli is at least 250 miles nearer the great marts of the interior
than either Tunis or Algeria, and it is there that the caravans from
Ghadames, Murzouk, and Wadai will go. This vast system of inland trade
extends even to Bornou and Timbuctoo. Three-fourths of the whole
commerce of Tripoli is in the hands of British merchants or dealers in
British goods, who send our cloth, cutlery, and cotton fabrics
southwards, and export in return the esparto grass, ostrich feathers,
and ivory of the Tripolitan market. The carefully prepared trade reports
of the British Consul-General, Mr. Hay, may be read with advantage at
the present moment.
The coast-line of Tripoli, which stretches from Biban, in Tunis, to
Bomba, on the frontiers of Egypt, is considerably over 800 miles in
length. Besides the ports of Tripoli, Khoms, and Ben Ghazi, it includes
the almost unknown natural harbours of Bomba and Tobruk. Father Angelo
di Sant’ Agata, the venerable chief of the Franciscan missionaries at
Tripoli, has visited the latter. If his information is correct, Bizerta
has a rival which needs neither expense nor dredging to bring it into
immediate use. Two lines of hills run through the country from east to
west—the Ghariyan range near the coast, and the Zuara chain farther
inland. The interior of Tripoli may be said with tolerable accuracy to
consist of a somewhat unequal alternation of oases and desert. Along the
_sahel_ or coast is a border of rich and productive soil. The native
population is made up of Arabs, Moors, and Turks, and is thin and
scattered. Any attempt at an enumeration is a matter of pure conjecture.
The city of Tripoli itself contains about 25,000 inhabitants—viz.,
15,000 Moslems, 6000 Jews, 3000 Maltese British subjects, 900 Italians,
and 100 other Europeans, including exactly 30 French. The southern
boundary of the Pashalik is ill-defined; but Turkish troops now occupy
both Ghadames and Ghat, the former sixteen and the latter forty days’
journey from the capital.
The constant change of Turkish pashas has been markedly unfavourable to
the progress and even to the prosperity of the country. No one vali ever
seems to have effectually transmitted his mantle to his successor, and
most of their administrations have left no other trace than plans never
executed, and good intentions never acted upon. Every governor who did
anything at all seems to have possessed a hobby, but, as no two of them
ever worked on the same lines, no practical result ever came of their
individual energy and intermittent activity.
If possible, Tripoli, until very lately, presented even more strongly
than Tunis the spectacle of a house divided against itself. Not only
were the Arab tribes perpetually at war with each other under the
combined influence of hereditary feuds and the institution of the
_Soff_, but as a body they hated their Turkish rulers and co-
religionists, just as much as the Turkish adherents of the Caramanlis
disliked the intruders from Stamboul. The events of the past year have,
however, materially and perceptibly affected this state of things, and
the French invasion of Tunis has undoubtedly caused all local strife to
be temporarily or permanently merged in a league, the common object of
which seems to be the defence of Islam in general and of Tripoli in
particular. The Arabs, who a short time ago were wont to complain
bitterly of their Turkish masters, greeted the arrival of Nasif Pasha
last May with intense enthusiasm, the Turkish troops were received with
shouts of triumph, and as soon as the great siege guns were landed they
received a baptism of blood from the sacrifice upon them of numerous
sheep and oxen brought down to the shore by the Tripolitan townsfolk. No
longer do the Bedouins of the interior murmur at their camels being
taken for transport service; all they say is, “_Allah yunser es
Sultan_”—“May God grant victory to the Sultan.” Sixteen days before
Nasif Pasha’s arrival, M. Roustan had made the Bey of Tunis a French
vassal by the Treaty of Kasr-es-Said. The feeling of Moslem antagonism,
which was first roused by the French conquest of Algeria fifty years
ago, was now re-awakened with renewed intensity, and the presence of
Turkish troops in force was quite as necessary to prevent the extension
of the movement among the Tunisian Arabs to their _confrères_ of
Tripoli, as to assure the Tripolitans that Turkey would oppose by force
any attack by France on the Pashalik itself. To have ignored or even
neglected the state of public feeling in North Africa might have cost
Abdul Hamid the Caliphate. But this is not all. Within the confines of
Tripoli itself an _imperium in imperio_ has of late years been growing
up, which will sooner or later attract the attention of Europe. In 1830,
one Sidi Muhamed es Senoussi was living at Mustaghanem, in Algeria. He
even then enjoyed a widespread reputation as a saint or _marabout_, and
on the French invasion taking place he retired to Fez, in Morocco, where
he was initiated into the confraternity of Moula-et-Taib. From Fez, Es
Senoussi passed along the Algerian Sahara to Tunis and Tripoli, and
finally reached Mecca by way of Alexandria. After a stay of two years in
the holy places, he returned to Alexandria, where he founded a _zaouia_,
and commenced a crusade against the contamination of Islam by Christian
contact, advocating at the same time an immediate return to the
austerest principles of the faith, and vehemently assailing the Turkish
Government for adopting European costume and copying European
institutions. The doctrines of Es Senoussi were a refinement of
Wahabiism. Excommunicated by the Sheikh-el-Islam at Cairo, an attempt
was even made to poison him, but one of his followers, Muhamed Ben
Abdallah, managed to convey him on a camel into the Libyan desert.
Senoussi finally took up his abode at Djebel-el-Akhdar, or the Green
Mountain, in the neighbourhood of Ben Ghazi, in Tripoli, where he
married. Finding the locality too close to the Mediterranean for the
execution of his projects, he removed to Djaghbub, or Djarbub, twenty-
two days’ journey from the coast. Here he erected a magnificent
_zaouia_, surrounded by palm groves and inhabited by nearly 1000 of his
followers. His doctrines were soon received with enthusiasm in the
Moslem kingdoms of Northern and Central Africa. He established no less
than 300 subordinate convent-sanctuaries in every considerable place
between Morocco and Mecca, and appointed _mukaddemin_, or vicars, in
every part of Islam. In 1850 his agent, Muhamed Ben Abdallah, the
Senoussian _mukaddem_ for Algeria, excited the revolts of Laghwat and
Ouergla. He finally succeeded in escaping from Algeria, and returning to
Djaghbub. In 1860 Muhamed es Senoussi died, leaving two sons, the eldest
of whom bore the name of El Mehdi. Before his death, Senoussi the elder
sent emissaries to all his _zaouias_ to convey guarded hints to his
followers that a glorious future was in store for his son. The
prosperity of the _zaouia_ at Djaghbub increased. The pilgrims to Mecca
from North Africa, as well as those coming from Bornou and the Saharian
provinces, were persuaded that the benediction of El Mehdi was necessary
to complete the efficacy of their journey. They flocked in thousands
with their offerings to Djaghbub, while the Sultans of the interior sent
caravans laden with ivory and ostrich feathers and other costly presents
to the great saint, while cargoes of arms and ammunition often arrived
at the almost unknown harbours of the coast. El Mehdi now began to
multiply the number of his subordinate _zaouias_, and the travellers
Rohlfs, Nachtigal, and Duveyrier found their passage barred by
Senoussian agents. Meanwhile, their tenets gained ground in countries
far beyond the Libyan desert. “The Moslem’s object,” they said, “must be
to combat Christian ideas and Christian innovations; the Moslems must
employ all possible means to check further Christian advances into the
Dar-el-Islam.” Four years ago El Mehdi withdrew himself from his
followers, and, becoming a hermit, sought to involve his very existence
in mystery. This proceeding at once increased his fame. From _zaouia_ to
_zaouia_ of the Senoussia, and consequently from Mecca to Morocco, the
attention of the faithful was assiduously called to the following
prophecy:—
“On the first of the month of Moharram in the year 1300 (12th November
1882) will appear the El Mehdi, or Messiah. He will be exactly forty
years of age and of noble bearing. One arm will be longer than the
other; his father’s name will be Muhammed, his mother’s Fatima, and he
will be hidden for a time prior to his manifestation.”
The conclusion to be drawn from this is easy enough—El Mehdi of Djaghbub
is none other than the Messiah of Islam. Persons who have seen Senoussi
the younger now remember that his right hand reached as far as his knee.
The Sultan sent emissaries to Ben Ghazi. The vali of that place (himself
an affiliated Senoussia) managed to secure their return to
Constantinople without effecting the object of their mission. Meanwhile,
the power of this great confraternity continues to increase; the
neighbouring tribes take the name of _maraboutin_, and pay no tribute;
the great _zaouia_ in the Libyan desert is enlarged and adorned, and the
Senoussia look anxiously for the day when El Mehdi shall fulfil a second
prophecy of “reigning from a T to a T,” which they interpret as meaning
from Tangier to Tripoli in Syria, the much-longed-for Arab Empire of the
future. The French expedition to Tunis has raised the bitterest feelings
of the Senoussia, who view with alarm this fresh attack on Islam, made
on the very eve, as it were, of the fulfilment of their dream of power.
Even these austere sectaries are now leaving the condemnation of Egypt
and Turkey out of their catechism, and seek to conceal the severity of
their ultra-Moslem puritanism under the cloak of a great Pan-Islamite
union. After all that has taken place in Tunis one can hardly be
surprised at the movement having many sympathisers throughout the Moslem
world. The action of France has converted a passive dislike into an
active and militant antagonism, and hastened and intensified a movement
which would have been dangerous at any time and under any circumstances.
Although the Turks are quite prepared to contest inch by inch the
advance of any invader on Tripolitan soil, I have good reason to believe
that the active encouragement which seems to have been given to the
Tunisian Arabs proceeded rather from the _khouan_, or religious
confraternities, than from the Ottoman authorities. The Turks in Tripoli
cannot, it appears to me, be accused, with any show of justice, of
fomenting the discords in Tunis, nor can the steps they have taken to
defend the province which is on all hands admitted to be theirs, be
reasonably called in question.
The day after my arrival in Tripoli (December 2) happened to be the
Moslem feast of the Asura, the anniversary of the death of the Prophet.
Early in the morning I was present at a review of about 4000 Turkish
troops by the Pasha and General of Division, which took place on the
sands outside the Meshiyah Gate. Nearly all the troops now in Tripoli
have arrived during the present year. With the exception of a single
battalion, they have all seen service in the Russo-Turkish war. The men
are of uniformly good calibre, well accoutred, and nearly all armed with
the Martini-Henry rifle. One battalion of infantry still retains the
Snider gun, and the cavalry carry the Winchester rifle, but they are all
to be shortly provided with Martini-Henry rifles instead. Various
movements were very fairly gone through, notwithstanding a visible want
of dressing, but the most notable feature of the review was the passage
of three batteries of field artillery at full gallop before the saluting
point. I observed that a black dervish, carrying a green flag and a sort
of drum, marched at the head of the troops, and two large, red
embroidered banners (after being solemnly saluted) were carried in
charge of two military chaplains. The number of the Turkish troops now
in Tripoli is about 9500. They all belong to the Turkish First Army
Corps. So much misapprehension exists in Europe on this subject that the
details of the composition of this force may be interesting. The
Imperial Ottoman Division in Tripoli consists at the present moment of
one battalion of the 1st Regiment of Rifles, of four battalions each of
the 155th, 156th, 157th, and 158th Regiments of Infantry, the 8th
Regiment of Field, and the 2d Regiment of Mountain Artillery, forming a
total of 9521 combatants. The Ferik, or General of Division, is Hussein
Wasfi. He has done a great deal of really good work in Tripoli, but has
managed to acquire the reputation of having a leaning towards the
French. From a long interview I had with him I formed a favourable
opinion as to his energy and ability. He is a rigid disciplinarian, has
put the city police in excellent order, and rendered the occurrence of
any disturbances at this critical juncture almost impossible. Under
these circumstances the existence of a doubt as to his honesty of
purpose is much to be regretted. He is a frank, outspoken soldier, was
severely wounded at Plevna, and heartily despises the Bey of Tunis for
forsaking the Sultan. Hussein Wasfi has trained a fine military band,
but he offended deeply his co-religionists a week ago when the
_Marseillaise_ was played before the Pasha’s firman was publicly read,
and the playing of “God save the Queen” afterwards hardly mended
matters. Some time ago Ali Sharif Bimbashi, who defended Sfax against
the French in July, reached Tripoli overland with four or five Tunisian
soldiers from the camp of Ali Ben Hlifa. General Wasfi received him with
great cordiality and enrolled him as a major in the Ottoman service
forthwith. I noticed that Major Ali Sharif was treated with marked
respect during the review, although his Tunisian uniform was sadly
tattered and weather-beaten. The General said that if Tripolitan
territory was crossed, he should fight as a matter of course. He was not
equally clear as to how the Tunisian Arabs were to be treated if they
took refuge on the Turkish side of the boundary line. I inferred,
however, from his remarks that they would be treated as belligerents on
neutral ground and interned. Public opinion here would never allow the
Turkish troops to drive the Tunisians back to their destruction across
the frontier. General Wasfi was courteous enough to send his carriage to
convey Signor D’Ancona, the Spanish Consul at Tripoli, and myself to the
military hospital and barracks outside the town. The arrangements of
both buildings were equally good. The hospital stands in the middle of
the picturesque oasis of Meshiyah, and is surrounded by large gardens.
The sick wards are spacious and well ventilated, the patients are well
cared for, and only number about one per cent. of the total force. Only
thirty deaths have occurred during three months, and there has been no
case of either dysentery or typhoid fever. The whole establishment
contrasted most favourably with the unfortunate ambulance arrangements
of the French in Tunis, of which Europe has heard so much, and the whole
truth about which will shortly be told in the official report of my
fellow-traveller Dr. Pozzi. I also observed that a very large room was
set apart for the use of the sick Arabs of the neighbourhood. The
cavalry and artillery barracks were in excellent order, and the Turkish
soldiers seemed to feed far better than in the Tripolitan hotels. A
large reinforcement of cavalry at the time I was amongst them was daily
expected.
At the office of the staff I saw Colonel Danisch Bey, who, as Military
Attaché to Musurus Pasha, was only a few months ago favourably known in
London, and is now charged with the important task of fortifying
Tripoli. He has just completed an excellent map of the whole Pashalik as
well as a scheme for rendering the city almost impregnable. The old
bastions are, as he says, entirely useless, and only about thirty of the
300 cannon already in Tripoli before the arrival of Nasif Pasha last May
are still serviceable. No less than sixteen large steel breech-loading
guns and four mortars have arrived here from the manufactories of Krupp
and Armstrong since the 12th of July, and a total of fifty guns are
available for the manning of the new fortifications, which, according to
Danisch Bey’s plans, are to consist of three forts commanding the
harbour, and a series of earthworks and batteries arranged in a
semicircle ten miles from the town, rendering any approach to Tripoli
from the land side very difficult. A range of small sandhills will
materially facilitate the carrying out of the projected works, which
will save the town in a measure from the perils of a bombardment. The
forts on the shore are being quickly constructed, and as soon as the
plans are fully approved at Constantinople, from 35,000 to 40,000
workmen are to be employed in completing them.
On the third day of my stay in the solitary guest-chamber of the Hotel
Minerva at Tripoli, I went to the Borj to pay my respects to the Pasha.
Ahmed Rassim Pasha is a quiet, but apparently resolute old man of sixty,
and did not attempt to conceal his contempt for Muhamed es Sadek and for
the Tunisian general, not excepting even such an exalted personage as
Kheir-ed-Din Pasha himself. He said nothing could ever justify the
signing of the Kasr-es-Said Treaty by the Bey; and he spoke of the
widespread effect of the French invasion of Tunis on the Arabs. Ahmed
Passim confessed that his chief difficulty had been the internal
dissensions of the tribes, especially on the frontiers, “where,” he
observed smilingly, “a Khamír raid could be forthcoming at a moment’s
notice,” but he said that he had now received a report that at a great
meeting of the clans the chiefs had sworn on the Koran that in the face
of the common danger, they would forsake all squabbles amongst
themselves and cease from conflicts with their Tunisian neighbours. The
castle of Tripoli resembles an enormous pigeon-house in shape and
arrangement, and seems fast going to ruin and decay.
The presence of a very unusual number of Moslem _marabouts_ in Tripoli
while I was there is an undoubted fact. A great deal has been said by
the French about the arrival, with Nasif Pasha, of Sheikh Hamza, one of
the leaders of the Madania, a Moslem confraternity having its principal
seat at Masrata, in Tripoli, especially as Sidi Zafr, the brother of
Sheikh Hamza, is the spiritual adviser of the Sultan. M. Duveyrier, in
his latest work, says that, although a branch of the Wahabis, the
Madania preach universal tolerance, and that France has nothing whatever
to fear from the spread of the sect. When, however, the nephew of Sheikh
Hamza visited the interior, he was accused of fomenting the excitement
of the Arabs. So far as I can learn, the political influence of the
lesser _khouan_ is entirely eclipsed by the all-powerful Senoussia, who
are apparently waiting their opportunity.
M. Féraud, the French Consul-General, has the reputation of being a
_consul de combat_, but he says he has never aimed at emulating the now
faded laurels of M. Roustan. At one time, however, both he and his
Government seem to have been bent on what was called in this case “a
revival of influence.” M. Féraud now professes the most pacific
intentions, and complains of having been much misrepresented in Europe.
He even demurs to the accusation of affixing a circular in the bazaars
inviting the registration of Tunisian subjects, and, on examination, it
really appears that the document was only exhibited in the French and
Tunisian Consulates, but then the Tunisian consulate was something
between a shop and a café. As a matter of fact, the circular has become
virtually a dead letter.
The most uncomfortable feature in French diplomacy in Tripoli is the
undeniable fact that the shadow of zealous Archbishop Lavigérie has
already fallen upon the country. His recent attempt to invest M.
Roustan’s proceedings with the halo of ecclesiastical respectability
gives a colour to the suspicion that he is willing and anxious to aid
French views here as he has done elsewhere. Christianity in Tunis has
been represented for three centuries by a Franciscan mission, now placed
under French protection. In the past they have done an excellent work,
and they maintain an hospital in which they dispense medical assistance
gratis to sufferers of every creed. Archbishop Lavigérie is at this
moment seeking to include Tripoli in his extensive diocese; he has sent
a body of Marianists to establish a college in the old slave _bagnio_ of
St. Michael; a party of Jesuit Fathers have simultaneously taken up
their quarters at Meshiyah, on the southern limits of the oasis, while
missionaries have left for Ghat and Ghadames, and it is hinted that it
is possible that Ghadames is soon to be claimed as a part of Tunis.
Since I left Tripoli two of these emissaries have been killed between
Ghat and Ghadames; and although they were warned not to go there, M.
Féraud seems anxious to turn the matter into another edition of the
Khamír raids. It is unlikely he will be successful, as “burned cats
dread the fire,” but be this as it may, after the experience of recent
French tactics in the interior of Africa, the fate of these two great
centres of Saharian trade must be carefully watched.
The archæological interest of Tripoli is also very great. Ahmed Rassim
Pasha himself sent a guide to show me over all the mosques in the city,
seven in number. The oldest is that of Dragut Pasha, the inscription
over its door bearing the date of A.H. 1013. The body of the great
corsair lies under an adjoining _kouba_, almost devoid of ornament. The
Turkish Pashas of Tripoli have apparently monopolised for themselves and
their families the privilege of being buried within its walls. With the
exception of a good deal of exquisite carving on the doors of the older
mosques, their decoration is very inferior to that found in Kairwán.
From the _minár_ of the modern Djama El Gourgi a striking bird’s-eye
view of the city may be obtained. Near the Marine Gate is a four-sided
Roman triumphal arch, erected by one Orfilus, in honour of the Emperors
Aurelius Antoninus and Aurelius Verus. Its interior is now filled up by
a tobacco depot and a Maltese tavern.
At the present time England enjoys what the French are pleased to call
_prépondérance_ at Tripoli, but her influence is not exclusive, and is
purely the consequence of successful commercial competition. To this
satisfactory result her present Consul-General, Mr. Hay, has very
materially contributed during the past sixteen years. The loss of the
independence of the Pashalik might very seriously affect British trade,
and we have certainly more than one reason to support its _status quo_.
An invading army has reached Tripoli and Tunis from Egypt three times
since the feat was first accomplished by Cato the younger, and the
movement might at any time be reversed.
The “Valette” having gone from Malta to Sicily, I returned to Tunis
three days later by the “Dragut,” another steamer belonging to the
Compagnie Transatlantique. At Jerba we took on board a number of
invalided soldiers, whose heart-rending accounts of what they had
undergone it will be difficult to forget. Four days later the “Dragut”
brought me safely back to Goletta.