Chapter II: The Dwellers in Tunisia

The wave of conquest has five times at least swept over Tunis, but, with the exception of the Arabs, none of the conquering races have left any visible imprint on the present population of the country. The levelling influences of Islamism has well-nigh obliterated all differences of origin, and the natives of Tunis are very often described generically as Arabs. Of Arabs _pur sang_, strange to say, there are none, and the name can only with any show of correctness be applied to the nomadic tribes of the interior, which have all mixed more or less with the indigenous Berbers. The term Bedouin is also frequently indiscriminately used when speaking of the tribesmen of Northern Africa. This, too, is an error. The term Bedouin in its strict sense is applicable exclusively to the dwellers on the borders of the Great Desert.

The following classification of the inhabitants of Tunis may be conveniently adopted, viz.:—(1) Moors, (2) Arabs, (3) Berbers or Kabyles, (4) Turks, (5) Koulouglis, (6) Jews. The remaining race distinctions, always excepting the large European colony, have no practical importance.

The term Moors demands some explanation. It formerly served to denote generally an inhabitant of Mauritania. This use of the word has now entirely passed away. It then served to describe the Saracens, who left Africa to conquer Spain and parts of France and Italy, and who at last returned to the countries from which they came. The Spanish Moors form in Tunis an exclusive and aristocratic clan. The word Moor is also applied to the townspeople of the cities of North Africa, who are essentially members of a more or less mixed race.

The picture of the Tunisian Moors has been drawn over and over again. They constitute the most admirable type of the Moslem population. They are generally well made, of almost fair complexion, and possess regular and often noble features. Although they are no longer warlike themselves, they are deeply attached to the religious and political teachings of their creed, and have a considerable influence over their uneducated although more hardy compatriots of the interior. Nearly all the Spanish Moors in Tunis have adopted some kind of trade, and they invariably show a marked preference for those callings which allow a minimum of exertion and a maximum of indolence. They retail silks, perfumes, incense, jewellery, drugs, and bric-à-brac, and it is difficult to say whether foreigners are more impressed by their dignified languor or their suave politeness. A scent-seller in Souk-el- Attarín (Bazaar of Essences) at Tunis is a lineal descendant of the Abencerrages, while his next-door neighbour (a living portrait of our own Henry VIII. in his prime) represents the lordly race of the Almoravides. They possess pedigrees of wonderful length and correctness, and retain as heirlooms the rust-eaten keys of their long lost Andalusian homes. They look on trade as no disgrace, and spend their time in filling and sealing hermetically small phials of the otto of roses and jessamine, in gossiping with their neighbours, and in reading and discussing the orthodox _Jowaib_, the official organ of the Panislamite enthusiasts at Stamboul. They look on the Bey of Tunis rightly or wrongly as a traitor to the Sultan, anathematise the French invaders under their breath, and await with patience the time when a European complication will allow Abdul Hamíd to have his own again in the Tunisian Pachalik. The Moors have a quick sense of humour, and are able at an emergency to indulge in a keenly pointed repartee. The report of the _procès_ Roustan-Rochefort translated into classical Arabic has afforded them unceasing amusement since the beginning of the year, but their excessive mirth over the adventures of the French Minister and his friends the Musallis led them into indiscretion. Their proceedings reached the ears of General Japy, who summoned one of the most venerable members of the ancient confraternity of Moorish scent-sellers to appear before him. “You are always talking against the French,” said the general, “and you must be punished.” The luckless Moslem in vain protested the contrary. The general informed him that he was sentenced to lose his tongue. The instruments essential to the operation were then produced upon a tray. Then and then only did the Moor forget his dignity. Forgetting his ancestors of Granada and Cordova, he embraced with feverish eagerness the feet of his judge. I need hardly say he was pardoned, and that General Japy was only indulging his sense of humour, and at the same time giving the offender a wholesome lesson in prudence. The incident, however, will become a tradition of the Souk-el-Attarín, and will not be forgotten when the good time does arrive.

The present Bey of Tunis has turned one of his picturesque old city palaces into a public school for the Moorish youth. It was at the Sadikya college I first perceived by experience the Moorish capability of witty repartee. It was just after our defeat by the Zulus, and General Sir A. Cunynghame, G.C.B., was going over the institution. He was requested to examine the boys of the first class. The first question he asked was an unfortunate one:—Could the students point out the provinces lost by Turkey during the late war? If a thunderbolt had fallen in the midst of the room, the sensation of horror produced could not have been greater. The head-boy, with wonderful _sang froid_, pointed out the states in question one after another, but he added, “Perhaps _mon genéral_ will condescend to show us the province in which the English have been so often beaten _ces jours çi_.” General Cunynghame took the boy’s shrewd sarcasm in good part, and carried away with him a high idea of the intelligence of the rising generation of Tunisian Moors.

The inhabitants of the interior of Tunis are, with very rare exceptions, the descendants of the conquering Arab race, which quickly mixed with the Berbers of the country. The Tunisian Arab is naturally dark complexioned, and is generally bronzed by exposure to the sun. He is muscular and robust, and presents a striking contrast to his Moorish co- religionists. The Arab is always brave, and generally active and energetic. M. Roustan knew nothing of the Arabs, or he would not have observed jocularly to M. Saint-Hilaire that “four French soldiers and a corporal could take Tunis.” African Arabs are as a rule given to hospitality, and never refuse a meal to a stranger. Twelve months ago travellers could pass unmolested from _douár_ to _douár_ (encampment to encampment) over the whole face of the country from Khamír-land to the Tripolitan frontier. The Arab Sheikh looks upon _diffa_, or the feeding of wayfarers, as a crowning virtue. Any European could always count on obtaining food and lodging, but an Englishman invariably commanded a welcome. The very name of England was a talisman to the hearts of these simple-hearted herdsmen. They loved to ask about our Queen and our soldiers, to inspect our breechloaders and revolvers, and to talk of their brethren under British rule in the Blad-el-Hind. All this is past and gone now. We advised the Bey to acquiesce in the punishment of the Khamírs by the French, and assured both him and his subjects that if he “co-operated” with the invaders the expedition would go no further. He acted on our advice, but the French never found the Khamírs, and in six months overran the whole country from Tabarka to Jerba. From the day the French troops appeared before the Kasr-es-Said palace, Englishmen were reckoned with ordinary Roumis and Giaours. The Arabs are good horsemen, and make the best of their wretched flint-lock guns. If they had possessed better arms, the siege of Sfax and the march to Kairwán would have been a very different matter.

The inhabitants of the Tunisian Regency outside the walls of its towns are divided and subdivided into a large number of tribes and fractions of tribes. A list of these clans would only tire the reader, and the names of the most powerful of them will necessarily occur over and over again in the course of the narrative of the war. Each large tribe is ruled by its Caid, who has one or more subordinate Khalifas. The Khalifas in their turn are superior to the Sheikhs, who sometimes only control a small cluster of tents. All these officials are invested and appointed by the Bey, and they all pay an annual tribute in proportion to the extent of their different governments. The manipulation of these nominations has from time immemorial been a source of great abuses, but of late it has become almost intolerable. “A reform of the list of Caids” sounds pleasantly enough to the European ear. The dwellers in Tunisian tents know too well what it means and what it costs.

The Arabs are capable of real patriotic feeling, quite apart from religious enthusiasm. A year ago the very existence of a community of Arab sentiment was treated as a myth. Europe is almost convinced now that there is some kind of understanding rife amongst them from Tangiers to Cairo. They appear to have combined to make a last stand against extinction or extermination. It was to a very great extent the sending of letters written in blood by the surviving Sheikhs of the Chiaïa tribe to all the great clans in the Regency, immediately after the regrettable occurrences of the 30th March 1881, which provoked the general rising that very soon afterwards took place.

In considering the question of the capability of the Arab tribes to participate in a general and concentrated movement, an important element in the discussion is almost invariably omitted. I allude to the growing power of the _Khouan_, or semi-political semi-religious confraternities, which seem destined to cover the whole of North Africa with a web of Moslem freemasonry. At the head of the associations are the Senoussia, the avowed opponents of the French “mission of civilisation,” of whom I shall speak at length in a future chapter. This powerful brotherhood has sprung into existence during the last thirty years, but it now threatens to overshadow if not absorb the older but less militant corporations. Thirty-five years ago a remarkable report was addressed to the Duc d’Aumale upon this subject by M. De Neveu, chef du Service Géodésique de l’Algérie. Even then the author wrote that “it is absolutely necessary to ascertain the political object of those confraternities, which have undoubtedly produced a remarkable power of combination amongst individuals, have furnished the means for an almost incredible rapidity of communication, and seem destined to play an important part in the affairs of West and Central Algeria.”[10]

These various orders differ chiefly in form, but they are all ostensibly based on the pure tenets of Islamism as expounded in the Koran. Each confraternity claims to have had its origin in a dream of its founder, who is supposed to have received a revelation from the Prophet as to the _thrik_, or most acceptable way of salvation. The associations having sway in Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli at the present time are seven in number, viz.:—

1. The Senoussia, or followers of Muhamed es Senoussi, having their headquarters at Djárdúb or Djaghdúb in the Libyan desert, twenty-two days’ journey from Ben Ghazi in Tripoli.

2. The confraternity of Moulai Taïb, to which Muhamed es Senoussi originally belonged.

3. The Aissaoua.

4. The Kaderia, or disciples of Sidi Abd-el-Kadir el Djelani.

5. The Rahmania, founded by Abd-er-Rahman Bon Kobarín.

6. The Hausalia (a brotherhood of little practical importance).

7. The Tijania, or confraternity of Sidi Ahmed Tijáni.

The supreme director of an order is called the _Khalifa_ or “lieutenant,” and who has _Mokaddem_ or “vicars” in each town. The _Khalifa_ transmits his orders to his subordinates, who furnish him in return with details concerning all political events which may occur in their different jurisdictions. The seat of the order in any particular locality is called a _Zaouia_, which seems to be at once a chapel, a school, a place of refuge, an hospital, a library, and a political debating club. The brethren are charged with the task of preserving a complete record of contemporaneous events. The ceremony of initiation in a confraternity is termed “taking the rose.” On two strangers meeting, one often asks the other, “What rose do you wear?” If the person to whom the query is addressed belongs to a brotherhood, he answers, “I wear the rose of Sidi So-and-so;” if not, he merely replies, “I wear no rose, but I am the servant of God and pray to Him with devotion.”

I am unable to pursue further an examination of the nature of the Moslem orders, the influence of which it is impossible to underrate. As I shall show hereafter, two of them at least have played already a considerable part in the opposition offered to the French advance eastwards, and it cannot be doubted that they are destined to a very great extent to promote the cause of a Moslem union against Christian aggression.

The Kabyles, or indigenous Berbers, unlike the Arabs, are not nomadic. They are not numerically important as far as Tunis is concerned, and are almost exclusively confined to the mountainous districts of Kef and Bizerta. Most of the masons, porters, gardeners, and manual labourers in the city of Tunis are Kabyles or Djebelia. They differ somewhat in appearance from the Arabs, and are perhaps not quite as hospitable. They hold, however, in great veneration the _anaya_ or safe-conduct given by their chiefs, and have never been known to violate it. They live for the most part in stone huts covered with thatch.

The number of Turks in Tunis is inconsiderable, and so is that of the Koulouglis or descendants of Turkish fathers and Moorish mothers.

The Jewish population in the Regency of Tunis exceeds 60,000, of which about half reside in the capital. They are quite as powerful now as they were once oppressed and maltreated. Some of their ancestors arrived in Tunis soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; a second immigration took place in the time of the Emperor Adrian, and a third was contemporaneous with the Spanish persecutions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their complete emancipation only dates from the reign of the present Bey. During the time of his predecessor, the English and French fleets came to Goletta, owing to Muhamed Bey sanctioning the execution of an Israelite on a charge of blasphemy. At the present moment the commerce of the country is almost entirely in their hands.

The population of the city of Tunis does not at present much exceed 130,000 persons, which are distributed as follows, viz.:—Moors, 60,000; Jews, 36,000; Europeans, 20,000; and miscellaneous native races, including 2000 Algerians, 14,000. The European colony in the capital consists of 10,000 Italians, 8000 Maltese and English, together with 2000 French. The story of the dealings of the rulers of Tunis with the governments of the European colonists forms the most important part of the annals of the Regency.

Some but not many of the Europeans now living in Tunis are the descendants of Christian slaves. Up to the month of May 1816, the great nations of Europe were compelled to repurchase those of their citizens who had the misfortune to become prisoners of the cruisers of the Beys of Tunis on the high seas. A large mass of correspondence still exists in the British Consulate General on the subject of these humiliating bargains, which were generally arranged by the fathers of the Roman Catholic Mission. St. Vincent de Paul was himself a prisoner in Tunis. The ransoms demanded generally varied from 500 to 1000 francs. A priest who visited the Regency on an errand of this kind in 1700 has left a most interesting account of his travels in a series of letters addressed to his Superior.[11] The writer describes the thirteen _bagni_ or prisons in which the slaves resided. He seems to have been pelted with stones and soundly beaten when passing through the streets, and tells us that the son of the French Consul was disabled by the blow of a Turk. After much negotiation four slaves were purchased, and the priest was requested to perform mass before the Bey, who kept all the necessary vessels in a chest in his room. At the end of the eighteenth century there were still a large number of Christian slaves at Tunis, but M. Chateaubriand declares they were generally treated with kindness. The ransom for sailors was then fixed at 230 Venetian sequins, but 460 were asked for captains and women of all ages.

In 1842, at the instance of the British Consul-General, Colonel Sir Thomas Reade, Ahmed Bey declared that the children born of slaves should henceforth be considered free. A little later he enfranchised all his own slaves, and his example was very generally followed throughout the country. Finally slavery was formally abolished, and the market, on the site of the modern jewellery bazaar, closed for ever. There is still a large number of eunuchs and other negro servants in Tunis, but these enjoy at least nominal freedom. From time to time a solitary negro takes refuge in the British Consulate General, but a certificate of freedom is always granted as soon as it is asked for. No Mussulman potentate has so earnestly and so honestly endeavoured to carry out his obligations with Europe in the matter of slavery as the Bey of Tunis and his predecessor.