Chapter VI: 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.