Having apparently accomplished their mission, the Arabs no longer sought to make the cause of Islam triumph, but little by little withdrew to the obscurity and monotony of a desert life. Even in 1270, at the time of the last crusade of St. Louis, they displayed nothing like the courage that had characterised them on former occasions, being content to sign a disadvantageous treaty with Charles of Anjou, by which they bound themselves to receive French and Italian merchandise free of duty, and to permit the free practice of Catholicism throughout their states.
[1343-1534 A.D.]
Later the Spaniards and the Portuguese conquered the African cities which command the Straits of Gibraltar, and sent into the interior as many troops as the Africans had formerly sent into Spain. When they had become masters of Algeciras and Tarifa, the Portuguese, who first undertook these enterprises, seized Alemtejo and Algarve and then decided to carry into other countries that spirit of adventure which had led them to demand on sea the wealth and power that were denied them on land. In 1415 they took possession of Ceuta, which they had to defend against Edward, second of the house of Braganza, but were finally able to retain by allowing to remain in irons a child that they had delivered over as hostage. Between 1439-1481 Alfonso V conquered the important cities of Tangiers and Arzillo. Nevertheless the Portuguese had little thought of extending their conquests further, but were devoting themselves to commerce and navigation, in the interests of which they made those maritime discoveries that were to raise them so high among nations and send their ships into so many unknown waters of the globe.
It has not been sufficiently pointed out how fatal to the Arabs of Spain was the occupancy by the Portuguese of Tangiers, Ceuta, and Arzillo. Hitherto the Moslems in Maghreb could come to the assistance of their brothers in Spain without looking upon themselves as interested parties to the dispute. But after the Portuguese came to command the strait, with power to intercept all communications between the two continents, the last blow to Mohammedan unity was struck by the Christian princes.
Once the Catholic sovereigns had become masters of the Mediterranean ports of the peninsula, they enlarged their navy that the Moslem fleets might be constantly held in check, and after the fall of the monarchy of Granada they penetrated deep into Africa. In 1504 Diego of Cordova took several places between Ceuta and Oran, and in 1509 Cardinal Ximenes, minister to Ferdinand of Aragon, organised and directed a much more important expedition. Instead of attacking the younger branch of the Merinids at Morocco, he advanced on Tlemcen and Algiers, the double realm of the Beni Zian, and taking the city of Oran established there a strong garrison.
These encroachments on the part of Christians must be stopped at any cost. Meeting with nothing but supineness and indifference among the Moors and Arabs whom he approached, Eutemi, king of Algiers, finally implored the assistance of Horuj, the celebrated pirate of Mytilene, who was at the head of a considerable fleet. Accepting these overtures with alacrity, Horuj repaired to Algiers with a force of five thousand men (1516); but after entering the city he caused Eutemi to be assassinated, and himself usurped the government. He further profited by the terror he had caused to attack Tlemcen and drive forth the Beni Zian; but in 1518 the Spaniards engaged him in a battle in which he lost his life, leaving Tlemcen in the hands of his enemies.
In no wise discouraged by this reverse, the brother of Horuj, Khair ad-Din, better known under the name of Barbarossa, succeeded in getting himself acknowledged ruler by the inhabitants of Algiers and establishing his dominion on solid foundations throughout the country; he drove the Spaniards back into Oran, where he kept them confined. Fear, nevertheless, of the superior numbers of the Christians and the mutability of the Arab spirit caused him to seek for his states the protection of the supreme ruler who, at his request, sent him troops of Turkish militia from Constantinople. Barbarossa then took the title of regent, and in the name of the Ottoman sultan exercised the highest authority over all the states of Algiers.
We have witnessed in Asia the gradual substitution of the Turks for the Arabs as defenders of the Moslem faith; and we shall now assist at a repetition of the same process in Africa. This was, too, the epoch of greatest power of the sultans in Constantinople. Suleiman, master of Egypt, of Asia Minor, of Greece, and Bulgaria, threatened simultaneously Persia and Hungary, and he alone was capable of protecting Africa against the redoubtable might of Charles V. Far from injuring the cause of Islam, the arrival of these new auxiliaries in the Maghreb should have given it a fresh impetus; but exactly the reverse took place. From the day the Arabs came under subjection to the Turks, all the noble sentiments and generous impulses that had before characterised them gave place to a hopeless condition of servility and degradation; bowed under the yoke of an insolent military body that enforced obedience at the point of the sword, they lost that natural pride that had set them apart from other races, and little by little fell into the brutish torpor that has been their prevailing state in modern times, and which has caused us to judge them wrongfully as showing antagonism to all ideas of civilisation.
[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.