[1541-1800 A.D.]
This unfortunate enterprise also restored the preponderance to the Turks. As soon as circumstances permitted they sent a fleet against the knights of St. John whom Charles V had made masters of Tripoli and reconquered the state in 1551. The government was given into the hands of the celebrated Dragut, who ten years later in concert with Piali Pasha was to achieve another great naval victory.
After the battle of Lepanto, John of Austria marched on Tunis, which offered but a feeble resistance; hardly had he turned his back, however, on the conquered domain, when Sinan Pasha hurried from Tripoli and everywhere re-established the authority of the sultan. Henceforth the Turks were masters over all Tunis and Algiers, and expeditions directed against them had no longer any object save to demand reparation or to punish them for acts of piracy.
Morocco, on the other hand, always remained independent of the Ottoman rule. The Merinids were succeeded in the fifteenth century by the Oatazes, who were in turn replaced by the Sherifs, whose dynasty continues to this day. The adroit personages who had created the grandeur of Morocco were looked upon as the legitimate descendants of Mohammed, and to the brothers of the reigning king, not his children, fell the succession to the throne. This law was the cause of much disturbance in the state, and in 1578 it formed the pretext for a famous expedition directed against Morocco by Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal. The sherif Abdallah having died, his son, Mulei Muhammed, had at first had the advantage over his uncle in the dispute for the succession; but being at last defeated Muhammed betook himself to Portugal, where he hoped to persuade the king, by the promise of large rewards, to assist him in gaining the crown. Carried away by enthusiasm, Sebastian embarked; and having in his possession the coat of arms worn by Charles V at his entry into Tunis, he imagined that he should exceed all that emperor’s exploits, and perhaps place the cross over the mosques of Morocco and Fez. He was taken at a disadvantage, however, by the Arabs at Kasr al-Kebir, and he and his little troop found themselves confronted by the dire alternative of achieving victory or meeting death. In this supreme moment Sebastian’s courage did not desert him; it served to make illustrious his defeat and dying moments. The two competitors also perished the same day; one by drowning in the river Mucazin, and the other as the result of a fever which he had disregarded in the haste and ardour of his preparations. Made wise by this terrible experience, the Portuguese did not renew their attempts against Africa, and the sherifs had further only to repress the internal dissensions that so frequently arose in their domains.
Such was the situation of the Arabs in Africa during the seventeenth century. They had still a sort of preponderance in Morocco; but in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli the Turks had become masters of the cities of the coast, and imposed upon them the severest rule. The different tribes, armed against each other by the astute policy of their oppressors, and terrorised by frequent and sanguinary executions, paid the tribute demanded of them without daring to murmur, and never even dreamed of throwing off the yoke under which they laboured.
We will return now to the Arabs in Spain, who had struck the first and most damaging blow at the empire of the Almohads. In addition to the garrisons the Africans placed among them, the populations had still to resist the domination of the Christians; and in order to effect this the most perfect unity would have been necessary, with the complete sacrifice of all private interests to the national welfare. But, as we have seen, instead of possessing a strongly constituted central government, the Spanish Arabs were divided up into a number of independent states, and the Catholic princes took advantage of this dismemberment to separately overcome them. James I, not content with the conquest of the Balearic Isles, undertook to gain possession of Valencia, and in his enthusiasm for this project abstained from urging against Thibaut de Champagne the rights his birth gave him to the crown of Navarre, thus gaining for himself an ally in the person of a prince who could furnish him with substantial aid. The king of Valencia struggled hard to defend his possessions, but the disunion among the Moslems and the bad faith of the walis, who for bribes delivered over to the enemy all the cities adjacent to the capital, caused Valencia finally to be invested both by land and by sea. Too feeble to resist longer, the Moslem king invoked the aid of the other sovereigns of Africa, but all were too busy with their own affairs, and Valencia fell into the hands of James (Jayme), under conditions that enabled the inhabitants to leave in freedom, or to remain with full protection for their property and religious liberty (1238).
[1238-1245 A.D.]
Valencia conquered, James next sought to extend his dominion over the kingdom of Murcia, but the king of Castile, by a powerful intervention (1241), succeeded in turning him from all schemes of aggrandisement. The kingdom of Murcia, less powerful than that of Valencia, was divided among a great many different tribes whose chiefs, all jealous of each other’s authority, hastened to submit to Ferdinand III under the best conditions they could obtain. The wali of Lorca alone held out for independence; but two years later his cities were also taken by assault, and the entire kingdom of Murcia passed over to the crown of Castile.
Another acquisition of far greater importance had, moreover, been made by this crown since 1232. In the coveted regions of Guadalquivir, Ibn Hud had at first been able to take an energetic stand against Ferdinand III; but lacking utterly the resources necessary for carrying on a protracted struggle, he was at last obliged to surrender Ubeda and Andujar, and could not prevent siege being laid to Cordova. The peril which threatened the capital should have aroused the courage and ardour of the Moslems in its defence, but nothing of the sort occurred; Ibn Hud was assassinated in the midst of his preparations for resistance, and the city was obliged to capitulate. Thus was extinguished the glory of the Islam metropolis in the West, the city of arts and Moslem luxury and magnificence. Ferdinand III placed the cross on the minarets of the great mosques, and returned to Compostella the bells of St. James that Almansor had carried away as trophies.
[1245-1249 A.D.]
The time had come for the Arabs to bid farewell to the memories of their past triumphs and glories; they witnessed the profanation of all their sanctuaries without venturing to make the supreme effort that might still have saved them. Ferdinand’s victories now followed in quick succession. After taking several cities he encountered and defeated, before Alcala, Muhammed ben al-Akhmar, who had gotten himself acknowledged in the states of Ibn Hud. The Moslems displayed great courage in this engagement; and Ferdinand, after taking possession of the vast domain ceded to him by Muhammed ben al-Akhmar, agreed to leave him in peace provided he would pay him an annual tribute, furnish a certain number of troops in case of war, and appear in person at the assemblies or cortes of Castile. He reserved to himself the right of aggression against the Arabs of the Algarve and Guadalquivir, who were still divided into many small states. Seville, the ancient capital of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the capture of which would forever prevent the union of the Algarve with the Sierra Nevada Moslems, was suddenly invested, and in the camp of the enemy were plainly to be seen Muhammed ben al-Akhmar and his five hundred horsemen. The city resisted long, being in constant receipt of supplies from Moslem sources by way of the Guadalquivir, and it was not until Ferdinand III equipped a small fleet and surrounded the mouth of the Guadalquivir that the inhabitants, threatened by famine, capitulated. The same favourable terms were accorded to them as to the Arabs of Valencia (1248).