Tripoli

“ Deprived of banks, deprived of paper-money easy to handle, subject to the arbitrary will of avaricious governors, living in the midst of perpetual wars and troubles—in twenty years Tripoli had been besieged five times and five times sacked—they have only one resource: a good and mysterious hiding-place, unknown to all and particularly to their women. ”

“ Tripoli, October 24, 1821.
“It is with the sincerest joy I communicate to you my safe arrival here. Every thing smiles and promises complete success to our enterprise. Accounts arrived here a few days ago, that the pasha’s army had penetrated to fifty-seven days’ journey beyond Bornou—a circumstance exceedingly favourable to us, as no danger need be apprehended the greater part of the way we design to take. This town has a very indifferent appearance. ”

“ These were the lights and spires of Tripoli, a Moorish town then best known as a haunt and stronghold of the pirates of the Mediterranean. All was silence, all seemingly peace. The vessel—the ketch, to give it its nautical name—moved onward with what seemed exasperating slowness, scarcely ruffling the polished waters of the bay. The hours passed on. The miles lagged tardily behind. The wind fell. The time crept towards midnight. The only life visible in the wide landscape was that of the gliding ketch. ”

“ A solitary being, who thinks himself unobserved, is sometimes pointed out to you as having been one; but his misery protects him. So complete an overthrow of the most numerous tribe that inhabited the regency of Tripoli, and one whose riches and influence were so well known, has had the effect of humbling the turbulent spirit of the Arabs to a wonderful degree: the bashaw rules them literally with a rod of iron, and for the slightest cause he has the heads of their sheikhs over the gates of his palace in a few hours. ”

“ I find that in the important coast towns the favourite idea of the Italian residents is that Tripoli should be seized, in order to counterbalance the French acquisition of Tunis. But at Tripoli itself that idea finds no favour, even among the Italians; and the reason for this it is not difficult to discover. Neither from a financial, a military, nor a political point of view is Italy strong enough to secure Tripoli. Those who are on the spot are well aware of this, and they are most anxious to counteract the Chauvinist ideas of their fellow-countrymen at a distance. ”

“ They meet no forces gathered by their foe,
No towers defenced with rampire, moat, or wall,
No stream, no wood, no mountain could forslow
Their hasty pace, or stop their march at all;
So when his banks the prince of rivers, Po,
Doth overswell, he breaks with hideous fall
The mossy rocks and trees o’ergrown with age,
Nor aught withstands his fury and his rage.
LXXVI
The King of Tripoli in every hold
Shut up his men, munition and his treasure,
The straggling troops sometimes assail he would,
Save that he durst not move them to displeasure ”

“ Under the Sultan’s rule Tripoli has remained the capital of a truly barbaric state, virgin of improvements, with just enough dilapidated abandon, dirt and picturesqueness to make the delight of the artist. Arabs were everywhere; veiled women looked at the Christians with melting eyes above their wrappings. Mohammedanism, already twelve centuries old, has, after a period of inactivity, awakened anew in Africa, and is rapidly spreading. Very unlike the Christians, the faithful of today are the same fervid Faithful of Omar and Mohammed. ”

“ During the past decade Italy quietly prepared to seize Tripoli,—peacefully, if possible, and if not, by force. Had Italy been ready, Turkey would have lost Tripoli in the autumn of 1908, when Bulgaria declared her independence and Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. Internal politics made a bold stroke impossible at that favourable moment. ”

“ The siege of Tripoli is this called? There has never been any such thing. This is the market-place of Tripoli—a busy, profitable market; and the men who bring their country produce for sale are none other than the captains of the army. In particular, there is one among them who might have brought the siege to an end six weeks before, had he wished. While the most noble prince—whose eyes I feel it my duty to open on this point—was, and is, with us, the captains have the excuse that his authority is over them, that without his consent they can do nothing. ”

“ In travelling along the shore towards Tripoli Bruce overtook the Muggrabine caravan, which was proceeding from the shores of the Atlantic to Mecca, [8] and his armed escort, though but fifteen in number, coming up with them in the gray of the morning, put the whole body, consisting of at least three thousand men, in great bodily terror, until the real character of the strangers was known. The English consul at Tripoli received and entertained our traveller with distinguished kindness and hospitality. ”

“ Let me add, that France herself would be worsted in any attack upon Tripoli. She may have the money and the men, but she lacks the power necessary to enable her to defy, not merely the Tripolitan Arabs, but the forces of united Europe. For the Italians to thrust themselves into the wasp’s nest from which the insurrectionary movement in Tunis originated, would be an act of supreme folly. ”

“ Mr Abbot, British consul for Tripoli in Syria, kindly invited me, and lii after him Mr Vernon, his successor, a very excellent man, to take up my residence there. From Tripoli there is a trade in kelp carried on to the salt marshes near Palmyra. The Shekh of Cariateen, a town just upon the edge of the desert, had a contract with the basha of Tripoli for a quantity of this herb for the use of the soap-works. ”

“ The first appearance of Tripoli may disappoint, by its meanness, the expectations of the traveller; but if he reflects on the nature of a despotic government, ever incompatible with permanent prosperity, he will not be surprized when he finds, on a nearer view, that the city, though the capital of an empire, exhibits through all its extent, the marks of a rapid decay; that its scanty limits, though scarcely four miles in circumference, are too great for its present population ”

“ There is infinitely less enthusiasm for African discovery,—nay, more horror of African travelling in Tripoli than in London: in truth, the greater part of the Europeans of Tripoli, and in all Barbary towns, are a degraded unenthusiastic race, wholly occupied with their petty quarrels and intrigues. ”

“ There appears to exist no detailed record of Bruce’s second journey to Tripoli. He resided at Tunis till August, 1766, and again set out for Tripoli by Sfax and Djerba.
There is nothing worth seeing without the walls of Tripoli. In the town itself immediately above the port, stands a four-faced triumphal arch of white marble, covered with a profusion of ornaments, both within and without, even to a fault, if there could be fault in so much excellence. ”

“ They gave themselves to the project energetically, and a short time later undertook an expedition against the inhabitants of Tripoli, whom they found ready for battle, with an army of Turks, Saracens, and Arabs lined up in front of the walls of the city. Our men attacked them vigorously and compelled them to take refuge in flight. The result was not merely a carnage of the nobles of the city, but wholesale slaughter, to the point that the waves of the river that ran through the city were died red with their blood, and the sewers were stained with this foulness. ”

“ Nor is their anxiety groundless. Advices from Tripoli show that the excitement among the Mussulman population there is intense, and is being fomented by the action of fanatical preachers, who are passing from place to place, stirring up popular [299] hatred against the infidel. Many hundreds of Tripolitans, including a large number of Turkish soldiers, have crossed the frontier, and are joining the Tunisian Arabs in these mountain fastnesses, in which they are preparing for the guerilla operations they evidently contemplate. ”

“ Modern Tripoli is the head of a pashalik, extending north and south from Nahr Ibrahim to Bylán, and bounded on the east by the highest chain of the mountains which run parallel to the coast. Ali, a pasha of two tails, held it, but resided at St. Jean d’Acre as kekhyah of Sulimán Pasha, whilst Mustafa Aga governed in his stead. It is the best built and cleanest town along the coast of Syria; perhaps, too, the largest, certainly, at the time we are speaking of, the most commercial; although now superseded by Beyrout. ”

“ Tripoli, see p. 406. Skirting the flat, sandy coast, with its numerous oases, including that of Tajûra (p. 411) , we pass the small Râs Sotara, Râs el-Hamra (‘red cape’) , and Râs Ligata.
In the fertile undulating plain to the E. of the small port of Ligata (lighthouse; sailing-boat from Tripoli in about 7 hrs. if the wind is favourable) lies Lebida, Lebda, or Khoms (pop. 3500; Brit. vice-cons.) , in its oasis, a poor little seaport (for alfa) with open roads, relics of old fortifications, and an Italian school. ”

“ On the outskirts of Tripoli town is a fertile oasis. It goes by the name of the Mechiya and is several square miles in extent. It consists, or rather consisted, of a wide and scattered belt of palm trees, among which nestled many a beautiful Arab home, where the wealthier inhabitants of the town resided, embowered in gardens, luxuriating in myrtles, oleanders, and oranges. The Italian troops, marching through this oasis on October 23, were attacked in front by the Turks and in the rear by a force of Arabs. They lost heavily. ”

“ Tripoli, like other towns oh these shores, looks as though it were sloughing away. Where stones fall, there they lie. In the centre of the town is a marble triumphal arch in honour of Marcus Aurelius. Age would account for much of its ruin, but not all; yet it still stands cold, haughty, austere, though decrepit, in Tripolitan mud, with mean stucco and plaster buildings about it. The arch itself is filled in, and is used as a dwelling. ”

“ While Egypt was brought under British control and Tunisia became a French protectorate, Tripoli remained a province of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers in the hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened to lead to trouble with France during the expansion of the latter’s influence in the Sahara. ”

“ If there are more than 1,500,000 in Tripoli, with 6000 soldiers—1000 for the djebel and 500 for the Cyrenaic—the town of Tripoli itself has not more than from 20,000 to 24,000 souls. But on this occasion it appeared as though the population had been at least doubled by the crowd of spectators coming from all parts of the territory. ”

“ I am filled with wonder and surprise to notice what interest and excitement has been aroused throughout the whole country on account of the death of twenty people, while they remain cold and indifferent to the fact that thousands of Italians, Turks, and Arabs are killed in Tripoli! The horror of this wholesale slaughter has not disturbed the Government at all! Yet these unfortunate people are human beings too. ”

“ After the war in Tripoli between the Italians and the Turks, in 1911, the suzerainty of Italy over Tripoli was formally acknowledged at the Treaty of Lausanne, but although the whole of the country became an Italian possession only the coastal towns were held firmly. The Arabs in the south, and the Berber inhabitants of the various oases, strongly resented the Italian rule, and for this reason the seeds of propaganda sown by Turkish and German agents found fertile soil among the natives of Tripoli. ”

“ Tripoli is a stronghold of fanaticism, and the mosques are jealously closed to the infidel; permission to visit them is seldom given, and if formally granted is generally made nugatory in some underhand way; for a person in my unofficial station such a visit would be unexampled. The consul, however, had never himself seen them, and he suggested that this would be an opportunity for me. ”

“ In the 5th century both Tripoli and Cyrenaica were conquered' by the Vandals, whose power was destroyed by the Byzantine general Belisarius in the following century. In the middle of the 7th century the whole country was overrun by the Arabs, and Christianity gave place to Islam. From this period, for many centuries, Tripoli was subject to the successive rulers of Tunisia. ”

“ A battle between Ghóma and the Turks was fought in 1855 at no great distance from it. The country around is a monotonous plain, enlivened only by three small clusters of palm-trees towards the north. The following morning we proceeded, and encamped on the eastern side of Wady Raml. On Tuesday we returned to Tripoli well satisfied with our little excursion, and convinced that the Regency of Tripoli is not by any means so poor and miserable as it is generally believed to be. ”

“ Such of the Arabs as remained of our escort, after their return from Munga, left Kouka with the first kafila for Tripoli: they were all my professed friends; but, notwithstanding the miserable state in which they were, I had not the means of assisting them; the few dollars each man had received from the bashaw on quitting Tripoli, and all they possessed besides, being lost at Mandara, and they knew I was precisely in the same situation. One man in three or four sold his gun, an Arab’s greatest treasure, to provide them with water, skins, and corn, for their journey. ”

“ Tripoli (1,000) , a province (since 1835) of Turkey, in North Africa, most easterly of the Barbary States; stretches northwards from the Libyan Desert, lies between Tunis (W.) and Fezzan (E.) , with which latter, as also with Barca, it is politically united; carries on a brisk caravan trade with Central Africa; capital, Tripoli (20) , situated on a spit of rocky land jutting into the Mediterranean; surrounded by high walls, and Moorish in appearance.
Triptolemus, in the Greek mythology the favourite of Demeter (q. v.) , the inventor of the plough, and of the civilisation therewith connected ”