Tunisia

“ I ascertained that the language of Southern Tunisia is still spoken in the villages of Zaraua, Tamezred, Tujud, Shenini, Ghermasi, and Duirat (as also on the island of Jerba) , and in part of Urghamma.
From Jebel Jefren to the Matmata mountains, [96] the lively natives closely resemble each other in their expressive eyes, happy dispositions, and ready smile. Contrasted with the Arab, their countenances are shorter and broader, and their hair less black. ”

“ But Tunisia is better situated than Algeria, for its coast trends towards the south, thus bringing every part of the country near the sea. For it is a fact that the palm groves of the oases about Gabés extend right up to the Mediterranean, and there, though virtually in the heart of the Sahara, one may yet feel the mild influence of the sea. ”

“ Frontier troubles had however little effect on the remainder of the protectorate. In 1904–1905 there were famines and some native discontent in the south of Tunisia; but in general the country has prospered amazingly under the French protectorate. The native dynasty has been strengthened rather than weakened, and Tunisia may be pointed out as the best and wisest example of French administration over an alien land and race. Though on a smaller scale it is worthy to be set as a pendant to the British work in Egypt. ”

“ With the superficial differences to be accounted for by this new state of things, there still remains [page 321] much more in Tunisia to remind one of Morocco than in Algeria. What deeper distinctions there are result in both countries from Turkish influence, and Turkish blood introduced in the past, but even these do not go very deep. Beneath it all there are the foundations of race and creed common to all, and the untouched countryman of Tunisia is closely akin to his fellow of Morocco. Even in the towns the underlying likeness is strong. ”

“ Placed at the very centre of the inland sea, at the eastern extremity of Mauritania over against Sicily, possessing a long coastline with deeper inlets and better ports than those of Algeria and Marocco, endowed also with a healthy climate and fertile territory, Tunisia enjoys natural advantages which fonnerly enabled it to take a leading part amongst the Mediter- ranean states. ”

“ Nevertheless, even allowing for the consequences of a capricious Government, and for the general displacement of political power, it still seems strange that a country so fortunately situated as Tunisia should liave so greatly retrograded, and that it should have been almost completely effaced as a factor in the historic evolution of the Mediterranean lands. ”

“ Physical Features.—Geographically speaking, Tunisia is merely the eastern prolongation of the Mauretanian projection of northern Africa, of that strip of mountainous, fertile and fairly well-watered. country north of the Sahara desert, which in its flora and its fauna, and to some extent in its human race, belongs rather to Europe than to Africa. ”

“ In Central and Western Tunisia one finds not a few Berbers mingled with the Arabs. Those who are nomads live as do the aristocratic Arabs; but those who have fixed abodes are, on the contrary, republican in thought and feeling. ”

“ The points in which the domestic usages of Tunisia differ from those of Morocco are the more striking on account of the remarkably minute resemblance, if not absolute identity, of so very many others, and as the novelty of the innovations wears off, it is hard to realize that one is not still in the "Far West." ”

“ The alien inhabitants of Tunisia are well hated by a certain type of Frenchmen. The country has been compared to a wine-bottle that bears some high-flown label indicative of fine stuff within—the French administration—but is filled, unfortunately, with a poisonous mixture from round the corner, the Jews, Sicilians, Maltese, and Corsicans.
It is as difficult for a tourist to arrive at a just opinion on this subject as for the average Frenchman. The traveller will not find it easy to acquire the necessary first-hand data, while the other is warped by his congenital xenophobia. ”

“ A highly organized army was a necessity for Tunisia, and within the last quarter of a century she has got it. The French were far-seeing enough to anticipate{61} the probable eventuality which might grow out of England’s side-long glances towards Bizerte, and the Italian sphere of influence in Tripoli. ”

“ The beginning of the French occupation of Tunisia presents a rema;kable contrast to that of Algeria, by the rapidity with which the French obtained possession of the agricultund domains. The total area of the land which, in Tunisia, yearly passes into the hands of French proprietors, is already greater than in the whole of Algeria. ”

“ Tunisia owes its ancient culture, the earliest in Barbary, to its numerous Phœnician colonies, such as Utica, Kambe, Hadrumetum (Susa) , Leptis Minor, and Carthage. The Carthaginians wisely introduced the irrigation system of Mesopotamia into N. Africa and promoted the corn and vine culture, but the agricultural prosperity of the country was confined chiefly to the littoral, inhabited by Libyan-Phœnicians, a mixed Berber and Phœnician race, and to the valley of the Medjerda. ”

“ On the north-eastern littoral of Tunisia the population is very mixed. The inhabitants of the Cape Bon Peninsula show evident signs of Greek blood arising from Greek' invasions, which began in prehistoric times and finished with the downfall of the Byzantine Empire in North Africa. The presence of the Romans, and the constant introduction of. the Italians, first as slaves, and quite recently as colonists, has also added an Italian element to the north Tunisian population. ”

“ I fancy those Arabs are more of the type of those in the interior than in the Tunisian province!”
“But,” asked Luigi, “why do not the authorities of the Regency or the French authorities stop that landing of arms and ammunition?”
“At Tunis they hardly know what passes on the other side of Cape Bon, and when the French become masters of Tunisia it will take them a long time to reduce the coast to the east of the djebels into order! ”

“ Among the colons of Tunisia you may find a home establishment of the most comfortable type, but Government employés regard the Regency in the light of an exile; they never try to make their life more endurable, as they easily could do, with a little co-operation. ”

“ These central uplands of Tunisia in an uncultivated State are covered with alfa or esparto grass; but they also grow considerable amounts of cereals—wheat in the north, barley in the south. The range of the Saharan Atlas of Algeria divides (roughly speaking) into two at the Tunisian frontier. One branch extends northwards up this frontier and north-eastwards across the central Tunisian table-land, and the other continues south-eastwards between Gafsa and the salt lakes of the Jerīd. ”

“ The enormous heaps of mmrx and jmrpura, similar to those on the beaches of Sidon, still seen on the shores of Jerbu and Lake Biban, are a proof of the great importance of this industry to the old rhocnician colonies along the African seaboard. Inhabitants of Tunisia. Beyond the territories of Tripoli, which are mainly deserts, and offer along the coast but few ports, a narrow cultivated zone, and oases few and far between, Tunis must naturally have proved pre-eminently a land of promise to invaders coming either from the sea or from inland. ”

“ The inhabitants of the coast towns belong, in large. part, to the class generally known as “Moors.” The pure Turks and the Kuluglis (sons of Turkish fathers by Moorish women. or slave girls) are no longer numerous. Among the “Moors” the descendants of the Andalusian refugees form an exclusive and aristocratic class.
The present population of Tunisia numbers approximately 2,000,000, and consists of:—
Towns.—Besides the capital, Tunis, the chief towns of Tunisia are Sfax, Susa and Kairwan. ”

“ The treaty of El Bardo of the 12th of May 1881, confirmed by the decree of the 22nd of April 1882, placed Tunis under the protectorate of France. The country is administered under the direction of the French Foreign Office, in which there is a department of Tunisian affairs. The governor is called minister resident-general of France, and he also acts as foreign minister, being assisted by seven French and two native ministers. ”

“ The Turks in Tripoli refuse, of course, to acknowledge French rule in Tunisia; and as the people of Rhadamés are mainly Berbers under Turkish administration, these do all in their power to destroy the little trade there is with the French territories of Duirat, Tatuin, Medinin, and beyond them to Gabés.
[265] For the moment the Tuareg place no obstacles in the way of persons who venture to travel from the Duirat mountains through the desert to Rhadamés; so the route is open, but no one who is supposed to have the slightest relations with the French is allowed to enter the oasis. ”

“ That is my quarrel with this Tunisian literature; many of the things that have been written about the country are not books at all; while others are full of mistakes. Look at these two volumes, for instance! Impressionistic realism, I suppose they would call it, scrawled down by an excitable female journalist who, I am sorry to say, has created quite a rage for European and American lady tourists among these Arabs, to the great discredit of our civilization. Read them, Monsieur, as a warning example, and perhaps you will give me your Bordereau instead ”

“ Feriana (p. 371) . Diligence viâ Feriana to Gafsa (p. 383) in two days (fare 30 fr.) .
319 VII. TUNISIA.
Tunisia, the eastmost part of the Maghreb (p. 93) , a territory of about 50,000 sq. M., has a population of ca. 11⁄2–2 millions, the great majority being Mohammedans (Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Kuluglis, and negroes) . Of the remainder about 60,000 are Jews 320 (Arabic Ihûdi, pl. Ihûd) , either natives or settlers (from Spain and the so-called Livornese) , 105,680 Italians, 40,850 French, 12,200 Maltese (p. 397) , and 4800 other Europeans. ”

“ They form, even more than the soldiers, the real strength of French Algeria, for they have settled there of their own free-will, and made it their second home. Instead of these sturdy colonists and small landed proprietors, the European purchasers in Tunisia are chiefly representatives of financial com- panies, agents of absentee capitalists, or else, in the most favourable cases, enterprising men who are in charge of vast tracts of land cultivated by foreign hands. ”

“ The foreign population in Algeria and Tunisia is very mixed; and though all nationalities mingle in trade the foreigners will not become naturalized to any great extent. Out of forty-one naturalized foreigners in Tunis in 1891, 27 were Italians, 2 Alsatians, 2 Luxembourgeois, 2 Maltese, 1 German, 1 Belgian, 1 Moroccan, and 5 individuals of undetermined nationality. ”

“ Administration.—From a native's point of view Tunisia still appears to be governed by the Bey of Tunis, his Arab ministers and his Arab officials, the French only exercising an indirect-though. a very, real-control over the indigenous population (Mahommedans and Jews) . ”

“ The marvellous progress of the country during the first centuries of the Roman empire is evidenced by the colonization of the central Tunisian and S. Algerian steppe, a triumph of Roman enterprise. A great network of roads was constructed, chiefly from the reign of Hadrian onwards, to connect Carthage, the new capital, and other towns with Tebessa, Hippo Regius (p. 309) , Tripolitania, and even the distant Mauretania Tingitana (p. 95) , and numerous towns were founded in the interior of Tunisia and Numidia. ”

“ INGENUITY OF THE TUNISIANS.
A stranger visiting a city like Tunis, cannot but be struck with the various peculiarities, which present themselves to his view, wherever he turns. In their government, mercantile pursuits, professions and trades, the Tunisians are centuries behind. But, with all their disadvantages, the traveller, in traversing their crowded sooks (market places) and serpentine streets, finds numerous illustrations of the proverb, "Necessity is the mother of invention." ”

“ In the upper town live the Tunisians, properly so called, with whom are intermingled, in the suburb of Bab-es-Suika, the descendants of the Andulusian Moors. Proud of their ancient reputation as the leaders of fashion in Mauritania, the elegant Tunisians excel in the choice of the stuffs of which are made their garments, in which bright hues always predominate. ”

“ It will not be breaking the promise that our visit to the exhibition is not to involve us in a description of all its wonders, if we walk up-stairs and look into the Tunisian Café, attracted by the well-known drumming and the moaning dirge which Easterns call music. Tunis is best seen out of Tunis, for the broidered gold and bright-coloured slippers can then be enjoyed without those horrible scenes of filth—dead camels, open sewers, and maimed beggars which encase the shabby mud walls I have seen so near the marble ruins of old Carthage. ”

“ The Tunisians, the common people of Tunis, are protégés of France, and France is doing her best to protect them and lead them to prosperity, assisted of course by the good-will and influence of the ruling Bey, whom she keeps in luxury and quasi-power. ”

“ In the spring of 1881 the French invaded Tunis, in order to punish the turbulence of the Kroumirs, and the French minister resident is now the virtual ruler of the country. Under French administration the Tunisian debt has been consolidated, commerce has increased, the means of transit have been improved, and a number of primary schools established. ”