BY J. E. BUDGETT MEAKIN.[Former editor of The Times of Morocco, Tangier.]
FEW who glibly use the word "barbarian" pause to consider whether the present meaning attached to the name is justified or not, or whether the people of Barbary are indeed the uncivilized, uncouth, incapable lot their name would seem to imply to-day. In fact, the popular ignorance regarding the nearest point of Africa is even greater than of the actually less known central portions, where the white man penetrates with every risk.
Indeed, to declare that the inhabitants of the four Barbary States—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli—are not at all "black-amoors," but are white, like ourselves, is to astonish most folk at the outset. Of course in lands where the slavery of the neighboring negro races has existed as a prominent institution for a thousand years or more—and it still flourishes openly in Morocco—there is a goodly proportion of mulattoes, and among those whose lives have been spent for many generations in field work there are many whose skins are bronzed and darkened; but they are white by nature, nevertheless, and town life soon restores the original color. The student class of Fez, drawn from all classes of the population of Morocco, actually makes a boast of the pale and pasty complexions attained by life amid the shaded cloisters and the covered streets of the intellectual capital. Then, again, those who are sunburned and bronzed are more of the Arab stock than of the Berber.
These Berbers, the real original Barbarians, known to the Romans and Greeks as such before the Arab was known outside Arabia, are at once the greatest and the most interesting nation, or rather race, of the whole of Africa. Had such a thing been possible as the united States of Northern Africa, Europe would long ago have learned to respect the title "Barbarian" too much to put it to its present use. But the weak point of the Berber race has been its lack of homogeneity; it has ever been split up into independent States and tribes, constantly indulging in internecine warfare. This is a principle which has its origin in the relations of the units of whom they are composed, of whom it may be said, as of the sons of Ishmael, that every man's hand is against his neighbor. The219vendetta, as an outcome of the talion law of eye for eye and tooth for tooth, flourishes grandly. No young man is supposed to have attained full manhood until he has slain his man, and excuses are seldom lacking. The greatest insult that can be offered to any enemy is to tell him that his father died in bed, even above the imputation of evil character to his maternal relatives, so common among the Arabs.
Every successive ruler of any portion of North Africa has had to deal with the problem of subduing them, and failed. Who has not heard of the famous Punic wars between Rome and Carthage, when the southern rival of the great queen city of the world found actual sinews enough among her sturdy Berber soldiers to hold the Roman legions so long at bay, and often to overcome her vaunted cohorts and carry the war across into Europe? Where else did Rome find so near a match? and what wars cost her more than those of Africa? Carthage has fallen, and from her once famed Byrsa the writer has been able to count up the local remains of her greatness on his fingers; yet the people who made her what she was remain—the Berbers of Tunis. The Phoenician settlers, though they brought with them wealth and learning and arts, could never have done alone what they did with the hardy fighting men the hills around supplied.
When even Rome had fallen, and the fame of Carthage and of Utica was long forgotten, there came across North Africa a very different race from those who had preceded them—the desert Arabs, bearing forth the creed and sword of Islam. Tribe by tribe was offered one of two alternatives,—brotherhood or war. Those who fought unaided, or even opposed by their neighbors, their bitter foes, were soon overcome one by one. There was no coalition. Even to those who surrendered at discretion equally liberal terms were allowed, and erelong they became part of the conquering host beneath the crescent banner of Mohammed.
Thus in the course of a century or two North Africa became Mohammedan, pagan and Christian institutions being crushed before that onward wave. It is not probable that at any time Christianity had any real hold upon the Berbers themselves, and Islam itself sits lightly on their easy consciences.
Finally, in the eighth century, the shores of the Atlantic barring further progress to the West, the tide of immigration was turned northward into Spain, and then commenced the brightest page of Arab history, the Moslem dominion in the Peninsula. But the people who conquered Spain were Berbers, not Arabs, although their leaders had often adopted Arabic names along with an Arab religion and Arab culture. The Arabic language was, indeed, official, but by no means general; nor is it otherwise to-day. The men who fought and the men who ruled were Berbers out and out, though the latter were often the sons of Arab fathers or mothers, and the great religious chiefs were purely Arab on the father's side, at least, the majority claiming descent from Mohammed himself, and as such forming a class apart of shereefs, or nobles.
The Arabs had solved the Berber problem for the moment. They were the amalgam which, by coalescing with the scattered factions of their race, had bound them up together and had formed for once a nation of them. Thus it was that the Moslem armies obtained the force to carry all before them, and thus was provided the new blood and the active temper to which alone is due the greatness of Moslem Spain.
Nevertheless, the great mass of the Berber race is still undominated. Though nominal Mohammedans, and in Morocco acknowledging the religious supremacy of the reigning Sherrefian family, they still retain their independence to a great extent; and every year the Sultan wages war with one tribe or another of his "subjects." The mountains of the Atlas chain have always been their home and refuge, where the plainsmen find it difficult and perilous to follow them. The history of the conquest of Algeria and Tunisia by the French has shown that they are no mean opponents even to modern weapons and modern warfare. The Kabyles, as they are commonly styled in these countries, have still to be kept in check by the fear of arms, and their prowess no one disputes.
Separated from the Arab as well as from the European by a totally distinct, unwritten language, with countless dialects, these people still exist as a mine of raw material, full of possibilities. It is more than probable that they are one with the ancient Egyptians, and they were no Barbarians, if Berbers. In habits and style of life they may even be considered uncivilized by the mingled dwellers on the lowlands; but they are very far from savages. Their stalwart frames and sturdy independence fit them for anything, though the latter quality keeps them aloof, and has so far prevented their intercourse with the outside world.
Ethnologists will have it that some of the finest stocks of southern and western Europe are of kindred origin with these Berbers, if not identical with them, and even if this be uncertain, enough has been said to show that they have played no unimportant part in European history, though it has ever been their lot to play behind the scenes—scene shifters rather than actors. Who can say that in Morocco at least they may not yet rise to something of their old position? In the adjoining States they are under French and Turkish rule, but in Morocco they are all but free, and acknowledge their own sultan when they wish.
It has long been felt by many that this race is far more open to gospel effort than the Arabs and mixed races by their side; but as yet they are hardly touched, and that only by one or two missionaries in Algeria. The Scriptures are only partially translated into two or three of their dialects, and very few Europeans of any sort can speak them. The very qualities which have brought about their past history and present condition mark them as men of character, and as such they should make the better Christians.