VII. Tunisia

Route Page

Geographical and Historical Sketch. Preliminary Notes

51. From (Constantine, Bona) Souk-Ahras to Tunis

Thuburnica, 325.—Simitthu. From Souk el-Arba, through the Kroumirie, to Tabarca, 326.—From Pont-de-Trajan to Béja. From Béja to Tabarca. Chaouach, 328.

52. Tunis

a. The New Town, 333.—b. The Old Town (Djamâa ez-Zitouna, Souks, Dâr el-Bey, Kasba, Mosque of Sidi Mahrez), 334.—c. Environs (Jardin du Belvédère, the Manoubia Hill, the Bardo, etc.), 338.

53. Carthage

Jebel Khaoui, 351.

54. From Tunis to Bizerta

Ferryville. Barrage des Pêcheries, 352.—From Tunis to Bizerta by road (Utica, Porto-Farina), 353.

55. From Tunis to Dougga (Le Kef)

Henchir Maâtria (Numluli), 355.—From Medjez el-Bab to Le Kef, 357.

56. From Tunis to Le Kef and Kalaâ-Djerda

From Bir-Kassa to La Laverie, 358.—From Smindja to Zaghouan. From Tunis to Zaghouan by road. Jebel Zaghouan, 359.—Maktar, 360.—Kalaât es-Senam. Haidra. From Kalaâ-Djerda to Kasserine viâ Thala, 362.

57. From Tunis to Susa

Jebel Bou-Kornin, 363.—From Fondouk Djedid to Menzel Bou-Zelfa. From Soliman to Korbous. From Bir Bou-Rekba to Nabeul, 364.—Takrouna. Hergla, 365.—From Susa to Mehdia viâ Moknine, 369.—Chebba, 370.

58. From Susa to Kairwan

From Aïn-Ghrasesia to Metlaoui (Sbeïtla, Kasserine, Thelepte, Feriana), 370.

59. From Susa to Sfax

60. From Sfax to Metlaoui viâ Gafsa

From Gafsa to El-Guettar, 385.—Gorges du Seldja, 386.

61. From Metlaoui to the Djerid

The Djerid, 386.—Kebilli. El-Hamma, 388.

62. From (Sfax) Graïba to Djerba viâ Gabes and Médenine

The Monts des Ksour, 390.—Tatahouine, 391.—The Island of Djerba, 393.

Tunisia, the eastmost part of the Maghreb (p. ), a territory of about 50,000 sq. M., has a population of ca. 1½–2 millions, the great majority being Mohammedans (Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Kuluglis, and negroes). Of the remainder about 60,000 are Jews (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. ), and 4800 other Europeans. The coast, about 620 M. long, extends from Cape Roux (p. ) to Râs Adjir (p. ).

The abrupt coast of the Tell Atlas (p. ), which stretches from the Fedja Grandpré (3783 ft.) on the Algerian frontier to Cape Blanc (p. ), and comprises the wooded hill-country of the Kroumirie, the Nefza and Mogod Mts., and several ranges of lower heights, is broken by the small coast-plain of Tabarca alone. The dunes to the E. of Bizerta, rising to 1033 ft., the greatest range of sand-hills on the Mediterranean, separate the Lake of Bizerta from the Gulf of Tunis (p. xxx), into which fall the Medjerda and the Oued Miliane, the two chief rivers of the country, forming a number of lagoons and tongues of land at their mouths.

The Algerian Sahara Atlas (p. ) extends to the N.E. from Jebel Bou Roumane (5250 ft.) and Jebel Zebissa (4167 ft.) near Tebessa (p. ) to Cape Bon (p. ), broken by stony plateaux (Hammada, Kalaâ, Dyr), and finally descends abruptly to the sea. Its most important peaks in Tunisia are Jebel Chambi (5217 ft.), Jebel Bireno (4655 ft.), Jebel Rekaba (or Râs Ali Bou-Mouzine, 4987 ft.), Jebel Serd (4511 ft.), and, beyond the deep depression of Jebel Faroua (2362 ft.), Jebel Zaghouan (4249 ft.), which last is the most striking landmark for mariners in all Tunisia. The S. slope of the Sahara Atlas is remarkable for its terraced formation due to the action of water. The whole country consists mainly of great basins with floors of clay or sand of recent origin, separated from each other by elliptically shaped hills of more solid rock, chiefly of chalk formation. The Oued Hathob (pp. , 370) flows through no fewer than six basins of the kind.

From the Gulf of Hammamet, on the S. margin of the peninsula of Cape Bon, to the Lesser Syrtis, now the Gulf of Gabes, extends an alluvial plain of marine formation. This steppe-like tract, with its large fresh-water lake (Lac de Kelbia, p. ) and many salt-marshes (Sebkha, comp. p. ), is thinly peopled by nomads only, except on the strip of coast, with its lagoons, flanking the Sahel. To the W. of the Gulf of Gabes lies the region, 250 M. long, of the Shotts (Chotts el-Fedjedj, Djerid, and Rharsa), belonging to the great Bassin du Melrir (p. ); it forms the N. fringe of the desert, lying largely below the sea-level, and contains the finest palm-oases in Barbary. The transition from the shotts to the highlands of Tripoli is formed by Jebel Tebaga (1608 ft.), and by the Monts des Ksour (2460 ft.), famed ever since the time of Herodotus for their troglodytes or cave-dwellers, and bounded on the S.W. by the Erg Oriental (p. ).

Tunisia, unlike its neighbour Algeria, which is shut in all round by high mountains, covered with snow in winter, opens due E. upon the Mediterranean and enjoys a mild winter climate, but in summer and autumn is directly exposed to the sirocco (Arabic samûm), the burning wind from inland Africa, which is hotter and drier here than in Algeria. The mean temperature of January is at Tunis 51° Fahr. (minimum 28½°), at Aïn-Draham 42½° (min. 9½°), at Le Kef 45° (min. 23°), at Kairwan and Tozeur 50° (min. 25°), at Djerba 54½° (min. 35½°). The mean temperature of August at Tunis is 81° (maximum 122°), at Kairwan 85° (max. 120°), at Djerba 81° (max. 115°), and at Tozeur reaches 91° (max. 120°). The greatest rainfall in N. Africa is in the region of the Kroumirie (65 inches per annum at Aïn-Draham); to the S. of the Medjerda it decreases to 20–24 inches (at Le Kef 21½ in.); it is still lower at Tunis (17¾ in.), on the E. coast (Susa 16½, Sfax 9¾ in.), and particularly in the district of the shotts (at Tozeur 5 in.). The rain falls in short, torrential showers; owing to the destruction of the forests and the paucity of reservoirs the water rushes down unhindered to the salt-lakes and the sea, inundating the plains on its way. A few hours after each shower the thirsty soil is as dry as before, but the devastation caused by erosion is aggravated.

The fauna and flora are almost identical with those of Algeria (p. ). The chief products of Tunisia are the tanner’s bark and cork of the Kroumirie, early vegetables from the environs of Tunis, cereals from the Medjerda valley and from the dales of the Sahara Atlas (here horse and cattle breeding also thrive), alfa or esparto grass (p. ), olive-oil from the Sahel and from Sfax, and dates from the oases of the Sahara. Fish abound on the coast and the sponge fishery also is productive, while the coral-fishing has sunk into complete insignificance. The principal ores worked here are zinc, lead, iron, and copper. At Kalaât es-Senam, Kalaâ-Djerda, Metlaoui, Redeyef, and Aïn-Moularès there are immense deposits of phosphate, the yield of which has rapidly increased the traffic of Tunis and Sfax, and is expected greatly to augment that of Susa after the completion of its harbour.

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. The contiguous region of Numidia was first opened up to Punic culture by Masinissa (B.C. 201–149), the most distinguished of the ancient Berber kings.

The Roman republican period was unfavourable for the development of the new province of Africa. The chief events were the war with Jugurtha (111–106), the grandson of Masinissa, and the battles between Pompey, whose adherents were aided by Juba I., and Cæsar, which, after the battle of Thapsus (p. ), led to the annexation of Numidia as the province of Africa Nova. 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. ), Tripolitania, and even the distant Mauretania Tingitana (p. ), and numerous towns were founded in the interior of Tunisia and Numidia. But soon (about 238) a period of decline set in. Its causes were manifold. The Berbers were constantly rebelling, the Roman soldiers quarrelled, advancing Christianity and expiring paganism were struggling fiercely for the mastery, and the Christians, at length victorious, persecuted with the greatest ferocity. To add to these troubles, the terrible peasant-war of the so-called Circumcelliones broke out in the 4th cent., followed in the 4th and 5th cent. by the religious wars between Catholics and Donatists.

Once more, however, the ancient glory of Tunisia revived, though for but a brief period (439–77), under Genseric, the Arian king of the Vandals. After he had completed his victorious expedition from S. Spain to Carthage (429–39) he proceeded, in alliance with the Donatist Berbers and with the still Punic speaking inhabitants of the coast, to attack the effete western empire. With his newly formed fleet he conquered Sicily (440), Rome (455), Tripolitania, Malta (456), and Sardinia (458), and in 476, after the overthrow of the W. Roman empire, was recognized by Zeno, the E. Roman emperor, as lord of the whole western Mediterranean. But the incompetence and intolerance of his successors soon shattered this new empire, and in 533 king Gelimer was defeated by Justinian’s able general Belisarius. Even in Justinian’s time, however, the new rulers were incessantly attacked by the Berbers of the mountains, while the Byzantine governors (534–698) persecuted Donatists and Arians alike, with the result, according to Procopius’s estimate, that five millions of the inhabitants of N. Africa perished. The fate of the country was thus sealed and its conquest by Islam greatly facilitated.

After eight successive campaigns (647–98) the first Arabian governors (representing the caliphs), Abdallah ibn Saâd, Moauya ibn Hodeij, Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi (founder of Kairwan, p. ), Zoheir ibn Kaïs, and Hassan ibn en-Nôman (destroyer of Carthage, p. ), drove the Byzantines out of ‘Ifrikia’ and overcame the desperate resistance of the Berber mountaineers, thus sweeping Christianity from African soil and destroying the last vestiges of Punic and Roman culture. Ere long, however, their ineradicable love of independence led the Berbers, who after the conquest of Andalusia (p. ) had formed the sect of the Kharijites and later that of the Shiites, to unite in opposing the orthodox Arabs and to found (about 740) several small states of their own, such as that of the Ibadites in Tiaret (p. ) and that of the Sofrites in Sijilmassa (Tafilet, p. ). In Tunisia the Aglabides (800–909), a Berber dynasty, who were originally governors under Hârûn er-Rashid, declared themselves independent, and in 827 they proceeded to conquer Sicily. Under the Fatimites, who also were Berbers, the seat of government was transferred in 916 from Kairwan to Mehdia (p. ), and in 973, after the conquest of Egypt, it was removed to Cairo (comp. p. ). The revolt of the Zirites, a new dynasty of Tunisian governors, named after Bologgîn ez-Ziri, led in 1045 to the fateful irruption of the Beni Hilal (Hilalides) and Beni Soleïm, two marauding tribes of nomadic Arabs. At the instigation of the Fatimites they overran Barbary like a swarm of locusts, defeated the allied Zirites and Hammadites (p. ), destroyed Kairwan and many other towns, demolished most of the forests and the irrigation-works, and drove the Berbers back to their mountains. After a time the Zirites partly succeeded in subduing these hordes, but in 1148 the whole of the Sahel with its capital Mehdia was wrested from them by the Normans of Sicily (p. ). In 1160 the Normans were expelled by Abd el-Mûmen (p. ), and Tunisia was incorporated with the great empire of the Almohades. At length, under the Hafsides (1206–1573), Tunisia regained independence, with Tunis as the capital. Towards the end of this period troubles began anew. After interminable wars with the Merinides (p. ) Tunis was captured by Kheireddin (p. ) in 1534, and was attacked, though without permanent success, by the crusading Maltese knights (p. ), by Emp. Charles V. (in 1535), by Juan de Vega (1551), and by Don John of Austria (1573). From 1574 to 1650 Tunisia was governed by Turkish officials (pashas, deys, beys), after which the dynasty of the Husseinites was founded by Hussein Ali ben-Turki. From 1705 onwards Tunisia, often only a nominal dependency of Turkey, degenerated into a mere pirate-state, which down to 1830 took an active part in the marauding expeditions of its barbaresque Algerian neighbours.

Since 1881 the French protectorate has paved the way for a new period of prosperity and opened up the greatly impoverished and thinly peopled country to European trade and culture. The present bey is Sidi Mohammed en-Nasr (born in 1855). The minister for foreign affairs is the French resident-general, and the minister of war is the commandant of the French garrison. Finance, postal arrangements, public works, and education are all superintended by French officials, with whom are associated a Mohammedan prime minister and a secretary of state. Europeans and their dependents are under the jurisdiction of the French law-courts; the natives are dealt with by the courts of the Ouzara and the ‘Shaâra’. The bey is allowed a body-guard of 600 men of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, uniformed like the Zouaves.

Lovers of art will find Tunisia a most attractive country. As in Algeria and Morocco, so here also the megalithic monuments (dolmens, basinas, etc.), built of huge blocks of stone, are the chief memorials of the Libyan (or ancient Berber) culture. The Punic art of Tunisia, at first under Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek influence, but exclusively Greek after the first campaigns in Sicily, has become better known of late, especially since the rich yield of the rock-tombs of Carthage. Apart from the tomb at Dougga (p. ), as little of Punic architecture remains as in Algeria. On the other hand no other country can boast of such a profusion of Roman ruins (called by the Mohammedans Henshir) as Tunisia.

The early Moorish art of Tunisia, as in the whole of the Maghreb, betrays the influence of Andalusian masters, but most of the buildings are no earlier than the Turkish period. Contrary to their Algerian methods the French have preserved the Oriental character of the country, so that the seaports of the E. coast, Kairwan, and the oasis villages still contain fine Moorish buildings.

Travellers may explore any part of the country in safety and without escort, but they should not enter Mohammedan burial-grounds or shrines (comp. p. xxv). The only mosques and zaouïas open to Christians (but not to Jews) are those of Le Kef, Kairwan, Gafsa, and Tozeur.

The means of communication are similar to those in Algeria (comp. p. ). The network of Railways, mostly belonging to the company of the Chemins de Fer de Bône-Guelma (p. ), extends to central Tunisia only. Between Susa and Sfax (until the opening of the new railway) and between Sfax or Graïba and Gabes the motor-omnibus or the diligence (p. ) is at present the only conveyance. The shotts are visited by carriage from Metlaoui, or, if preferred, from Gabes. A visit to S.E. Tunisia (Monts des Ksour, Gightis, Djerba) is usually paid from Gabes, where introductions had better be obtained from the authorities of the Territoire Militaire. Susa, Sfax, Gabes, and Djerba are also steamboat-stations (comp. R. 64). In Tunisia mid-European time (1 hr. ahead of Greenwich time), which is observed also on the Italian steamers, has recently been introduced.

First-class Hotels are to be found in Tunis only. Those in country places are similar to the Algerian (p. ), but still plainer and less up to date, apart from a few creditable exceptions. In the steppe and on the Sahara one must often have recourse to the fortified caravanserai or to the hospitality of the local authorities.

The Post Office of the regency of Tunis has its own stamps (letter-postage within Tunisia or to France 10, to Italy 20 c. etc.; post-cards 5 c.). A passport visé by the consul must be shown in order to obtain delivery of registered letters.

The Coinage, since the introduction of the gold standard (1891), has been French, with Arabic and French inscriptions. The gold coins are of 10 and 20 francs, the silver of ½, 1, and 2 francs, the copper of 5 and 10 centimes. Italian, Swiss, Belgian, and Greek silver coins (except 5 fr. pieces) and copper coins are rejected. English or American money should be exchanged for banknotes of the Banque de France or the Banque de l’Algérie (p. ), or for gold of the Latin monetary union.

Books (comp. also pp. xii, 175). Douglas Sladen, Carthage and Tunis (2 vols., London, 1906; illus.); Frances E. Nesbitt, Algeria and Tunis (London, 1906; illus.); G. Petrie, Tunis, Kairouan, and Carthage (New York, 1909; $4.80); A. M. Broadley’s ‘Tunis, Past and Present’ (London, 1882) gives an interesting account of the French conquest of Tunisia. Of French books may be mentioned La Tunisie (Législation, Gouvernement, Administration) by D. Gaudiani et P. Thiaucourt (Paris, 1910; 12½ fr.); H. Lorin, L’Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1908); J. Toutain, Les Cités Romaines de la Tunisie (Paris, 1896; 12½ fr.); R. Cagnat et H. Saladin, Voyage en Tunisie (Paris, 1887); R. Cagnat, L’Armée Romaine d’Afrique (Paris, 1892; 40 fr.); Charles Diehl, L’Afrique Byzantine (Paris, 1896; 20 fr.); H. Saladin, Tunis et Kairouan (Paris, 1908; 4 fr.). Carthage is the scene of Gust. Flaubert’s historical novel Salammbô.

Maps of the Service Géographique de l’Armée (comp. p. ): sheets on the scale of 1 : 50,000, each 1½ fr.; on the scale of 1 : 100,000, each 1 fr. 20 c.; and on the scale of 1 : 200,000, each 70 c.—A general survey is afforded by the Carte des Routes et des Chemins de Fer de la Tunisie, 1 : 500,000 (Tunis, 1908). See also Map, p. .