Tripoli (Formerly a province)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

formerly a province of the Ottoman empire; the extreme E. of the Barbary states of north Africa, stretchboth ing along the whole extent of the greater and lesser Syrtes (the gulfs of Cabes and Sidra); bounded on the W. ) by Tunis, on the S. (very vaguely by Fezzan, on the the Libyan Desert and E. if we include the plateau of Barca- Mediterby Egypt, and on the N. by the ranean Sea; area estimated at over 400,- 000 square miles. Pop. about 530,000. Tripoli is less mountainous than the rest of Barbary, for the Atlas range terminates here in a couple of chains running parallel to the coast and never exceedare no ing 4,000 feet in height. There rivers, and rain seldom falls during the long hot summers, but the heavy dew vegetation in favored spots. supports ports The climate is is extremely uncertain. coast region (about 1,100 miles in length) is very fertile about Tripoli and of tropical Mesurata, where all sorts fruits, grain, wine, cotton, madder, etc., are produced; but further E., along the shores of the Gulf of Sidra, reigns sandy desolation. The interior yields senna, dates, and galls, and the carob and lotus are indigenous. Sheep and cattle are reared in great numbers, and there is a hardy breed of small but excellent horses, besides strong and beautiful mules. The commerce of the country consists in exporting, principally to Malta and the Levant, the products of the country and of the interior of Africa (gold dust, ivory, natron, and ostrich feathers), which are brought hither in caravans across the desert. The imports (which consist chiefly of European manufactures) have been declining gradually of late years, owing partly to the new direction which the trade of central Africa is assuming, and partly to the abolition of the slave trade, which of the stopped the demand for many commodities that supported the traffic. From the Phoenicians Tripoli passed into the hands of the rulers of Cyrenaica whom it was wrested by (Barca), from the Carthaginians. It next belonged to the Romans, who included it within the province of Africa, and gave it the name of Regio Syrtica. About the beginning of the 3d century A. D. it became known as the Regio Tripolitana (on account of its three principal cities, Ea, Sabrata, and Leptis, which were leagued together), and was probably raised to the rank of a separate province by Septimius Severus, who was a native of Leptis. Like the rest of north Africa, it was conquered by the Arabs early in the 8th of century, and the feeble Christianity the natives was supplanted by a vigor- Mohammedanism. In ous and fanatical 1510 it was taken by Don Pedro Navarro for Spain, and in 1523 it was assigned to the Knights of St. John, who had lately been expelled by the Ottoman Turks from their stronghold in the Isit with land of Rhodes. The knights kept some trouble till 1551, when they were Turkish compelled to surrender to the admiral Sinan, and Tripoli henceforward joined in the ge general piracy which made the Barbary states the terror of maritime Christendom. In 1714 the ruling pasha, Ahmad Karamanli, assumed the title of bey, and asserted a sort of semiindependence of the Sultan, and this order of things continued under the rule of his descendants, accompanied by the most brazen piracy and blackmailing, till 1835, when the Porte took advantage an intestinal struggle in Tripoli reassert its authority. A new Turkish pasha, with vice-regal powers, was apmade pointed and the state was a vilayet of the Ottoman empire. Italy had long claimed that Tripoli fell within her zone of influence and that she had the right to preserve order within the state. In order to protect her citizens residing in Tripoli from further indignities from the Turkish Government, Italy, on Sept. 29, 1911, declared war against Turkey and announced her intention of annexing Tripoli. On Sept. 30 a force of 40,000 men was sent to occupy the city of Tripoli. On Oct. 1, 1911, a naval battle was fought at Prevesa, European Turkey, and three Turkish vessels were destroyed. By the Treaty of Lausanne Italian sovereignty was acknowledged by Turkey, although re the Caliph was permitted to exercise ligious authority.