BARBARY, the most northern division of Africa, is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the south by Sahara or the Desert, on the east by Egypt, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Its utmost extent from east to west, from cape Non on the coast of Morocco, to Alexandria on the confines of Egypt, is nearly 40°, (from the 10th W. to the SOth E. Long.) or about 2760 geographical miles. Its .breadth in a direct line from north to south, is very `unequal, and may be variously estimated according to the portion of desert which may happen to be included ; but at the widest parts, it can scarcely be reckoned more than S degrees, or 556 miles, while at the narrowest point it is not above 2 degrees, or 139 miles. It commences on the west, where Mount Atlas approaches the Atlantic, stretches along the coast in a north-east direction to cape Spartel, and thence proceeds with various windings, but chiefly in an easterly course, along the Shores of the Mediter ranean to the city of Alexandria.
Various conjectures have been formed respecting the origin and import of the word Barbary. Some have derived it from the general appellation Barba rians, which the Romans, when they conquered the country, are supposed to have applied, by way of eminence, to the inhabitants of North Africa. Others suppose it to have originated with the Arabian con querors, in whose language " barbar" signifies a mur muring noise, and who are understood to have given this name to the country, because the language of the natives appeared to them at first as merely an in articulate, muttering sound. Others, again, have considered it as nothing more than a repetition of the Arabic term " bar," which signifies a desert ; and as cribe its origin to the following circumstance,—that, when king Ifrick, in his flight from Arabia Felix, was hesitating which course to take, his attendants ex claimed, " bar, bar !" to the desert, to the desert! It has, last of all, been deduced from the word Ber ber or Berebber, signifying barren, a name, which is supposed to have been appropriated to the north A fricans, on account of the barrenness of their soil, and which is still retained by the inhabitants of the moun tainous districts of Barbary. But the word Berebbers denotes also shepherds ; and the shepherd tribes who were expelled from Egypt, are conjectured to have taken refuge in Abyssinia and northern Africa : hence, according to Mr Bruce, Barbary may be equivalent to Barbaria, or Berberia, " the country of the Be rebbers," that is, of the shepherd race.
The ancient history of Barbary will be found more at large under the articles NUAIIDIANS, MAURITA NIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, RO3IANS, and the other na tions by whom, it was formerly inhabited, or to whom it was successively subjected. It is conjectured, with sufficient probability, that this country received its first inhabitants from Egypt,and that it was afterwards co lonized by the Phenicians. By this enterprising peo ple the cities of Utica and Carthage were founded ; and as the Carthaginians increased in wealth and power, they either reduced or rendered tributary most of the other states in the north of Africa. Upon
the fall of Carthage, B. C. 144, the greater part of those provinces of which Barbary now consists, be came subject to the Romans, and continued under their government till the year of Christ 428. About this period, the Vandals under king Genseric began to make incursions from Spain into Africa ; and be fore the year 455, rendered themselves complete mas ters of all that the Romans had possessed in that quarter of the globe. These savage conquerors gave the first fatal blow to the prosperity of northern Africa, and reduced its most flourishing cities to a state of desolation, from which they have never recover ed. The noblest monuments of Roman grandeur were converted into heaps of ruins ; while the mi serable inhabitants were involved in the most relent less persecutions. About the year 550, the power of these barbarous. invaders was completely over thrown by the renowned Belisarius ; and . Barbary remained under the dominion of the Greek emperors, till towards the end of the 7th century, when it was overrun by the resistless arms of the •ahometan Arabs, and formed a part of that vast empire of which the caliphs were the head. Its great distance, however, from the seat of government, encouraged its rulers to assert their independence ; and the caliphs were often obliged to connive at acts of rebellion which they were unable to prevent. In this manner, Barbary was gradually divided into a number of petty kingdoms, continually at war with each other, and continually varying in their extent. It was the scene of many sanguinary revolutions, and was ruled by se veral succeeding dynasties, whose history is very im perfectly known, and scarcely deserving of a particular detail. It continued in this unsettled and neglected state till the beginning of the 16th century, when the rise of the piratical states under the Barbarossas, (Sec ALGIERS and BA RBA ROSSA, ) rendered it at once more formidable and better known to the nations of Eu rope. Since this last mentioned wra it has been fre quently visited by travellers, and described by a great variety of authors; but it must still be considered as a country with which we are very imperfectly ac quainted. This may be ascribed chiefly to the very short and rapid visits which Europeans in general make to this country ; to the superficial knowledge which they possess of the language of the inhabi tants ; to the watchful jealousy with which foreign residents are regarded by the governments ; to the bigotted and bloody antipathy which the natives en tertain towards the subjects of Christian states ; and to the incalculable hazards to which travellers are ex posed from the plundering Arabs, against whose fe rocious cupidity even the authority of the princes can scarcely afford sufficient protection.