BARBARY, Africa, a general name for the most northerly portion of the continent, extend ing about 2,600 miles from Egypt to the Atlan tic, with a breadth varying from about 140 to 550 miles; comprising Morocco, Fez, Algeria, Tunis and Libya (including Tripoli, Barca and Fezzan). Bordered by the Mediterranean on the north, and by the Sahara on the south, the temperature of this region is generally moder ate and remarkably uniform, seldom descend ing to the freezing-point, and seldom coming up to sultry. From March to September is the dry season, when the ground is frequently so parched as to render walking upon it im practicable. From September to March is the wet season, but the rains are moderate, and almost every day affords a respite of sunshine. The soil is fertile, though sandy and light on the coast, the climate healthy, and agricultural productions are various and abundant. The range of production gives a combination of both tropical and temperate fruits. Agricul ture is, nevertheless, greatly neglected, but under European influences has made consider able advance in the present century. For three centuries the inhabitants of the Barbary states rendered themselves the pest of human society by their depredations upon the commerce of the seas until they were finally subdued in the 19th century. See BARBARY POWERS, UNITED STATES TREATIES AND WARS WITH THE.
History.—Anciently, all Africa was com prehended under two divisions— Egypt and Libya— while Libya was subdivided into northern and southern Libya. North Libya comprised mainly what is now known as the Barbary states. Herodo tan says that in his day northern Libya was inhabited by the indigenous race of Libyans and by the foreign Pheenicians and Greeks. These latter settled at various points, from Egypt to Cartilage, while the indigenous Lib yans occupied from the east to the west, throughout the entire extent Of the origin of the Libyans, whom Herodotus calls indigenous, we have no trace. Arabian tradition says they colonized Libya from Yemen. The Phoenicians early settled Carthage (f369 R.c.) and perhaps the still more western coasts of Mauritania,— at least it appears that Carthage was a powerful state at the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. The Cyrenians, who were Greeks, had colonized at Cyrene, just east of the bay of the Mediterra nean called Syrtis Major (Gulf of Sidra), in what is now known as Barca. West of Car thage lay Numidia and Mauritania, even to the Pillars of Hercules; east of Cyrene was Egypt; while between these two foreign colonies stretched the narrow coast line, from the Major to the Minor Syrtis, known as Emporia. The rapidly growing Carthaginian power soon ex tended colonies along the entire coast from the Pillars of Hercules to Grecian Cyrene. The jealousy of Rome was not long in being awalc ened against so threatening a rival. The history of the Punic wars is well known. At the end of 117 years the Carthaginian power was extinguished, Carthage herself in ruins, and Africa a Roman province from Mauritania to Cyrenaica. The more complete subjugation of Numidia was accomplished in the Jugurthine War, and that of Mauritania in the reign of Claudius. Thus the territory of the Barbary
states, from independent native sovereignties and foreign colonies, had come into the hands of Rome. About 400 A.D. several Teutonic tribes, overrunning Gaul and crossing the Pyrenees, settled in Spain. When, in 4213, Boniface revolted against Honorius, the Van dals crossed the Freturn Gaditantun into Africa, led by Genseric, drove out the inhabitants, utterly expelled the Roman power from upper Libya, and reigned 100 years. Then came the struggle under Justinian for the re-establish ment of the Roman ascendency. By Belisarius it was conducted to a successful issue, and northern Africa was united to the Eastern em pire. For over 300 years this relation continued until about the middle of the 7th century; the Saracens overran Numidia and Mauritania to the Atlantic, and, notwithstanding the disas trous death of their leader Okba, the sceptre of upper Libya passed again from the hands of Rome into that of Arabia. Fifty years later the conquests of Musa and Tarik were pushed across the straits, and a Saracenic empire es tablished in Spain. But the revolution which brought the Abbasides to the caliphate of Arabia and drove the only surviving caliph of the Ommiades into Spain prepared the way for the independence of the western colonies, and Africa began to throw off the Saracenic yoke (7138). A succession of fortunes now attended the states of upper Libya. For eight centuries they were alternately tributary and independent, passing from hand to hand, like the stakes of a faro bank, till in the 16th century the two brothers Barbarossa conquered the whole ter ritory of Nnmidia and Carthage, and erected the regencies of Algiers and Tunis. A few years later the Turki4i Sultan, whose supremacy the younger Barbarossa had acicnowledged, erected the pashalie of Tripoli over the ancient Cy renatca, while in the west there was a gradual consolidation of power into the hands of Mo hammed ben Hamid, and his son, who finally established the dynasty of Sherifs in the empire of Morocco, now divided into two protectorates, the district west of Fez under the protection of Spain, and the district east of Fez under the protection of France, while the French erected, between Morocco and the possessions of the Porte, the regency of Algeria. Tripoli came under the sovereignty of Italy in 1912. The religion of the Barbary states is generally Islamism. The European settlers are of course Christians, or Jews, while the blacks, who are slaves, are pagans. There seem to be at present six races or tribes of men inhabiting the Bar bary states: (1) The Moors. (2) The Arabs. (3) The Berbers, who are indigenous, and from whom the states probably received the appella tion Barbary. (4) The Jews. (5) The Turks. (6) The Blacks. The Arabs call the Barbary states Moghreb (west). The language of the people inland differs from that of Arabia and Syna, though not so much as on the coast. See ALGERIA ; BARCA ; FEZZAN ; MOROCCO ; TRIPOLI ; TUNIS. Consult Dumont, P. J., (Thirty-five Years Slavery and Travels in Africa' (London 1819) ; Edwards, A., (The Barbary.Coast) (New York 1913).