The Jews are numerous in the towns and in the villages of the Arabs. In the towns, though much oppressed, and paying large sums as tribute, they have succeeded in monopolising several branches of commerce. Among the Arabs, where they are much better treated, they apply themselves to several mechanical arts and trades. In Tripoli and the large towns they have several synagogues.
The Moors are most numerous in the towns and in tho Meeheea of Tripoli They are either landed proprietors or merchants. As mer chants they are mostly engaged in the kafilas which go to Fezzan and Lornnu. They resemble exactly the Moore of Marocco, but are less Instructed than the Moghrebins, having no colleges, though there are several schools in which the children are taught reading and writing. They are less bigoted than the Arabs.
The number of Turks and Mamelukes has increased since the country has again become dependeut on Constantinople. They are either officers of government or eerve as soldiers. Christians are only found in the town of Tripoli, where they are better treated than in any other place in the Turkish dominions. They are permitted to build churches. The greater part of them are Maltese, but thero are natives of Italy. The black slaves, who are mostly kept by the Moore, are nearly all natives of Swan.
Government.—The bashalic of Tripoli, like the other Barbary states, is a sordid despotism ; and, whether ruled by a Turkish or Moorish chief, is held for the sole purpose of exacting a revenue, without any regard to the wellbeing of the people or the prosperity of the country. A considerable sum was formerly drawn from the plunder obtained by her corsairs, and a very lucrative branch of it was derived from the traffic in European slaves. To supply this deficiency, caused by the abolition of these sources of profit, the country was burdened with monopolies, and the people were ground down with new taxes. The distant beys of Bengazi and Derna, holding their office at the pleasure of the basha, make the most of their uncertain tenure by arbitrary exactions for themselves, as well as to enable them to comply with their master's demands ; while the sheiks of Berea and Seri pay like wise a tribute, in return for which their power is acknowledged in the Desert. Thus the system throughout is one of extortion.
llistory.—The early history of this country will be found under the heads AFRICA, BARBARY, BAROA, and CYRENAICA. After the destruc
tion of Carthage it became a Roman province, and the three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis. and Sabrata, coustituted a kind of federal union under the name of Tripolis. On the conquest of Northern Africa by the Vandals in the 5th century, it passed into the hands of those barbarians, from whom it was rescued in the reign of Justinian, by Belisarius, in 534. About a hundred years afterwards Tripoli, after an obstinate contest, in which the prefect Gregory was slain, the town was forced to yield to the conquering khalifs. After the Arabian conquerors had consolidated their power in Northern Africa, and detached themselves from the khalifs of Egypt, Tripoli wasgenerally governed by the Arabian dynasties settled at [Timis.) It was besieged by the Egyptians in 877 and in 1054. In 1146 it was seized by Roger IL, king of Sicily, who held it however but a short time ; for in 1184 its walls were razed by Yakub, and it followed the political condition of Tunis and was subject to its kings. From this time until its conquest, about 1510, by the Spaniards, Tripoli is scarcely mentioned by historical writers. In 1530 the emperor Charles V. ceded it, with the island of Malta, to the Knights of St. John of Jeru salem, after their expulsion from Rhodes. Its only strength was then a castle, which they engaged to keep and to hold in defence of Christendom; but in 1551 it was wrested from them by Simon Basha, sent to the attack by their inveterate enemy the sultan Solyman, who appointed the famous corsair Dragut (whose forces formed part of the expedition) its first governor ; and about this time its present walls were built, and the tract of country now composing the regency was first made a Turkish pashalie. Tripoli nclw became one of those systematic piratical powers which for centuries attacked the commerce of Christian nations, making slaves of their prisoners. In 1683 the town was bombarded by a French fleet, when the pasha sent an humble submission to Louis XIV. Nevertheless, the Tripolitan cruisers seldom allowed a ship at sea to escape them if they thought they could make a prize of her with impunity ; aud it was not until 1816 that slavery and piracyWere abolished. Previous to the attack in that year on Algiers, a British naval force appeared off Tripoli, and the pasha bound himself to treat all prisoners in future according to the usage of European nations.