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DePaul University Special Collections and Archives

The Barbary as the "Other"

PierreDan.jpg

An illustration in Dan's Histoire de Barbarie demonstrating different tortures supposedly employed by Barbary inhabitants against Christian slaves

The "Savage Barbarian"

This stunning illustration is titled [trans.] “An unavoidable image, in which is represented various torments, done by the Turks, and those of the Barbary, to persecuted, and cruelly killed Christian Slaves”. There is a strong parallel here between the persecution of early Christians, and the plight of the Christian captives in the Barbary Coast.

The author, Pierre Dan, was a theologian, historian and Trinitarian priest who produced this major work on the North African Coast kingdoms of the 17th century. The six sections that compose the volume cover the kingdoms’ government, mores, and faith, but also their brigandage and aggression toward Christian captives. It opens with a letter to the King, in which Dan implores his sovereign to assist the captive Christians.

Yet, one may point out that Dan’s argument loses some of its poignancy considering that the French kept their slaves under deplorable conditions, too. Moreover, it was not unheard of for Christian corsairs to capture and sell other Christians to the Barbary slave markets. While Trinitarians like Dan were very much focused on the task of ransoming Christians out of slavery, the Congregation of the Mission—and Saint Vincent de Paul personally—were also involved in this complex enterprise that mixed together geopolitics, diplomacy, religion, ethics, finance, and entrepreneurship.

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Another illustration showing the supposed brutal nature of North Aftrican Muslims, this one from from Drake's New Universal Collection...

Edward Cavendish Drake's 18th century collection of travel narratives brings together many accounts of travel and adventure, “the whole forming a History of whatever is most worthy of notice in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America,” according to the introduction. This illustration bears the caption “Mulay Abdallah, Emperor of Morocco, ordering the massacre of 395 of his own subjects in the presence of English slaves…” and accompanies the first of two Barbary slave narratives found within the volume.

A common theme found in these narratives and illustrated here is that of the harsh nature of the ruler’s justice in North Africa. The first tells of the fate of the crew of the British privateer Inspector, which ran aground in Tangiers in 1746. The second narrates the “sufferings” of the crew of the HMS Litchfield, captured in 1758. In this case, the nature of the two ships provides additional context. While the Litchfield was a naval vessel of the British Crown, the Inspector held a letter of marque from the Crown, which gave its attacks against Barbary ships and ports legal cover and kept it one level of above piracy. While both these accounts date from a century past St. Vincent’s death, they provide evidence of the continuing imprisonment and occasional ransom of captives which was so common in his lifetime.

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A page from the Atlas Historique that attempts to inform the reader about Morocco and its inhabitants

European Views of the Barbary

This classic composition of text and images to the left is typical of the format of Henri Chatelain's Atlas Historique. The scaffolding for the engravings and the text is shaped as a baroque altarpiece. The centerpiece is a map of North Africa—labeled La Barbarie—which is somewhat misleading. The narrative directly below it, however, solves the problem. “This little map represents a great extent of land along the Mediterranean Sea. Next to Egypt the Barbary is the most populous region in all of Africa, thanks to its considerable commerce and the fertility of its soil. The King of Fez and of Morocco possesses the lands to the West. The Spanish, the Portuguese, and the English occupy some places along the coast. Salé, Tebian, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Barca are cities of Corsaires…”

The narrative continues by describing the climate, the different crops cultivated in each season, and by enumerating the commodities that the region exports (horses, wheat, leather goods, and coral of three types: red, black, and white). Great attention is placed in describing the marriage and funeral practices of the region’s inhabitants, while four of the graphical vignettes depict the manner of dress. The upper left vignette depicts a manner of torture of criminals—moralizing on the appropriateness of harsh punishment of criminals, or another orientalist moment?

VueDeTunisD'Alger.jpg

Another example of a French attempt to exoticize North Africa

Vincent de Paul and the Congregation of the Mission were very interested in North Africa and not only because of the plight of Christian captives. France had comparatively good relations with the Ottoman Empire, and French commercial interests, alongside spiritual ones, depended on the good offices of royal representatives, or as was the case with the Congregation, those who served French interests writ large.

The Atlas Historique was created for the growing moneyed classes of Europe. As empires grew and new commodities, artifacts, and stories became part of 17th and 18th century private and civic lives, the illustrated atlas served as a touchstone. Elaborate displays of city views, exotic animals, and aboriginal peoples were created to satisfy the curiosity of Europeans about the world they were acquiring. Three narratives dedicated to the Algerians, their sea power, and the disposition and structure of their main cities, are surrounded by engravings of Algerian inhabitants, cities, ports and fortifications, funerary customs, and modes of criminal execution. The city views are somewhat impressionistic, but certainly not generic: the barrel-shaped fort protecting the entrance of the port of Tripoli is well known, as is the placement of Tunis behind the lagoon. The desire to exoticize Barbary is unmistakable. The mix of morbidity, cruelty, and splendor anticipate orientalist thinking.