This week, we conclude the history and description of Algiers provided by Father Pierre Dan, the French Trinitarian friar, in his celebrated book, Histoire de Barbarie (History of Barbary), taken from the second edition, published in 1649, and translated into English here for the first time.
Last week, Father Dan detailed some of the various sources of revenue that supported the City of Algiers. This week he completes the list by describing how the Algerine authorities collected taxes from the tribal communities that lived in the hinterland surrounding the city.
Like last week’s, this week’s excerpt includes details that need some background explanation. I’ve added those explanations in footnotes.
The rest of income that the city of Algiers derives is taken in lismes,[1] that is to say, on the tailles,[2] and on the contribution that is made in the country by the Moors and the Arabs, though this is more uncertain than certain, and this collection is never accomplished without great difficulty. They have no tax collectors in the hinterland surrounding the city, but even if they had, they would still have to send an army out on foot. Here is how they proceed.
Every year, Algiers fields three companies of janissaries, each of which consists of two or three hundred men; they increase these more or less as they see the need requires. They send these mobile troop units out, one to Tremecen, one on the other side to Bône and Constantine, and the third to the south, to the land of the Negroes, far into the desert. This trip is the most difficult of all, for it takes seven or eight months.
Each of these troops is governed by an Aga, or by a Captain General, under whose command these well-armed soldiers travel across the country and to the douars to collect the tax levy from the Arabs, who usually pay only when coerced by force. As Algiers is a kingdom of debauchery, tyranny, and impiety, those who govern there are only very grudgingly recognized by the Arabs and the Moors who are their subjects. Knowing roughly when these harsh taskmasters will visit, the Arabs and the Moors break their camps before the soldiers arrive and retreat into the mountains, carrying their tents and taking their cattle and all else they have with them. The advantage of such places makes them hope they can be exempt from the tax levy, unless the janissary troops force them to pay.
It is because of this that the janissary rounds are always made during the harvest season, during which time the troops who are searching will demand contributions from each douar they believe to be wealthy enough and populated enough. If they cannot get money, they seize the required amount in cattle or wheat, and sometimes they even take children.
Now this is indeed a very strange wonder, that one of these janissary troops, usually composed of only about three hundred men, can so easily overcome these Arabs and Moors, though they come together sometimes in gatherings of up to seven or eight thousand, with their usual weapons, which are the spear and the scimitar. This shows clearly the lack of skill and confidence these local people have. It is, however, true that the janissaries charged with collecting such taxes are all experienced men who have good muskets and other firearms, which they know very well how to use.
The Scribe of the Divan, who is like the Secretary of State, usually organizes these janissary troops. It is the duty of his office to set the order of these excursions. He has a list in his possession of all soldiers who are paid in the militia [i.e., the janissaries]. With this list, he creates a complete record, entering each according to the rank of his service and the time that has elapsed since he has made this journey, as each is obliged to do, by turns, on pain of being stricken from the payroll. Although they are all foot soldiers, most of the time they are allowed to have a horse if they wish.
As for the order among these militia troops, they are so good and so well regulated that there are no scoundrels among them and very few useless mouths. Some have slaves, but these are only the leaders, who are permitted to bring slaves to tend their horses and stand guard.
The day before they leave Algiers, the janissaries assemble outside the city, where they camp in tents. For every ten men there is a Boulouc Bâchi, or Oda Bâchi,[3] commanding the soldiers and serving as militia officers, and a cook provided by the Divan, who carefully prepares food for these leaders. The soldiers usually have a bread ration, with some oil and vinegar, or rice, or couscous. If they want to have meat and other such eatables, they must buy them with their own money. But they can do this without any great expense, for they know only too well the art of abusing these Moors, or, rather, of stealing when they can.
Once the tax levy has been completed, the janissary troops return to Algiers, where they report in full to the Divan on the money they received.
The greatest benefit for the soldiers who return from these arduous journeys is the ostrich feathers they bring back, especially those who come from the deserts southwards, where there are quantities of such feathers, which they can sell at a profit upon their return. These feathers are a commodity that can be loaded and transported with very little difficulty.
[1] The French (operating out of Marseilles) had been profitably harvesting coral off the Algerian coast since the middle of the sixteenth century and had established a trade center named Bastion de France, just east of Bône (modern Annaba). They paid for the privilege, however. That payment was known as the lisme. It is said that in 1628, under Cardinal Richelieu, the French paid 8,000 écu (1 écu = 3 livres) to the Pasha of Algiers for the right to harvest coral. In 1637, an attack organized by Ali Bitchinin, Grand Admiral of Algiers, destroyed Bastion de France. It took half a century for the coral trade to resume. Father Dan seems to be using the term “lisme” here in a more generic sense to mean any sort of tax levy.
[2] The “taille” was a French land tax (levied against non-nobles). I have retained the word from the French text. Father Dan is using a term here that would have been familiar to his readers, but that applies only figuratively the Algiers taxation system.
[3] A “Boulouc Bâchi” (Turkish Bolukbasï) was the equivalent of a Captain. An “Oda Bâchi” (Turkish Odabasï) was the equivalent of a Lieutenant. Father Dan’s estimate that such officers commanded contingents of only ten men seems implausible.
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The chapter in Histoire de Barbarie translated here (Livre Second, Chapitre Premier, Section vii. – Description du royaume d’Alger, & de l’état où il est a présent) ends quite abruptly with the above mention of ostrich feathers. The following chapter deals with Algiers itself, its physical layout and structures, its governing bodies, etc.
I’ll post a translation of that chapter in the near future. For now, though, I reckon it’s time to leave Father Dan and move on. Next week’s post will be something entirely different.
The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
The story of the Barbary corsair raid on Iceland in 1627
Amazon listing