As To Military Force, The Emperor's Standing Army Does Not Amount To
More Than 20 Or 30,000 Nigritian Troops, And All Cavalry.
The irregular
and contingent cavalry and infantry can never be depended upon, even
under such a chief as Abd-el-Kader was.
They must always be fed, but
they will not, at any summons, leave the cultivation of their fields, or
their wives and children defenceless.
As to the commerce of the Empire, with fifty ships visiting Mogador and
other maritime cities, the amount, per annum, does not exceed forty
millions of francs, or about a million and a half sterling including
imports and exports. Such is the view of the Empire on the depreciating
side.
Another resident of this country gives the opposite or more favourable
view.
The Sultan is the head of the orthodox religion of the Mussulmen of the
West, and more firmly established on his throne than the Sultan of the
Ottomans. His influence, as a sovereign Shereef, spreads throughout
Western Barbary and Central Africa, wherever there is a Mussulman to be
found. In the event of an enemy appearing in the shape of a Christian,
or Infidel, all would unite, including the most disjointed and hostile
tribes against the common foe of Islamism.
The Sultan, upon an emergency or insurrection in his own empire, by the
politic distribution of titles of _Marabout_ (often used as a species of
degree of D.D.) and other honours attached to the Shereefian Parasol,
can likewise easily excite one chief against another, and consolidate
his power over their intestine divisions. His Moorish Majesty, at any
rate, has always actual possession in his favour; and, whether he really
governs the whole Empire or not, or to the extent which he has presumed
to mark out its boundaries, he can always proclaim to his disjointed
provinces that he does so govern it and exercise authority; and, in
general, he does succeed in making both his own people and foreign
nations believe in his pretensions, and acknowledge his power.
The truth lies, perhaps, between these extremes. The Shereefs once
pretended to exercise authority over all Western Sahara as far as
Timbuctoo, that is to say, all that region of the great desert lying
west of the Touaricks.
The account of the expedition of the Shereef Mohammed, who penetrated as
far as Wadnoun, and which took place more than three centuries ago, as
related by Marmol, leaves no doubt of the ancient ambition of the
sovereign of Morocco. And although this pretension has now been given
up, they still claim sovereignty over the oases of Touat, a month's
journey in the Sahara. Formerly, indeed, the authority of the Maroquine
Sultans over Touat and the south appears to have been more real and
effective.
Diego de Torres relates that, in his time, the Shereefs maintained a
force of ten thousand cavalry in the provinces of Draha, Tafilett and
Jaguriri, and Monsieur Mouette counts Touat as one of the provinces of
the Empire. The Sheikh Haj Kasem, in the itinerary which he dictated to
Monsieur Delaporte, says that, about forty years ago, Agobli and
Taoudeni depended on Morocco. This, however, is what the people of
Ghadames told me, whilst they admitted that the oases neither did
contain a single officer of the Emperor, nor did the people pay his
Shereefian Highness the smallest impost. The Sultan's authority is now
indeed purely nominal, and the French look forward to the time when
these fine and centrally placed oases will form "une dependance de
l'Algerie."
The only countries in the South which now pay a regular impost to the
Emperor, are Tafilett, limited to the valley of Fez, Wad-Draha as far as
the lake Ed-Debaia, and Sous. The countries of Sidi, Hashem, and Wadnoun
nominally acknowledge the Emperor, and occasionally send a present; but
the most mountainous, between Sous and Wad-Draha, which has been called
Guezoula or Gouzoula, and is said to be peopled by a Berber race, sprang
from the ancient Gelulir, is entirely independent. In the north and west
are also many quasi-independent tribes, but still the Emperor keeps up a
sort of authority over them; and, if nothing more, is content simply
with being called their Sultan.
Maroquine Moors call their country El-Gharb, "The West," and sometimes
Mogrel-el-Aksa, that is "The far West:" [8] the name seems to have
originated something in the same way among the Saracenic conquerors, as
the "Far West" with the Anglo-Americans, arising from an apprehensive
feeling of indefinite extent of unexplored country. Among the Moors
generally, Morocco is now often called, "Blad Muley Abd Errahman", or
"Country of the Sultan Muley Abd Errahman." The northwestern portion of
Morocco was first conquered; Morocco Proper, Sous and Tafilett were
added with the progress of conquest. But scarcely a century has elapsed
since their union under one common Sultan, whilst the diverse population
of the four States are solely kept together by the interests and
feelings of a common religion.
The Maroquine Empire, with its present limits, is bounded on the north
by the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar, on the west by
the Atlantic Ocean and the Canary and Madeira Islands, on the south by
the deserts of Noun Draha and the Sahara, on the east by Algeria, the
Atlas, and Tafilett, on the borders of Sahara beyond their eastern
slopes. The greatest length from north to south is about five hundred
miles, with a breadth from east to west varying considerably at an
average of two hundred, containing an available or really _dependent_
territory of some 137,400 square miles, or nearly as large as Spain; and
the whole is situate between the 28 deg. and 40 deg. N. Latitude. Monsieur
Benou, in his "Description Geographique de l'Empire de Maroc" says
Morocco "comprend une superficie d'environ 5,775 myriametres carres, un
peu plus grande, par consequant, que celle de la France, qui equivaut a
5,300." This then is the available and immediate territory of Morocco,
not comprising distant dependencies, where the Shereefs exercise a
precarious or nominal sovereignty.
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