emember and emulate
the naval trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their
strength they contended with the decline of an African power. When the
Fatimite caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded the real
merit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a gift of his
royal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace with its sumptuous
furniture, and the government of the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers. The
Zeirides, [103] the descendants of Joseph, forgot their allegiance and
gratitude to a distant benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of
prosperity; and after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty,
were now fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, they
were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco, while
the sea-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and Franks, who,
before the close of the eleventh century, had extorted a ransom of two
hundred thousand pieces of gold. By the first arms of Roger, the island
or rock of Malta, which has been since ennobled by a military and
religious colony, was inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily.
Tripoli, [104] a strong and maritime city, was the next object of his
attack; and the slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females,
might be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves.
The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa from the country, and
Mahadia [105] from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a neck
of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not compensated by the
fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George the
Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply
provided with men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign had
fled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and
irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitants
abandoned the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In
successive expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieutenants reduced
the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the
sea-coast; [106] the fortresses were garrisoned, the country was
tributary, and a boast that it held Africa in subjection might be
inscribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger. [107] After his
death, that sword was broken; and these transmarine possessions
were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign of his
successor. [108] The