Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/88





FEZZAN.

OLITICALLY Fezzan belongs to the Turkish province of Tripolitana; by its position to the south of the Jebel-es-Soda, as well as its climate, it forms part of the zone of the Sahara; by its prevailing Negro population it depends more even on the region of Sudan than on that of North Africa. At the same time, the relative large extent of its oases, and their easy access by the routes from Tripoli, constitute it an intermediate region between the seaboard and the Sahara. In former times the Roman occupation had attached this territory of "Phazania" to the Mediterranean world. They were succeeded by the Arabs, who arrived as conquerors during the first half century of the Hegira. Then came the Turks, heirs of Rome through Constantinople, whose authority was finally established early in the present century after a long series of wars, promoted not by a love of freedom on the part of the inhabitants, but by the rival ambitions of families aiming at the sovereign power.

At present the products of Europe are introduced to a large extent through Fezzan into the heart of the continent, and thus is gradually brought about the work of assimilation between its various races. But whatever importance it may possess as the commercial gateway to Central Africa, Fezzan counts for little in respect of population, which, according to Nachtigal's detailed statistical statement, amounts at most to forty-three thousand, and to thirty-seven thousand only if we exclude the inhabitants of the oases lying north of the watershed. Even accepting Rohlfs higher estimate of two hundred thousand for the whole region, the proportion would be considerably less than two persons to the square mile; for within its natural limits between the Black Mountains to the north, the spurs of the Jebel Ahaggar to the west, the advanced escarpments of Tibesti to the south, and the Libyan desert to the east, Fezzan has a superficial area of at least 120,000 square miles. But the administrative circumscription of Fezzan is far more extensive, as it includes, north of the Black Mountains, the oases of Zella and Jofra, and all the lands draining to the Mediterranean as far as Bu-Njeim.

During the last hundred years, Fezzan has been visited by many European travellers. In 1798, Ilornemann, one of the missionaries sent by the African Exploration Society, traversed both the Black and the White Harûj by, a track