Restricted A rea.
 

CHAPTER   THE  SEVENTH

THE   STAGNATION   OF   EMPIRE

(SAADI  PERIOD)
1524-1668

THE epoch of Empire had passed.    Spain had been
for   ever   lost   to   the   world   of   Islam.     To   the
eastward   had   arisen   a  seaport,   beautiful   in
situation, which was to become the capital of
a  new   State,  and   to  impart  its   name  to  the  Central
Maghrib—now Algeria.*    Within  a few years this new
, State annexed the intervening kingdom of Tlemgen, thus
effectually hemming in the Moors on that side also.

True it was that to the South there stretched a gold-
producing land, the " Country of the Blacks,'' the Sudan,
veritably '' El Dorado." Yet between it and Morocco lay
the rolling Sahara, more awful even than the sea itself
In this direction only, since the fifteenth century, the Moors
have turned their thoughts when eager for a wider sway.
But though on two occasions they have piloted successful
expeditions to Timbuctoo, they have never retained
possession of more than what at present constitutes their
Empire, if it any longer deserves that name. Since the
fall of the Beni Marin it has only included the kingdoms

* The English corruption *'Algiers" represents the Arab name ''El Jazair,"
or "The Peninsulas," recalling its natural harbour. Algeciras, 2.^., El Jazira,
is distinguished by native writers as Jazirat el Khadra, " The Green Island."

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