luxuriance of the apple, pear and other fruit trees in the neighbourhood.
The Roman town was ruined in the period following
the Vandal invasion, and at the time of the Arab conquest
appears to have been deserted. Many inscriptions of the
Christian era have been found, some as late even as the 7th
century. The site was purchased from the Zenata Berbers, in
the 8th century, by Idris-bin-Abdallah, who began the building
of a new city named Agadir (Berber, the fortress). Idris,
founder of the Idrisite dynasty of Fez, left his brother Suleiman
in possession of Agadir, and the city was ruled by the
Beni-Suleiman until 931, when it fell into the hands of the
Fatimites. From the Fatimites it passed into the possession
of the Beni-Yala, of the Beni-Ifren branch of the Zenata
Berbers, who held it as Vassals of the Omayyad rulers of Spain.
In 1080 the Almoravide sovereign Yusef ibn Tashfin, after
besieging and sacking Agadir, built a new town on the site of
his camp. The new town, called Tagrart, became the commercial
quarter, whilst Agadir remained the royal residence.
The two towns when united received the name of Tlemçen.
The Almoravides reigned sixty-five years, when, after holding
Agadir four years against the enemy, they were overcome by
the Almohades, who massacred the inhabitants, rebuilt, enlarged
and repeopled the ruined town, and built a wall (1161)
surrounding the double town. In 1248 Tlemçen was captured
The Sultanate
of Tlemçen.
by Abu Yahia Yarmorasen (Ghamarasan) who was
chief of the Zenata tribe of Berbers and claimed
descent from the Caliph Ali. Yarmorasen, who died
in 1282, founded the dynasty of the Abd-el-Wahid, who ruled
the greater part of what now constitutes Algeria. Under their
sway Tlemçen flourished exceedingly. The presence of Jews
and Christians was encouraged and the Christians possessed a
church. The bazaar of the Franks (kissaria) was a large
walled enclosure, the gates of which were closed at sunset.
As many as 5000 Christians lived peaceably in Tlemçen, and
the Sultan included in his army a Christian bodyguard. In 1337
the power of the Abd-el-Wahid was temporarily extinguished
by the Marinide Sultans of Morocco. They left some fine monuments
of the period of their ascendancy, which lasted twenty two
years. Once more, under the Abd-el-Wahid, now known
as the Beni-Zeiyan, from 1359 to 1553, Tlemçen enjoyed prosperity.
It had a population reputed to number 125,000, an
extensive trade, a brilliant court and a powerful army. The
Spanish occupation of Oran (1509) struck a fatal blow at the
European commerce of the town. The Beni-Zeiyan, after the
capture of Algiers in 1516 by the corsair Barbarossa (q.v.)
gradually lost their territory to the Turks, while Tlemçen
itself for forty years became tributary to the Spanish governor
of Oran. In 1518 the town was held for a short time by Arouj
Barbarossa, but Arouj was killed in a fight with the Spaniards.
It is said that, while master of the town, Arouj caused twenty two
of the Zeiyan princes to be drowned in the sahrij. In 1553
the Turks under Salah Rais, pasha of Algiers, captured Tlemçen
and the Sultanate of Tagrart, as it was still frequently called,
came to an end. Under the Turks the town ceased to be
of any importance. When the French entered Algeria the
sultans of Morocco were disputing the possession of Tlemçen
with the Kuluglis, who fought first for themselves and afterwards
for France. In 1835 Abd-el-Kader, on whose appearance
the Moors retired, sought to re-establish the ancient
empire of Tlemçen, but he retreated before General Clausel
in 1836. The treaty ef the Tafna (1857) gave Tlemçen
to Abd-el-Kader, but, war being renewed in 1842, Tlemçen
was definitely occupied by the French, under whom it has
prospered.
The commune of Tlemçen, which includes a number of villages near the city, had a population (1906) of 39,757, and the arrondissement, which includes nine communes, 149,467.
See Les Monuments arabes de Tlemçen, by William Marçais and Georges Marçais (Paris, 1903). This accurate and finely-illustrated work, one of the publications of the Service des monuments historiques de l’Algérie, cites the principal works dealing with Tlemçen, and gives a critical estimate of their value. (F. R. C.)
TOAD, a name commonly applied in contradistinction to
"frog," to tailless batrachians of stout build, with more or less
warty skin. Thus, of the two closely related discoglossid genera
Bombinator and Discoglossus, the former is called a toad and
the latter a frog. But the true toads are the Bufonidae. arciferous
batrachians with dilated processes to the sacral vertebra
and without any teeth in the jaws. The type of the family is
our common toad, Bufo vulgaris, and round it cluster a large
of number of species of the same genus, and the smaller genera;
Eupemphix, Pseudophryne, Nectophryne, Nectes, Notaden, Myobatrachus,
Rhynophrynus and Cophophryne. That the shape of
the body is not a safe guide in judging of the batrachians is
shown by certain species, such as Bufo jerboa, which in its slender
form and extremely long limbs surpasses the typical frogs,
while on the other hand, some true frogs (Rana), adapted to
burrowing habits, are absolutely toad-like. The Bufonidae
include terrestrial, burrowing, thoroughly aquatic and arboreal
types; Rhinophrynus, of Mexico, might be described as an ant-
eater.
The genus Bufo embraces about 100 species, and is repre- sented in nearly every part of the world except the Australian region and Madagascar. Two species are found in the British Isles: the common toad, Bufo vulgaris, and the natterjack, Bufo calamita. The former is found almost everywhere; the second, which differs in its shorter limbs with nearly free toes (which are so short that the toad never hops but proceeds in a running gait) and it usually possessing a pale yellow line along the middle of the back, is local in England, the south-west of Scotland, and the west of Ireland; it is further remarkable for the very loud croak of the males, produced by a large vocal bladder on the throat which, when inflated, is larger than the head. Toads lay their eggs in long strings, forming double files in straight jelly-like tubes.
A small toad, Pseudophryne vivipara, recently discovered in German East Africa, has proved to be viviparous, this being the only such instance known among tailless batrachians.
TOADSTOOL, the popular name for fungi which more or less
resemble mushrooms but are either poisonous or worthless as
food.
TOAST, a slice of bread scorched brown on the two surfaces
by the heat of a fire. The word was borrowed from the O. Fr.
toste, Lat. torrere, tostum, to scorch, burn. It was formerly the
custom to have pieces of toast floating in many kinds of liquor,
especially when drunk hot. It is said to be from this custom
that the word is used of the calling upon a company to drink
the health of some person, institution or cause (see Health).
TOBACCO, the name (see below) for the leaves of several
species of Nicotiana (nat. ord. Solanaceae), variously prepared
for use as a narcotic. While it is principally manufactured for
smoking, a large amount is also prepared for chewing, and, to
a more limited extent, it is taken in the form of snuff. Under
one or other of these forms the use of tobacco is more widely
spread than is that of any other narcotic or stimulant.
History.—Although the fact has been controverted, there cannot be a doubt that the knowledge of tobacco and its uses came to the rest of the world from America. In November 1492 a party sent out by Columbus from the vessels of his first expedition to explore the island of Cuba brought back information that they had seen people who carried a lighted firebrand to kindle fire, and perfumed themselves with certain herbs which they carried along with them. The habit of snuff-taking was observed and described by Ramon Pane, a Franciscan who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage (1494–1496), and the practice of tobacco-chewing was first seen by the Spaniards on the coast of South America in 1502. As the continent of America was opened up and explored, it became evident that the consumption of tobacco, especially by smoking, was a universal and immemorial usage, in many cases bound up with the most significant and solemn tribal ceremonies.
The term tobacco appears not to have been a commonly used original name for the plant, and it has come to us from a peculiar instrument used, for inhaling its smoke by the inhabitants of
