History of Algiers | Ottoman Enterprise State


Founded by the Phoenicians in 1200 BC, Algiers was first a trading post called "Icosium", an important part of the many Phoenician colonies in North Africa ("Algiers" Encyclopaedia of the Orient). In myths, Icosium is thought to be the city which was established by 20 friends of the legendary hero Hercules ("Algeria" ArabNet). After the Phoenicians, Algiers (Icosium) was maintained during the Carthaginian era, and it later became part of the Roman empire in 146 BC ("Algeria" ArabNet). Demolished in the 400s by the Vandals, Algiers then became part of the Byzantine empire in 146 BC, was controlled by the Arabs in 650, and, as part of the Berber dynasty the 900s, became a focal point for Mediterranean trade ("Algiers" Encyclopaedia of the Orient). After a short period of time under the on-and-off control of the Hafsids and the Merenids, Algiers became a sanctuary for the Moors, who had been banished from Spain in the 1500s ("Algiers" Encyclopaedia of the Orient ; "Algiers" Britannica Online). Many of these expelled Moors turned to piracy and attacked European, especially Spanish, trading ships, making Algiers a pirate stronghold along the "Barbary (pirate) coast" ("Algeria" ArabNet). In retaliation, Spain took over many ports along the Barbary coast that were known to be centers for piracy and changed them into Spanish forts, including the island in the Bay of Algiers known as Peñon Island ("Algiers" Britannica Online). In doing so, they not only challenged the piracy but also created centers for Christianity ("Algeria" ArabNet). The Muslim people of Algiers turned to the two Turkish pirates, 'Barabossa' and his brother Andruj, to drive the Spaniards away from Algiers ("Barabossa" Britannica Online).

The brothers, Andruj and Khayr ad-Din, who was known as the pirate 'Redbeard' and as 'Barabossa' to Europeans, helped to expel the Spanish presence from Algiers ("Barabossa Britannica Online and "Turkey and Ancient Anatolia" Britannica Online). Khayr ad-Din ultimately gained control of Algiers for the Ottoman sultan Khalif in 1529 using the support of the Ottoman empire and his own pirate navy, the "sea ghazis" ("Algeria" ArabNet and "Turkey and Ancient Anatolia" Britannica Online). Prior to fighting on behalf of the Ottoman empire, he and his brother had planned to gain control in North Africa by making alliances with the Turks and the Muslims who had been expelled from Spain ("Barabossa" Britannica Online). When his brother Aruj was killed by the Spanish in 1518 during the battle at Tlemcen, Khayr ad-Din appealed to the Ottoman sultan Khalif for help because he was afraid of losing his achievements in North Africa to the Spanish without his brother ("North Africa" Britannica Online and "Barabossa" Britannica Online). He was named a beylerbey, the sultan's representative in Algiers, and given military aid by the Ottoman sultan in 1518 ("Barabossa" Britannica Online). Barabossa was given an Ottoman army to help defend the land and built a strong navy for both pirating and protection, especially against the threatening Habsburgs ("Turkey and Ancient Anatolia" Britannica Online). In 1529, Khayr ad-Din expelled the Spanish from Algiers and proceeded to change Algiers into the major piracy center for the "Barbary" pirates as the capital on the "Barbary coast" ("Algiers" Encyclopædia of the Orient).

At about the time Spain was establishing its presidios in the Maghrib, the Muslim privateer brothers Aruj and Khair ad Din--the latter known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or Red Beard--were operating successfully off Tunisia under the Hafsids. In 1516 Aruj moved his base of operations to Algiers, but was killed in 1518 during his invasion of Tlemcen. Khair ad Din succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. The Ottoman sultan gave him the title of beylerbey (provincial governor) and a contingent of some 2,000 janissaries, well-armed Ottoman soldiers. With the aid of this force, Khair ad Din subdued the coastal region between Constantine and Oran (although the city of Oran remained in Spanish hands until 1791). Under Khair ad Din's regency, Algiers became the center of Ottoman authority in the Maghrib, from which Tunis, Tripoli, and Tlemcen would be overcome and Morocco's independence would be threatened.

So successful was Khair ad Din at Algiers that he was recalled to Constantinople in 1533 by the sultan, Suleyman I (r. 1520-66), known in Europe as Suleyman the Magnificent, and appointed admiral of the Ottoman fleet. The next year he mounted a successful seaborne assault on Tunis.

The next beylerbey was Khair ad Din's son Hassan, who assumed the position in 1544. Until 1587 the area was governed by officers who served terms with no fixed limits. Subsequently, with the institution of a regular Ottoman administration, governors with the title of pasha ruled for three-year terms. Turkish was the official language, and Arabs and Berbers were excluded from government posts.

The pasha was assisted by janissaries, known in Algeria as the ojaq "ocak" and led by an agha. Recruited from Anatolian peasants, they were committed to a lifetime of service. Although isolated from the rest of society and subject to their own laws and courts, they depended on the ruler and the taifa "tayfa" for income. In the seventeenth century, the force numbered about 15,000, but it was to shrink to only 3,700 by 1830. Discontent among the ojaq rose in the mid-1600s because they were not paid regularly, and they repeatedly revolted against the pasha. As a result, the agha charged the pasha with corruption and incompetence and seized power in 1659.

The taifa had the last word, however, when in 1671 it rebelled, killed the agha, and placed one of its own in power. The new leader received the title of dey, which originated in Tunisia. After 1689 the right to select the dey passed to the divan, a council of some sixty notables. The divan at first was dominated by the ojaq, but by the eighteenth century it became the dey's instrument. In 1710 the dey persuaded the sultan to recognize him and his successors as regent, replacing the pasha in that role. Although Algiers remained a part of the Ottoman Empire, the Sublime Porte, or Ottoman government, ceased to have effective influence there.

The dey was in effect a constitutional autocrat, but his authority was restricted by the divan and the taifa, as well as by local political conditions. The dey was elected for a life term, but in the 159 years (1671-1830) that the system survived, fourteen of the twenty-nine deys were removed from office by assassination. Despite usurpation, military coups, and occasional mob rule, the day-to-day operation of government was remarkably orderly. In accordance with the millet system applied throughout the Ottoman Empire, each ethnic group--Turks, Arabs, Kabyles, Berbers, Jews, Europeans--was represented by a guild that exercised legal jurisdiction over its constituents.

The dey had direct administrative control only in the regent's enclave, the Dar as Sultan (Domain of the Sultan), which included the city of Algiers and its environs and the fertile Mitidja Plain. The rest of the territory under the regency was divided into three provinces (beyliks): Constantine in the east; Titteri in the central region, with its capital at Mèdèa; and a western province that after 1791 had its seat at Oran, abandoned that year by Spain when the city was destroyed in an earthquake. Each province was governed by a bey appointed by the dey, usually from the same circle of families.

A contingent of the ojaq was assigned to each bey, who also had at his disposal the provincial auxiliaries provided by the privileged makhzen tribes, traditionally exempted from paying taxes on condition that they collect them from other tribes. Tax revenues were conveyed from the provinces to Algiers twice yearly, but the beys were otherwise left to their own devices. Although the regency patronized the tribal chieftains, it never had the unanimous allegiance of the countryside, where heavy taxation frequently provoked unrest. Autonomous tribal states were tolerated, and the regency's authority was seldom applied in the Kabylie.

Algiers remained a pirate stronghold for 300 years, an important part of the Ottoman empire and a bulwark against the Spanish imperialism (Hourani, 228-9). Although much of Spain's attention was focused on colonizing the Americas, the Spanish continued to pose a threat to the Ottoman posts on the Maghrib coast, the coast made up of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli (Hourani, 299-30). As the base of the Ottoman navy, Algiers became invaluable, for it defended the Ottoman positions into the western Mediterranean and boosted the Ottoman economy as the center of piracy. It also controlled a powerful janissary force (the elite Turkish army), second only to that of Constantinople, which held much influence over the entire Maghrib coast (Hourani, 230). Algiers resisted Europe's continual efforts to halt the piracy, which plundered European trading ships, hurting the European economies, until finally on July 5, 1830 , it fell to the French ("Algiers" Britannica Online ; "Algeria" Encyclopædia of the Orient). As the base of France's North African colonies, Algiers once again held significance as it entered the colonial period, this time as a powerful colony ("Algiers" Britannica Online).