Incredible History Of Algiers

History Of Algiers

History Of Algiers: Algiers is located on a bay that marks the approximate halfway point of Algeria’s coastline. Its Arabic name, al-Jaza’ir, refers to the bay’s islands. A tiny Phoenician trading center and a Roman outpost named Icosium once stood here, but they had collapsed by the time the Muslim town established itself in the eleventh century.

Prior to the sixteenth century, the lush plains of Morocco and Tunisia served as the primary foci of state creation in northwest Africa. Parts of Algeria alternatively fell under these states’ administration or claimed independence from them. This design underwent a metamorphosis in the 16th century. Muslims exiled from Spain (during the Reconquista) sought shelter in Algiers, which provided a convenient base for corsair raids against Christian Spain. The Spanish responded by seizing and fortifying the islands in the bay. 

The Muslims of Algiers appealed to Turkish corsairs, who controlled the port of Jijel to the east, to come to their aid. By 1529, they had succeeded in removing the Spanish from their island castle, which they then destroyed and used the wreckage to construct a breakwater. This established Algiers as an important all-weather port. The Ottoman ruler established the city as the capital of a new province.

Ottoman Algiers had a diversified population, including Turkish-speaking military personnel, Kulughlis (the progeny of Turkish soldiers and local women), an established Arabic-speaking urban population, slaves (mostly from the south of the Sahara), and a Jewish presence. In addition, there were temporary occupants such as merchants from the Mzab oasis, laborers from Biskra in the Sahara and the neighboring Kabylia highlands, and a variety of Christian captives who hoped for redemption. 

Corsairing’s income facilitated the development of a robust urban community. Religious endowments invested a significant percentage of this income, eventually acquiring many of the city’s houses and shops. Rent from these ties financed mosque construction and upkeep, Islamic education, charity for the holy towns of Mecca and Medina, and public services such as water supply. 

The French takeover of 1830 changed the city, first politically and then physically. The Turkish military elite evacuated, and some of the city’s Muslim population fled to other Muslim nations. The French confiscated the departed’s property, as well as ownership or religious endowment rights. The conversion of the Katjawa Mosque into a church occurred despite widespread protests from the Muslim community.

The French demolished Algiers’ covered market and mosque to create the Place du Gouvernement, a vast public area now known as the Place des martyrs. The French demolished other structures to widen and straighten roadways. However, the French ignored the Muslim communities known as the Kasbah, which climbed a steep slope just beyond the Place du Gouvernement. They also avoided destroying the New Mosque, which stood at the edge of the Place, facing the water. It is still a landmark in downtown Algiers. 

By the 1860s, Algiers was flourishing as a colonial administrative seat and the primary hub of an agricultural export industry. As the colony became more secure, new neighborhoods grew outside the walls. Europeans of French descent dominated the city, while immigrants of Spanish, Italian, and Maltese origin made up the lower tiers of European society. 

By the end of the century, Muslims accounted for less than a quarter of the city’s entire population. Nonetheless, there remained an elite who held government positions or had carved out specialized niches in the economy, such as lumber and tobacco. After a low point in the 1870s, the Muslim community of Algiers regained its size and influence. 

Before World War I, they had established their own newspapers and cultural organizations. Following the war, Emir Khaled led the first significant political opposition to colonialism in Algiers. By the 1940s, Muslims were a major force in municipal politics, as socialist mayor Jacques Chevallier realized, but the city failed to meet the rapidly rising housing and service needs of its Muslim population. 

The upshot was a rapid proliferation of bidonvilles (shanty settlements) on the metropolitan outskirts. In terms of style, the French alternated between imposing their own architectural and planning standards and incorporating indigenous influences. During the interwar period, French modernist architect Le Corbusier combined passion for indigenous traditions with modernism in plans to renovate downtown Algiers. Though these intentions stayed on paper, Fernand Pouillon’s works renewed Algeria’s desire for fusion after independence. 

With the beginning of the revolution in 1954, the unique configuration of Algiers, with the poor Muslim Kasbah at its center, played a significant role in the course of events. Protesters may mobilize in the Kasbah and make their way to the Place du Gouvernement within minutes. Bomb carriers may slip out and cause havoc on Europe’s busiest business districts. In 1956, the “battle of Algiers” was primarily about gaining control of the Kasbah. Algerian independence in 1962 resulted in a large flight of European and Jewish populations. 

They left their property, which was under government control, and moved in new Muslim tenants. However, the physical city remained largely unchanged. The city’s outskirts saw the most significant new developments: the university complex at Ben Aknoun, the international fair grounds at El Harrach, a Pouillon-designed luxury hotel on the beach at Sidi Ferruch, where the French landed in 1830, and a towering monument to revolutionary martyrs built in the 1980s on the heights above the city. Turbulence returned to the city in 1988, when furious urban youth, upset with decreasing living circumstances, rioted for several days in October.

Algiers once again became the site of large-scale political demonstrations. Since the army’s crackdown on the Islamic Salvation Front in 1992, Algiers has suffered greatly in terms of security, particularly in its densely populated older sections and huge apartment complexes on the city’s outskirts. Private security services provide relative security for the elite who live in the tree-lined homes in hilltop districts like Hydra and El Biar.

Also Read: The Damaging Impact Of Colonialism on African Societies