Algiers
Algiers is the capital city of Algeria, located on the Mediterranean Sea in the north-central portion of the country. In 2025, an estimated 4.325 million people resided within the urban area. Algiers is the largest city in Algeria, the third-largest city on the Mediterranean, the sixth-largest city in the Arab world, and the 29th-largest city in Africa by population. Algiers is the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many communes without having its own separate governing body. It extends along the Bay of Algiers surrounded by the Mitidja Plain and major mountain ranges. Its favorable location made it the center of Ottoman and French influences for the region, shaping it to be a diverse metropolis.
Algiers was formally founded in 972 AD by Buluggin ibn Ziri, though its history goes back to between 1200 and 250 BC as a Phoenician trading settlement. Over time, it came under the control of several powers, including Numidia, the Roman Empire, and various Islamic caliphates. In 1516, it became the capital of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers, a status it held until the French invasion in 1830, after which it served as the capital of French Algeria. During World War II, it briefly functioned as the administrative center of Free France from 1942 to 1944 before returning to French colonial rule. It has remained the capital of the modern Algerian state since the Algerian Revolution in 1962.
Algiers is the main tourist destination in Algeria, known for its numerous museums, art galleries, and cultural institutions. Most notable is the historic Casbah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring traditional Algerian, Ottoman, and Andalusian architecture. The city also contains a larger French-built section that showcases diverse architectural styles and trends. Commonly referred to as al bidha for its whitewashed buildings, Algiers blends colonial and indigenous urban influences. It hosted the 1975 Mediterranean Games and various major international sporting events, and it serves as the seat of the Consultative Council of the Arab Maghreb Union. Numerous Algerian multinational companies and institutions are based in the city, such as Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation, Air Algérie, and Bank of Algeria.
Name origin
The present name of the city is the Arabic name , meaning "The Islands", this name's origin is related to the 4 main islands off the western cape where people settled, looking on a map one can notice that the islands were eventually connected to the mainland in 1525 AD via a pier now named Kheireddine pier. This name is a truncated form of the name that was used first by Buluggin ibn Ziri when he established the modern city in 972 AD which was , meaning "islands of Mazghanna", this term was used by the Hammadid dynasty as well as early medieval geographers such as Muhammad al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi. Before that, from French and Catalan Alger from the Arabic name,. The name was given by Buluggin ibn Ziri after he established the city on the ruins of the Phoenician city of Icosium in 950. During Ottoman rule, the name of the capital, al-Jazā'ir, was extended over the entire country, giving it the English name Algeria derived from the French name Algérie.In classical antiquity, the ancient Greeks knew the town as Ikósion, which was Latinized as Icosium under Roman rule. The Greeks explained the name as coming from their word for "twenty", supposedly because it had been founded by 20 companions of Hercules when he visited the Atlas Mountains during his labors.
Algiers is also known as , or "Algiers the White" for its whitewashed buildings.
History
Early history
The city's history is believed to date back to 1200 BC, but it was a small settlement without any significance until around the 3rd century BC when "Ikosim" became a small port town in Carthage where Phoenicians were trading with other Mediterranean ports. After the Battle of Cirta, Numidia got a hold of the town along with its neighboring regions at around 202 BC, after which the Punic Wars started weakening the Berber nation. On 104 BC, following the capturing of Jughurta and executing him in Rome, the western half of his nation was given to Mauretania under the rule of Bocchus I. At around 42 AD, Claudius divided Mauretania into two provinces, Mauretania Caesariensis that included Icosium as one of its towns; the second province was Mauretania Tingitana and were deemed as Roman Municipiums, additionally they were given Latin rights by the emperor Vespasian. In 371-373 AD, Mauretania revolted with the help of Firmus, in hopes of establishing an independent state. Icosium was raided and damaged. Some clues show the presence of bishops in the region at this time.In 435 AD, the Vandal Kingdom took control of northern Africa along the coasts of today's Tunisia and Algeria. The Western Roman Empire that was ruling the area allowed the Vandals to settle when it became clear that they could not be defeated by Roman military forces. Though the city was damaged again due to the fighting between the two armies, the town was still slowly growing in population.
Medieval history
In 534 AD, the Vandal kingdom was subjugated by the general Belisarius of the Eastern Roman Empire, making Icosium a part of the empire. In the early 7th century, "Beni Mezghenna" who are a Berber tribe belonging to the Sanhaja as cited by Ibn Khaldoun, settled on the plains of Icosium and the surrounding areas. Shortly after, in the late 7th century, the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb brought the Umayyad Caliphate into the region, but were faced with resistance from Berber forces led by Kahina and Kusaila in the 680s, who opposed the advancing Islamic armies. However, Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and Musa ibn Nusayr later defeated both Berber leaders, killing Kusaila at the Battle of Mamma and killing Dihya at the Battle of Tabarka, leading to the subjugation of the Berber tribes, bringing Islamic rule into North Africa. The Abbasid Caliphate succeeded Umayyad Caliphate at around 750 AD. Independence movements across the Maghreb resulted in the breaking of two nations, the Idrisid dynasty and the Aghlabid Emirate but acted as agents of the Abbasids in Baghdad. Icosium fell into the hands of Aghlabids and abandoned the town. They were then overthrown by the Fatimids in 909 AD, who went on to control all of Ifriqiya by 969 AD.The present city was re-founded in 972 AD by Buluggin ibn Ziri, who was appointed by the Faṭimid caliph al-Muʿizz as governor of al-Qayrawān and any other territory his nation, the Zirid Dynasty might reclaim from its enemies, the Zenata tribesmen. His state accordingly expanded its boundaries westward. In approximately 1014 AD, under the reign of Badis ibn al-Mansur, the dynasty was divided between the Zirids at al-Qayrawan in the east, and the Hammadid dynasty at Qal'at Bani Hammad; "Jazaʾir Banī Mazghanna", commonly known as "Algiers" as the new name of Icosium was absorbed into the Hammadid dynasty who in 1067 AD relocated to Béjaïa and carried on a lively trade while most of North Africa was under a state of anarchy.
In 1079 AD, Ibn Tashfin, a Sanhaja leader of the Almoravid Empire sent an army of 20,000 men from Marrakesh to push towards what is now Tlemcen to attack the "Banu Ya'la", the Zenata tribe occupying the area. Led by Mazdali ibn Tilankan, the army defeated the Banu Ya'la in battle near the valley of the Moulouya River and executed their commander, the son of Tlemcen's ruler. However, Mazdali ibn Tilankan did not push to Tlemcen right away as the city of Oujda was too strong to capture. Instead, Ibn Tashfin himself returned with an army in 1081 AD that captured Oujda and then conquered Tlemcen, massacring the Maghrawa forces there and their leader; He pressed on and by 1082 AD he had captured "Jazaʾir Banī Mazghanna".
In 1151 AD, Abd al-Mu'min launched an expedition to the east, conquering Béjaïa in August 1152, the capital of the Hammadids; on their way, Beni Mezghanna did not succumb and was now under the Almohad Caliphate's control. The caliphate suffered from states breaking out of its rule, most notably, the Kingdom of Tlemcen in 1235 AD. The town once again came under the dominion of the Ziyanid sultans of the Kingdom but experienced a large measure of independence under Thaaliba amirs who settled the Mitidja plain at around 1200 AD.
Early modern history
The Kingdom of Tlemcen was the target of the Spanish Empire's and the Portuguese Empire's campaigns and conquests against its coasts, beginning in 1501 AD. However, Algiers continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, many of whom sought asylum in the city, after which the Spanish led by Pedro Navarro established a fortified base and garrison on one of the islets off the coast of Algiers, and named it "Peñón de Argel" or Peñón of Algiers,. By that time, Algiers had an emir, Salim al-Thumi who had to "swear obedience and loyalty" to Ferdinand II of Aragon who also imposed a levy intended to suppress the Barbary pirates.Ottoman rule
In 1516, the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers Oruç Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards. Oruç Reis came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the Spanish in the Capture of Algiers. Hayreddin, succeeding Oruç after the latter was killed in battle against the Spaniards in the 1518 fall of Tlemcen, was the founder of the pashaluk, which subsequently became the beylik, of Algeria. Barbarossa lost Algiers in 1524 but regained it with the 1529 Capture of Peñón of Algiers, and then formally invited the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to accept sovereignty over the territory and to annex Algiers to the Ottoman Empire.Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541 in the Algiers expedition, the King of Spain and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their pasha, Hassan.
File:Ottoman cannon end of 16th century length 385cm cal 178mm weight 2910 stone projectile founded 8 October 1581 Alger seized 1830.jpg|right|thumb|Ornate Ottoman cannon found in Algiers on 8 October 1581 by Ca'fer el-Mu'allim. Length: 385 cm, cal:178 mm, weight: 2910 kg, stone projectile. Seized by France during the invasion of Algiers in 1830. Army Museum, Paris.
Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in the 16th century Algiers turned to piracy and ransoming. Due to its location on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, piracy became the primary economic activity. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland. By the 17th century, up to 40% of the city's 100,000 inhabitants were enslaved Europeans. The United States fought two wars over Algiers' attacks on shipping.
Among the notable people held for ransom was the future Spanish novelist, Miguel de Cervantes, who was held captive in Algiers for almost five years, and wrote two plays set in Algiers of the period. The primary source for knowledge of Algiers of this period, since there are no contemporary local sources, is the Topografía e historia general de Argel, published by Diego de Haedo, but whose authorship is disputed. This work describes in detail the city, the behavior of its inhabitants, and its military defenses, with the unsuccessful hope of facilitating an attack by Spain so as to end the piracy.
A significant number of renegades lived in Algiers at the time, Christians converted voluntarily to Islam, many fleeing the law or other problems at home. Once converted to Islam, they were safe in Algiers. Many occupied positions of authority, such as Samson Rowlie, an Englishman who became Treasurer of Algiers.
The city under Ottoman control was enclosed by a wall on all sides, including along the seafront. In this wall, five gates allowed access to the city, with five roads from each gate dividing the city and meeting in front of the Ketchaoua Mosque. In 1556, a citadel, Palace of the Dey was constructed at the highest point in the wall. A major road running north to south divided the city in two: The upper city which consisted of about fifty small quarters of Andalusian, Jewish, Moorish and Kabyle communities, and the lower city which was the administrative, military and commercial centre of the city, mostly inhabited by Ottoman Turkish dignitaries and other upper-class families.
File:Thomas Luny - Bombardment of Algiers.jpg|thumb|left|The bombardment of Algiers under Viscount Exmouth, August 1816, painted by Thomas Luny
On 27 August 1816, the Bombardment of Algiers took place city by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth, assisted by men-of-war from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, destroying the corsair fleet harboured in Algiers.
File:Hussein dey portrait.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Hussein Dey, the last Dey of the Deylik of Algiers.
France and the Regency of Algiers had a commercial–political conflict called the Bakri-Busnach affair which has been bothering both nations in the 19th century.
On 29 April 1827, foreign consuls and diplomatic agents gathered in the Palace of the Dey for a conference with the Regency of Algiers ruler Hussein Dey. Tensions were high because of France's failure to pay outstanding debts. In a heated moment later referred to as "fly-whisk incident", the Dey struck the French consul in the face with the handle of a fly-whisk.
In an attempt by Charles X of France to increase his popularity amongst the French, he sought to bolster patriotic sentiment, and turn eyes away from his domestic policies, by treating the incident as a public insult and demanded an apology. Failure to respond was met by operations against the dey. A naval siege on the port of Algiers by the French Navy began the following days which lasted 3 years and impacted the French and Algerian economies due to their former extensive trade treaties.
Tensions only continued rising while the French Armed Forces were preparing for the 1830 invasion of Algiers. The naval fleet departed from Toulon on 25 May 1830, and successfully reached the western coast of the Regency near what is today Sidi Fredj on 14 June 1830. The Algerian forces met their French opponents in the Battle of Staouéli on 19 June 1830, to which the Dey's forces were defeated, this enabled the colonial army to advance into the city and made Hussein Dey surrender to French General de Bourmont on 5 July 1830.