Regency of Algiers

The Regency of AlgiersTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman province and nominal vassal state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis (also known as the Barbarossa brothers), the Regency succeeded the Kingdom of Tlemcen as an infamous and formidable base that waged maritime holy war on European Christian powers. Elected regents headed a stratocracy that haunted European imagination for three centuries but still gained recognition as a regional power.

The Regency emerged in the 16th-century Ottoman–Habsburg wars. As self-proclaimed Template:Translit gaining popular support and legitimacy from the religious leaders at the expense of hostile local emirs, the Barbarossa brothers and their successors carved a unique corsair state that drew revenue and political power from its naval warfare against Habsburg Spain. In the 17th century, when the wars between Spain and the Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England and Dutch Republic ended, Barbary corsairs started capturing merchant ships and their crews and goods from these states. When the Ottomans could not prevent these attacks, European powers negotiated directly with Algiers and also took military action against it. This policy would emancipate Algiers from the Ottomans.

The Regency held significant naval power in the 16th and 17th centuries and well into the end of the Napoleonic wars despite European naval superiority. Its institutionalised privateering dealt substantial damage to European shipping, took captives for ransom, plundered booty, hijacked ships and eventually demanded regular tribute payments. In the rich and bustling city of Algiers, the Barbary slave trade reached an apex. The Regency also expanded its hold in the interior by allowing a large degree of autonomy to the tribal communities. After the janissary coup of 1659, the Regency became a sovereign military republic,Template:Efn and its rulers were thenceforth elected by the council known as the Template:Translit rather than appointed by the Ottoman sultan previously.

Despite wars over territory with Spain and the Maghrebi states in the 18th century, Mediterranean trade and diplomatic relations with European states expanded, as wheat exports secured Algerian revenues after privateering decline. Bureaucratisation efforts stabilized the Regency's government, allowing into office regents such as Mohammed ben-Osman, who maintained Algerian prestige thanks to his public and defensive works. Increased Algerian privateering and demands for tribute started the Barbary Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, when Algiers was decisively defeated for the first time. Internal central authority weakened in Algiers due to political intrigue, failed harvests and the decline of privateering. Violent tribal revolts followed, mainly led by maraboutic orders such as the Darqawis and Tijanis. In 1830, France took advantage of this domestic turmoil to invade. The resulting French conquest of Algeria led to colonial rule until 1962.

Names

In the historiography of the Regency of Algiers, it has been called the "Kingdom of Algiers",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn "Republic of Algiers",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn "State of Algiers",Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn "State of the Algerians",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn "State of the Turks of Algiers"Template:Sfn and "Ottoman Algeria".Template:Sfn

The current states of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya go back to the three regencies of the 16th century: Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Algiers became the capital of its state and this term in the international acts applied to both the city and the country which it ordered: (Template:Translit).Template:Sfn However a distinction was made in the spoken language between on the one hand Template:Translit, the space which was neither the Sultanate of Morocco, nor the regency of Tunis, and on the other hand, the city commonly designated by the contraction (Template:Translit) or in a more classic register (Template:Translit Template:Lit).Template:Sfn The Regency, which lasted over three centuries, formed a political entity that covered what Arab geographers designate as (Template:Translit, Template:Lit), establishing the Algerian (Template:Translit, Template:Lit) and the definition of its borders with its neighbors to the east and west.Template:Sfn

In European languages, Template:Translit became , , Algiers, Algeria, etc. In English, a progressive distinction was made between Algiers, the city, and Algeria, the country, whereas in French, Algiers designated both the city and the country, under the forms of "Kingdom of Algiers" or "Republic of Algiers". (Template:Lit) as a demonym is attested to in writing in French as early as 1613 and its use has been constant since that date.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, in the English lexicology of that time, Algerian is "Algerine", which referred to the political entity that later became Algeria.Template:Sfn

History

Establishment (1512–1533)

Encouraged by the political disintegration of the Maghrebi Muslim statesTemplate:Sfn and fearing an alliance between the Moriscos (exiled Spanish Muslims) and the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate,Template:Sfn the Spanish Empire captured several cities and established walled and garrisoned strongpoints called in North Africa.Template:Sfn The Spanish conquered the city of Oran from the Zayyanids, as well as Béjaïa from the Hafsids in 1509, then Tripoli from the Hafsids in 1510, making other coastal cities submit to them, including Algiers, where they built an island fortress known as the .Template:Sfn In addition to territorial ambitions and Catholic missionary fervor,Template:Sfn the gold and slave trades funded the Spanish treasury, as Spain controlled the caravan trade routes passing through the central Maghreb.Template:Sfn

Barbarossa brothers

After operating as Hafsid-sponsored privateers from their base in the island of Djerba,Template:Sfn Mytilene-born brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, nicknamed the Barbarossa brothers, came to the central Maghreb at the request of Béjaïa citizens in 1512. They failed to take the city from the Spanish twice,Template:Sfn but the citizens of Jijel offered to make Aruj king after his corsairs arrived with a shipload of wheat during a famine.Template:Sfn Answering pleas for help from its inhabitants, the brothers captured Algiers in 1516 but failed to destroy the Peñón.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Aruj executed the Algerian emir, Template:Ill,Template:Sfn then proclaimed himself Sultan of Algiers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In October 1516, Aruj repelled an attack led by the Spanish commander Don Diego de Vera,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which won him the allegiance of people in the northern part of central Algeria.Template:Sfn

In the central Maghreb, Aruj built a powerful Muslim state at the expense of quarrelling principalities.Template:Sfn He sought the support of the local religious Muslim (maraboutic and Sufi) orders,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn while his absolute authority was backed by his Turkish and Christian renegade corsairs.Template:Sfn The latter were European converts to Islam, known in Europe as "turned Turks".Template:Sfn "Aruj Reis effectively began the powerful greatness of Algiers and the Barbary", wrote Template:Interlanguage link, a Spanish Benedictine held captive in Algiers between 1577 and 1580.Template:Sfn

Aruj continued his conquests in western central Maghreb. He won the Battle of Oued Djer against Spanish vassal Hamid bin Abid, the prince of Ténès, in June 1517 and took his city.Template:Sfn While Aruj was there, a delegation arrived from Tlemcen to complain about the growing Spanish threat, exacerbated by squabbling between the Zayyanid princes over the throne.Template:Sfn Template:Interlanguage link had seized power in Tlemcen and imprisoned his nephew Template:Interlanguage link.Template:Sfn According to the historian Yahya Boaziz, Aruj and his troops entered Tlemcen in 1518, released Abu Zayan from prison and restored him to his throne before executing him for conspiring with the Spanish against Aruj.Template:Sfn However, the French historian Charles-André Julien claims that Aruj took power for himself against his promise to release Abu Zayan.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, the deposed Abu Hammou III fled to Oran to beg the Spaniards to help him retake his throne. The Spaniards chose to do so; they cut Aruj's supply route from Algiers,Template:Sfn then began a siege of Tlemcen that lasted six months. Aruj locked himself inside the Mechouar palace for several days to avoid an increasingly hostile populace, who opened the gates for the Spanish in May 1518.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Aruj attempted to flee Tlemcen, but the Spaniards pursued and killed him along with his Turkish companions.Template:Sfn

Hayreddin inherited his brother's position as sultan without opposition,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn although he faced threats from the Spanish, Zayyanids, Hafsids and neighboring tribes.Template:Sfn After repelling another Spanish attack in August 1519, led by the Spanish viceroy of Sicily Hugo of Moncada,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hayreddin pledged allegiance to the central Ottoman government, known as the Sublime Porte, to obtain Ottoman support against his foes.Template:Sfn In October 1519, a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and Muslim jurists went to Ottoman Sultan Selim I, proposing that Algiers join the Ottoman Empire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn After initial reluctance,Template:Sfn the sultan recognized Hayreddin as Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn—a regent with the title of Template:Translit (Template:Literal translation)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn—and sent him 2,000 janissaries,Template:Sfn who formed a privileged military corps.Template:Sfn Algiers officially became an Template:Translit (Template:Lit) under Selim's successor Suleiman I in the spring of 1521.Template:Sfn From this year onward, the Ottoman sultans appointed Algerian corsair captains as Template:Translit.Template:Sfn In European sources, Algiers was called "the Regency".Template:Sfn Some historians refer to Algiers in this period as an Ottoman vassal state,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn state-provinceTemplate:Sfn or Kingdom-province.Template:Sfn The historian Lamnouar Merouche stresses that Algiers had all the attributes of a state while being an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, calling it "" (Template:Lit).Template:Efn

Hayreddin had to return to Jijel after a coalition of the Hafsids with the Kabyle kingdom of Kuku blockaded Algiers and took it in 1520.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn To gain legitimacy among the local tribes, he and his men used their reputation as "holy warriors". They gathered support from the Kabyle kingdom of Beni Abbas, a rival of Kuku.Template:Sfn Hayreddin retook Algiers in 1525 after defeating the prince and founder of Kuku, Ahmad ibn al-Kadi,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and then destroyed the Peñón of Algiers in 1529.Template:Sfn Hayreddin used its rubble to build Algiers's harbour,Template:Sfn making it the headquarters of the Algerian corsair fleet.Template:Sfn Hayreddin established the military structure of the Regency,Template:Sfn formalising an institution known as the Template:Translit (Template:Lit). It would become the model for Barbary corsairs in Tunis, Tripoli and the Republic of Salé in the 17th century.Template:Sfn He conducted several raids on Spanish coastsTemplate:Sfn and vanquished the Genoese fleet of Andrea Doria at Cherchell in 1531.Template:Sfn Hayreddin also rescued over 70,000 Andalusi refugees from the Spanish inquisition and brought them to Algeria,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn where they contributed to the flourishing culture of the Regency.Template:Sfn

The Barbarossa brothers turned the city of Algiers into an Islamic bastion against Catholic Spain in the western Mediterranean,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn making it the capital of what would become the early modern Algerian state.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Sultan called Hayreddin to the Porte to appoint him as Template:Translit (grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet) in 1533. Before departing, Hayreddin named Sardinian renegade Hasan Agha his deputy in Algiers.Template:Sfn

Beylerbeylik period (1533–1587)

Detailed depiction of North African, European and west Asian political status.

Barbary state of Algeria within the Ottoman Empire (in white) during the Ottoman-Habsburg wars in 1560, The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923.

The Template:Translit of Algiers were usually strongmen who kept most of the Maghreb firmly under Ottoman control, garrisoning the main towns with troops and collecting taxes on land while relying heavily on privateering at sea.Template:Sfn Assisted by a council of government, they took care to respect local institutions and customs under their dominion.Template:Sfn Because of their experience in fleet command, some Template:Translit became Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn and led the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean.Template:Sfn

For most of the 16th century, the Template:Translit acted as independent sovereigns despite acknowledging the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn who gave them a free hand but expected Algerian ships to help enforce Ottoman foreign policy if required.Template:Sfn However, the interests of Algiers and Constantinople eventually diverged on the matter of privateering, over which the Sublime Porte had no control.Template:Sfn Algerian Template:Translit often remained in power for several years and exercised authority over Tunis and Tripoli as well.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In addition, the Template:Translit system that granted fertile land to Ottoman elite Template:Translit cavalrymen was not applied in Algiers; instead, the Template:Translit sent tribute to Constantinople every year after paying off the expenses of the Regency.Template:Sfn

Algerian expansion

The foreign policy of Algiers aligned completely with the Ottoman Empire.Template:Sfn Under Hasan Agha, Algiers repelled a naval attack led by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in October 1541.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The victory over the Spaniards was seen by the local population as a divine mandate for the Ottoman rule.Template:Sfn Hasan Agha subjugated Kuku in the east in 1542,Template:Sfn extended his rule south to Biskra, and gained Tlemcen's support in the west.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Spanish defeat made Algiers the center of piracy, attracting pirates from all over the Mediterranean. The city became a bazaar for thousands of captured Christian slaves.Template:Sfn British historian Matthew Carr points out that Algiers was known in Christian Europe as "the scourge of Christendom", while he described it as "a kind of 16th-century rogue state".Template:Sfn

Hayreddin's son Hasan Pasha succeeded Hasan Agha in 1544.Template:Sfn He repulsed Spanish attacks on western Algeria before Saadian Morocco invaded Tlemcen with 30,000 men in 1551.Template:Sfn Hasan Pasha's general Hasan Corso, a Corsican renegade, decisively defeated the Saadians in the Chelif valley and removed them from Tlemcen. He installed an Ottoman governor there and officially ended the Zayyanid dynasty.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hasan Pasha was recalled later that year by Sultan Suleiman, who sent a letter to the Saadian Sultan Mohammed al-Shaykh, deploring the war among Muslim neighbors and asking him to recognize Ottoman suzerainty and cooperate with the newly appointed Template:Translit Salah Reis,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn a distinguished former subordinate of Hayreddin Reis.Template:Sfn Salah Reis expanded his rule to the Berber Beni Djallab's principalities in Touggourt and Ouargla,Template:Sfn making them tributaries until 1830.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He sent an embassy to Morocco led by Imam Muhammad al-Kharrubi in 1552 to sign a peace treaty which would demarcate the borders between Ottoman Algeria and Saadian Morocco at the Moulouya river.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Responding to renewed attacks from the Spanish-allied Saadians, Salah Reis advanced as far as the Moroccan capital of Fez in January 1554, installing the Saadians' opponent Abu Hassun as an Ottoman vassal there.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, the Saadians soon ousted him from Fez in September 1554.Template:Sfn

In 1555, Salah Reis captured Béjaïa from the Spanish.Template:Sfn After his death, Sultan Suleiman, wary of Algiers’ growing autonomy, recalled its galleys to the Bosphorus in 1556, disrupting plans to besiege Oran.Template:Sfn This provoked a Janissary rebellion supporting Hasan Corso,Template:Sfn who rejected the authority of the Ottoman-appointed pasha, Mehmed Tekerli, and declared Algiers independent from the Ottoman Empire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although the pasha murdered Hasan Corso with the corsairs' support, the Janissaries killed him in retribution.Template:Sfn The subsequent instability prompted the sultan to restore order by sending Hasan Pasha back to Algiers.Template:Sfn He chased the invading Saadians out of Tlemcen again and had Mohammed al-Shaykh assassinated by Ottoman agents feigning to be deserters in October 1557.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hasan Pasha also thwarted the expedition to Mostaganem of the Spanish governor of Oran, Count Alcaudete, in 1558.Template:Sfn These military successes ended both Spanish and Moroccan territorial claims in Algiers.Template:Sfn After a failed attempt to conquer Oran in 1563 and the Ottoman defeat in the Grand Siege of Malta in 1565, Hasan Pasha was appointed Template:Translit by Suleiman's successor Selim II and replaced with Muhammed I Pasha, son of Salah Reis, who ruled Algiers for only two years.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:MultiimageThe last Template:Translit of Algiers was Calabrian-born corsair Uluj Ali Pasha.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He captured Tunis from Spain's Hafsid vassals in 1569,Template:Sfn before losing it to the Christian forces under Spanish commander John of Austria in 1573, who left 8,000 men in the Spanish of La Goletta.Template:Sfn Uluj Ali recaptured the city in 1574,Template:Sfn while his ships saved the Ottoman fleet from total defeat by the Catholic Holy League in the battle of Lepanto in 1571.Template:Sfn Sultan Selim II rewarded him with the title of Template:Translit. Uluj Ali rebuilt the Ottoman fleet, which would count 200 vessels and would be manned by North African sailors, all while retaining his nominal position of Template:Translit.Template:Sfn

Uluj Ali's deputy Template:Interlanguage link captured Fez in 1576 after defeating the Saadian ruler Mohammed II and put Mohammed's kinsman Abd al-Malik on the throne as an Ottoman vassal.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1578 another deputy of Uluj Ali, Hassan Veneziano, led his troops deep into the Sahara to the oases of Tuat in central Algeria in response to pleas from its inhabitants for help against Saadi-allied tribes from Tafilalt.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A campaign against Morocco led by Uluj Ali was aborted in 1581,Template:Sfn as the Saadian ruler al-Mansur had at first vehemently refused to serve under Selim II's successor Murad III, but agreed to pay annual tribute afterwards.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, the Figuig oases in the south western Maghreb were part of the Regency by 1584.Template:Sfn Veneziano's privateers ravaged the Mediterranean and made the waters unsafe from Andalusia to Sicily.Template:Sfn Their power reached as far as the Canary Islands.Template:Sfn

Pashalik period (1587–1659)

A crowd of people bow to a mounted dignitary arriving with an escort

The arrival of the new pasha, Viceroy of Algiers, sent by the great lord (Ottoman Sultan) Jan Luyken (1684). Amsterdam Museum.

Fearful of the growing authority of the Template:Translit, the Sublime Porte replaced it with pashas who served a three-year term starting in 1587.Template:Sfn The Ottomans also divided the Maghreb into the three regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.Template:Sfn The first pashas, such as Template:Interlanguage link and Template:Ill, served for multiple but separate terms, which guaranteed stability. From the mid-17th century, pashas were isolated and deprived of local support,Template:Sfn as they were constantly torn between the demands of the two local ruling factions, the (Template:Lit) and janissaries.Template:Sfn The corsair captains were effectively outside the pashas' control, and the janissaries' loyalty to them depended on their ability to collect taxes and meet payroll.Template:Sfn Both groups sometimes refused orders from the sultan, or even sent the pashas appointed by the sultan back to Constantinople.Template:Sfn

Janissary insubordination

Algiers was the headquarters of probably the largest janissary force in the empire outside Constantinople,Template:Sfn counting 22,000 soldiers by the mid-17th century.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the Turkish historian Yılmaz Öztuna, the janissary corps in Algiers, known as the Template:Translit, was distinct from the janissary garrison in Constantinople. Its members were not Template:Translit (Christian boys raised as Janissaries) but young men from western Anatolia. The Algerian Janissary Agha maintained representatives in Izmir, Antalya, and Constantinople, who recruited volunteers interested in serving in Algiers. Upon arrival, these recruits joined an Template:Translit (janissary company) and underwent three years of training to become "naval soldiers".Template:Sfn This janissary corps cultivated a strong sense of elitism among its recruits, who were immediately made to feel like they wielded significant influence over the government of the Regency. This sense of belonging incentivized them to protect and sustain the state, as its political stability and economic success directly benefited them. Politically, they viewed the state as their own domain, and economically, its prosperity translated into personal gain.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn

After Veneziano, the janissary corps grew stronger and more influential, challenging the corsairs for power.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1596, Khider Pasha led a revolt in Algiers in an effort to subdue the janissaries with help from Kabyles and Template:Translit—offspring of mixed marriages between Ottoman men and local women and having blood ties to the great indigenous families.Template:Sfn Although the revolt spread to neighboring towns, it ultimately failed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Template:Translit failed to start another coup against the janissaries,Template:Sfn which won the janissaries sole power in Algiers.Template:Sfn

In the 16th century, France signed capitulation treaties with the Ottomans that gave the French trading privileges in Algiers,Template:Sfn which had differences with Constantinople regarding relations with France.Template:Sfn The French built a trading center known as the in the city of El Kala in eastern Algeria,Template:Sfn which exported coral legally under its monopoly and wheat illegally. As the Bastion was fortified and turned into a military supply base and a center of espionage,Template:Sfn Khider Pasha destroyed it in 1604.Template:Sfn The Ottoman Porte had him assassinated and replaced by the more compliant Template:Interlanguage link Pasha, but the janissaries revolted in 1606 and tortured him to death.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The janissary council, known as the diwan, challenged the pashas' authority by taking charge of the treasury and foreign affairs,Template:Sfn becoming the effective government of Algiers by 1626. It began official acts with the phrase, "We, pasha and diwân of the invincible militia of Algiers".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to the priest and historian Template:Interlanguage link (1580–1649), "The state has only the name of a kingdom since, in effect, they have made it into a republic."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Corsair autonomy

A square-rigged ship leaving a harbor

An Algerine Ship off a Barbary Port, Andries van Eertvelt (1590–1652) (Royal Museums Greenwich)

The corporate body of the Algerian corsairs was known as the Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It constituted the embodiment of state-sponsored piracy, since the economical prosperity of Algiers depended on the corsairs' loot.Template:Sfn The Template:Translit formed a council of corsair captains who resided in the western quarter of the city of Algiers. Its primary functions were recruiting new corsair captains, increasing finances through public and private investement in privateering expeditions and protecting its own corporate interests from the janissaries.Template:Sfn Algiers started strengthening and modernizing its fleet; by the end of the 16th century, janissaries were allowed to join corsair ships.Template:Sfn As the 17th century began, the corsairs adopted square-rigged sails and tapered hulls. Their ships became faster and less dependent on a steady supply of galley slaves.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This latest sailing technology was procured by the corsairs thanks to an influx of European renegades such as the Dutchman Simon Danseker,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn enabling the corsairs to grow powerful in the Atlantic.Template:Sfn

The Template:Translit was led by the Template:Translit (Template:Lit) referred by European official documents as the "General of the galleys of Algiers".Template:Sfn European renegades made up a majority on the Template:Translit, amongst whom were former slaves who rose to positions of power.Template:Sfn The most distinguished were the Albanian-born corsairs Qubtan Arnaut Mami and Qubtan Murat Reis the Elder, who headed the Algerian navy in 1574 and 1590 respectively. In 1610 the Template:Translit was led by the Dutch corsairs, Sulayman Reis and his subordinate Murat Reis the Younger.Template:Sfn The latter became the leader of Salé's corsairs in the 1620s but still used Algiers as his base, from which he raided as far as Iceland in 1627 and Ireland in 1631.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The 17th century was a "golden age" for the North African corsairs. Algerian autonomy and rivalry between Christian states made the prestige and wealth of the corsairs reach its zenithTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn as their intensified privateering filled Algerian coffers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Yahya Boaziz indicates that more than a thousand European ships were captured from 1608 to 1634, with more than 35,000 people enslaved, many of whom were Dutch, German, French, Spanish and English, making the value of the spoils total about 4,752,000 pounds. Pierre Dan estimated the value of seized cargo at around 20,000,000 francs.Template:Sfn Algiers became a thriving market in the 17th century for captives and plundered goods from all over the Mediterranean,Template:Sfn and a wealthy city with over 100,000 inhabitants.Template:Sfn Reliance on piracy and the slave trade served to keep Algiers financially and politically autonomous.Template:Sfn Renegade Ali Bitchin became qubtan in 1621 and raided Italian harbors.Template:Sfn In 1638 Sultan Murad IV called the corsairs up against the Republic of Venice. A storm forced their ships to shelter at Valona, but the Venetians attacked them there and destroyed part of their fleet.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Claiming the corsairs had not been in his service, the sultan refused to compensate them for their losses.Template:Sfn In response, Ali Bitchin refused to answer a summons from the sultan to join the Cretan war against Venice in 1645. He then died suddenly, amid rumors in Algiers that the sultan had ordered his poisoning.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn From 1645 onward, the corsairs sent squadrons of sailing ships annually to join the Ottoman fleet in the war against Venice in return for subsidies in advance.Template:Sfn This would later diminish their privateering activity.Template:Sfn

Military republic (1659–1710)

Agha regime

The pashas sent by the Sublime Porte worked to multiply their wealth as quickly as possible before the end of their three-year term in office. As governance became a secondary issue, the pashas lost all influence and respect,Template:Sfn and aversion to the Sublime Porte increased.Template:Sfn In 1659, Ibrahim Pasha pocketed some of the money the Ottoman sultan had sent to the corsairs as compensation for their losses in the Cretan War, which ignited a massive revolt, in which the rebellious corsairs arrested and imprisoned him.Template:Sfn Khalil Agha, commander-in-chief of the janissaries of Algiers, took advantage of the incident and seized power,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn accusing the pashas sent by the Sublime Porte of corruption and hindering the Regency's affairs with European countries.Template:Sfn The janissaries effectively eliminated the authority of the pasha, whose position became purely ceremonial.Template:Sfn After initial threats from the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha,Template:Sfn the Sublime Porte recognized the new government and ceased appointing triennial pashas. However, the title of pasha was retained as a symbol of Ottoman suzerainty, in exchange for the recruitment of new troops from Ottoman lands.Template:Sfn

The Template:Translit assigned executive authority to Khalil Agha, provided that his rule would not exceed two years, and put legislative power in the hands of the Template:Translit council.Template:Sfn Khalil Agha began his rule by building the Djamaa el Djedid mosque.Template:Sfn The era of the aghas beganTemplate:Sfn and the pashalik became officially a military republic.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The first three aghas, Khalil, Ramazan and Shaban were all assassinated because they wanted to extend their term of office.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Agha Ali, who ruled in 1665, became an autocratic sovereign who alienated the Template:Translit and whose conciliation policy with European states at the expense of privateering angered the corsairs.Template:Sfn

Deylik period

Ships burning at anchor in the harbour at Béjaïa

English fireship set captured ships in Béjaïa on 18 May 1671, by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707). British Royal Collection

In 1671 an English squadron led by Admiral Sir Edward Spragge destroyed seven ships anchored in the harbor at Algiers, causing the corsairs to revolt and kill Agha Ali.Template:Sfn Given the lack of candidates due to reluctance from the janissary leaders,Template:Sfn the corsairs vowed to restore the government established by Hayreddin Reis.Template:Sfn They entrusted the Regency's government and the payroll of the janissaries to an old Dutch-born Template:Translit named Hadj Mohammed TrikTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and gave him the titles of Template:Translit (Template:Lit), Template:Translit (Template:Lit) and Template:Translit (Template:Lit).Template:Sfn

After 1671 the Template:Translit led the countryTemplate:Sfn and were supported by members of the Template:Translit, of which the president seconded the Template:Translit and managed most state affairs.Template:Sfn This centralized government institutionalized relations between the janissaries, effective holders of both military and political power, and the corsairs, as the Regency's economic powerhouse that would remunerate the janissaries through the Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This gradual integration of autonomous political institutions, local military elites and financial powers, coupled with an independent foreign policy, rendered Algiers de facto independent of the Ottoman Empire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, the Template:Translit' power was checked by the Template:Translit,Template:Sfn and both janissaries and corsairs ousted Template:Translit who lost their support.Template:Sfn

Foreign relations and privateering in the 17th century

Galley engaging a sail ship

Spanish engagement with Barbary pirates, Andries van Eertvelt (Royal Museums Greenwich)

Operating under the aegis of the Ottoman Empire, Algerian corsairs waged maritime campaigns that were both lucrative and ideologically framed as religious warfare against Christian powers engaged in conflict with Algiers.Template:Sfn In the 16th and 17th centuries, the corsairs hoisted Islamic green flags adorned with crescents and stars,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn later replacing them with red flags in the 18th and 19th centuries.Template:Sfn Internally, they acquired the status of Template:Translit (Template:Lit) and champions of jihad, which underpinned the political and religious legitimacy of the Regency’s elites.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Privateering operations were regulated by treaties with European powers.Template:Sfn Algiers used privateering as a foreign policy tool to play its European counterparts against one otherTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn and hunt merchant ships, prompting European states to sign peace treaties and seek Mediterranean passes (documents that identified ships that had safe passage), allowing European states to secure lucrative cabotage trade.Template:Sfn In this context, early modern European authors recognized an international respect for the Regency's sovereignty as an established government, despite still being a "nest of pirates".Template:Sfn Ottoman records clearly distinguished between Template:Translit (Template:Lit) and Template:Translit (Template:Lit),Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) noted that "Algiers exercised the jus ad bellum of a sovereign power through its corsairs".Template:Sfn The historian Daniel Panzac stressed:Template:Sfn

Indeed, privateering was based on two fundamental principles: it was one of the forms of war practiced by the Maghreb against the Christian states, which conferred upon it a dimension that was at one and the same time legitimate and religious; and it was exercised in a framework defined by a state strong enough to enact its rules and control their application.

Europe

After the Battle of Lepanto, the corsairs broke loose from the Sublime Porte and began to prey on ships from countries at peace with the Ottomans,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn whose peace with Habsburg Spain in 1580 did not concern their vassals, as both the Sovereign Order of Malta and the North African Regencies pursued hostilities. Their privateers were motivated by desires of vengeance, wealth and salvation.Template:Sfn Spain would be debilitated by many of the Moriscos it expelled. They joined the corsairs and would ravage Spanish mainland and its territories in Italy, where they captured people .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn England, France and the Dutch Republic were seen as allies by the Ottoman regencies until the end of the 16th century because of their common Spanish enemy,Template:Sfn but when James I of England and the Dutch States-General opted for peace with Spain in 1604 and 1609, respectively, and increased their shipping in the Mediterranean,Template:Sfn Algerian and Tunisian corsairs took advantage of their strong fleet to attack English and Dutch vessels, amassing wealth from capturing slaves and goods.Template:Sfn Ottoman incapacity to force Algiers to respect the Ottoman capitulations led European powers to negotiate treaties with Algiers directly on trade, tribute and slave ransoms,Template:Sfn recognizing Algerian autonomy despite its formal subordination to the Ottomans.Template:Sfn

France first established relations with Algiers in 1617,Template:Sfn with a treaty signed in 1619Template:Sfn and another in 1628.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The treaties mostly concerned the re-establishment of the Bastion de France and the rights of French merchants in Algiers,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but the Bastion was razed a second time by Ali Bitchin in 1637,Template:Sfn as armed incidents between French and Algerian vessels were frequent. Nonetheless, a treaty in 1640 allowed France to regain its North African commercial establishments.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

After attacks by the English in 1621Template:Sfn and the Dutch in 1624, Algerian corsairs took thousands of EnglishTemplate:Sfn and Dutch sailors to the Algerian slave market,Template:Sfn resulting in intermittent wars followed by long-lasting peace treaties whose tribute payments terms ranged from money to weapons.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Under Louis XIV, France built a strong navy to fend off the corsairs who raided Corsica and were everywhere in the waters off Marseilles in the late 1650s.Template:Sfn According to Panzac, relations with Algiers became strained because Muslim slaves were never returned to Algiers, and privateering became a political necessity due to corsair-janissary rivalry, while European states faced financial difficulties in recovering their captives through diplomatic means.Template:Sfn France launched multiple campaigns against the Regency, first in Jijel in 1664,Template:Sfn then when several bombings of Algiers were conducted between 1682 and 1688 in what is known as the Franco-Algerian war,Template:Sfn which ended when a 100-year peace treaty was signed between Template:Translit Hussein Mezzo Morto and Louis XIV.Template:Sfn

Maghreb

As Algiers entered a period of peaceful relations with Europe,Template:Sfn the resulting decline in privateering forced Algiers to seek other sources of revenue. In 1692 Template:Translit Hadj Chabane set his sights on his Maghrebi neighbors, Muradid Tunis and Alawi Morocco.Template:Sfn For historical reasons, Algiers considered Tunisia a dependency because Algiers had annexed it to the Ottoman Empire,Template:Sfn which made the appointment of its pashas a prerogative of the Algerian Template:Translit.Template:Sfn Faced with Tunisian ambitions in the Constantine region and opposition to Algerian hegemony,Template:Sfn the Algerian Template:Translit took the opportunity provided by the 20 years of civil war between the sons of the Muradid ruler of Tunis Murad II Template:Translit to invade in 1694 and put a puppet Template:Translit on the throne.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A vengeful Murad III Template:Translit of Tunis allied with Morocco and started the Maghrebi war in 1700.Template:Sfn He lost, and the Muradid dynasty was replaced by the Husainid dynasty in 1705.Template:Sfn

Morocco opposed the Ottomans.Template:Sfn It also had ambitions to expand in western Algeria—especially in Tlemcen.Template:Sfn Algerian support for pretenders to the Moroccan throneTemplate:Sfn was answered with several invasions by Sultan Moulay Ismail in 1678, 1692,Template:Sfn 1701Template:Sfn and 1707,Template:Sfn all of which failed.Template:Sfn Moulay Ismail was forced to accept the Moulouya River as his eastern border with Ottoman Algeria.Template:Sfn

Dey-pashas of Algiers (1710–1792)

Four people writing behind a turbaned man in talks with a group of representatives.

Mohamed Ben Hassan Pasha-Template:Translit giving audience to the King of France's envoy Mr Dusault in 1719. Ismaël Hamet, 1720. Gallica.

Early-18th-century pashas tried to regain some of their lost authority, creating conflicts and instigating sedition to overthrow the Template:Translit.Template:Sfn From 1710 the Template:Translit assumed the title of pasha at the initiative of Template:Translit Baba Ali Chaouch, and no longer accepted representatives from the Sublime Porte.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Template:Translit' legitimacy increased, allowing them to establish a more stable form of government.Template:Sfn They were mainly elected from among the most powerful dignitaries of the Template:Translit's inner council known as "powers":Template:Sfn the treasurer, the commander-in-chief and the receiver of tribute.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Ottomans acknowledged Algiers' full sovereignty while maintaining a claim of formal suzerainty.Template:Sfn In practice, the Template:Translit only nominally recognized this by reciting the sultan's name on Friday prayers and striking it on their coins.Template:Sfn According to the 19th-century French politician Template:Ill:Template:Sfn

The investiture requested by the Deys from the Sultans was only a pure formality, a homage paid to the most powerful prince of Islamism, but in no way a recognition of sovereignty.

Strengthened authority

The Template:Translit imposed their authority on the janissaries and the .Template:Sfn European reactions, new treaties guaranteeing the safety of navigation and a slowdown in shipbuilding considerably reduced privateering.Template:Sfn The did not approve of treaty provisions which restricted their activity, which was their main source of income, and remained attached to the external prestige of the Regency.Template:Sfn They rebelled and killed Template:Translit Mohamed Ben Hassan in 1724.Template:Sfn The new Template:Translit, Baba Abdi Pasha, quickly restored order and severely punished the conspirators.Template:Sfn He made his rule more absolute but less violent; the Template:Translit was gradually wakened in favor of the Template:Translit's inner council,Template:Sfn resulting in more stability through the implementation of a bureaucracy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 3 February 1748 Template:Translit Mohamed Ibn Bekir issued The Fundamental Pact of 1748, a text that defined the rights of the subjects of Algiers and of all inhabitants of the Regency of Algiers. It codified the behavior of the different army units: janissaries, gunners, Template:Translit (Template:Lit) and sipahis.Template:EfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Fewer janissary recruits and a decreasing population and slave intakeTemplate:Sfn compelled the Template:Translit to expand and exploit the interior under their control.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the three Template:Translit (provinces), the Template:Translit relied on local notables since they had a limited number of janissaries. This allowed the Template:Translit to become Template:Translit.Template:Sfn Fewer renegade defections and corsair prizes would shift the Algerian economy towards international trade dominated by Jewish merchants,Template:Sfn who became a commercial power and eliminated many European merchant houses from the Mediterranean. This deeply worried the merchants of the French city of Marseilles, who saw their monopoly on Algerian external trade under threat.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The Jewish merchants not only traded in conventional goods but also played a key role in handling prize goods seized by corsairs. Their economic influence and extensive networks made them indispensable to the Algerian government, as they skillfully aligned their business interests with the state’s strategic needs. This caused several commercial disputes between Algiers and both Spain and France.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The latter's consuls harbored resentment toward Jewish merchants and repeatedly petitioned their government to enact regulations restricting their commercial activities in French ports.Template:Sfn

Appeased relations

In 1718 Template:Translit Ali Chaouch had Austrian ships captured in clear contradiction to the Treaty of Passarowitz between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, and ignored an Ottoman-Austrian delegation's demand for compensation.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, Algiers remained at peace with France and Britain, as both states had stronger fleets than Algiers but still believed it would be costly to fight wars against it.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Algiers imposed tributes and would trade further with Tunis and European states,Template:Sfn with whom Algiers signed numerous treaties, such as Austria in 1725, the Dutch Republic in 1726, Sweden in 1729, Tuscany in 1749 and Denmark in 1751–1752.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These treaties had been concluded faster than the 17th century's ones since European ships no longer used Muslim galley slaves and Algiers had set up a more stable succession system.Template:Sfn

Spain and Algiers had maintained their mutual animosity.Template:Sfn Determined to remove the Spanish from Oran, Template:Translit Mohammed Bektach took the opportunity afforded by the War of the Spanish Succession to send Mustapha Bouchelaghem Template:Translit at the head of a contingent of janissaries and local volunteers to take the city. He succeeded in 1707,Template:Sfn but in 1732 the Duke of Montemar's forces recaptured the city.Template:Sfn The Husaynid dynasty failed to free Tunis from Algerian suzerainty in 1735Template:Sfn and 1756.Template:Sfn Tunis remained an Algerian tributary until the early 19th century.Template:Sfn

Mohammed ben-Osman's rule

Bronze cannons displayed in an open area

Cannon of Template:Translit Muhammed ben-Osman, Hotel des Invalides

Baba Mohammed ben-Osman became Template:Translit in 1766 and ruled over a prosperous Algiers for 25 years until he died in 1791.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He built fortifications, fountains and a municipal water supply;Template:Sfn he also strengthened the navy,Template:Sfn kept the janissaries in check and developed trade.Template:Sfn The Algerian historian Nasreddin Saidouni reports that the Template:Translit placed in the state treasury 200,000 Algerian gold sequins (or sultani)Template:Sfn that he had saved from his salary during the Spanish attacks on Algiers.Template:Sfn His governor of Constantine, Salah Template:Translit, re-asserted Regency authority as far south as Touggourt.Template:Sfn During his rule, Algiers maintained its military superiority over its eastern and western neighbors.Template:Sfn

The Template:Translit increased the annual tribute paid by several European statesTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn such as Britain, Sweden, the Italian states and Denmark, which sent a naval campaign against Algiers under Frederik Kaas in 1770; the campaign failed, and Denmark was forced to pay heavy war compensations and send gifts to Algiers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1775 the Irish-born admiral of the Spanish Empire, Alejandro O'Reilly, led an expedition to subdue corsair activity in the Mediterranean. The assault's disastrous failure dealt a humiliating blow to the Spanish military.Template:Sfn This was followed by a first bombardment by Spanish admiral Antonio Barceló's fleet in 1783Template:Sfn and a second, much tougher one in 1784, also ending in defeat.Template:Sfn Led by Mohammed Kebir Template:Translit in 1791,Template:Sfn Algiers launched a final assault on Oran, which was retaken after negotiations between Template:Translit Hasan III Pasha and the Spanish Count of Floridablanca. The assault marked the end of almost 300 years of a state of war between Algeria and Spain.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Fall of the Regency (1792–1830)

Internal crisis

At the beginning of the 19th century, Algiers was plagued by political unrest and economic problems,Template:Sfn beginning with famine from 1803 to 1805.Template:Sfn Algerian reliance on the two influential Jewish merchants, Naphtali Busnash and David Bakri, to trade with Europe was so greatTemplate:Sfn that a crisis caused by crop failure led to the assassination of Busnash on 28 June 1805,Template:Sfn as he was held responsible for alienating Muslim merchants from key external trade and impoverishing the population.Template:Sfn This was followed by the assassination of Template:Translit Mustapha Pasha by the Template:Translit in August 1805.Template:Sfn Public unrest, a pogrom and successive coups followed, beginning a 20-year period of instability.Template:Sfn In 1804 the Alawi Sultanate incited a massive Sufi Darqawiyya revolt in the peripheries of the Regency,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was quelled with difficulty by the governor of Oran, Osman Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Meanwhile, payment delays caused frequent janissary revolts, leading to military setbacksTemplate:Sfn as Morocco took possession of Figuig in 1805 and then Tuat and Oujda in 1808.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Tunisia freed itself from Algerian suzerainty after the wars of 1807 and 1813, when a peace treaty was signed between the two regencies in 1817.Template:Sfn

Barbary Wars

British tribute payments no longer insured U.S. shipping traffic in the Mediterranean after the American Revolution.Template:Sfn This caused Algerian vessels to attack American merchant ships in 1785, claiming the latter were no longer under British protection and asserting an Algerian right to search and seizure.Template:Sfn The American president George Washington agreed to pay a ransom and annual tribute equal to $10 million over 12 years in accordance to a peace treaty with Algiers in 1795.Template:Sfn

Internal financial problems led Algiers to re-engage in widespread piracy against American and European shipping in the early 19th century, taking full advantage of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.Template:Sfn From 1798 to 1815, the North African corsairs captured over 500 ships,Template:Sfn with Algerian prizes amounting to 8,558,013 francs.Template:Sfn This caused the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II to protest against Template:Translit Omar Agha and his corsairs for attacking vessels belonging to both the Ottomans and European states at peace with the Sublime Porte.Template:Sfn However, Algiers was defeated in the Second Barbary War by the United States in 1815, when Commodore Stephen Decatur's squadron killed Algerian qubtan Reis Hamidou in the battle off Cape Gata on 17 June 1815,Template:Sfn ending the Algerian threat to U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean.Template:Sfn

The new European order that emerged from the Coalition Wars and the Congress of Vienna did not tolerate Algerian raids and viewed them as a "barbaric relic of a previous age".Template:Sfn In August 1816 British admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth carried out a bombardment of Algiers that ended in a British and Dutch victory, a weakened Algerian navy and the liberation of 1,200 slaves.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Translit Ali Khodja, with support from the Template:Translit and the Kabyles, disposed of the turbulent janissaries and transferred the seat of power and the treasury of the regency from the Template:Ill to the Casbah citadel in 1817.Template:Sfn The last Template:Translit of Algiers tried to nullify the consequences of the previous Algerian defeats by reviving buccaneering and resisting a British attack on Algiers in 1824,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn creating the illusion that Algiers could still defend itself against a divided Europe.Template:Sfn

French invasion

Ship attacking a walled city from its harbor

Admiral Dupperé attacking Algiers by sea, 3 July 1830, Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio (Palace of Versailles)

During the late 18th century, Algiers advanced on credit 2 million tons of wheat to the French First Republic through Busnash and Bakri.Template:Sfn In Napoleon's time, Algiers benefited greatly from Mediterranean trade and France's massive food imports,Template:Sfn many of which were bought on an advanced credit of 1,250,000 francs by Template:Translit Hasan III Pasha without interest.Template:Sfn Algiers would even object an Ottoman call to arms against France when Napoleon started his campaign in Egypt in 1798,Template:Sfn but Sultan Selim III forced Algiers to declare war in 1799Template:Sfn before a peace treaty was signed between France and the Ottoman Empire and its regencies in 1802.Template:Sfn The French paid the Jewish merchants' debt but ignored the money lent by the Template:Translit.Template:Sfn In 1827, Template:Translit Hussein Pasha demanded that the restored Kingdom of France pay off a 30-year-old debt dating from the 1790s for providing supplies to the soldiers of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt.Template:Sfn The response of French consul Pierre Deval displeased Hussein Template:Translit, who hit him with a fly whisk and called him an "infidel".Template:Sfn King Charles X took this incident as an opportunity to break off diplomatic relationsTemplate:Sfn and launch a full-scale invasion of Algeria on 14 June 1830. Algiers surrendered on 5 July, and Template:Translit Hussein went into exile in Naples, which marked the end of the Regency of Algiers.Template:Sfn The invasion led to the start of the Algerian popular resistance against the French colonial rule,Template:Sfn which would last until the Algerian independence in 1962.Template:Sfn

Historiographic assessments of the Regency of Algiers

American political scientist John P. Entelis stresses that Europeans saw Algiers as "the center of pirate activity – that captured the imagination of Europe as a fearsome and vicious enemy".Template:Sfn The 19thTemplate:Non breaking hyphencentury French historian Henri de Grammont said:

It gave the world the singular spectacle of a nation living from privateering and living only by it, resisting the incessant attacks directed against it with incredible vitality, submitting three quarters of Europe and the United States of America to the humiliation of an annual tribute; all this, despite unimaginable disorder and daily revolutions, which would have killed any other association, and which seemed to be essential to the existence of this strange people.Template:Sfn

British historian James McDougall called this claim a "colonial myth". He pointed out that after the 17th century, termed by Merouche the "century of privateering",Template:Sfn less lucrative privateering remained symbolic of a corsair state. Tribute payments to guarantee peace, trade, customs, taxation and increased agricultural production brought in most of the revenue of the Regency in the 18th century,Template:Sfn which Merouche termed the "century of wheat".Template:Sfn

American historian John Baptist Wolf argued that the local population resented occupation by a republic of foreign "cutthroats and thieves", and that the French "civilizing mission", although carried out by brutal means, offered much to the Algerian people.Template:Sfn However, the British historian Peter Holt indicates that this antagonism never took a nationalist aspect and was balanced by strong ties such as shared faith, social structure and culture.Template:Sfn The Algerian historian Nacereddin Saidouni argues that although Algeria was not a nation in the modern sense, it was nevertheless a local political entity that helped deepen the sense of community among large segments of the Algerian population in the countryside and cities.Template:Sfn The historian Yahia Boaziz noted that the Ottomans repelled European attacks and convinced the population to abide by the decisions of a centralised state.Template:Sfn

Historians John Douglas Ruedy and William Spencer write that the Ottomans in North Africa created an Algerian political entity with all the classical attributes of statehood and a high standard of living.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Historian Template:Interlanguage link considered the Ottoman period "catalytic to the modern geopolitical and national development of Algeria."Template:Sfn Saidouni affirms that Algeria took a similar path as the rest of the North African states that gradually imposed their sovereignty, as it was no different from Muhammad Ali's Egypt, Husainid Tunisia and Alawid Morocco.Template:Sfn Ruedy believes that the early 18th-century "deturkification" could have led to a 19th-century nationalization of the Algerian regime, but the French conquest put an end to this evolution.Template:Sfn He notes that the end of tribal rivalries and the emergence of a true nation state occurred only after long years of brutal French conquest and colonial implantation and unrelenting Algerian resistance, culminating in the Algerian war of independence in 1954.Template:Sfn

Administration

Three-story palace

Djenina Palace, seat of the Regency of Algiers. . Gallica. Bibliothèque nationale de France.Félix-Jacques Moulin.

The Regency of Algiers' prominence as a regional power was a result of the Ottoman naval strategy that aimed to dominate its Christian enemies through the establishment of permanent naval bases on North African soil.Template:Sfn The corsairs waged war against the Christians through gunpowder and the resources of the Ottoman Empire. This granted them both political and military superiority to defeat weak local emirates and impose a foreign elite on a divided Maghrebi society.Template:Sfn As a consequence Ottoman Algeria's administrative organization relied on a mixture of borrowed Ottoman systems and local traditions inherited from the Almohad Caliphate and its successor states. This was maintained by regular recruitment of military personnel from Ottoman ports in Anatolia and Morea, in exchange for tribute sent to the Sublime Porte.Template:Sfn

Stratocracy

Some contemporary observers described the Regency of Algiers as a "despotic, military-aristocratic republic".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The French philosopher Montesquieu considered the Algerian government to be an aristocracy with republican and egalitarian characteristics, elevating and deposing a despotic sovereign.Template:Sfn It was unique among Muslim countries in having limited democracy and elected rulers. Democracy was extremely unusual in 18th-century Europe, and the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau found Algiers impressive in this respect,Template:Sfn while historian Edward Gibbon considered Algiers a "military government that floats between absolute monarchy and wild democracy".Template:Sfn

Power was in the hands of the .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This government, described by the British philosopher Edmund Burke as "janizarian republick", centered on an Ottoman military aristocracy,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn which referred to itself as Algerian.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It consisted of several thousands of well-trained, resolute and democratically spirited Anatolian Turkish members of the janissary corps,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn but was separated from tribal and self-ruled indigenous society in the countryside.Template:Sfn Merouche calls the Template:Translit a "collective regime", a "sovereign community" and a "military republic".Template:Sfn

Inspired by his knowledge of Hospitaller Rhodes' organization during his captivity there (1501–1504), Aruj Reis excluded natives and Template:Translit from the Template:Translit, which was religiously endorsed and acted as a military order.Template:Sfn Unlike modern political democracies based on majority rule, transfers of power and competition between political parties, politics in Algiers relied on the principle of consensus (Template:Translit), which was legitimized by Islam and jihad.Template:Sfn Rural populations gave allegiance and paid taxes to a military authority that respected their maraboutsTemplate:Sfn and defended them against Christian powers.Template:Sfn

As a local government that accepted Ottoman suzerainty, Algiers underwent numerous political developments with the transformation of the Ottoman Empire from strength and expansion to weakness and stagnation.Template:Sfn American historian John Baptist Wolf noted that this 17th century military democracy was later hampered by the absolute rule of the Template:Translit, starting from Baba Ali Chaouch in 1710.Template:Sfn

Dey of Algiers

The French philosopher Marquis d'Argens compared 18th-century Algiers to the Roman Empire under Nero and Caligula and called it a republic, even though he also called the Template:Translit of Algiers a king.Template:Sfn Charles-André Julien wrote that the Template:Translit was head of an elective but absolute monarchy.Template:Sfn The Template:Translit was responsible for enforcing civil and military laws, ensuring internal security, generating necessary revenues, organizing and providing regular pay for soldiers and assuring relations with the tribes,Template:Sfn but his power was limited by privateer captains and the diwan of janissaries, since any member of either body could aspire to become Template:Translit.Template:Sfn His fortune came from his civil list (which did not exceed that of the highest paid member of the janissaries), and although he could still receive shares of privateer booty and gifts from consuls and Template:Translit, his fortune reverted to the public treasury in the event of assassination.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This led some authors who compared the Template:Translit to the king of Poland–Lithuania to call him a "despot without liberty",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn a "king of slaves and slave of his subjects" and a "man of wealth but far from a master of his treasures".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Electing the Template:Translit was accomplished in absolute equality by unanimous vote among the armed forces.Template:Sfn Ottoman Algerian dignitary Hamdan Khodja wrote:Template:Sfn

Among the members of the government two of them are called, one Template:Translit, and the other Template:Translit. It is from these dignitaries that the dey is chosen; sovereignty in Algiers is not hereditary: personal merit is not transmitted to children. In a way we could say that they adopted the principles of a republic, of which the dey is only the president.

Election was required for confirmation from the Ottoman sultan, who inevitably sent a Template:Translit of investiture, a red Template:Translit of honor, a saber of state and the rank of Pasha of Three Horsetails in the Ottoman army.Template:Sfn Because the Template:Translit was elected for life, executing him was the only method to attain power, so violence and instability flourished. This volatility led many early 18th-century European observers to point to Algiers as an example of the inherent dangers of democracy.Template:Sfn

Cabinet

The Template:Translit appointed and relied on five ministers (plus an agha), who formed the "council of the powers" to govern Algiers:Template:Sfn

• Template:Interlanguage link: Treasurer in charge of finances and the public treasury.Template:Sfn Often also translated as vizier of the Template:Translit, or prime minister.Template:Sfn
• Template:Interlanguage link: Commander-in-chief of the Template:Translit and minister of internal affairs,Template:Sfn he was also responsible for governing the Template:Interlanguage link (Template:Lit) region.Template:Sfn
• Template:Interlanguage link: Minister of the navy and foreign affairs,Template:Sfn he headed the Template:Translit by the start of the 18th century.Template:Sfn He was also responsible for matters relating to weapons, ammunition and fortifications.Template:Sfn
• Template:Interlanguage link: Responsible for relations with tribes, fiscal responsibilities and tax collections; he usually headed expeditions to the tribal interior. He also had the ceremonial role of "secretary of horses" and was assisted by a Template:Translit (Template:Lit).Template:Sfn
• Template:Translit: Responsible for the state domain (Template:Translit Template:Lit) and for rights devolved to the treasury such as vacant inheritances, registrations and confiscations.Template:Sfn

Diwan council

Black and white painting of a man seated on a high seat in a type of court, with people all around him

Hasan Agha addresses audiences in a large square. Attitude of the Divan of Algiers, by Jan Luyken (1684). Amsterdam Museum

The Template:Translit of Algiers was established in the 16th century by Hayreddin Reis. To manage state affairs and govern the country, he relied on carefully chosen janissary members of the Template:Translit council.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This assembly, initially led by a janissary agha, evolved from an administrative body within the Template:Translit into a primary institution holding true power in Algiers.Template:Sfn By the middle of the 17th century, it elected the head of state.Template:Sfn

The Template:Translit comprised two divisions:Template:Sfn

• Template:Translit (Template:Lit): Any recruit could rise through the ranks (one every three years). Over time, he would serve among 24 janissary Template:Translit (Template:Lit), who were ranked by seniority and voted on high politics.Template:Sfn The commander-in-chief or "Agha of Two Moons"Template:Sfn was elected for a term of two months as president of the Template:Translit.Template:Sfn During the Agha period (1659–1671) he was the actual ruler of the Regency and held the title of Template:Translit.Template:Sfn The agha was the holder of the Template:Translit (Template:Lit) of 1748,Template:Sfn which was often considered the constitutional basis of the Regency.Template:Sfn According to Hamdan Khodja:Template:Sfn

  The head of this Template:Translit is called Template:Translit; he carries a saber and a kind of relic which contains the regulations of the regency (their charter); The agha must always carry this relic with him and never part without it.

• Template:Translit (Template:Lit): Composed of 800 to 1,500 Hanafi scholars and preachers, the Template:Translit, and native notables.Template:Sfn By the early-mid 17th century, the pasha, the agha of the janissaries and the Template:Translit of the corsairs were heads of their respective factions in the Grand Template:Translit, holding decision-making powerTemplate:Sfn and sharing sovereignty in Algiers.Template:Sfn However, starting from the Agha period, the Grand Template:Translit convened only to make wartime decisions and to resolve serious disputes within the government.Template:Sfn At the beginning of their mandate, the Template:Translit consulted the Template:Translit on all important questions and decrees. This council in principle met weekly, depending on the Template:Translit, though by the 19th century, the Template:Translit could ignore the Template:Translit whenever he felt powerful enough to govern alone.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Judicial hierarchy

In Algiers, two distinct Islamic legal systems operated: Hanafi law for the Turks and Maliki law for the wider Muslim population. Each system had its own Template:Translit (Template:Lit),Template:Sfn appointed from Constantinople in the early 17th century. The Template:Translit handled most appeals, except for members of the Template:Translit, who could escalate cases to their agha. Above the Template:Translit were the Template:Translit (Template:Lit), chosen by the Template:Translit for their integrity and knowledge, recognizable by their white kaftans. Imams, though not legal officials, were often consulted on complex Koranic issues.Template:Sfn The Jews had their own courts and the Christians reverted to consular courts regarding commercial, civil and criminal cases, which would come under the jurisdiction of the Template:Translit and the Template:Translit if Muslims were involved.Template:Sfn

Territorial management

File:Nouvelle carte des régences d'Alger, de Tunis, de Tripoli, et de l'Empire de Maroc - dressée d'après les matériaux les plus récents par L. Berthe... - btv1b53098491f.jpg

Administrative division of the Regency of Algiers in 1830, by L. Berthe

The Regency was composed of various Template:Translit under the authority of Template:Translit (Template:Lit):Template:Sfn

• The Dar al-Sultan included the city of Algiers and nearby ports.
• The eastern Template:Translit, named after its capital, Constantine.
• The beylik of Titteri in the centre was established in 1548, with Médéa as its capital.
• The beylik of the West was established in 1563; its capital moved from Mascara to Mazouna in 1710, then to Oran in 1791.

These Template:Translit were institutionally distinct and enjoyed significant autonomy.Template:Sfn Under the Template:Translit system, the Template:Translit divided their Template:Translit into , or counties, governed by (Template:Lit) under the authority of the Template:Translit to maintain order and collect taxes.Template:Sfn The Template:Translit ran an administrative system and managed their Template:Translit with the help of commanders and governors among the makhzen tribes. In return, these tribes enjoyed special privileges, including exemption from taxes.Template:Sfn The Template:Translit of Constantine relied on the strength of the local tribes, particularly the Beni Abbas in Medjana and the Arab tribes in Hodna and the M'zab region. The chiefs of these tribes were called "Sheikh of the Arabs".Template:Sfn This system allowed Algiers to expand its authority over northern Algeria for three centuries.Template:Sfn

Economy

Arabic inscriptions on a steel made structure.

Coin striking mold, Algiers, Ottoman period

File:2 Budju of Ottoman Algeria - Mahmud II 1823.png

2 Budju of Mahmud II

Monetary system

Algiers used three main categories of currency:Template:Sfn

• Gold coins: The Template:Translit and Template:Translit, weighing approximately 3.2 grams, the half Template:Translit (1.6 grams) and the quarter Template:Translit (0,8 grams).
• Silver coins: These were widely circulated and included the Algerian budju, weighing 10 grams and would equate 3 Algerian Template:Translit.
• Copper or billon coins: The Template:Translit or Template:Translit, sometimes referred to as the Template:Translit. Additionally, there was the Template:Translit, a copper coin that fell out of use during the 18th century.

A unit of account, which did not exist as physical coinage, was also in use: The Template:Translit, also known as the "current piastre of Algiers" in Europe, and known in Algiers as Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Algerian currency was minted at the Template:Ill, the mint located in Algiers, in conformity with the standards set by the Sublime Porte in terms of metal content, weight and value.Template:Sfn This institution played a significant role in monetary policy, as the Template:Translit adjusted the quality of the alloys based on their needs.Template:Sfn American consul in Algiers William Shaler indicated that in the 1820s, the treasury of the Casbah contained at least 250 million francs. During the French conquest of Algiers in 1830, more than 100 million francs were pillaged from the treasury according to Julien.Template:Sfn

Slave trade

Algerian corsairs captured many people on land and at sea from Mediterranean shores to Atlantic high seas.Template:Sfn According to Wolf, at least 400,000 slaves were brought to the slave market in the city of Algiers, known as Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn between 1520 and 1660. From 1660 to 1830 numbers went down to at least 200,000 slaves, without counting the slave population in the entire Regency,Template:Sfn totaling over one million European slaves in the early modern period as claimed by American historian Robert Davis. As a result, slavery became the cornerstone of the Algerian economy.Template:Sfn

Government-owned captives were held in prisons called ; six operated in Algiers.Template:Sfn Privately owned captives were housed by their owners,Template:Sfn who were often rich Turkish, moorish and morisco individuals.Template:Sfn After captured individuals were paraded naked, examined and inspected to assess their qualities, social position and value,Template:Sfn they were divided into four groups:

• Those believed ransomable: Usually rich and better referred to as "captives", they were an important source of revenue. Their owners spared them the hardest tasks to preserve their value, as they were to be ransomed as quickly as possible.Template:Sfn "The captive was a piece of merchandise which it was to no one's interest to damage", noted Julien.Template:Sfn
• Those not believed ransomable: Lower-class and priced like their Muslim counterparts in France,Template:Sfn these prisoners often became galley slaves or were assigned to other forced labor like moving rocks. A few were chosen as household domestic slaves.Template:Sfn
• Those freed without ransom to be exchanged for Muslim captives, to honor prior agreements between states, or because a war had been lost.Template:Sfn
• Those with special skills, such as surgeons and master carpenters who built or repaired ships, often could not be ransomed at any price.Template:Sfn

The pasha took his share of the "best merchandise" first.Template:Sfn The next day after midday prayer the rest of the slaves were led one by one near the docks, where a guardian would give the crowd an account of their worth before they were sold to the highest bidders.Template:Sfn These were usually wealthy corsair captains, merchants and members of the Jewish community.Template:Sfn

In Spain, France and the Dutch Republic,Template:Sfn ransom funds came from the captive's family, the state or religious orders of the Catholic church who negotiated in Algiers for the captives.Template:Sfn Catholic missions such as the Trinitarians and the MercedariansTemplate:Sfn were instructed to identify captives in danger of apostasy, captives whose family and friends had raised money and valuable individuals before reaching a ransom agreement.Template:Sfn Captives who could buy their own freedom were allowed to move freely in Algiers, and often managed its taverns.Template:Sfn Christians were exchanged for small sums in the early 16th century. However, in the 17th century redemptionist missions paid at least 150 pounds for their freedom.Template:Sfn Persons of distinction were almost priceless:Template:Sfn the Spanish governor of Oran Don Martín de Córdoba was released from captivity for 23,000 Spanish escudos. Catalan nobleman Glaceran de Pinos paid 100,000 doubles of gold and offered 100 pieces of silk for his freedom.Template:Sfn The governor of the Canary Islands bought himself back in 1670 for 60,000 pounds.Template:Sfn

After ransom was paid, additional fees for customs duties were still required,Template:Sfn over 50 percent of the agreed ransom:Template:Sfn

• 10% for customs
• 15% for the pasha or Template:Translit
• 4% for the Template:Translit
• 7% for the Template:Translit (Template:Lit)Template:Sfn
• 17% for prison guards

Royalties

Algiers charged its European trading partners royalties for freedom of navigation in the western Mediterranean and gave the merchants of those countries special privileges, including lower customs duties.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Royalties were also imposed on Bremen, Hanover and Prussia, in addition to the Papal States at times.Template:Sfn These royalties were paid annually or biennially and differed according to the relationship between those countries and Algiers, and the conditions prevailing in that period had an impact on determining their amounts, shown in the following table:Template:Sfn

Royalties: Late 18th century to early 19th century

Country	Year	Value
Spanish Empire	1785–1807	After signing the armistice of 1785 and withdrawing from Oran, was required to pay 18,000 francs. It paid 48,000 dollars in 1807.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany	1823	Before 1823, 25,000 (Tuscan lira) or 250,000 francs.
Kingdom of Portugal	1822	20,000 francs
Kingdom of Sardinia	1746– 1822	Under the treaty of 1746, 216,000 francs by 1822.
Kingdom of France	1790– 1816	Before 1790, it paid 37,000 . After 1790, it pledged to pay 27,000 piastres, or 108,000 francs, and in 1816 committed to pay 200,000 francs.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1807	It pledged to pay 100,000 piastres, or 267,500 francs, in exchange for certain privileges.
Kingdom of the Netherlands	1807–1826	In the treaty of 1826, it committed to paying 10,000 Algerian sequins, and in 1807, it paid 40,000 piastres, or 160,000 francs.
Austrian Empire	1807	In 1807, paid an estimated 200,000 francs.
United States	1795–1822	In 1795 paid 1,000,000 dollars annually, and $10 million over 12 years, in exchange for special privileges. Equipment accounted for 21,600 dollars.Template:Sfn
Kingdom of Naples	1816–1822	Paid royalties estimated at 24,000 francs. Starting 1822, paid a royalty of 12,000 francs every two years.
Kingdom of Norway	1822	Royalty of 12,000 francs every two years.
Denmark	1822	Paid 180,000 francs every two years.
Kingdom of Sweden	1822	120,000 francs every two years.
Republic of Venice	1747–1763	From 1747, it paid 2,200 gold coins annually, which in 1763 became an estimated 50,000 riyals (Venetian lira).

Trade

External trade

Two ships with sails and smaller boats with oars in a harbor, with a walled city and a citadel behind them and a steep hill in the background

Dutch shipping off Algiers. Oil on canvas, Reinier Nooms (1623/1624–1664). National Maritime Museum.

Along with tribute payments, Algerian wheat exports to Europe replaced privateering as its primary source of income in the 18th century and became the core factor in trade relations between Algiers and Britain, Genoa and France.Template:Sfn The French Template:Interlanguage link (Template:Lit) controlled French wheat imports in 1741 from the Algerian Constantinois region.Template:Sfn Merouche wrote:Template:Sfn

[...] well over 100,000 quintals of wheat (is) exported each year from Algerian ports in 1698 and 1699. The great movement of cereal exports began in 1693 and would expand thereafter. The century of wheat succeeded the century of privateering.

Most Algerian exports went to Marseilles. Exports included, according to historian William Spencer, "carpets, embroidered handkerchiefs, silk scarves, ostrich feathers,Template:Sfn wax, wool, animal hides and skins, dates, and a coarse native linen similar to muslin".Template:Sfn The sea trade was run by the Bakri and Busnash families, who had settled in Algeria by 1720.Template:Sfn After acting as mediators in the Christian slave trade in the heyday of privateering,Template:Sfn they entangled the public interest of the Regency with the private interests of their own companies through their European contacts.Template:Sfn These merchants amassed massive wealth from dealing in goods such as wheat and leather and from their monopoly on olive oil and customs taxation. They became the financiers of the Template:Translit and mediators between Algiers and Europe, both in diplomacy and in trade.Template:Sfn

Large caravans of 300 mules went overland to neighbouring Tunisia twice a year.Template:Sfn The city of Constantine was a meeting point for caravans from the Sahara, Tunis and Algiers; they were loaded with woven fabric, carpets, chechias, luxury goods and coffee. Caravans from the south brought dates and wool products like burnouses and haiks.Template:Sfn In the west, Tlemcen was linked by trade routes as far as Tafilalt in Morocco and Timbuktu in the Sudan. The former brought salt, spices, Moroccan leather, silk and gunstock; the latter, ostrich feathers, ivory, slaves, vermillion, copper and gold.Template:Sfn "Desert oases have historically been essential, strategic locations in trans-Saharan routes," wrote Chaibou and Bonnet, naming "Bilma (Niger), Ouardane (Mauritania), In Salah (Algeria), Taoudenni (Mali), Iférouane, Chinguetti (Mauritania), Kufra, and Murzuk (Libya)."Template:Sfn

Imbalanced trade

Algerian commerce faced significant constraints due to state-imposed monopolies designed to secure stable revenues. Key exports like salt, olive oil, and hides were heavily restricted, with some reserved for trade only within the Ottoman Empire,Template:Sfn while trade in military assets such as cannons and small arms was prohibited.Template:Sfn Regional monopolies, such as those granted to the Template:Translit of Oran and the French at Bona, further limited trade, while export licenses and concessions for goods like grain, wool, and wax added bureaucratic hurdles.Template:Sfn These measures stabilized state finances but stifled local economic growth, leading to an unfavorable balance of trade. Despite adherence to Ottoman capitulations in theory, local regulations prevailed in practice. Import duties were set at 12.5%, export duties at 2.5%, and port fees added further costs.Template:Sfn

In 1822, the Regency's international trade totaled approximately 7 million francs, with imports making up 80% of the total. This reliance on imported goods led to economic challenges,Template:Sfn including deindustrialization and capital outflow. Export revenues declined significantly, particularly due to the near disappearance of wheat from foreign trade, a major export in earlier centuries. By the late 1820s, the total trade value had dropped to around 5 million francs.Template:Sfn

Internal trade

Overland trade used animals to transport goods. Carts could be used on suitable roads. The many official posts of the Template:Translit and the makhzen tribes along the way provided security for caravans. In addition, caravanserais, locally known as , gave travelers a place to rest.Template:Sfn Products such as wool from the tribal interior were traded in bazaars (known locally as Template:Translit). These took the names of tribes preceded by days of the week, for example: Template:Translit (Template:Literal translation). Souks formed hubs for trading agricultural products such as grain, olives, cattle, sheep and horses.Template:Sfn In urban marketplaces they bought imported jewelry, textiles and pottery. Jewish intermediaries helped further exchanges between cities and the countryside.Template:Sfn

Administrative control over the Sahara was often loose, but Algiers's economic ties to it were very important,Template:Sfn and Algerian cities were among the main destinations of the trans-Saharan slave trade.Template:Sfn In the late 18th century the Regency "appears to have witnessed considerable commercial activity in the Algerian Sahara, related perhaps to the period of stability and prosperity under Template:Translit Baba Mohammed ben-Osman, who ruled at Algiers from 1766 to 1791", Donald Holsinger wrote, "despite the picture of commercial decadence which has sometimes been painted for the Regency".Template:Sfn

Taxation

Some of the taxes levied by the Regency fell under Islamic law, including the Template:Translit (tithe) on agricultural products, but some had elements of extortion.Template:Sfn Periodic tithes could only be collected from crops grown on private farmland near the towns; instead, nomadic tribes in the mountains paid a fixed tax, called Template:Translit (Template:Lit), based on a rough estimate of their wealth. In addition, rural populations also paid a tax known as Template:Translit (Template:Lit) or Template:Translit (Template:Lit) that paid for Muslim armies to defend the country from Christians. City dwellers had other taxes, including market taxes and dues to artisan guilds.Template:Sfn Template:Translit also collected (Template:Lit) every six months for the Template:Translit and their chief ministers. Every Template:Translit had to personally bring Template:Translit every three years. In other years, his Template:Translit (Template:Lit) could take it to Algiers.Template:Sfn

The arrival of a Template:Translit or Template:Translit in Algiers with Template:Translit was a notable event governed by a protocol setting out how to receive him and when his gifts would be given to the Template:Translit, his ministers, officials and the poor. The honors that the Template:Translit received depended on the value of the gifts he brought. Al-Zahar reported that the chief of the western province was expected to pay more than 20,000 Template:Translit, half that in jewelry, four horses, fifty black slaves, wool from Tlemcen, silk garments from Fez, and twenty quintals each of wax, honey, butter, and walnuts. Template:Translit from the eastern province was larger and included Tunisian perfumes and clothing.Template:Sfn

Agriculture

Man on horseback herding goats

Kabyle Shepherd, by Eugène Fromentin (1820–1876). Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Agricultural production eventually overtook privateering as a source of Regency revenue in the 18th century.Template:Sfn Fallowing and crop rotation were widely practiced. Wheat, cotton, rice, tobacco, watermelon and corn were the most commonly grown products.Template:Sfn Cereals and livestock products especially constituted much of the export trade after providing for local consumption of oil, grain, wool, wax and leather.Template:Sfn

The state owned very fertile lands called . Located near the main towns, these lands were granted to Turkish military personnel, Template:Translit families, makhzen tribes and urban notables under the (Template:Lit) system.Template:Sfn Fahs were cultivated by tenant farmers who received a fifth of the harvest under the sharecropping system for common land.Template:Sfn The northern Metija region provided it with various fruits and vegetables.Template:Sfn Algerian wine was particularly sought after in Europe for its quality.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Vast areas of Algeria's land were known as (Template:Lit), where animal husbandry predominated.Template:Sfn Historian Mahfoud Kaddache stresses: "Arsh land, land of the tribes, belongs to the tribal community, it is frequently divided into two parts; the larger part, undivided, is used by the entire tribe and forms pasture areas, the second part is reserved for crops and allocated between families."Template:Sfn Lands classified as (Template:Lit) were under customary Berber law and were possessed and inherited through tribal families.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Algeria's agricultural wealth came from the quality of the cultivated land, agricultural techniques (ploughs dragged by oxen, donkeys, mules, or camels), and irrigation and water systems that supplied small collective dams. The Algerian historian Template:Interlanguage link wrote: "Tlemcen, Mostaganem, Miliana, Médéa, Mila, Constantine, M'sila, Aïn El-Hamma, etc., were always sought after for their green sites, their orchards and their succulent fruits."Template:Sfn South of the Tell Atlas, most of the western population and the people of the Sahara were pastoralists, nomads and semi-nomads who grew dates and bred sheep, goats and camels. Their products (butter, wool, skins, camel hair) were traded northTemplate:Sfn in their annual migration to summer pastures.Template:Sfn

Crafts

Two flintlock pistols inlaid with salmon-colored coral

Coral-decorated pistols presented by the Template:Translit of Algiers as a gift to the Prince Regent (later George IV of Great Britain) in 1811 and 1819. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Algerian manufacturing was largely related to shipyards,Template:Sfn which built frigates of oak sourced from Kabylia. The smaller ports of Ténès, Cherchell, Dellys, Béjaïa and Djidjelli built shallops, brigs, galiots, tartanes and xebecs used to fish or transport goods between Algerian ports.Template:Sfn Christian slaves were employed in these shipyards, often managed by Christian renegades, and sometimes even free Christians as captains of armament or engineers of naval constructions, whose services were hired without a requirement to convert to Islam.Template:Sfn Several workshops supported repairs and rope-making.Template:Sfn The quarries of Bab El-Oued extracted stone, raw material for buildings and fortifications.Template:Sfn The Bab El-Oued foundries produced cannons of all sizes for the warships of the Algerian navy and for use as fort batteries and field artillery.Template:Sfn

Cities were established centers for artisanry and served as hubs for international trade.Template:Sfn Residents of Nedroma, Tlemcen, Oran, Mostaganem, Kalaa, Dellys, Blida, Médéa, Collo, M'Sila, Mila and Constantine were mostly artisans and merchants. The most common crafts were weaving, woodturning, dyeing, rope-making and tool-making.Template:Sfn Algiers was home to foundries, shipyards and workshops. Tlemcen had more than 500 looms. Artisans were prevalent even in small towns.Template:Sfn

Society

Urban population

Turbanned man wearing a surcoat

Marabout of Algiers. Nicholas Bonnart (1637–1718). Gallica.

At most 6% of the population lived in cities.Template:Sfn In the 17th century the population of Algiers was dominated by refugees from Andalusia and also included about 35,000 European slaves working on the docks and in quarries and shipyards.Template:Sfn In the 18th century, French and Italian Jewish merchants began to arrive, a distinct and more affluent group than the Jewish minority among the earlier Andalusi arrivals.Template:Sfn

In the early 19th century the Regency's population numbered 2,5Template:Sfn or 3 millions.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn It included around 10,000 Turks, 5000 Koulouglis,Template:Sfn and about 1,000 black slaves who worked as household servants; many freed black slaves also worked on the docks as masons.Template:Sfn Local administration was managed entirely by native Maghrebi Moors who could hold legal and police powers within Algiers as mayors.Template:Sfn They supervised guilds which regulated most trade and, like city neighborhoods headed by (Template:Lit), responded to emergencies and strengthened community solidarity.Template:Sfn The Muslim faith prevailed in every aspect of life.Template:Sfn The fraternal relations in the hierarchical system of urban Algiers were devoid of rivalry between the few great merchants in the wealthy upper class and the poorer lower classes of shopkeepers, craftsmen and scholars.Template:Sfn In addition to butcher shops and grocery stores, Ibadi Mozabites operated bath houses.Template:Sfn The shops and bazaars clustered around the alleys off the single main street of the lower city near the harbor,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn overlooking the sea in the lower town or strategically located at crossroads.Template:Sfn

Languages

Public business was carried out in both Osmanli and Arabic.Template:Sfn The former was used by the Template:Translit as the official language of the Regency,Template:Sfn while the latter was common among the native population, Moriscos and eventually the Turks as well.Template:Sfn Arabic would also attain official status by the start of the Template:Translit period.Template:Sfn A lingua franca, called Sabir, had emerged in Algiers, blending Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, and Provençal. It would develop as a common language among European renegades, prisoners, and resident merchants.Template:Sfn

Social structures

In rural areas, the tribe was a primary social and political structure based upon family.Template:Sfn Competition among tribes for land and water was mediated through a sense of unity based on consanguinity, shared Islamic faith and their economic need to trade with each other to prevent dangerous social friction and encourage unity against external threats.Template:Sfn Under the Regency's rule, a complex link of interdependencies would develop between the tribes and the state; the tribes adapted to government pressure and would participate in power dynamics through both collaboration and competition with the state. The latter would establish order from a tribal setting.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The city being the political and military center of power was no longer a source of constant political repression over its hinterland from which it extracted wealth,Template:Sfn ending a centuries-old factionalism between urban and rural inhabitants of the central Maghreb.Template:Sfn Cities and villages articulated their own organizations within the tribal systems and confederations.Template:Sfn Although they depended on tribal society, cities weakened the political power and influence of tribes by giving more weight to the individual, allowing more personal freedom. The tribes' importance varied from region to region; they remained relatively important in the Aurès mountains of eastern Algeria, for example.Template:Sfn Inside cities, tribes were assigned social roles; the Biskri Berbers were charged with street maintenance and guarding quarters, and the Berbers of Kabylia and Aurès frequently worked in Algiers.Template:Sfn

The state was sometimes necessary for the prestige of the tribes; Makhzen tribes derived their legitimacy and power from their affiliation to the government, protecting urban areas, collecting taxes and exercising military control of the state in the countryside. The tribes were tax-paying subjects, and the siba tribes were dissidents who opposed taxes, which reduced their surplus production.Template:Sfn However, they still depended on market access organised by the state and the makhzen tribes. The markets outside the territories dependent on the state were managed by the marabouts who very often acted as guarantors of tribal order.Template:Sfn

The political authority of the tribes depended either on their military strength or their religious lineage.Template:Sfn These two aristocracies—the religious brotherhoods who dominated the west, and the Template:Interlanguage link strongman families of the east—often opposed one another.Template:Sfn Algerian society had three separate aristocracies:Template:Sfn

• : warriors, often heads of powerful autonomous tribes or tribal confederations,Template:Sfn like the Berber Mokranis, Beni Abbas or Ben-Gana family of the Arab Hilalian confederations in the eastern Template:Translit. The latter were related to Template:Translit Ahmed of Constantine. The Regency often saw these tribes as allies.Template:Sfn
• : a religious nobility who claimed descent from the prophet Muhammad. They were often members of the religious and socio-politically priviledged Template:Translit institution of the Ottoman Empire.Template:Sfn The last Algerian Template:Translit Al-ZaharTemplate:Sfn was a member of this nobility. Other sharifs were members of Sufi Template:Translit, like the Emir Abdelkader, who was affiliated with the Qadiriyya Template:Translit (Template:Lit).Template:Sfn
• Marabouts like Awled Sidi Cheikh ruled the western oases until the 19th century.Template:Sfn Relying on religious ascendancy, they maintained order and preserved social and tribal links. The Awlad Sidi Cheikh were not a dynasty but a political confederation headed by a (Template:Lit) and maintained by maraboutic brotherhoods.Template:Sfn Marabouts also shared in corsair booty.Template:Sfn

Culture

Education

Arabic inscription on a hexagram

Inscription about a school built by Template:Translit Baba Ali Chaouch within a Seal of Solomon. Algerian Museum of Antiquities

Education mainly took place in small primary Template:Translit (Template:Lit) that focused on reading, writing and religion.Template:Sfn Imams, Template:Translit, marabouts and elders did most of the teaching.Template:Sfn Literacy was so effectively taught in these religious schools that in 1830 the literacy rate in Algeria was higher than in France.Template:Sfn Template:Translit or muftis often taught at the Template:Translit (Template:Lit) of the larger cities, maintained through central government funding and an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law, known as Template:Translit.Template:Sfn The students received education on Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic medicine. Afterwards they became teachers, joined the Template:Translit and muftis or pursued further education in the universities of Tunis, Fez or Cairo.Template:Sfn

In the Zayyanid period, Tlemcen had been a primary center of Islamic culture, but schools and universities there declined due to neglect. Abu Hammu II's madrasa, known as Template:Translit, fell into complete ruin.Template:Sfn The military and naval Ottoman elites, driven by a strong belief in the need to prevent northern Christendom from expanding its military influence into the Maghreb, prioritized fortifications, naval fleets, and castles over the development of intellectual culture. This strategic focus on defense and military infrastructure came at the expense of fostering learning and scholarly pursuits.Template:Sfn In the late 18th century, the Template:Translit of Oran Mohammed el Kebir, significantly invested in renovating and rebuilding several new educational facilities in the region.Template:Sfn

Architecture

Architecture during this period showed a convergence of Ottoman influence with local traditions.Template:Sfn Mosques began to be built with domes under Ottoman influence, but minarets generally still had square shafts in the local tradition instead of the round or octagonal shafts seen in other Ottoman provinces, where pencil-shaped minarets were symbols of Ottoman sovereignty.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Ali Bitchin Mosque in Algiers was commissioned by its namesake in 1622.Template:Sfn The Djamaa el Djedid (Template:Lit), built in 1660–1661, became one of the most important Hanafi mosques in Algiers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Architecturally one of the most significant remaining mosques of this era, it exemplifies a mix of Ottoman, North African, and European design elements, with its main dome preceded by a large barrel-vaulted nave.Template:Sfn By the end of the 18th century, the city had over 120 mosques, including over a dozen congregational mosques.Template:Sfn

Of the emblematic Ketchaoua Mosque, built by Template:Translit Hassan III Pasha, Moroccan statesman and historian Abu al-Qasim al-Zayyani wrote in 1795: "The money spent on it...was more than anyone could allow himself to spend except those whom God grants success."Template:Sfn Originally similar in design to the Ali Bitchin Mosque, its appearance radically changed under French colonial rule.Template:Sfn

After the Ottomans arrived, architectural ceramic tiles replaced Template:Translit tiles decorated with stars and polygons used in geometric patterns in the medieval Maghreb.Template:Sfn Square decorative ceramic tiles were widespread in Algiers and Constantine, with simpler examples in Tlemcen.Template:Sfn According to Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Araj, "In the Turkish era tiles were characterized by...motifs in Islamic art such as epigraphic, geometric, and floral motifs."Template:Sfn In addition to landscapes, seascapes, ships and animals, the tiles came in three types: Turkish, Tunisian and European (sourced from Italy, Spain and the Netherlands).Template:Sfn They decorated interior walls and floors, forming bands, patterns and frames around door jambs, window frames and balusters.Template:Sfn

Algiers was protected by a wall about Template:Convert long with five gates.Template:Sfn Seafront fortifications were supplemented by forts outside the city, which included the "star fort" built above the Template:Translit in 1568 to defend the landward approaches to the city,Template:Sfn the twenty-four hour fort in 1568–1569, and the Uluj Ali fort built in 1569 covering the Bab El-Oued beach. Facing south was the Template:Ill (Template:Lit), built between 1545 and 1580.Template:Sfn The Casbah occupied the highest point of the city. The lower town near the harbor was the center of Regency administration and contained the most important markets, mosques, palaces, janissary barracks and government buildings such as the mint.Template:Sfn

The construction of Djenina Palace, also called the Pasha's palace, was begun in 1552 by Salah Reis and finished in 1556.Template:Sfn Ali Bitchin's Spanish captive Emmanuel de Aranda described it as "a public structure for those who are advanced to that charge [i.e., the position of governor], well built after the modern way of Architecture". He added: "The most beautiful house in Algiers is that of Bacha [Bassa], or Viceroy, which is almost in the middle of the city. [It has] two small galleries one above the other, supported by a double row of columns of marble and porphyry."Template:Sfn The Djenina was located at the center of a larger complex known as the Dar al-Sultan until 1817, when Template:Translit Ali Khodja moved to the Palace of the Dey in the Casbah.Template:Sfn The only building from the Dar al-Sultan complex that remains today is the Dar 'Aziza Bint al-Bey. American art historian Jonathan M. Bloom believes it to have been built in the 16th century.Template:Sfn

Arts

Crafts

Three centuries of Ottoman influence in Algeria left many cultural elements of Turkish origin or influence, wrote the French specialist professor of handicraft studies, Lucien Golvin.Template:Sfn

• Brassware imported by janissaries likely inspired copper lanterns, trays, and ewers made in Algiers, Constantine and Tlemcen with Ottoman decorative elements like tulips and carnations.Template:Sfn
• Ornate bronze door knockers were manufactured in Tlemcen until about 1930. Algiers and Constantine produced simpler versions.Template:Sfn
• Saddlers made velvet-covered saddles embroidered with gold or silver thread, and bridles, belts, saddlecloths and boots with traditional Ottoman ornamentation.Template:Sfn
• Template:Translit rugs and rugs from Kula seem to have influenced the early 19th-century adoption into the rugs of Hammam Guergour, Nemencha and Harakta tribes of large central lozenge-shaped medallions with arched lobes in a mihrab pattern, bordered by bands of floral elements. Those produced at the Qalat Banu Rashid fortress displayed multiple medallions in a more Andalusi style, and in the Amour mountains the Template:Interlanguage link continued to produce traditional tent rugs in geometric patterns.Template:Sfn
• Clothing of janissaries, Template:Translit and other dignitaries was distinctive enough to be known in the Mediterranean as "Algerian style", including turbans and red Template:Translit, burnouses, kaftans, sédria (Template:Lit) embroidered with patterns, wide and baggy trousers belted with broad silk sashes, and babouche slippers. They were frequently armed with yatagans.Template:Sfn
• Needle lace (Template:Translit) and embroidery from Algiers were made under Template:Translit (Template:Lit) on a Template:Translit (Template:Lit). Embroidery from Annaba and Djidjilli was multicolored with flat dots.Template:Sfn

Music

New arrivals from Anatolia and Spain brought music to Algiers. Accented Ottoman military music with Sufi bektashi origins was played by janissary bands called Template:Translit.Template:Sfn Andalusi classical music brought to Algiers by Moriscos developed three styles: Tlemcenian Template:Translit, Constantine's Template:Translit and Template:Translit in Algiers.Template:Sfn It was widespread in coffeehouses and often played by orchestras of Template:Translit, Template:Translit and Template:Translit.Template:Sfn Contemporary Algerian chaabi musician El-Hachemi Guerouabi recounts the exploits of corsairs against the Knights of Malta in his song Template:Translit (English: Our corsairs captured a prize) based on 16th-century Algerian Arabic poetry by Imad Al-Din Doukkali.Template:Sfn

See also

• Alonso de Contreras, 16th-17th century Spanish privateer
• Andalusi nubah, North African music form inspired by Andalusian music
  • Nuubaat, Algerian form inspired by Andalusi nubah
• Islamic geometric patterns; discusses zellij
• Template:Interlanguage link, (Book of Navigation)
  • Ahmed Muhiddin Piri (c. 1465 – 1553), author of the above book
• List of Ottoman rulers of Algiers
• List of foreigners who were in the service of the Ottoman Empire
• Muqarnas#Maghreb and al-Andalus, architectural vaulting
• Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting
• Orientalism in early modern France
• Ottoman Baroque architecture
• Ottoman clothing
• Ottoman music
• Sayyida al Hurra, Moroccan pirate leader
• Sklavenkasse, enslavement insurance for Europeans captured by pirates
• Treaty of Tripoli, treaty between the US and Tripolitania
• Tulip Era
• Turquerie
• Jean Baptiste Vanmour, known for painting Ottoman subjects
• Jan Janszoon, was a Dutch ottoman pirate
• Yusuf Rais, English-born Ottoman pirate

References

Bibliography

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