Regency of Algiers

Conquest of Oran, 19th century painting by Francisco Jover y Casanova. Cardinal Cisneros in red

After the fall of the Emirate of Granada in 1492, Spain experienced significant military and economic growth, which contributed to a gradual rise of Spain and Portugal as two powerful countries. Benefitting from their geographical discoveries in the Americas and the Cape of Good Hope, they shifted to expansionary imperial projects, one of which was the subjugation of ports along the coastlines of the Maghrebi countries. They planned to make them into both stations for the repair of ships sailing to India as well as bases for incursions into Africa. Through establishing sea routes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Portuguese were able to successfully reach the coasts of West Africa and benefit directly from the gold trade, which in turn diminished the importance of the desert trade routes that linked the Maghreb and Europe.[62]

The Spanish imperial project manifested through the domination of the cities of the Maghreb, many of which were stations for desert trade caravans from western Sudan, Tripoli and Tunis in the east and Ceuta and Melilla in the west, passing through Bejaia, Algier Oran and Tlemcen. Maintaining control over this trade and its two main commodities, gold and slaves, became essential for the Spanish treasury.[63] In addition, controlling the two shores of the Mediterranean gave the Spanish Empire, which at the time included present-day Italy, the ability to control and monopolize maritime trade between the western and eastern Mediterranean, especially the trade resources in Naples and wheat in Sicily.

The loss of the middle Maghreb's role as a mediator of commercial exchange between Europe and Africa - especially that of gold - led to a period of economic stagnation, a decline in trading resources, and a deterioration of craftsmanship in its two prominent historical capitals - Bejaia and Tlemcen. The country subsequently entered a state of political fragmentation and weak centralization, exacerbated by the negative effect of the Iberian trade monopoly on its capacity to collect taxes and the activities of its merchant class.[64]

The three countries of the Maghreb became quite vulnerable to incursions from the northern shore of the Mediterranean. Within a span of two decades, the Spanish Empire captured multiple important cities and ports along the shores of the Maghreb. The first along the Moroccan coastline to fall was Melilla in 1497, followed by the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in 1508. Along the Algerian shores, the city of Mers El Kébir fell in 1505, followed by Oran - the most important sea port directly linked to Tlemcen, the capital of the Zayyanid Kingdom at the time - in 1509.[65] Bejaia in Eastern Algeria and Tripoli in Libya were taken shortly thereafter in 1510, and other coastal cities such as Algiers and Tunis chose to submit to Spanish sovereignty through humiliating agreements.[66]

Beginning in 1512, the Turkish privateer brothers Oruç and Hayreddin—both known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or "Red Beard" operated successfully off Tunisia under the Hafsids. Their victories against Spanish naval vessels at sea and on the shores of Andalusia became famous. As such, scholars and notables of Bejaia contacted them that year, along with the Hafsid emir of Constantine, Abu Bakr, requesting their assistance in dislodging the Spaniards out of Bejaia. However, their attempt to do so ended in failure due to the formidable fortifications of the city, as well as the Spaniards' cooperation with the princes of Beni Abbas. Oruç was wounded while trying to storm the city, and his arm had to be amputated after physicians failed to treat it.[67] Oruç realized that positioning his forces in the valley of La Goulette distanced them from the battlefield and ultimately hampered their efforts against the Spaniards. Accordingly, he decided to search for a new position closer to Bejaia, and chose Jijel, a trading center between Africa and Italy occupied since 1260 by the Genoese. An opportunity emerged for Oruç he received pleas for aid from its inhabitants, successfully taking the city in 1514 and establishing it as his base of operations.[68] After settling in Jijel, Oruç and his brothers began attending to the persecuted Muslims in Andalusia, starting to frequent the shores of Andalusia in order to evacuate them. In view of the success achieved by Oruç in Jijel, its inhabitants pledged allegiance to him as their prince,[69] as did the tribal elders and the Emir of Kuku. Ahmed bin al-Qadi urged him to attack the Spaniards in Bejaia, and so he embarked on a campaign against them in 1514 with a land army, besieging the city for nearly three months but ultimately to no avail. He was forced to lift the siege, but repeated the attempt in the spring of the following year with a large force, only to be forced to withdraw once again when his ammunition ran out and the Hafsid Emir refused to provide him with more, succeeding only in capturing hundreds of Spanish prisoners.[70][71]

Old Algiers, 17th century

The takeover of Oran by Pedro Navarro and Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, as well as the occupation of Bougie, awakened the Algerian population to the imminent Catholic threat. Unable to mount a sufficient resistance to the Spanish's arms, they agreed to submit, promising to recognize the Catholic king Ferdinand II of Aragon as their sovereign, to pay him a yearly tribute, to release the Christian prisoners, to forsake piracy, and to prevent the enemies of Spain from entering their harbor (31 January 1510). A delegation of significant individuals escorted the shaikh Salim al-Tumi of the Thaaliba to Spain, where he took the oath of allegiance and presented gifts to Ferdinand. In order to ensure the fulfillment of the stipulations regarding piracy and to observe the residents of Algiers,[72] Pedro Navarro captured the island of Peñon, which was within range of the city's artillery. He built a fort on it and garrisoned it with 200 men. The Algerians, suffering from the suppression of piracy and trade, grew disillusioned with the situation and sought to break free from the Spanish yoke. Taking advantage of the excitement throughout the Barbary at the news of the death of the king Ferdinand, they sought help from Oruç and his men.[69]

Oruç reis in combat, by Léopold Flameng

A delegation of the city's residents went to Jijel in 1516 and complained to Oruç of the constant distress and danger they faced. He had been planning for a final offensive against Bejaia then, but ultimately decided to abandon his plans and aid the citizens of Algiers. Oruç embarked at the head of a land force of 5,000 Kabyles and 1,500 Turks, followed by 800 arquebusiers, while Hayreddin led a naval fleet of 16 galliots. They rendezvoused in the city of Algiers[73] where the population celebrated their arrival and hailed them as heroes.[74] Hayreddin immediately launched a naval bombardment of the Spanish fort, while Oruç headed to Cherchell, then held by another Turkish captain named Qara Hassan, who had been cooperating with some Andalusian immigrants. Oruç eliminated him, taking control of the city before returning to Algiers.[69] Oruç's help had been sought to dislodge the Spaniards from their commanding position on the island, and although popular demand led to his intervention, the ruler of Algiers at that time - Salem al-Tumi - only acquiesced to his presence. Oruç did not possess the means to recover the Peñon of Algiers immediately, and as his presence often undermined al-Thumi's own authority, the latter eventually sought the help of the Spaniards to drive him out of the city. In response, Oruc forced the Algerian leaders to accept his authority,[69] arresting Salem al-Toumi and assassinating him in his house.[75] He then proclaimed himself "Sultan of Algiers", and his banners in green, yellow, and red were raised above the forts of the city.[76][77][78]

The Spaniards considered the presence and activity of Oruç and his two brothers in the city of Algiers a severe threat to their interests across North Africa, and thusly resolved to expel them. To achieve this goal they allied with the Emir of Ténès - subject to them - and wooed the followers of Salem al-Toumi along with some of the leaders of the neighboring tribes of the city onto their side through their agents and spies. They then dispatched a great force from Oran led by its Spanish governor Diego de Vera, which arrived in Algiers in late September 1516 where it landed near Bab al-Oued. Oruç allowed the force to land before he finally moved against it, taking advantage of its retreat and the emergence of a northern wind to drown, kill, and capture many of its men. The expedition proved to be a total defeat for the Spaniards, and a momentous victory for Oruç, his brothers, and the residents of Algiers. This victory would prompt the residents of Blida, Miliana, Médéa, Dellys and Kabylia to pledge allegiance to Oruç, expanding his growing influence further.[79]

El Mechouar Palace (modern reconstruction) in Tlemcen, the former residence of the Zayyanids

In light of the Prince of Ténès - Hamid bin Abid - subjugation by the Spaniards and his active cooperation with them, such as his participation in the expedition against Algiers, Oruç elected to take revenge by seizing his city. He set off towards Ténès at the head of large force, vanquishing the enemy army at the Battle of Oued Djer before entering the city in June 1517, where he killed the prince and expelled the Spaniards stationed there. He then divided his newfound kingdom into two parts; an eastern part based out of Dellys to be ruled by his brother Hayreddin, and a western part centered on the city of Algiers to be ruled by him personally.[80] While Oruç was in Ténès, a delegation from the city of Tlemcen came to him to complain about the poor conditions in their country and the growing threat of a Spanish occupation of their city, exarcebated by squabbling between the Zayyanid princes over the throne. Abu Ahmed III had seized the throne in Tlemcen by force after he expelled his nephew, Abu Zian III, and put him in prison. Oruç elected to fulfill the wishes of the delegation, and appointed his brother Hayreddin as a ruler over the city of Algiers and its surroundings.

Oruç marched towards Tlemcen, capturing the castle of Banu Rashid along the way, and garrisoning it with a large force led by his brother Isaac in order to protect his rear. Oruç, along with his troops, entered the city and removed Abu Zayan from prison, restoring him to his throne, before progressing westward along the Moulouya to bring the Beni Amer and Beni Snassen tribes under his authority.[81] Abu Zayan began to conspire against Oruç shortly after his reinstatement, plotting to assassinate him or to drive him from the country, which eventually prompted Oruç to arrest and execute him. Meanwhile, the deposed Abu Ahmed III fled to Oran to beg for help from his former enemies - the Spaniards - to retake his throne. The Spaniards chose to answer his pleas, capturing the Banu Rashid castle and killing the commander Isaac in late January 1519 with the help of a few local allies before marching against Tlemcen, which was placed under a severe siege. Oruç was forced to sit in the council for several days to avoid a hostile populace which eventually opened the gates for the Spanish troops.[81] Oruç attempted to flee Tlemcen under the cover of night in the direction of Bani Yazanasin near the sea coast, but the Spaniards became aware of this, pursuing him and killing him along with his Turkish companions between Al-Maleh (Riosalado) and the corner of Sidi Musa in the same year.[82] His head was then sent to Spain, where it was paraded across its cities and those of Europe. His robes were also sent to the Church of St. Jerome in Cordoba, where they were kept as a trophy.[83]

Hayreddin Barbarossa, first Beylerbey of Algiers

Hayreddin was proclaimed Sultan of Algiers[84] sometime between the end of October and the beginning of November 1519. Following a disastrous attempt by the Spanish Empire to take Algiers in 1519 led by Hugo of Moncada,[85] an assembly made up of Algerian notables and ulemas led a delegation to present to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I a proposal to attach Algiers to the Ottoman Empire.[86] Hayreddin became increasingly aware of the necessity of Ottoman aid as the difficulties he had faced following the defeat at the hands of the Spaniards and Zayyanids years earlier were exacerbated by the reversal of his alliance with the Kingdom of Kuku after the death of its ruler, Ahmed Belkadi the Elder, which had joined forces with the Hafsids to inflict a severe defeat on him in the Isser Wadi in 1519. These losses, along with the deterioration of various forms of support on the internal level emphasized the necessity of external support to maintain his possessions around Algiers.[87] As such, the delegation was tasked with making the strategic importance of Algiers in the Western Mediterranean understood to the Ottoman Sultan. The proposal was not initially welcomed with enthusiasm by Constantinople, which found the idea of integrating a territory so distant and so close to Spain into its sphere of influence unfeasible. The idea was even considered perilous and was only definitively accepted under Suleiman in 1521.[88] Hayreddin Barbarossa was named Beylerbey (equivalent of Emir of emirs).[84] The important role of the regency fleet in the Ottoman maritime campaigns and this voluntary membership gave a particular character to the relations between Algiers and Constantinople. The regency was considered not a simple province but an Imperial Estate.[89] This state was very important in the eyes of the Turks, because it was the spearhead of Ottoman power in the western Mediterranean.[90]

Berber Musketeer from Kabylia

After the defeat at Isser against the joined Kuku-Hafsid forces then the capture of Algiers in 1520. the conquest of the Kabyles of Kuku began a five to seven year period of rule by the Sultan of Kuku Belkadi over Algiers (1520-1525/1527).[91] Qara Hasan, former Agha of Hayreddin, concluded an agreement with Belkadi, settled in Cherchell and reigned over the western province: the coast from Tipaza to Cherchell. This period marked the toponymy of Algiers where a mountain is called Djebel Kuku. Hayreddin only returned to Algeria in 1521, landing at Jijel from whence he put himself in correspondence with the new principality of Kalâa of Ait Abbas, a rival of Kuku.[92] Hayreddin continued his progress in the east with Abdelaziz Amokrane: taking Collo in 1521, Annaba and Constantine in 1523, then with the support of the Beni Abbès, crossed their stronghold of the Babors and the Soummam River. The Djurdjura was crossed without incident, but at Iflissen they had to face a detachment of Belkadi, which they defeated. Belkadi then withdrew to Tizi Naït Aicha (Thénia) to block the main access roads to Algiers. Hayreddin detoured to enter the Mitidja plain. Before the final battle, Belkadi was killed by one of his soldiers. The debacle caused by the assassination opened the way to Algiers, where the population, which had complained about the government of Belkadi opened the doors to Hayreddin in 1525 or 1527.[93]

Admiralty lighthouse in the port of algiers, built on the ruins of the peñón

Hayreddin Barbarossa had finally succeeded in re-establishing his authority in Algiers, Mitidja, Cherchell and Ténès. But Algiers was still threatened by the Spaniards installed at the Peñon, from which they controlled the movements of the port. This thorn in the back of the city had to be removed at all costs. Hayreddin summoned the Spanish commander of the position, Don Martin de Vargas, to surrender with his garrison of two hundred soldiers. With this ultimatum rejected,[94] he attacked and bombarded the Peñon which was completely destroyed on May 27, 1529.[95] With the materials salvaged, the island was attached to the land, hence the "Kheir ad Dine Jetty" which today connects the Admiralty to the land. This was the starting point for the development of the port of Algiers, which will be continued by the elevation of the enclosure and the construction of the main bordj on the north and south islets.[94] The capture of the Peñon had a huge impact in Europe and Africa. The Ottomans were firmly established in Algiers; their power eclipsed that of the Spaniards, both in the Mediterranean and in Europe, where they threatened Austria and Hungary. A new destiny was about to open up in the central Maghreb, a new state to be founded there.[95]

Portrait of Andrea Doria by Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547)

In Spain, the last successes of Hayreddin Barbarossa left a profound repercussion, the echo of which reached Charles V, then occupied in concluding the convention of Augsburg with the Lutherans. From there, the Emperor sent Andrea Doria the order to make a new attempt against the Barbary. In the month of July 1531, the Admiral left Genoa with twenty galleys, carrying 1500 landing men. He landed unexpectedly at Cherchell, seized that town and freed a thousand Christian captives who were moaning there.[96] But the Turks took refuge in the citadel while the troops disbanded to engage in looting. Taking advantage of this disorder, the Turks sallied out, individually massacred some of the invaders and forced the others to hasten to the galleys.[96][97] Some of the other Turks opened fire on the galleys, as a result Doria set sail fearing that he may see his vessels sink and understanding that his soldiers were hopelessly lost.[98] Barbarossa, supported with 35 galleys, attacked Doria near Genoa and burnt 22 Genoese galleys.[99]

The Moriscos had many opportunities to flee and emigrate with the marauding muslim ships in the western mediterranean, to the point that Hayreddin ships transported to the shores of the Maghreb about 70,000 of them.[100] Often, the number of ships was not sufficient to carry all the refugees, so the garrison was forced to land on the enemy's coast, leaving its place to the immigrants and remaining there as a guard for the ones left behind from the people of Andalusia hoping for the Turkish convoy to return to them and save them From their calamity, the Turkish ships continued on their rescue mission between Algeria and Andalusia seven times, Hayreddin offered for the Andalusian refugees to settle in the land of Algeria, and left them to choose the spots and places most suitable for them corresponding to their purposes in carrying out their professional work and their various industries. In Algiers they settled at the top of the city from the suburb close to the Kasbah Palace in Algiers, which is the area known today as the "Thaghriyyin" or Tagarin, and some of them lived in the plain of Mitija in the areas of Blida, while others settled in the cities of Tadlis and Tlemcen and Oran and Mostaganem and Cherchell, where they built - as Al-Hassan bin Muhammad Al-Wazzan said: "2,000 houses, and among them were those who settled in Morocco and Tunisia. the Maghreb people learned much of their craft, imitated their luxury, and rejoiced in them".[100]

Called in 1533 by the Sultan to exercise the function of captan pasha, Hayreddin left in Algiers as his deputy Hasan Agha. The government then organized itself empirically with the successors of Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa.[101]

Flagship model of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha at Istanbul Naval Museum Oct 2013

The last speech of Hayreddin Barbarossa to the Algerians is recorded in an Arabic manuscript that is quoted by Jean Michel de Venture de Paradis (1898):

"Now that there is nothing left to do for your happiness and the safety of the city, I have resolved to leave you; other works, other combats call me; I am leaving places where Christians will no longer dare to reappear and I am going to seek, under the glorious and invincible banners of the sultan, new opportunities to fight the infidels. When I came among you, you were weak, without money, without guns, without warriors; I leave you today a troop of brave men who will know how to make the Algerian name respected, and ships, munitions of war to attempt new enterprises. Your ramparts are guarded by more than four hundred pieces of cannon, which your enemies themselves brought to you and which Allah caused to fall into your hands at the moment when they were about to crush you. So here I am at peace with your fate: the time when I can leave you has finally come. Choose among you the one whom you will believe the most worthy to command and swear to obey him faithfully!".

To the notables and the mufti who proposed to him, on behalf of the population, to stay in Algiers to continue his work, Hayreddin declared:

"In such a situation I see only one course to take: Algiers (the victorious city) must be put under the protection of Allah; and after him, under that of my sovereign and master, the powerful and redoubtable Emperor of the Ottomans. Victory directs his steps everywhere, and if he deigns to receive us as subjects, he will provide us with relief in money, men and munitions of war, which will allow us to brave and defeat our enemies".[95]

• 
  Gaspar Bouttats: Portrait of Horruc (Barbarossa), etching, 1681. Inscription: "Horruc Corsair of the Turks". National Library of Spain.
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  Oruç Reis statue in Aïn Témouchent, Algeria
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  Reproduction of Oruç Barbarossa's ship, in Jijel, Algeria
• 
  Flag of the Barbarossa brothers in the National Maritime Public Museum, Algiers
• 
  Hayreddin Barbarossa, by Algerian miniaturist Mohammed Racim

Shipwreck of Christian ships in the bay of Algiers, 1541

Hayreddin Barbarossa established the military basis of the regency. The Ottomans provided a supporting garrison of 2,000 Turkish troops with artillery.[102] He left Hasan Agha in command as his deputy when he had to leave for Constantinople in 1533.[103]

Two years later, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V conquered Tunis against the troops of Hayreddin Barbarossa and established Spanish guardianship over the city. In October 1541, an expedition was led this time against Algiers to put an end to the Barbary pirates who were spreading terror in the western Mediterranean. A fleet led by Andrea Doria was dispatched with the help of the allied nations including the fleets of the Republic of Genoa, the Kingdom of Naples, the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem to transport the troops from Spain and the Netherlands. Embarked late, the fleet arrived in front of Algiers as a storm formed.[104]

Portrait of Charles V by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (after Titian).

The landing of the troops was delayed due to an increasing storm and extremely unfavorable conditions, the troops on the ground, exhausted, were defeated on October 25 by the Algerian defenders led by Hayreddin's deputy Hassan Agha, who personally held a brilliant defence at the gate of bab Azzoun and caused massive casualties among the Maltese knights.[105] Meanwhile, the fleet was in great distress,[106] Ships were thrown to the rocky coast and rescuers were unable to approach. The siege was finally lifted by order of Charles V, sounding a difficult retreat under the assaults of the enemy cavalry, the troops still managed to reach Cap Matifou where Doria awaited them with the remaining ships. After losing 12,000 men,[107][108] and leaving war material, including 100 to 200 guns which would be recovered to furnish the ramparts of Algiers, the Christian ships reached Bougie after two days. Charles' army was taken prisoner in such numbers that the markets of Algiers were filled with slaves, so much that in 1541 Christians were said to have been sold for an onion per head.[109]

Christian and Islamic possessions in western mediterranean in 1559, by Homem, Diogo (1520?-1576)

In 1544, Hasan Pasha, Hayreddin's son, became the first governor of the Regency of Algiers to be directly appointed by the Ottoman Sultan, according to Diego de Haëdo, he took the title of beylerbey through a demand by Hayreddin Barbarossa to the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent,[110] however, Hassan Agha was not a Beylerbey according to de Grammont, he was only a Khalifat, or a deputy to Hayreddin Barbarossa.[110] the Beylerbeys or Emirs of Emirs in arabic or Princes of princes continued to be nominated for unlimited tenures until 1587.

In 1534, Martín Alonso Fernández de Córdoba Montemayor y Velasco, conde de Alcaudete took over the stronghold of Orán, from where successive expeditions set out to try to gain control of Mostaganem.

The first expedition was carried out in 1543, in which the Count of Alcaudete and his son Alonso de Córdoba, Count of Alcaudete mobilized an army between 5,000 and 7,000 men.[111][112] They left on March 21, and first attacked Mazagrán and then besieged Mostaganem. The Turks sent six ships from Algiers, and had about 1,500 men to defend the city. The absence of artillery made it impossible to breach the city walls, and they had to lift the siege and withdraw at night, yet the Turks were warned, and caused a large number of casualties among the Spanish troops on their return to Oran.[112]

In 1547, Count Alcaudete made a second expedition, arriving first at Mazagrán on August 21, and later moving on to Mostaganem. In this case, the city was defended only by forty Turks, although they later received reinforcements from Algiers. Despite the insistent artillery attacks from the Spanish, the Ottoman Algerian resistance meant that the count's troops had to retreat hastily towards Oran, again suffering significant casualties.[113] Both defeats were caused by poor campaign planning, a shortage of ammunition, and a lack of experience and discipline among the Spanish troops.[114][112]

Spanish Men-of-War Engaging Barbary Corsairs, by Cornelis Vroom (1590/1592–1661)

In 1551 Hasan Pasha, the son of Hayreddin, defeated the Spanish-Moroccan armies during a campaign to recapture Tlemcen, thus cementing Ottoman control in western and central Algeria.[115] After that, the conquest of Algeria sped up. In 1552 Salah Rais, with the help of some Kabyle kingdoms, conquered Touggourt, and established a foothold in the Sahara.[116] A year later, Salah Reis expelled the Portuguese from the penon of Valez before leaving a garrison there.[117]

In 1555, the Regency of Algiers managed to score two decisive victories against the Spanish empire in Bougie and then Mostaganem three years later, thus cementing Ottoman control in North Africa for good. During the 16th, 17th, and early 18th century, the Kabyle Kingdoms of Kuku and Ait Abbas managed to maintain their independence[118][119][120] repelling Ottoman attacks several times, notably in the First Battle of Kalaa of the Beni Abbes then in the Battle of Oued-el-Lhâm.

A miniature depicting Ramazan Pasha, the beylerbey of Algiers entering Fez in 1576

Ottoman Algerian troops (about 5,000 janissaries) and Kabyle troops, led by Uluç Ali, Pasha of Algiers, marching on Tunis in 1569

Algiers became a base in the war against Spain and also in the Ottoman conflicts with Morocco. Between April and June 1563 the Regency of Algiers launched a major military campaign to retake the Spanish military-bases of Oran and Mers el Kébir on the North African coast, occupied by Spain since 1505. Algiers, the Principalities of Kabylia (Kuku and Beni Abbes), and other vassal tribes combined forces as one army under Hasan Pasha, and Jafar Catania. The Spanish commander brothers, Alonso de Córdoba Count of Alcaudete and Martín de Córdoba, managed to hold the strongholds of Oran and Mers El Kébir, respectively, until the relief fleet of Francisco de Mendoza arrived and successfully caused the attackers to rout.[121] After Spain sent an embassy to Constantinople in 1578 to negotiate a truce, leading to a formal peace in August 1580 since the Regency of Algiers was a formal Ottoman territory at that time, rather than just a military base in the war against Spain.[103]

In the west, the Algerian-Sharifian conflicts shaped the western border of Algeria.[122] There were numerous battles between the Regency of Algiers and the Sharifian Saadi dynasty in Morocco. For example: the campaign of Tlemcen in 1551, the campaign of Tlemcen in 1557 in which the independent Kabylian Kingdoms also had significant involvement, the Kingdom of Beni Abbes participated in the campaign of Tlemcen in 1551 and the Kingdom of Kuku also participated in the Battle of Taza (1553) and the capture of Fez in 1554 in which Salih Rais defeated the Moroccan army and conquered Morocco up until Fez, placing Ali Abu Hassun as the ruler and vassal to the Ottoman sultan.[123][124][125]

In October 1557, a Turkish army was sent to Tuat against Mohammed al-Shaykh, the Saadi ruler of Morocco at the time, in order to lift the blockade imposed by his troops, decisively defeating his army and lifting the siege off the region.[46]

Ottoman Algeria in 1560

The Kingdom of Kuku provided Zwawa troops for the capture of Fez in 1576 in which Abd al-Malik was installed as an Ottoman vassal ruler over the Saadi dynasty by Caïd Ramazan pasha of Algiers.[126][127]

In 1569 the Beylerbey of Algiers, Uluç Ali, set off over land toward Tunis with 5,300 Turks and 6000 Kabyle cavalry from the Kingdom of Kuku and the Kingdom of Beni Abbes.[128]

Uluç Ali encountered the Hafsid Sultan at Beja, west of Tunis, Uluç Ali defeated him in battle and conquered Tunis without suffering any great losses.[129] Mulay Ahmad III was forced to take refuge in the Spanish presidio of La Goleta in the bay of Tunis. The Christian forces were able to recover Tunis in 1573[130] however the Ottoman forces under Uluç Ali conquered Tunis yet again in 1574.

In 1578 an army corps of the Regency was sent to help the inhabitants of Tuat once again against the Saadis and allied tribes from Tafilalt, this army corps did not return to Algiers until it had completed its mission and sent "a written warning to the assailants".[46][45]

16th century copy of the 1569 Capitulations between Charles IX and Selim II.

In the early 17th century, warring Europe signed peace treaties that ended hostilities with the Ottoman Empire. At the turn of the century, Spain made peace with France (1598), England (1604), and the Netherlands (1609); the Ottoman Empire made peace with Austria (1606) and the Netherlands (1612). Before that, France and Great Britain concluded so-called Capitulations treaties with the Ottoman Empire in 1536 and 1579 respectively. The immediate effect of the peace between these countries was the establishment of diplomatic relations with Algiers. These capitulations gave extraterritorial rights to foreigners living in the Ottoman Empire. They were originally intended to encourage trade, but were gradually used by Europeans to establish spying networks in the Ottoman Empire. Algiers disapproved of Constantinople's foreign policy, which they believed gave too many privileges to foreigners.[131]

For their part, the Janissaries who were stationed in and paid by Algiers, also came to disregard the sultan's orders. They decided sovereignly on war operations, taking into account neither the capidji sent by the sultan nor the alliances concluded by Istanbul.[132] The Sublime Porte renewed the treaty in 1604 giving even more privileges to France in total ignorance of Algerian interests. Clause 14 of the treaty, for example, authorized the French king to use force against Algiers in case the treaty was not respected. This prompted Khider Pasha of Algiers to attack the Bastion, the pasha himself seized 6,000 sequins which the sultan Ahmed l had sent to French merchants to compensate them for losses caused by the raid on the Bastion of France an act for which the Sultan ordered Khider pasha hanged up, even after the nomination of a new pasha, the French could not rebuild this Bastion: the diwan of the Janissaries opposed it and decreed that whoever undertook it would be punished by death.[133] The diwan even refused to receive the French envoy accompanied by a representative of the sultan. It's quite simply that relations with France were seen in a diverging way by Algiers and by Istanbul.[132]

Battle of Vlorë in 7 august 1638, by Antonio Landi

The Pasha, representative of Isbanbul, did not in fact have full authority:[134] over time, Raïs and Janissaries acted only according to their interests and for the interest of Algiers. The Rais, who formerly responded to the sultan's slightest appeal, came to discuss his orders. They began by demanding compensation when they were asked for a ship; they even demanded that any indemnity be paid in advance. In 1638, they felt they had been betrayed by Istanbul. They had been called by the sultan Murad IV to fight Venice, but a storm having forced them to take shelter in a port, the Venetians attacked them there and destroyed part of their fleet in Valona.[135] Then, Venice having bribed the vizier, the sultan made peace with Venice to the great anger of the Algerian corsairs.[136][137]

A raïs, Ali Bitchin, head of the tai'fa (community of Corsair captains) from 1630 to 1646, became, at that time, the main character in Algiers.[138] Admiral of all the galleys, head of the corporation of corsairs, he was immensely rich: having two palaces in Algiers, a mosque built by himself, nearly 500 slaves in his private prisons, not counting those who rowed on his galleys.[139] Married to a daughter of the King of Kuku, thus benefiting from the sympathy of the Kabyles, relying on the Koulouglis, counting on his friend Ali Arbadji pasha of Tripoli, Ali Bitchin wanted to be the chief of Algiers and pursue an independent policy. The sultan Ibrahim IV, fearing to see an autonomous power assert itself, sent in 1644 to Algiers two chaouch to bring him the head of Ali Bitchin and those of four other heads of the tai'fa. But at the call of Ali Bitchin, the population rose up and the Pasha of Algiers, accused of being the instigator of these schemes, was arrested. The diwan of the militia had tolerated Ali Bitchin's insubordination, but in return demanded that he pay the Janissaries' salaries. Ali Bitchin took refuge in Kabylia, stayed there for nearly a year, then returned in force to Algiers. He reigned there as a true master, claimed the official title of pasha and claimed from the sultan Mehmed IV, in 1649, 60,000 golden soltanis for the dispatch of 16 galleys. The sultan then appointed another pasha, and when the latter arrived, Ali Bitchin died suddenly, possibly poisoned.[140][141]

Bastion de France in the 18th century

In 1561, two merchants from Marseilles, Thomas Linchès and Carlin Didier, joined hands to trade with the tribes of the Algerian coast and founded, to the east of Bône, a trading post and a station for fishing coral, under the name of the Bastion de France.[142] The concessions carried on a great trade in grain; in ordinary times the authorities of Algiers saw no harm in it, but in the event of famine they did not allow the export of wheat.

In 1604, Khider Pasha attacked the Bastion of France in clear defiance to the Ottoman capitulations to France; King Henry IV envoy came to Algiers accompanied by a capidji from the Porte with a firman from the sultan Ahmed I ordering the release of the French captives and the rebuilding of the Bastion, yet the Janissary Aghas revolted, their diwan refused to authorize the reconstruction of the Bastion and agreed to hand over the French captives only on condition that the Muslims detained in Marseilles were to be released.[143][144]

France then decided to negotiate directly with Algiers. Negotiations began in 1617 but soon reached an impasse. Part of the trouble stemmed from the question of the return of two Algerian cannons seized by the Dutch corsair Zymen Danseker when he left the Algerian navy in 1607 and given to the Duke de Guise, governor of Provence.[145] Two years later, negotiations were on the verge of collapse when the Algerian delegation was massacred in Marseilles, allegedly because an Algerian rais had hijacked a provincial ship; nevertheless, a treaty was concluded in 1619.[146][147]

Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs by Théodore Gudin (1802–1880)

With no peace on sight and the Algerian authorities completely ignoring the Franco-Ottoman alliance, the corso against French vessels continued, the French losses were considerable. Louis XIII sent Captain Sanson Napollon to Algiers, who, seeing that the real power was not in Istanbul, preferred to come to an understanding with the representatives of the Raïs and the Janissaries. The latter demanded, above all, the release of the Turks detained in the galleys of Marseilles. The King of France ordered the levying of a contribution to pay for the redemption of the Turks, and Marseilles added a large sum to it. Sanson therefore returned to Algiers in 1628, and succeeded in obtaining a peace treaty:[148] the Algerians undertook to respect the coast and the French ships, to prohibit in their ports the sale of goods seized on French ships; French traders could reside safely in Algiers, the French concessions of Bastion and Calle were recognized and trade in leather and wax allowed.[149][150][151] Sanson Napollon, who had been appointed chief of the Bastion de France, was able to offer Marseille all the wheat it needed. However, Marseilles captured fifteen Turks whose boat had separated from their ship and who, in application of the signed peace, were to be repatriated: they were all massacred. In 1629, an Algerian ship was docked near the French Salé: the whole crew was put on the benches of the schooner and the raïs taken prisoner to France.[152]

Map from 1633 representing the balance of power in the Mediterranean in the 17th century: a Moorish archer (the "Sultan of Algiers") threatens the King of Spain Philip IV with his bow while Louis XIII, King of France, watches over them. Illuminated manuscript from the National Library of France.

The Rais resumed the corso against the French; In 1634, the King of France charged Sanson Le Page with a new mission in Algiers. He promised to exchange eight captive Turks in Marseilles for 342 Frenchmen held in Algiers. But his mission failed.[153] In 1637, Sanson Le Page, brought with him the Turks claimed by Algiers; but he could not land at Algiers. The same year, Ali Bitchin razed the French fortress and the diwan decided that "never the said Bastion would recover, neither by request of the king of France, nor by command of the Grand Sultan, and that the first who would speak of it would lose his head". But three years later, in 1640, a new treaty restored to France its establishments in Africa, and French merchants received authorization to trade in Bone and Collo; the coral fishermen obtained on their side assistance and security. In exchange for these advantages, the merchants promised to pay the Pasha a sum equivalent to nearly 17,000 pounds.[154][155]

Engraving from 1664, depicting the French landing and the provisional capture of Djidjelli by a French squadron commanded by the Duke of Beaufort

In 1650, the Rais operated in the very waters of Marseilles, and ravaged Corsica; in 1651 they landed near Civitavecchia and took many prisoners in the Roman countryside. The goods taken by the Algerians were sold by the merchants of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Genoa and Livorno, which became the corsairs' broker. Spain was powerless, Sicily and the small islands of Italy were incapable of opposing the raïs any longer, France was engulfed in the wars of Fronde. However, the reaction of the Europeans was not long incoming: British Admiral Blake, the French Levant fleet, the Dutch with Michiel de Ruyter, and the Knights of Malta resumed their offensives against the Algerian fleet. In 1658, Cardinal Mazarin even gave the order to reconnoitre the Algerian coasts with a view to a permanent installation; he was advised on Bone, Jijel Collo.[132] So it was suggested to first minister of State Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1662 the occupation of Collo and Jijel, so he mobilized large forces and directed them to occupy Collo in the spring of 1663, but the expedition ended in a failure. In July 1664, King Louis XIV directed another military campaign against Jijel, which was occupied for nearly three months, but it also ended in a defeat.[156] Despite a minor victory against Algerian vessels near Cherchell in 1655, France was forced to negotiate with Algiers and sign the May 7, 1666 agreement, which stipulated the implementation of the 1628 agreement, the release of prisoners from both sides, and the safety of the ships of both sides at sea. After the conclusion of the treaty, there was relative calm between the two countries, due to the intervention of other forces in the conflict.[157][158]

German engraving of Mezzomorto Hussein Pacha, 1687

View of the Fort of Tamentfoust near Algiers

Tied between the desires and threats from european nations, Algiers reacted by launching its fleet into the seas. The deys had to face the claims of European countries. They negotiated numerous treaties with them, often thereby asserting their autonomy in matters of foreign policy, without taking into account sovereignty of Istanbul. Very cleverly, they tried to deal with each country separately, negotiating with the French to better attack the English or the Dutch, and vice versa. For their part, the European countries endeavored to obtain advantages or economic privileges and favorable conditions for the release of their captives. They sometimes used negotiation, going so far as to supply arms to the deys, and sometimes they used intimidation like the bombardment of towns. The main relations were established and maintained with France: Louis XIV sought both to have the French flag respected in the Mediterranean, to preserve the economic advantages already obtained, and to play the role of "Most Christian King" (Rex Christianissimus) against Islamic powers, while seeing to the maintaining the French alliance with the Sublime Porte.[159] European countries tried to obtain commercial advantages from the dey Hadj Mohammed Trik (1671-1682). France tried to settle the question of the Bastion, the Spaniards of Oran tried to occupy Tlemcen and the English fleet threatened Algiers. The diwan did not yield to these intimidations: any concession was refused to the French, the Spaniards had to turn around and return to Oran in 1675, and the raïs dispersed the English ships which in 1678 threatened the city of Algiers.[160]

Portrait of Abraham Duquesne by Antoine Graincourt

In 1677, following an explosion in Algiers and several attempts on his life, dey Mohammed Trik escaped to Tripoli, leaving Algiers to Baba Hassan.[161] Just one years into his rule he was already at war with one of the most powerful countries in Europe, the Kingdom of France. In 1682 France bombarded Algiers for the first time.[162] The Bombardment was inconclusive, and the leader of the fleet Abraham Duquesne failed to secure the submission of Algiers. The next year, Algiers was bombarded again, this time liberating a few slaves.[163] Before a peace treaty could be signed though, Baba Hassan was deposed and killed by a Rais called Mezzo Morto Hüseyin.[164] Continuing the war against France, the bombardments resumed, killing many victims. Mezzomorto threatened, if the firing did not cease, to put the Christian captives at the mouths of the cannons, still the bombardments continued, So he carried out his threats.[165][166] Despite this, the bombardments continued until October, but the defenders of Algiers held firm, and Duquesne had to return to Toulon. In 1684, Louis XIV sent Duquesne, then Dussault to find an agreement;[167] he had written to the sultan, who dispatched a delegation to the French squadron. After almost a month of negotiations, a treaty was signed in April 1684 which provided for numerous provisions: freedom of trade between the two countries, liberation of slaves, respect of the free passage for naval vessels, free exercise of the Christian religion, establishment of lists of products that are negotiable between the two countries, and assurance given to the dey that his ambassador in Paris could ensure compliance with the treaty.[165]

The reverse legend of this Dutch medal can be translated as the friend of the Turks, the friend of the Algerians, the friend of the Barbarians, hateful enemy of the Christians while on the right Louis XIV kneels before the Ottoman Sultan and the Dey of Algiers

Dutch medal titled : The humiliation of Louis XIV for the French-Algerian peace and the restitution of Avignon to Pope Alexander VIII, 1689

But the agreement was not respected: French corsairs, encouraged by Marseille merchants, again attacked Algerian ships. The dey retaliated by arresting French nationals and even the consul, without however denouncing the treaty in 1686. The King of France supported the Marseillais and sent Marshal d'Estrées to Algiers with more than forty ships in June 1688.[168][169] The bombardment lasted several days, a good part of the city was destroyed, yet the Algerian artillery sank several french ships.[170] Hadj Hassan Mezzomorto killed more than forty Christians by cannon and the French responded by executing Muslim hostages on board, yet resistance in Algiers forced Marshal d'Estrées to withdraw his fleet.[171] The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman II, at the request of the king of France, sent a new pasha to Algiers, but Mezzomorto did not let him disembark. In the end, however, the Janissaries revolted against Mezzomorto, whom they held responsible for the misfortunes of Algiers, forced him to flee.[171] The Dey Hadj Chabane who replaced him sent a plenipotentiary to Versailles; Stadtholder of the United Provinces William of Orange who was Louis XIV's most bitter personal enemy. Having become William III of England, immediately aroused a general coalition in Europe against the Sun King. The latter was then reduced to putting an end to the disputes which then opposed him to Pope Alexander VIII as well as to the Dey of Algiers, thus, a peace treaty was finally signed in 1690.[172]

• 
  The French fleet in front of Algiers in 1682.
• 
  Bombardment of Algiers by the squadron of Abraham Duquesne in 1682.
• 
  Alger que les Français bombardent en 1682. Dutch engraving from 1689.
• 
  Torment of the consul of Algiers, Jean Le Vacher, in retaliation for the bombardment of Algiers by Duquesne on July 26, 1683.
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  Liberation of Christian captives in 1683 after the bombardment of Duquesne.

Algeria's relations with the rest of the Maghreb countries were not as good and friendly as they should have been for several historical circumstances.[173] Algiers used to consider Tunisia a territory belonging to it by virtue of the fact that it was the one that expelled the Spaniards from it and annexed it to the Ottoman Empire which made the appointment of its pashas the prerogative of the Algerian beylerbeys, and on this basis Algiers was constantly trying to make this dependence a tangible reality,[174] and Tunisia rejected this and saw that, like Algiers, it was subordinate to Constantinople, and more than that, Tunisia had ambitions in the Constantine region inherited from the Hafsid era.[175] As for Al-Maghreb Al-Aqsa (Morocco), it resisted from the beginning, and with determination, the Turks that sought to control it, and it began to view Algiers as a danger hanging over it and therefore it must be avoided by all means, including conspiring with any foreign power, even if it was Christian. More than this, Morocco had ancient ambitions in western Algeria and Tlemcen in particular, and its sultans did not hide this desire in all circumstances and occasions. On this basis, relations between Ottoman Algeria and its neighbors were troubled most of the time. Tunisia adamantly refused subordination to Algeria. Since 1590, the Diwan of Tunisian Odjack revolted against Algiers, and the country became a vassal of Constantinople itself.[175]

Coat of arms of the Muradids in 1620

In 1675, Murad II Bey died. he left his state to his son Mohamed Bey El Mouradi. Mohamed exiled the Pasha appointed by the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad al-Hafsi. Murad II's second son, Ali bin Murad, disappointed by his share in the division of power, had sought refuge in the Beylik of Constantine, a governorate of the Regency of Algiers.[176] He brought the tribes of northwest Tunisia led by Muhammad ben Cheker to his side with promises of gold and silver. After a short civil war in tunis between the muradid princes, the Dey of Algiers agreed to mediate between them,[177] yet the Turkish Janissaries of Tunis elected their own leader, Ahmed Chelebi who attempted to take over the country. He was defeated by the Algerians who feared that the revolutionary spirit of the Janissaries in Tunis would spread to their own country. They sacked Tunis in 1686, and left the country in ruins. Mohamed bey suspected his brother of supporting the Algerians, and thus killed him and seized power for himself. Muhammad ben Cheker (the leader of the northwestern tribes), wanted the Beylik to himself, and hearing about the infighting, he visited Algiers to negotiate with the Algerians in 1694.[177] Dey Hadj Chabane agreed to help ben Cheker in conquering Tunis, but only on condition he would subjugate himself to the dey and become an Algerian vassal. Muhammad ben Cheker agreed, and declared independence from Tunis. On June 24 Algerian troops entered Tunisian territory, and started rapidly advancing into the heartlands of Tunisia,[178] they met the Tunisian army in the Battle of Kef , which ended in a catastrophic defeat for the Tunisians and the Algerians conquered Tunis and pillaged it before occupying the country. Fed up with Muhammed bin chaker, the Tunisian population revolted and crowned Mohamed bey again, who signed an alliance with the sultan of Morocco, which would soon culminate in the Maghrebi war (1699-1701).[179]

In 1700, The Maghrebi war started, after a conducting a successful revolt against the previous bey, Murad III Bey of Tunis took the city of Constantine, but it was not long before the regency of Algiers regained the upper hand and 7000 Tunisians were killed in the Battle of Jouami' al-Ulama.[180][181] Ibrahim Cherif, the Agha of the spahis, put an end to the Muradid regime, he is named Dey by the militia and made pasha by the Ottoman sultan. However, he did not manage to put an end to the Algerian and Tripolitan incursions. Finally defeated by the Dey of Algiers in 1705 near Kef on 8 July 1705,[182][183] he was captured and taken to Algiers.

Ismail Ibn Sharif, the second Alaouite Sultan

The Moroccan sovereigns had succeeded in preventing the occupation of their country by the Turks. On the other hand, they had not given up on the old Almohad dream of achieving the unity of the Maghreb for their own benefit, or at least extending their frontiers to the east into Orania region. With the advent of the Alaouite dynasty, hostilities with the regency of Algiers would resume.[184]

In 1678, Moulay Ismail mounted an expedition to Tlemcen.[185] He assembled his contingents in the Upper Moulouya, joined by the tribes of Orania (Segouna, Hamiane, Hashem) and advanced as far as the Chelif region to fight battle there.[184] The Turks of Algiers brought in the artillery, which terrified the auxiliary tribes of the Moroccan sovereign, who then broke away from him. thus Moulay Ismail ended up negotiating with Dey Chaban and fixing the border on the Moulouya,[186] which throughout the Saadian period, had separated the two countries. In 1690-1691, Moulay Ismail resumed his project and launched a new offensive against Orania. To the 22,000 Moroccan soldiers, the dey Chaban opposed 10,000 Janissaries and Zouaoua contingents. He defeated the Moroccans on the Moulouya and forced them to accept the Treaty of Oujda which confirmed the Moulouya river as the border.[187][188] In 1694, the sultan of Istanbul invited that of Morocco to cease his attacks against Algiers.[184]

Map of Orania and the western province of the regency of Algiers, by Thomas Shaw (–1751)

In 1700, after coming to an agreement with the Tunisian Muradids who were to simultaneously attack Constantine, the Moroccan sovereign launched a new expedition against Orania with an army composed mostly of Black Guards.[189][190] But, Moulay Ismail's 60.000 men were beaten again in the Chelif river by the dey Hadj Mustapha,[191][192] who brought back to Algiers an enormous booty. The regency of Algiers, occupied by the siege of Oran in the hands of the Spaniards, did not pursue hostilities, even if relations remained very tense. In the following years Moulay Ismaïl led Saharan incursions towards Ain Madhi and Laghouat without succeeding in settling there permanently.[192] Following these expeditions, the dey of Algiers, Moustapha II then wrote to Moulay Ismaïl about the attachment of the Algerians and their territory to the power of the regency of Algiers.[193] The dey left the bey in Orania Mustafa Bouchelagham who, abandoning Mazouna (the capital of the beylik of the West since 1563), settled in Mascara, from where he undertook to consolidate his authority.

As the Algerian assault on Spanish Oran was imminent, Moulay Ismail made one last attempt to capture Oran in 1707, which didn't bring a different outcome from previous encounters with the Algerians.[194][195] Moulay Ismail's army was almost entirely destroyed,[196] yet the Moroccans had still been able to preserve the independence of their country, but by renouncing any project of expansion towards Orania.[197]

View of Oran in 1732, by Homann Heirs

The inhabitants of Oran and its surroundings were still asking the governors and leaders of Algiers to save them from the yoke of the Spaniards, until Dey Mohamed Bektash came to their aid with an army of 8500 regular soldiers and a number of volunteers that exceeded that of regular soldiers many times over. It was distinguished by the participation of students of institutes and Zawiyas. Between 700 and 1000 students joined the conquering army.[198] The battalions went out on board the ships, led by Hassan Uzun, the son-in-law of the Dey, on 2 June 1707. At the head of the army was Bey "Bouchelaghem" Mustafa bin Youssef Al-Masrati, the ruler of Mazuna. The city of Oran was besieged by Bouchelaghem bey's forces and the two towers defending it were overrun on 20 January 1708 after the 400 Spanish soldiers defending them surrendered. The Algerian assault kept the pressure on the Spaniards this time in Mers El Kebir. Despite heavy fighting the Algerians captured the city and took 2000 captives, among them French officers and Maltese volunteers.[199] The military success of the Algerians surprised the Spanish government but also all of the European states at that time. In the Muslim world it was seen as a victory over Christianity. The city of Oran was repopulated with people from all over the western beylik with an influx, in particular, of craftsmen and traders.[200] It opened a first period, from 1708 to 1732, where the city was in the hands of the regency of Algiers before the Spaniards recovered it in 1732.[200]

Don José Carrillo de Albornoz, Duke of Montemar, leader of the expedition against Oran

The Spanish fleet left on June 15, 1732, heading for the Oran region, and reached it after ten days. The entire Spanish campaign was under the leadership of José Carrillo de Albornoz, 1st Duke of Montemar. The bey, Sheikh Mustapha Bouchelaghem, conqueror of Oran and its emir since 1707,[201] decided to withdraw from the city and evacuate its inhabitants and defenders after joining a massive battle, as he saw that the means of defense in his hands could not at all enable him to confront the huge Spanish numbers. Thus, the Bey and his men left, and the Spaniards entered the city on the eve of the first of July 1732.[202]

As soon as news of the fall of the city reached Algiers, a wave of grief and worry gripped it, and Dey Abdi Pasha having reached a very old age, and refrained from eating out of grief and distress, until he died at the age of 88.[202] The Spaniards could not move into the interior, and returned most of their forces to Spain, leaving the two cities with enough men to defend them. The Algerians attacked the city on the 12th of December then on June 10 in 1733 without notable success. In 1734, Bouchelaghem attacked the center of El-Ayoun around Oran and reached the gates of the city, but was unable to occupy it. Oran and Mers-el-Kebir remained under tight siege for more than fifty years.[203]

Map of the Spanish attack on Algiers in 1775

In 1775, a Spanish Expedition intended to reduce the pirates of the Mediterranean was ordered by the Irish admiral Alejandro O'Reilly, resulting in a heavy failure of the attackers; 8000 Spaniards were killed, and the Algerians lost 300 soldiers.[204] The assault was a spectacular failure and the campaign a humiliating blow to the Spanish military reorganisation, notably due to a brilliant cavalry charge led by the western contingent commanded by Mohammed el Kebir. Overwhelmed, the Spaniards took advantage of the night to embark, abandoning 17 copper guns and other equipment.[205]

Algiers under fire from Spanish and Maltese Men o’War in 1784, British School, 18th Century

From August 1 to August 9, 1783, a Spanish squadron of 25 ships bombarded Algiers, but failed to overcome the defenses of the city.[206] The Spanish squadron, composed of four ships of the line and six frigates, did not inflict significant damage on the city and had to withdraw.[207]

The commander of this fleet and that of 1784 was Spanish Admiral Antonio Barceló. A European league uniting the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Republic of Venice and the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and composed of one hundred and thirty ships began to bombard Algiers on July 12, 1784. This bombardment was a failure, and the Spanish squadron fell back against the defense of the city. The Dey Mohamed ben-Osman asked for an indemnity of 1,000,000 pesos to conclude a peace in 1785. This was followed by a first period of negotiation (1785–87) to achieve a lasting peace between Algiers and Madrid.[200]

The Spanish expeditions having almost all experienced a catastrophic outcome, the Algerians use the term "Spagnolata" in Lingua franca to designate a poorly conceived military enterprise, executed without art or energy.[208]

Map of Algiers after the capture of Oran, by Samuel Dunn (1794)

In 1791, the reconquest of Oran and Mers el-Kébir began. The city of Oran, then under Spanish domination, was a concern of the Spanish court. In the 18th century, the policy of popular resistance of the Algerians to the Spanish presence and the hostility of the Beylik of the West created a climate of permanent insecurity around Oran and Mers el-Kébir. The Spaniards swung between two imperatives: preservation of their presidency and maintaining a fragile peace with Algiers.[200] The Spanish representative asked the dey for a truce while he consulted the Council of State in Madrid, in order to study a proposal for the transfer of the two cities. A truce of one month was granted on March 20, 1791.[209] However certain guarantees requested by the Spaniards (concerning the corso and the demolition of the Spanish forts) were considered an offense by Algiers, which ordered the resumption of hostilities in May 1791. Mohamed el Kebir needed artillery to remove the Spanish defences, so the dey of Algiers dispatched his mehalla as reinforcements.[200]

The Spanish-Algerian Peace Treaty of 1791, according to which Mers-el-Kebir and Oran once again became the property of the Algerian state, ending almost 300 years of war between the two states.

The death of Mohamed Ben-Osman, and the election of Sidi Hassan, his first Secretary of State, as Dey once again gave Spain some respite. Under the reign of the latter, negotiations resumed with Count Floridablanca: The Spaniards then undertooke to restore "freely and voluntarily" the two cities. In exchange, it has the exclusive right to trade certain agricultural products in Oran and Mers-el-Kébir.The peace treaty was signed in Algiers on September 12, 1791 by Dey Hassan Pasha and ratified in Madrid, on December 12 of the same year, by King Charles IV.[200]

On February 12, 1792, the Spanish soldiers evacuated the city. Hassan Pasha decorated Mohamed el-Kebir with the feather badge, intended for those who have triumphed over the "infidels" and which none of the previous beys of the West had obtained. He attached Oran to his western beylik domain and made him bey of Oran (instead of the title of bey of Mascara).[205]

This confrontation marked the end of the Spanish-Algerian wars.

• 
  Entrance to the Mosque of Hassan Pasha, Oran
• 
  Santa Cruz church, Oran
• 
  Ramparts of the Fort of Santa Cruz, Oran
• 
  The gate of Spain, Oran

Coat of Arms of the beys of Tunis (Husseinic dynasty)

After the incessant disputes between corsairs and Janissaries to influence the government of the Ottoman regency of Tunis during the 17th century, Ben Ali imposed himself in 1705 as bey of Tunis and founded the dynasty of the Hussainids under the name of Hussein I ibn Ali Bey.

After a failed revolt, Abu l-Hasan Ali I Pasha took refuge in Algiers where he managed to gain the support of the Dey.[210] The Dey of Algiers dispatched a force of 7,000 men led by Danish slave Hark Olufs to invade Tunis in 1735 and install Ali Pasha there as its Bey,[211] who recognised himself as a vassal of Algiers and paid an annual tribute to the Dey.[211][212]

Another campaign was directed against Tunis in 1756. Taken prisoner by the Algerians, Ali I Pasha was deposed on September 2. Brought back to Algiers in chains, he was strangled by supporters of his cousin and successor Muhammad I ar-Rashid on September 22. Algiers imposed a tribute in 1756 on Tunis, the latter had to send oil to light the mosques of Algiers each year. Tunis had become a tributary of Algiers and continued to pay an annual tribute and recognise Algerian suzerainty for more than 50 years.[213][214][215]

A View of the Country House of John Falcon Esq., H. M. Consul General at Algiers

European authors continued to view the Ottoman Regencies as 'dens of pirates' and their actions as "African banditry", but France, the Dutch Republic and England all concluded peace treaties with the North African Regencies in the 17th century. These treaties prompted legal theorists in europe to change their views about the general status of the regencies, Hugo Grotius would implicitly admit that Algiers exercised the Jus ad bellum of a sovereign power through its corsairs, the treaties were also influential in the development of the law of the sea and The Law of Nations.[216][217]

Irish lawyer Charles Molloy wrote in 1682 regarding those shifts in dealing with : "Pirates that have reduced themselves into a Government of State, as those of Algier, Sally, Tripoli, Tunis, and the like" and should not "obtain the rights of solemnities of war." He added:[216]

Tunis and Tripoli and their Sister Algier do at this day (though Nests of Pirates) obtain the right of Legation' demonstrated by the treaties concluded by Britain with Tunis and Tripoli. This makes them not Pirates (enemies of mankind) but gives them the status of enemies (in war): So that now (though indeed Pirates) yet having acquired the reputation of a Government, they cannot properly be esteemed Pirates but Enemies.

In 1737, Dutch jurist and legal theorist Cornelius van Bynkershoek wrote:

The peoples of Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, and Salee are not pirates, but rather organized states, which have a fixed territory in which there is an established government, and with which, as with other nations, we [i.e. the Staten-General] are now at peace, now at war. Hence they seem to be entitled to the rights of independent states.

Algiers established diplomatic missions in Marseille and London, sent diplomatic envoys to Europe not only to address issues related to piracy, prisoners and trade, but also to conduct official state visits. Corsairing entered official diplomatic use. Henceforth, the Algerians on board their pirate ships, like their European counterparts, carried passports issued by the European diplomatic mission in Algiers to protect them from privateers and foreign cruisers. Passport also served as a basis for consular intervention to resolve profit disputes.[218] Algiers' attitude towards any European country in early modern times was undoubtedly one of the most important factors determining the rise and fall of its shipping in the Mediterranean, Algiers was declaring war against every country with which it did not conclude treaties, foremost of which was Spain. When a European nation is at war with Algiers, it almost inevitably means that its ships cannot compete with other shipping in the region whose the home nation is at peace with the North African Regency.[219] In fact only ships from European countries that were at peace with Algiers could expand the handling of merchant shipping in the Mediterranean, now called cabotage.[220]

HMS Mary Rose in battle with seven Algerine pirate ships on 28 December 1669, by Willem van de Velde the Younger

Treaty of peace and trade between England and Algiers on April 23, 1662

In 1621, English admiral Robert Mansell took part in an expedition during which he sent fireships (old burnt ships) against the pirate fleet moored in the bay of Algiers. This expedition was a failure and Mansell had to withdraw, he was recalled to England on May 24, 1621.[221]

James I negotiated directly in Constantinople in 1622 with the Pasha of Algiers, who happened to be visiting there.[148][222] Until 1662, no country succeeded in permanently holding the "free ship and free goods" principle from the Algerian Pirates. When England received the clause that year, the situation changed radically. Britain introduced a series of anti-counterfeiting and mandatory 'Algerian Passports' on its southbound merchant ships, guaranteeing each ship's authenticity in case it encountered Algerian pirate vessels.[223] Faced with the subsequent strong growth of the British fleet in the Mediterranean, the Algerians broke the peace twice in the following years (1668-1671, 1677-1682) and privateered wars against the British which reacted strongly every time. Two wars ended with mixed results for Algiers, the first of which led to a regime change in the Regency. Yet the second one witnessed Algiers forcing the English monarch Charles II to recognise his subjects as slaves in Algiers.[224] When Algiers faced dangerous French attacks in the 1680s, Algiers finally opted for a lasting peace with England that would last more than 140 years.[225]

Peace treaty between Algiers and the Dutch Republic on 8 September 1726

Action Between the Dutch Fleet and Barbary Pirates, by Lieve Verschuier (1627–1686)

The Dutch recognized the impact of the Anglo-Algerian peace on their own shipping activities. Various reports of Armenian merchants arriving at The Hague, from the courts of Madrid or from Messina, all indicated that goods were being transferred from the Dutch to the British.[226]

View of Algiers with de Ruyters ship 'De Liefde', 1662, by Reinier Nooms (1623/1624–1664)

Thus, from 1661 to 1663, the Republic, under the command of Michiel de Ruyter, sent several squadrons of warships to settle the matter and force the Algerians to accept a treaty of permanent peace.[227] In the ensuing decades, however, military campaigns were doomed, as the Republic was often embroiled in continental affairs that demanded attention and resources. In the long run, attempts to establish stable relations with Algiers failed. From 1679 to 1686, the Republic was able to maintain an uneasy peace with Algiers thanks to the skills of the Dutch diplomat Thmoas Hees, thus securing a significant share of peaceful trade with southern Europe.[228] Algeria's declaration of war in 1686 affected Dutch shipping in the area, and between 1714 and 1720, 40 ships were made prizes and 7500 seamen were reduced to slavery.[229]

Finally, the Dutch achieved the peace they had longed for after much negociations.[229] In his first letter, the new Dutch consul in Algiers, Ludwig Hameken, cited the most important steps towards stabilizing the peace. He asked for a Mediterranean passport because Algerians "geen distinct tusschen Een Hollander weeten often Een Hamborger" (can't tell a Dutchman from a hamburger). When Britain went to war with Spain (1727-1729), the Dutch managed to stay ahead of their main rivals. But British traders were now too familiar with the Mediterranean to be driven away by such a brief interruption. After the war, the British shipping industry in the Mediterranean flourished, but the Dutch never kept up the competition.[230]

This Algerian female Kaftan was part of a large gift presented by Ali Pasha of Algiers to the Swedish king in 1731 in connection with the peace treaty between Sweden and Algiers.

Algiers had never reached the level of danger to Sweden's national security, but the goal of Sweden's contact with Algiers was the desire to prevent Algiers' fleet from attacking Swedish merchant ships in warm waters, because the threat was affecting Sweden's economic security only, so the solution was to follow the path of other European countries, and to offer a proposal to reach an understanding that guaranteed the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries, which was actually done in 1729. Thus, Algiers obtained a new financier for its fleet with marine construction materials, and Sweden entered the club of tax-paying countries for Algiers, and established - following the example of the French, the English and the Dutch - a consulate in Algiers, through which a consul supervised the interests of Sweden, making this consulate the first Swedish consulate in the entire Islamic world.[231]

Treaty of peace and trade, between the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Republic of Algiers, 1729. (left), Peace articles between the King of Denmark and the Dey of the Republic of Algiers, 1746. (right)

While the relationship was good between the two countries, there was no real cooperation between them, especially in the commercial field, although the Swedish authorities were planning to develop trade with North Africa, especially with regard to marine equipment, and the reason - according to George Lugie, the first Swedish consul in Algiers - is that the thinking of the Algerians was entirely focused on looting and piracy, as They do not encourage themselves or anyone else who tries to establish a private trade,[232] and Lugie adds in a letter to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce dated 13 October 1738: "I can find no other way in which Algiers will be more useful to Sweden than by keeping the peace with it. Peace with Algiers gives our ships the freedom to sail safely to the Spanish and Portuguese shores as well as the rest of the mediterranean ports"[233]

In the mid-1700s Dano-Norwegian trade in the Mediterranean expanded. To protect the lucrative business against piracy, Denmark–Norway secured a peace deal with the states of the Barbary Coast. It involved paying an annual tribute to the individual rulers and additionally to the states.

In 1766, Algiers had a new ruler, dey Baba Mohammed ben-Osman. He demanded that the annual payment made by Denmark-Norway be increased, and that he receive new gifts. Denmark–Norway refused the demands. Shortly after, Algerian pirates hijacked three Dano-Norwegian ships and allowed the crew to be sold as slaves.

They threatened to bombard the Algerian capital if the Algerians did not agree to a new peace deal on Danish terms. Algiers was not intimidated by the fleet, which was of two frigates, two bomb galiots and four ships of the line.

Ex Voto of a Naval Battle between an Algerian vessel and a ship of the Order of Malta under Langon 1719

The Foreign trade was in the hands of foreigners. Algiers had no merchant navy: the Christians forbade it, not wanting direct trade between Muslims and Christians at any price. Throughout the 18th century, the armed corsairs of Malta had the mission of threatening trade with the Maghreb, of maintaining permanent insecurity against it and of defending the Christian monopoly. These corsairs were encouraged by The main task of the order which was: "to prevent the Turks from loading their goods on the ships of their nation and to keep them under European dependence".[234]

Jewish man from Algeria

The Jews of Algiers became an economic power, eliminating many European houses from the Mediterranean; the Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles complained in a memoir in 1783: "Everything announces that this trade will one day imperceptibly be of some consideration, because the country has by itself a capital fund which has given the awakening to the peoples who live there, and that nothing is so common today, to see Algerians and Jews domiciled in Algiers coming to Marseilles to bring us the products of this kingdom".[234] Their economic power enabled them to play an important role in the internal and external policy of the Algerian State. The Jews were Very skilful in mixing their personal affairs with the interests of the Algerian State, they were at the origin of various disputes with Spain and especially with France.[235][236]

Joseph Bacri, creditor of the court of Spain, demanded the repayment of the debt, increased by interest for twenty years, the whole amounting, according to him, to five million francs. He asked the Spanish government to pay the Treasury of Algiers the sum due to him. The Dey defended Bacri's claims before the Spanish consul; the discussion was heated and the consul left the city, which nearly caused a rupture between the two governments. The dey was wise enough to avoid it, proposing a compromise to the Spanish government: the reimbursement of one million to Bacri's creditors and the transfer of 500,000 francs to the Treasury as compensation for war expenses.[237][236]

This initiative of the Algerians deeply worried the Marseillais, who sought to defend their threatened monopoly. The French consuls resented the Jews almost violently and urged their king to pass ordinances that would prevent these favored Jews from trading in French ports. It was no use; the Jewish merchants had contacts, they dealt in prize goods as well as in more regular merchandise, and they were essential to the dey's government.[235]

Entrance of the Port of Marseille, by Joseph Vernet (1714–1789)

The Christian merchants also caused trouble and conflict. One flagrant case was that of a merchant who accepted a consignment of goods belonging to the dey, and then managed to swindle him of both profits and capital; another; a merchant owing the dey a large sum of money who died without resources. The French king was obliged to make good the losses to avoid further difficulty, for the French king's government established rules, port regulations, and tariff duties that made it practically impossible for a Muslim merchants to trade in French harbors.[235] Thus, the Algerians could not actually carry their own cargoes of wool, hides, wheat, wax, honey, and other such commodities to the French market.[235] The Marseillais wanted, for example, to prohibit the Algerian Jews from residing more than three days in their port, they appealed to the dey to induce him to prohibit the Jews from going to trade in Marseilles. The Muslim merchants, who had their cemetery in Marseilles, also wanted to build a mosque, but they were refused. Moreover, the raïs, especially Christian converts to Islam, did not dare to land on Christian land, where they risked imprisonment and torture. Port regulations practically prevented them from trading with Europe in their own ships.[234]

Unable to have commercial vessels, nor therefore to transport their goods themselves to Europe, the Algerians were forced to use the services of foreign intermediaries and to fall back on the Corso again to compensate for the lost money.[234]

The Bombardment of Algiers in 1816, by Martinus Schouman

During the early 19th century, Algiers again resorted to widespread piracy against shipping from Europe and the United States of America, mainly due to internal fiscal difficulties, and the damage caused by the Napoleonic Wars.[238] This in turn led to the First Barbary War and Second Barbary War, which culminated in August 1816 when Lord Exmouth executed a naval bombardment of Algiers, the biggest, and most successful.[239] The Barbary Wars resulted in a victory for the American, British, and Dutch navies since it culminated in the weakening of the Algerian navy and the liberation of 2000 Christian slaves.

Brigantine Polly of Newburyport Captured by Algerine Pirates, 1793

The United States of America tried to enter the field of this conflict and sought to form a European-American alliance against Algiers in particular and the Maghreb countries in general, but failed to convince European countries because of the separation of the British colonies in the New World and their formation of independent republics under the influence of America. The Algerian captains, after Spain concluded a peace treaty with the Algiers in 1785, entered the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and attacked American ships, refusing to release them except after paying large sums of money. Two American ships, the schooner Maria, and Dauphin were captured by Algerian pirates in July 1785 and the survivors forced into slavery, their ransom set at $60,000. A rumor that Benjamin Franklin, who was en route from France to Philadelphia about that time, had been captured by Barbary pirates, caused considerable upset in the U.S.[240]

During the presidency of George Washington (April 30, 1789 – 1797), and after America failed to form an American-European alliance against the Maghreb countries, it announced its desire to establish friendly relations with Algiers in February 1792, and reported this to the Dey Hassan III Pasha, just like the Kingdom of Great Britain, which used to buy peace and security for its ships with money.

Thomas Jefferson, who assumed the presidency twice, was inclined to the idea of confronting Algiers with a logic of force, so he asked France, America's ally in the War of Independence, to ally with him this time, but it refused the idea.[241] An agreement was reached to put up an armed force off the Moroccan coast to defend its ships in the Mediterranean, provided that naval operations would be directed against Algerian ships in particular, as they were the strongest Islamic navies in that sea, and then operations would be directed against the rest of the other regencies to destroy their forces. When this idea was presented to the concerned countries, Spain apologized for not accepting it, because the wounds of the campaign of 1775 were still fresh, and was favored by Portugal, Malta, Naples, Venice, Denmark and Sweden.[241] But the project failed when the US Congress objected it for fear of its high financial costs, and more Algerian ships were attacking American ships because of their lack of association with Algiers by any treaty in this period, so the conditions worsened a lot, and the US Congress was forced to issue a decree in 1794. A decision stipulating the need to establish a defensive naval fleet, but it stipulated in one of its articles that the project be stopped if an agreement was reached with Algiers.[242]

Stephen Decatur's Conflict with the Algerine at Tripoli, during the boarding of a Tripolitan gunboat on 3 August 1804

Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States of America and Hassan Pasha Dey of Algiers, his diwan, and his subjects: a scan of the original document handwritten in Ottoman Turkish, signed September 5, 1795 in Algiers

When the American government began negotiating with Algiers,[243] the Dey asked for 2,435,000 dollars as the price for the peace contract and the ransom of the prisoners,[244] then reduced the amount to 642,500 dollars except for 21,000 dollars as the price for military equipment that is presented to Algiers every year. Reconciliation took place between the two parties, and the Dey pledged to mediate with Tunisia and Tripoli, so they would also sign this treaty, and peace would be achieved for America in the entire Mediterranean basin. On September 5, 1795, American negotiator Joseph Donaldson signed a peace treaty with the Dey of Algiers, that included an upfront payment of $642,500 in specie (silver coinage) for peace, the release of American captives, expenses, and various gifts for the Dey's royal court and family,[245] and it included 22 articles, but this reconciliation did not last long since Algerian Rovers captured an American ship in 1800. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) responded by sending four American vessels against the Dey of Algiers in 1801, then he sent another campaign in 1802 to besiege Tripoli after its Emir Yusuf Pasha Al-Karamanli (1795-1832) declared war against America,[246] claiming that the tribute paid to him was small, and this campaign did not succeed except in inspiring the Maghreb regencies stimulating more solidarity and interdependence among themselves. In accordance with the treaty that was concluded Between them, on June 30, 1805, America paid Algiers 60,000 dollars as a ransom for the prisoners, and agreed to continue sending gifts to the Dey and replace its consul with another one, then withdrew its fleet from the Mediterranean in 1807. As Lieutenant and consul William Eaton informed newly appointed Secretary of State John Marshall in 1800, "It is a maxim of the Barbary States, that 'The Christians who would be on good terms with them must fight well or pay well.'"[247]

It amounted to what America paid to Algiers during the presidency of George Washington and his successor, John Adams (1797-1801), 1,000,000 dollars or a fifth of the government's annual budget then in tribute.[242]

Commodore Decatur and the Dey of Algiers Haji Ali Pasha

When the war broke out between America and Britain in 1812, the regent on the British throne George III sent a letter to the Dey Haji Ali Pasha (1809-1815) confirming to him the bonds of friendship that united the two countries and declaring his country's readiness to defend Algiers against every aggressor as long as these ties remained, and by that he intended to win over Algiers to Britain against America, or at least convince Algiers to adopt a position of neutrality. Thus, the countries of Europe and the United States of America failed to find an alliance or joint solidarity against the countries of the Islamic Maghreb and Algiers in particular, and the matter remained like that until the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815.[248] President Madison recommended that Congress declare the "existence of a state of war between the United States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers."[249] While Congress did not formally declare a state of war, they did pass legislation, enacted on March 3, 1815, that authorized the president to use the U.S. Navy, "as judged requisite by the President" to protect the "commerce and seamen" of the United States on the "Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas."[249] Congress also authorized the president to grant the U.S. Navy the ability to seize all vessels and goods belonging to Algiers. The legislation also authorized the president to commission privateers for the same purpose.[249]

Commodore Decatur's Squadron capturing the Algerian pirate ship Mashuda, on 17 June 1815. Mashuda, flagship of the Algerian Navy

The barbary states after the barbary wars, by Anthony Finley (1824)

During the reign of the Dey Omar Pasha (1815-1817), the American-Algerian relations worsened when the Dey began to demand an increase in the annual tribute. The Americans went to the waters of Algiers to fight under Commodore Stephen Decatur,[250] which culminated in the Battle off Cape Gata and the death of the famous Corsair captain Rais Hamidou, and followed it with a letter to the Dey on April 12, 1815 informing him of America's decision to enter into war against him and giving him the choice between peace and war after reminding him of the horrors of war and the advantages of peace and understanding. In the year 1816, Dey Omar answered this letter and offered America the renewal of the previous treaty concluded during the reign of Hassan Pasha (1791-1798). American President Madison answered him immediately on August 21 of the same year and asked him to resume negotiations, which were renewed and ended with a peace agreement in favor of America, The Dey was forced to pay 10,000 dollars in compensation and to renounce all that America had been paying him.[251]

Landing at Sidi Fredj

During the Napoleonic Wars the Regency of Algiers had greatly benefited from trade in the Mediterranean, and the massive imports of food by France, largely bought on credit. In 1827, Hussein Dey, Algeria's ruler, demanded that the restored Kingdom of France pay a 31-year-old debt contracted in 1799 for supplies to feed the soldiers of the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt.

The French consul Pierre Deval refused to give answers satisfactory to the dey, and in an outburst of anger, Hussein Dey hit him with his fan. King Charles X used this as an excuse to break diplomatic relations and to start a full-scale invasion of the Algerian Regency on 14 June 1830: Algiers capitulated to the French on 5 July 1830 and Hussein Dey went into exile in Naples. The Regency was subsequently dismantled and its territory directly annexed to the Kingdom of France.[238]

Charles X was overthrown a few weeks later by the July Revolution; however, the new monarch, Louis Philippe I, chose to continue the effort to colonize Algeria.

Aruj Barbarossa, a corsair chief who was as a skilful politician as he was a valiant warrior,[252] feared by the Christian armies in the Mediterranean, nevertheless tried, even at the expense of the Maghreb principalities, to build a powerful Muslim state in the center of the Maghreb. Thus, Fray Diego de Haedo, a Spanish Benedictine from Sicily, was able to write, between 1577 and 1581: "Aruj effectively "began the great power of Algiers and the Barbary".[253]

Aruj sought the support of the religious authorities, in particular that of maraboutic and sufi orders.[254] Exploiting the popularity of the marabouts for the benefit of his policy, he conveyed to them the idea of the form of government he was meditating to establish and which was called the "Odjak of Algiers". Everything depended on a sort of a military republic,[255] analogous to that of the island of Rhodes occupied by the Christian Knights Hospitaller.[256][252]

This constitution and the new power of Aruj, coated with a religious sanction and supported by the scimitars of Turks and Christian renegades, allowed him to be invested with a power that was freely accepted by the military, thus his authority was absolute,[256] and was accepted without resistance by the population.[252] Power was in the hands of the soldiers of the Odjak, thus, native Algerians and even Koulouglis were excluded from high government positions.[252] However, this split between "imported" ruling elite and indigenous populations is not as significant, and should not be understood as disregard to the civilian, tribal and religious moorish elite, as more complex divisions were also more important. The rule was never about the perpetual servitude of millions of "natives" by a few thousand "foreign" Janissaries.[24] Aruj therefore left to his brother Khair ad-Din a heavy inheritance, that is "the core of an empire" well in the ground to produce the expected fruit of the new and modern policy of this country of the south of the Mediterranean and of the central Maghreb, called "El-Djazair"(Algiers).[257]

Portrait of Sultan Charardin of Algeria, Called Barbarossa, by Lorenzo de Musi (Italian, active c. 1535)

Khair ad-Din Barbarossa succeeded his brother as of right without meeting any opposition. His religious zeal won him the confidence of the Algerians. It was he who revealed the importance of the port of Algiers in the open war of Islam against Christianity, yet he remained alone at the head of the army to continue, with a rare political sense, the work of his elder brother: To contain the outbursts of revolts of many opponents to his authority and to fight against the implacable Spanish Empire, he decided to pledge allegiance to the Porte, he had himself recognized as sovereign by the Sultan, with the title of beylerbey.[258] The new Pasha of Algiers designed, in fact, the strategy of existence of the Algerian state. Gradually, he applied his political, economic and military ambitions, projecting them into daily actions on land and at sea. To govern the country, discuss and manage State affairs, he relied on a Council, the Diwân, whose members were scrupulously chosen among the most qualified personalities of the city of Algiers.[259] Over time, the members of the Diwân were elected and came, for the most part, from the corps of Janissaries as in Constantinople.[260] They become, if even they reflect the Ottoman society in power, "the Algerians" of the state, hence the general and distinctive designation of "Turkish Janissaries of Algiers" which is given to them.[259]

The Beylerbeylik of Algiers under the Ottoman Empire with the Saadi Dynasty of Morocco in 16th century

After 1516, Algiers became the center of Ottoman rule in Northwest Africa, because the Maghreb region under the Ottoman Empire was controlled by the governor of Algiers.[261] It was also the center of piracy activities where Muslims attacked ships of Christian countries; the island of Malta would also serve Christian pirates in the same fashion.[261] The Regency was also the headquarters of a significant Janissary force, probably the greatest in the empire outside Istanbul. With these powerful forces, Algiers quickly became a bastion of the Islamic world as the West competed with the Ottoman Empire for control of the Western Mediterranean.[262] Until the mid-17th century, power formally rested in the hands of governors, who were sent from Istanbul and replaced every few years. The Corsair captains, however, were virtually outside their control, and the Janissaries obedience was limited to their ability to collect taxes and pay their salaries.[262]

Uluç Ali Pasha (Occhiali), Beylerbey of Algiers

Between 1519 and 1659, the rulers of the Regency of Algiers were chosen by the Ottoman sultan. During the first few decades, Algiers was completely aligned with the Ottoman Empire, since the full authority of the country and the management of its affairs were in the hands of the "Beylerbey" (Turkish: Prince of princes). The beylerbeys were from the sect of Riyas al-Bahr or the Corsairs, most of whom were companions of Khair ad-Din Barbarossa himself, and it was the Ottoman Sultan who appointed them over whomever the corsairs suggested as Viceroys, by virtue of Algeria's subordination to the Ottoman Empire.[26][263] Often one of them remained in power for several years. Also, a number of them were transferred to Constantinople to assume the position of Captain Pasha or the Ministry of the Navy because of their competence in commanding the naval fleets, such as Khair ad-Din Barbarossa, his son Hassan Pasha, and Uluj Ali Pasha.[50]

In this period, Algiers achieved regional and political unity because the beylerbeys were interested in extending their influence and control to the east, west and south, as they eliminated all the emirates and local sultanates such as the Zayyanid state in Tlemcen[50] and the Hafsid emirates in Bani Abbas, Constantine, and Annaba, and subjugated the Kingdom of Kuku in Kabylia. Saleh Rais is considered the hero for achieving this unity.[264][265]

However, the beylerbeys were autonomous despite aknowledging the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, Haedo called them "Kings of Algiers",[25] and this was due to a number of reasons; The Timar system was not applied in Algiers, the beylerbeys would instead send an annual tribute to Istanbul after meeting the expanses of the state.[21] The Algerian corso aroused diverging internal and external intrests of Algiers and Istanbul, with the latter being incapale of controlling it.[266] Also, Muhammad I Pasha unified the Corsairs and the Janissaries into a single military institution,[267] allowing it to act independently to the point where it could refuse orders from the sultan or even send back an appointed pasha.[266]

The arrival of the new Pasha, Viceroy of Algiers sent from the great lord (Ottoman Sultan), by Jan Luyken (1684)

The Ottoman Empire had to change the system of government in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, fearing the independence of the rulers of Algiers and the establishment of an independent north African Islamic state, and so in 1587 it abolished the beylerbeylik system and established in its place the "Pashalik" system, as it divided the Maghreb countries in its dominion into three separate regencies.[268]

The rule of the pashas lasted nearly 72 years, during which twenty-seven pashas successively ruled, some of whom returned to power as many as four times. This period was known for turmoil, chaos and political instability, and the intensified political conflict between the corsairs and the Odjak, a military branch of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers which was looking forward to rule by various means, so Khider pasha tried to get rid of it with the help of the population who suffered from its tyranny, a revolt against it sparked in the city of Algiers, and the anger spread to neighboring towns, but the attempt failed.[269]

Despite the introduction of the pasha system, the Diwan of the Odjak, a sort of a military council headed by the Agha of the Janissaries, began to strengthen and expand its influence and control, and worked to get rid of the Ottoman hegemony represented by the pasha sent from Constantinople, as the efforts of the diwan converged with the efforts of the pashas to materialize this trend because of their need for loyalty, so their concern was to collect the largest amount of money while waiting for the end of their three-year term in office. As long as this was the main goal of the pasha, governance became a secondary issue, and little by little actual rule was transferred to the Janissary diwan.[270]

Map of North Africa. Relief shown pictorially. Boundaries hand-colored. circa 1650, by Jan Janssonius (1588–1664)

With this behavior followed by the pashas in Algiers, they lost all influence and respect, and these pashas were constantly lost between the demands of the corsairs and the Odjak, or with the population, so they tried not to anger any of the parties because they feared for their lives and for their treasures, which they were working to multiply as quickly as possible. At this stage, aversion with the Sublime Porte increased in Algiers, and this was evident when khider pasha encouraged the corsairs to attack the French commercial center (Bastion de France) in the coast of El-Kala and Annaba in 1603 and enslave the families of the people in it, and when the Ottoman Empire intervened and demanded the rebuilding of Bastion de France and the release of the French captives, the diwan of the Odjak strongly opposed the orders of the Sultan,[271] thus the prestige of the Ottoman sultan in Algiers weakened, the crises intensified even more when Ibrahim Pasha took a deduction from the money that the Sultan sent to the corsairs to compensate their losses and join the Ottoman fleet.[134] This caused a major riot in Algiers that reached the point of kidnapping the Pasha and threatening him with death, yet he ended up being put in prison.[272]

Banner of the Dey of Algiers, Victor Hugo museum, Paris

The Regency was described by some contemporary observers as a "republic". According to priest and historian Pere dan (1580 –1649): "The state has only the name of a kingdom since, in effect, they have made it into a republic." [273] Algiers showed characters of a more "horizontal" and "egalitarian" structure than the European powers which steadily succumbed to the absolutism of the monarchs.[274]

It was unique among Muslim countries, and unusual even in 18th-century Europe, in having its rulers elected through limited democracy. This was even praised by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[275] Algiers was not a modern political democracy based on majority rule, alternation of power, and competition between political parties. Instead, politics was based on the principle of consensus (ijma), which was legitimized by Islam and by jihad.[275]

In principle, any member of the Janissary Odjak or the corsair captains could aspire to become Dey of Algiers through a system of "democracy by seniority."[273] Any new recruit can rise up through the ranks at the rate of one every three years. Over time, he would serve as commander-in-chief or "Agha of Two Moons" for a two months period. He would then serve in the Divan or great council of government with a vote on all important matters and elections.[273] However, the ruler was elected for life and could only be replaced after his death. Opponents could thus only gain power by overthrowing the current leader, leading to violence and instability. This volatility led many early 18th-century European observers to point to Algiers as an example of the inherent dangers of democracy.[275]

American consul in Algiers William Shaler would describe the Algerian regency's government as following:[8]

The merits of this government have been proved by its continuance, with few variations in it forms of administration, for three centuries. It is in fact a military republic with a chief elective for life, and upon a small scale resembling that of the Roman Empire after the death of Commodus. This government ostensibly consists of a sovereign chief, who is termed the Dey of Algiers, and a Divan, or great Council, indefinite in point of number, which is composed of the ancient military who are or have been commanders of corps. The divan elects the Deys, and deliberates upon such affairs as he chooses to lay before them

— William Shaler, Sketches of Algiers, 1826

Corsair captain of Algiers. (left), Janissary of the Odjak of Algiers. (right)

At the end of Pasha Ibrahim's reign (1656-1659), a massive revolution arose against him, led by Rias al-Bahr (Corsair captains) on the one hand and the Janissary soldiers on the other. As for the Rias, they revolted because Pasha Ibrahim had deprived them of the sums of money allocated to them by the Sublime Porte as compensation for their losses in the Adriatic. And his payment of bribes to the statesmen in Constantinople to keep him in office. For this reason, the corsairs attacked his palace, arrested him, and imprisoned him. As for the Janissary soldiers, they were constantly trying to seize opportunities to assume power, and they found in this incident an opportunity for them, so they carried out a sudden coup against the ruler.[172][157]

In this year the commander-in-chief of the Janissaries stationed in Algiers Khalil Agha usurped supreme authority, accusing the pashas sent from the Sublime porte of being mostly corrupt and their government behaviour hindered the regency's affairs with European countries.[276] The Janissaries effectively eliminated the authority of the pasha, whose position became only ceremonial, and they agreed to assign executive authority to Khalil Agha (who inaugurated his rule by building the iconic "Djamaa el Djadid" mosque),[133] provided that the period of his rule does not exceed two months, then they put the legislative power in the hands of the Diwan Council and forced the Sultan to accept their new government under duress, but the Sultan stipulated that the Diwan pay the salaries of the Turkish soldiers. Thus began the era of the Aghas,[277] and the pashalik became a military republic.[278][279]

During this period a form of dual leadership was in place, The Pasha continued to keep both his honorary titles and his private income, but his intervention in the government was limited to a mostly fictitious control; his presence in the diwan or council of government was no longer required except on great occasions, and he scarcely appeared there except to sanction, by his approval, measures to which, in fact, he remained almost completely foreign.[280]

The French historian Pierre Boyer describes the short period of the Agha regime as following: "With hindsight, the reign of El Hadj Mohamed Et-Triki appears as a transition at the end of a period during which three different forms of government were successively attempted, the system of Triennial Pashas having failed:

• Direct government of the elders of the Odjaq under Khelil and Ramdan,
• Government of the Divan in the hands of subordinate cadres,
• Dictatorship with a remarkable personality, which ends up cutting itself off from its natural support and which succumbs to an improvised riot by disgruntled soldiers".[281]

Hadj Mohammed Trik (1671 – 1681), first dey of Algiers

English fireship sent on seven captured ships in Béjaïa in 18 May 1671, by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707)

The government of the regency underwent another change in 1671 when the destruction of seven Algerian ships by a British squadron commanded by Sir Edward Spragge[282] occasioned a rebellion of the Corsairs and the assassination of Agha Ali (1664–71), the last of four janissary chiefs to rule the country since 1659, all of whom were massacred. In place of the agha of the Janissaries, the Corsairs chose as ruler of the regency an officer to whom they gave the title of 'Dey' (maternal uncle), which had been used in Tunisia since the rebellion of the Ottoman troops there in 1591 for the officers chosen by them to rule the country, thus, after 1671, the Deys became the main leaders of the country.[283][284] However, Pierre Boyer indicates that de Grammont's theory of the triumph of the Ta'ifa of Reïs over the Odjak must be nuanced. He puts forward the following hypothesis: the death of Ali Agha caught the leaders of the Regency unawares. The Odjak in rebellion tries to pursue the experiment of sovereign Aghas, but the designated candidates recuse themselves one after the other. Under these conditions, the Odjak of Algiers, with the agreement of the Ta'ifa of Reïs, resurrected the project of the late Ali Bitchin reïs and resorted to an old expedient, already in use in 1644-45, which consisted in entrusting the destiny of the Regency, and the charge of the payroll, to a reïs reputed to be solvent, an old Dutch renegade, "Hadj Mohammed Trik",[285] The choice of this reïs, proves that it is not a question of a "seizure of power", in the dictatorial sense of the term.[283] Which is why in 1689, even though the dey came to be elected by the Odjak again, the Agha ceased to be ex officio the ruler of Ottoman Algeria.[286]

Djenina Palace in Algiers, former residence of the Deys

The Pashas had skilfully tried to regain some shred of their lost authority, and they had managed to intrigue in the shadows, to stir up conflicts and to foment seditions to overthrow the unpopular Deys.[172] From 1710 on, the Deys themselves assumed the title of Pasha at the initiative of dey Baba Ali Chaouch (1710-1718) and no longer accepted a representative of the sultan at their side, thus confirming their independence vis-à-vis the Sublime Porte.[287] For example: In 1725, the dey Kurd Abdi (1724-1732) refused to respect the agreements made between the sultan and the European countries. In 1730 again, the dey dismissed the delegates of the Sublime Porte who had come to present him with a new pasha. When an Ottoman envoy claimed that the Ottoman Padishah was the king of Algiers, Dey Kurd Abdi shouted at the envoy "King of Algiers? King of Algiers? If he is the King of Algiers then who am I?".[288][289]

Mohamed ben Hassan Pasha-Dey giving audience to the King of France's envoy Mr Dusault in 1719

The territorial unity of Algeria was achieved. Endowed with a well-defined territory and a well-organized government, both at the central and provincial levels.[49] Its limits to the west and east were definitively fixed with the retaking of Oran and Mers El Kebir from the Spanish and the establishment of borders with Morocco and with Tunisia. The deys also imposed their authority on the rais and the Janissaries.[286] The former did not approve of the provisions which restricted the corso, their main source of income, as they remained attached to the external prestige of the Regency, the latter did not admit military defeats and delays in the payment of their pay. But the deys ended up triumphing over their revolts. The raïs lost the importance they had had in the 17th century; European reactions, new treaties guaranteeing the safety of navigation and the slowdown in shipbuilding considerably reduced its activity. The rais were very unhappy with this situation, but they no longer had the strength to oppose the government. Their revolt of 1729 failed. They had risen up against the dey Mohamed ben Hassan whom they accused of favoring the Janissaries to their detriment and killed him;[290] but the new dey, Kurd Abdi (1724-1732), quickly restored order and severely punished the conspirators.[291]

Dey Omar Agha receiving the representative of Lord Viscount Exmouth after the bombardement of Algiers in 1816

The rule of the military class and its monopoly of power and its rivalry over rule and control, making the population on the sidelines watching the events and the repeated assassinations among the deys and the ranks of the Turkish soldiers, and this resulted in the spread of strife and civil unrest, especially among the residents of the capital. Also, the repeated attempts of the Ottoman porte to interfere in the affairs of the Algerian state in order to restore its authority and restore its former influence during the days of the beylerbeys, had negative effects on the political stability of the state which motivated hostile factions to rebel and disobey more often.[292]

Frequent European raids on the country's coasts with a desire to take revenge on Algerian maritime power and its corso, especially by the Spaniards, the French and the English, resulted in the country living in almost a consent state of war. Most of the time, the military leadership used this factor as a justification to impose more taxes on the people who often were exhausted and prompt to disobey and rebel, and the deys confronted them at that time with brute force. Algeria's hostile position towards Tunis, the Sharifian Empire, and sometimes Tripoli was one of the factors which encouraged the Europeans to attack it, because when the countries of the Maghreb were in a state of harmony and concord, their joint forces did much against European attempts against them as was the case in the first barbary war.[292]

Lastly, what added to the internal hardships of Algiers during this period was the occurrence of destructive Earthquakes in the years 1716, 1717, and 1755, the occurrence of epidemics in the years 1752, 1753, and 1787, and the occurrence of Drought in some other years, and all of this led to the death of thousands of people, and the spread of poverty and misery. And the lack of supplies and agricultural crops, which resulted in the spread of anger and discontent at the popular level.[292]

Dey Ali Khoja, surrounded by the severed heads of vanquished enemies after the bombardment of 1816

The Janissaries were more turbulent than the corsairs, In 1713, they wanted to assassinate the dey Ali Chaouch, but the plotters were arrested and strangled.[293] Nearly 1700 Janissaries perished. In 1728, the dey Kurd Abdi succeeded in breaking another plot hatched by the Agha and the militia.[294] In 1754, following internal difficulties and a big explosion of powder magazine in Algiers in the middle of an epidemic of plague, seven Arnauts (Albanians) of the militia planned to kill the dey Baba Mohamed Torto and to install in his place their chief. Venture de Paradis tells that they succeeded in killing the dey and the khaznadji and in raising the leader of their conspiracy to the throne. But the new dey was killed by the great cook of the Djenina Palace, aided by slaves who had been supplied with arms. The seven conspirators were all eliminated. Ali Baba Bousbaa, Agha commander of the cavalry, was appointed dey and reigned for ten years.[295]

In 1805, the Janissaries, following a popular riot, attacked the Jews. Busnach and Bacri's company had large stocks of wheat as the famine raged. Dey Mustapha Pasha (1798-1805) exiled Jewish families and seized their property. These measures being judged insufficient, the Janissaries seized the dey and put him to death. In 1808, a new revolt: the Janissaries were dissatisfied with the evolution of Tunisian affairs, Napoleonic demands, the release of Italian captives and the installation of the Dey's wife in the Djenina. Dey Ahmed was killed, and replaced by Ali al Ghassal, who was himself strangled following a new riot. The diwan was thereafter completely eclipsed by the authority of the dey Hadj Ali. In 1817, the Janissaries accused the Dey Omar Pasha of treason and cowardice, for having agreed under pressure from the local population and the Koulouglis and even from some of the Janissaries, to negotiate with Lord Exmouth. He was seized and killed,[296] and replaced by Ali Khodja (1817-1818). Suddenly, the new dey saw fit to leave the Djenina for the Kasbah above the city and to settle there under the protection of Koulouglis and Kabyle soldiers. With this support, he imposed himself on the Janissaries. The Janissaries returning from Kabylia were attacked in their barracks and were diminished in number. Thus the military finally found itself reduced to obedience.[297]

Armed Koulougli of Algiers

The residents of Algiers flip-floped between insecurity and reassurance since the authority was burdening them with taxes and fines without taking into account their inputs and financial conditions, and making them ready to respond positively to every call for disobedience and rebellion against the central and regional authority.[298] Thus, a number of rebellious movements emerged throughout the era of the deys in the capital and beyliks east and west. In 1692: The inhabitants of the capital and the neighboring tribes tried to get rid of Turkish rule during the absence of the dey Chaban while he was campaigning in Tunisia. The attempt led to setting fire to the port facilities and some of the ships anchored in it.[299]

The Koulouglis of Tlmecen rebelled during the rule of Dey Ibrahim kuçuk. They expelled the Turkish garrison from the city and tried to connect with Koulouglis in the capital in order to carry out the same work so that the movement would be generalised and the country would be cleansed of the heavy Turkish rule over it. But the dey was aware of the attempt from the beginning, so he put an end to it in the cradle with strength and rigor.[300]

The inhabitants of Iflissen in the major tribes staged a rebellion in 1767 that lasted for nearly seven years. Their forces marched to the outskirts of the capital itself and pursued the forces of the dey in the villages of Metija. Before the disobedience of Iflissen, the population revolted in Blida, Al-Houdna and Isser, and in some oases of the south and Al-Nammasha in the Aures.[301]

Incidents appeared in Constantine that led to the killing of Saleh Bey in 1792, who was a prominent administrative figure in that beylik and popular among the population, so Algiers lost a political man and a seasoned military and administrative leader.[302] The men of the Zawiyas participated in stirring up unrest and revolts in this period. Where Muhammad ibn Al-Ahrash, leader of the Darqawiyyah-Shadhili religious order, led the revolution in the Constantine region and controlled Jijel, Al-Qal and Al-Qala, and Abdullah Al-Zabushi, the leader of the Rahmani order, helped him and sought to occupy the city of Constantine, the capital of the Baylik. Its activity extended to Chelif. At a time when ibn Al-Ahrash was making his move in the east, the Darqawis in western Algeria rushed to expand the scope of the revolt, and Sharif Darqawi led another rebellion, and even the Tijanis in Ain Madi participated in the revolution against Turkish rule, but they were eventually defeated by the bey Osmane, who in turn was killed by Dey Hadj Ali because of his fame.[303]

The Diwan of Algiers was established in the 16th century by Hayreddin Barbarossa and seated first in the Jenina Palace then in the Casbah citadel. This assembly, initially led by a Janissary Agha would soon evolve from a way to administer the Janissary Odjak of Algiers to a primary institution of the country's administration.[304] This change started in the 17th century around 1628, the Divan was expanded to include two subdivisions, one called the private (Janissary) Divan (diwan khass), and the public, or Grand Divan (diwan âm). The latter was composed of Hanafi scholars and preachers, the raïs, and native notables. It numbered between 800 and 1500 people,[305] but was still less important than the private Divan used by the Janissaries. During the period when Algiers was ruled by Aghas, the president of the Divan was also the leader of the country. The Agha called himself "Hakem" (Ruler).[134]

In the 18th century, the Grand Diwan remained a large council made up of senior officials, notables, ulamas and senior officers of the Janissary militia, making a total of nearly 700 members. It was this assembly that elected the dey of Algiers. At the beginning of their mandate, the deys consulted the divan on all important questions and decrees were deliberated. This council met in principle once a week, but in reality this frequency depended on the dey who could neglect the divan whenever he felt powerful enough to govern alone.[306]

With the strengthening of the power of the dey and the measures taken to protect themselves from the intrigues of the Janissaries of the divan, these large assemblies lost their influence gradually and were only brought together sporadically at the beginning of the 19th century.[304]

Janissary bolukbasi (Senior officer) (left), Janissary Agha (right)

The Janissary bolukbasi, or senior officers are those that form the private Divan. It is made up of sixty Janissary bolukbasis, who meet every morning at daybreak in a room intended for their deliberations to report to themselves on the acts of the administration by virtue of the powers conferred on them, as forming a superior body composed of the chiefs of the army. One can only be part of the divan after having fulfilled certain conditions required by the regulations, including a must have given proof of experience and capacity and having served in the army and navy; almost all those who belong to the divan are of advanced age and married to natives.[307]

The head of this divan is called Agha-el-Askar; he carries a saber and a kind of relic which contains the regulations of the regency (charter); He rides a horse covered with ornaments, and every morning he goes to preside over the divan. The office of president of the divan lasts only two months; each member is president in turn, by order of seniority, and disputes are decided by a majority of votes. Any member of the divan who finds himself invested with the dignity of president receives double pay.[308]

Beylerbey Hassan Agha, directing a Divan. Engraving by Jan Luyken, 1684.

All that relates to the high external or internal policy of the regency is decided by the members of the Divan. When there is some disorder in the interior, for example: a revolt among a tribe, or when a road is intercepted, they take information on this subject and give their opinion on the means that one should take to restore order.[308] The payment of soldiers is made only in the presence of this president or chief. For in Algiers the state treasury is only opened in the presence of the Khoja or state notary and a special commission, of which each member holds a key; each of the members of this commission presents himself with his register to note the entry and exit of funds from the treasury. The dey himself cannot dispose of the public treasury; he presents himself as a simple soldier to receive his pay, or civil list.[309]

It is within the powers of the President of the Divan to administer justice in his locality, on the Turks who have failed in discipline or who have broken the laws, as also to administer justice against the Koulouglis, who are the children or descendants of the Turks. therefore they cannot enter any prison, except that of the divan. In cases falling within the ambit of military usages and regulations, the judges of any litigious, criminal or correctional dispute, may contact the cady for his opinion and for the application of the laws; if there is some penalty to be inflicted, it is the president of the diwan who orders its execution, which must take place in the room of the divan, which gives force to the decision of the cady. The cady himself, in different cases, addresses himself to the divan to have his judgments executed, for soldiers are never judged by civil laws, but by military laws.[308]

The Dey, along with the Diwan, also appointed and relied on five ministers to govern Algiers. These were the:[103]

• Khaznadji, similar to the position of prime minister. The Khaznadji also took care of the treasury.
• Agha al-Mahalla, or supreme chief of the army, minister of internal affairs, was also responsible for governing the Dar as-Soltan region of Algiers
• Khodjet al-Khil, was responsible for managing fiscal responsibilities, and collecting taxes. They also had the ceremonial role of "secretary of horses". They were assisted by a "Khaznadar".
• Wakil al-Kharadj, or minister of the navy of Algiers and foreign affairs.
• Bait al-Maldji, responsible for managing the tribes of the Makhzen of Algiers

These ministers were picked by the Dey of Algiers.

• 
  Admiralty of Algiers in 1880, seat of Captain Raïs, harbor master and Wakil al-kharadj (minister of the navy)
• 
  Palace of Mustafa Khodjet al-Khil (secretary of horses)
• 
  Inside Ahmed bey Palace, last governor of the eastern Beylik
• 
  Headquarter of the Janissaries by Henri Klein (1910)

Ottoman Algeria

The Regency was composed of various beyliks (provinces) under the authority of beys (vassals):

• The Beylik of Constantine in the east, with its capital in Constantine
• The Beylik of Titteri in the centre, with its capital being Médéa
• The Beylik of the West, with its capital being Mascara and then Mazouna and then Oran

The administration of the western Beylik was established in 1563, and the emirate of the southern Beylik was established in 1548, while the center of the eastern beylik was the city of Constantine. As for the capital of the western beylik, it was moved to Mazouna in 1710, then to Oran in 1791. The capital of the southern Beylik was in Médéa, which was called the Beylik of Tetri, as for the central Beylik, it includes the city of Algiers with some nearby ports. As for El Kala, Sebaou, Blida (Bahr al-Azzun), they were called the Black Country and independent leaders have been appointed for them. As for Tlemcen, it has been given a special status, and sometimes Ténès and Bejaia were linked to the southern Beylik, and sometimes they were considered a separate provinces.[310]

The Beys divided their Beyliks into chiefdoms, so the bey in his regions was empowered to exercise a mini administrative system, thus they succeeded in managing their Beyliks with the help of some of their commanders and governors and among the privileges granted to the tribes, because these tribes that enjoyed a special privilege are known as the Makhzen tribes,[311] under the Beylik system, each province was divided into outan, or counties, which were governed by caïds under the authority of the Bey to maintain order and collect taxes from tributary regions, the administration relied on makhzen tribes. This system allowed the state of Algiers to expand its authority over the north of Algeria for three centuries. Despite this, society remained divided into tribes and was dominated by maraboutic brotherhoods and local djouads, or nobles. As a result, certain regions only loosely acknowledged the authority of Algiers, leading to numerous revolts, confederations, tribal fiefs, and sultanates that contested the regency's control.[312] ↵The Bey of Constantine relied on the strength of the local tribes, and at the forefront of those tribes were the Beni Abbas in Medjana and the Arab tribes in Zab region and Hodna, and the sheikhs of these tribes were called "the Sheikh of the Arabs".[311]

The Algerian Beyliks were like any other Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire in terms of the application of land feudalism, the properties in it were divided into Timar, Ziamet, and a private property, but that one did not last very long, as it was abolished and those properties were transferred to private property of the diwan, and allocated the revenues of those properties to the military administration.

• 
  City of Oran, capital of the western beylik, by Léon Galibert (1844)
• 
  City of Medea, capital of Titetteri beylik, by Léon Galibert (1844)
• 
  City of Constantine, capital of eastern beylik, by Léon Galibert (1844)

19th Century Color Engraving of a Kabyle Chief

The Makhzen tribes were socially classified within the rural population of the Eyalet of Algiers, as they were the strong supporter of the Ottoman Algerian administration in the countryside, which was looking for a strong local support that would enhance its influence and presence, and from the same rural community targeted in order to cover up the numerical weakness of the Ottomans who were confined to the main cities of the regency.[51] the Historian Ahmed Tewfik El Madani (1899–1983) wrote: "The Ottomans were not colonizers since they were not land owners, The truth is that the Ottoman legitmacy was dependent on the one hand on the Algerian tribesmen, and on the other hand it was dependent on the Islamic unity represented by the Ottoman caliphate. And all power, under the direction of the Pasha and the Beys, was in the hands of the Algerian sheikhs, east and west, plain and mountain".[313]

The Makhzen tribes played multiple important roles, whether in terms of military or economic support, for the benefit of the Ottoman administration in Algeria, in addition to imposing public order and the authority of the beyliks on the population. They also became administratively framed by the Ottoman authority and enjoyed many privileges that ensured their loyalty.[314]

The Makhzen tribes played an important role in the administrative aspect in service of the Ottoman Algerian authority, as they provided the agents charged with collecting taxes, counting the population and managing its affairs, the position of leader or a sheikh could give a hold on several numbers of Makhzen tribes.[314] The most notable of the sheikhs was the Kabyle leader Mohamed ben Zamoum.

Due to the importance and role of the Makhzen tribes in expanding the control of the central authority, their presence and recruitment was throughout all parts of the regency, Georges Voisin referred to the formation and recruitment of these tribes in the vicinity of the capitals of the Beyliks, he wrote: "The beys summon men who have the willingness and will to cooperate with the Ottoman authority, as these come accompanied with their tents, families and herds, and those who do not own them are provided with horses and weapons, and they also cut lands for plowing and exploitation with the privilege of not paying taxes, These summons are addressed by the beys to the strongest tribes from a military point of view in particular. [315]

and the situation of the Makhzen tribes developed until they became one of the organs of the Ottoman regime in Algeria, especially in its last stages, and the power of administration depended on the extent of its association with the Makhzen tribes.[314]

The military importance of the Makhzen tribes was evident in the fact that the Ottoman Algerians did not have regular cavalry, so they recruited only from the Makhzen tribes. Saidouni also indicates that the Janissaries were usually numbered less than 4,000 in normal times, whilst the Makhzen tribes enrolled 30,000 men in the countryside and cities, which went down to 15,000 in times of peace, in addition to the reserves that could be used in times of need such as wars and disciplinary campaigns to suppress rebellions.[316] Their military importance also emerged in the western beylik in particular, the massive use of the Makhzen tribes was due to the presence of imminent dangers represented essentially in Spanish Oran and the Sherifian Empire. In Mascara they formed the main body of the armies against the Spaniards in Oran and some of their allies, like the Banu Amer tirbe. Al-Zamul and the Dway'ir were counted among the best of the Makhzen knights, who were located mainly in Oranan region.[314]

As for the economic aspect, Saidouni points out that agriculture flourished during the era of the Beylerbayat (1518-1588 ) and the Pashas (1659-1588 ), which meant economic prosperity in the rural areas of an agricultural nature, which was a target for the control of the Ottoman Algerian administration through its working machine in the countryside, "the Makhzen tribes", which presented in turn an attractive tax source for the authority, especially starting from the era of the pashas, as well as controlling production and obtaining in-kind and financial demands, because taxes imposed on agricultural properties and agricultural and animal production in the countryside represented a major financial source for the Ottoman Algerian administration at the rural level.[316]

The imposed taxes and tithes were usually unfair and had no legal system. Rather, they were determined by the officiers of the locality and the Knights of the Makhzen.[314]

Besides the Turkish janissary troops the Odjak included an ethnically mixed group, this being the ta'ifa of reïs (community of corsair captains) or the Corsairs in short. In the days of Hayreddin and his immediate successors the reïs were an integral part of the army, but in the seventeenth century they had become a distinct group. By this time the holy war against the Christians had degenerated into piracy, although it continued to be described as al-jihad fi'l-bahr (holy war at sea), and the community of corsair captains had become penetrated by adventurers from many parts of the Mediterranean area. Non-Turks who came to Algiers as captives of the Algerian corsairs gained admittance to the ta'ifa of reïs through conversion to Islam and by virtue of their knowledge of the areas the corsairs raided. Unlike in Ottoman Tunisia, where privateers were allowed to equip their own piratical ships, piracy in Algiers was a monopoly of the state. The captain-reïs, "admiral, hierarchical chief of all the reïs", or captain of vessels, was often, after the Pasha, the most important personage of the Diwan[317]

An Algerine Ship off a Barbary Port by Andries van Eertvelt

At the beginning of the 17th century, the introduction of round ships by the Flemish corsair Zymen Danseker and the arrival of expelled Moriscos from Spain contributed strongly to the development of the fleet of Algiers, which would have been modernized and enlarged,[37] it numbered as follows:

• In 1625, the corsair fleet included six Galleasses, a large number of brigantines and a hundred Galleyes, more than sixty of them were equipped with 24 to 40 guns.[318]
• In 1630, there were about 70 ships in the port of the capital, with what the Algerians owned from the French years prior, and
• in 1632, 13 galleys were found in the port, all of which were driven by oars, and 70 others with sails, and 23 boats of 30 to 50 cannons.
• In 1634, the Algerian fleet consisted of 70 pieces, each of which was armed with between 25 and 40 cannons.
• In 1657, this number decreased to 23 ship, and each ship included 30 to 50 cannons.
• In 1662, there were 22 barges and nine galleys in the capital, and in 1681 there were only 17 barges in the port of Algiers and two large ships with heavy weapons of 112 cannons. These 17 ships were mentioned by their names in the report of sieur hayet, among them: the Golden Mare, the Rose, the little Rose, the city of Algiers, the Marzouk, the Canaria.[319]
• On the consul's Fiolle report, He says that in 1686: "The ship called "the Golden Rose" was armed with 40 cannons, the "Seven Stars" with 30 cannons, the "Golden Lion" equipped with 32 cannons, and that there were also on this date, 10 ships with two bridges, each containing 30 cannons, and ten single-barreled ships, each containing 14 cannons, sometimes reaching 20. There were also two ships with two bridges containing 45 cannons and a fire equipped with 20 cannons, and five other ships, two of them with 50 cannons, two with 30 cannons, and besides that, there were 39 ships for transport and trade".
• It came in the report of Dr. Duke de Grafton dated on October 14, 1687, that the number of Algerian ships in the diversity of their forms and the difference in weight and their cargo amounted to 60 ships, which had 570 cannons in total.[319]

Algerine Xebec near Gibraltar, by Dominic Serres (1722-1793)

In the 18th century the number of Algerian ships diminished and was varying from 20 to 30 ships and were mostly Xebecs armed with 12 to 32 cannons. During the Barbary Wars the said number increased in 1802 to 66 barges, each with between 25 and 80 long-range cannons, then in 1815 it began to decrease to 41 ships, and there were only five battleships, four barges and 30 ships in 1816, Gouthrot says on that date only two battleships of 50 to 60 cannons, two corvettes with five cannons, two barges of 80 cannons, four galleys of 15 to 26 cannons, and one ship of 20 cannon type "polacre", and 35 ship, the General Consul of the United States of America William Shaler tells about the Algerian Navy in 1815: "The Algerian fleet was composed of five frigates with 38 to 50 cannons and five corvettes", among those ships were the well-known "Al-Marikana", and the Portuguesa also known as "Mashouda", the latter was captured by Rais Hamidou from the Portuguese navy in May 1802 and there were 282 prisoners on its deck, then it was lost and others were burned when Lord admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth attacked Algiers in 1816. There are also names for other ships, such as Miftah al-Salam, Dik al-Marsa, Guide to Alexandria, and others from what the Algerian Navy seized, so it left them with the names known by them before.[320] Two important attacks were the American expedition of 1815, which forced the regency to accept a right of navigation from the Americans, and that of the British and Dutch navies on Algiers in August 1816. The latter suffered great losses and were prevented from landing, but the Algerian armada also loses a very large number of ships including 4 frigates and 8 corvettes, this marked the de facto end of the Algerian Corso.

A Soldier of the Janissaries by Jean Baptiste Vanmour (1671–1737)

Algiers was governed, from the beginning of the 16th century, by a foreign militia, commonly called by Europeans "the Odjak" or "the Turkish militia". The denomination "Turk", referred to the geographical and ethnic origin of most members of this militia, to their language, and to their belonging to a culture distinct from that of other Algerians.[321] The Odjak of Algiers was a faction in the country which encompassed all Janissaries. They also often controlled the country, for example during the period of Aghas from 1659 to 1671.[103]

The militia constituted both the government and the army of the regency, and the distinction between the two is not always obvious.[322] Thus, it is from the same corps of Janissaries that the civil servants of the state were drawn, and the holders of the highest ranks indeed have political or administrative roles. This was the case, for example, of the oldest bölükbashi from whom ambassadors to foreign courts were chosen.[323] It was within combat units, at sea or on land, that the Khodja corps trained its men, and it was this corps that ensured the administration of the Regency as well as that of the army. Even former corsair captains found roles in state service as dragomans to European consuls.[324] Since the pashas sent from Istanbul had lost all effective influence on the decisions of the odjak, towards the 1660s, it was always the elected member of the militia who held power, and who then became both the political and military leader of the Regency.

Origin of Algerian Janissary recruitment according to Marcel Colombe (1943)

The Odjak was initially mainly composed of foreigners,[325] the "Turks" therefore constituted the main element of the militia. Their distribution in the various military components of the odjak may indicate momentary changes in the regions of recruitment, but the majority of the recruits were from Anatolia, according to M. Colombe: "Of all the regions of the Empire, it was Anatolia that provided the major part of the Algerian recruitment".[321] The exact size of the Odjak varied from 8,000 to 10,000, and was usually divided into several hundred smaller units (ortas).[326]

Despite the fact that previously all locals had been barred from joining the Odjak, Arabs, Berbers, and Moors were allowed to join by the end of the 17th century in few numbers, as a way to replenish the unit. In 1803, 1 in 17 troops of the Odjak were Arab or Berber,[327] and by 1830 the Odjak of Algiers included at least 2,000 native Algerian janissaries, mainly from the Zwawa tribes.[328] According to historian Daniel Panzac, about 10-15% of the Odjak was composed of native Algerians and renegades, however Kouloughlis were barred from joining the Odjak.[326] By the 1820s, even Jews were allowed to join the Odjak of Algiers, although this was a highly controversial choice, and denounced by several members of Algerian society.[329]

The command structure of the Odjak relied on several tiers of military commanders. Initially based on basic Janissary structures, after the 17th century it was slightly changed to better fit the local warfare styles and politics. The main ranks of the Odjak were:[326]

• Agha, or marshall of the Odjak. Elected by the Odjak until 1817, after which the Dey appointed the Aghas.[330]
• Aghabashi, which was equal to the rank of General in western armies
• Bulukbashi, or senior officer
• Odabashi, or officer
• Wakil al-Kharj, a non-commissioned officer or supply clerk
• Yoldash, or regular soldier

Algerian Deylikal Spahi unit

Not much is known about the spahis of Algiers, other than the fact that they were a regular standing unit, mainly composed of locals, although there were Turks amongst them.[326] They differed greatly from the traditional Ottoman sipahis, in both military equipment and organization, and hardly had anything in common with them other than their names, and both being cavalry units. The Dey also periodically had several thousand spahis in his service acting as a personal guard.[331] Other than the Dey's guard, Spahis were not recruited or stationed in Algiers, instead being usually recruited by the Beys.[332] They were usually more organized than the irregular tribal cavalry, although far less numerous.

The French Spahi units were based on the Algerian spahis,[333] and they were both mainly light cavalry.

The levy militia composed from Arab-Berber warriors numbered in the tens of thousands, being overwhelmingly the largest part of the Algerian army. They were called upon from loyal tribes and clans, usually Makhzen ones. They numbered up to 50,000 in the Beylik of Oran alone.[334] The troops were armed with muskets, usually moukahlas, and swords, usually either Nimchas or Flyssas, both of which were traditional local swords.[335][336] The weaponry wasn't supplied by the state, and instead it was self-supplied. As nearly every peasant and tribesman owned a musket, it was expected from the soldiers to be equipped with one. As many of these tribes were traditionally warrior ones, many of these troops were trained since childhood, and thus were relatively effective especially in swordsmanship, albeit they were hampered by their weak organization, and by the 19th century their muskets became outdated.[337]

Algerian Zwawa infantry in early 19th century

Algiers hardly possessed units based on Napoleonic or post-Napoleonic warfare, and many of their units, including the Odjak of Algiers were organized on outdated 17th and 18th century Ottoman standards. The only two main units which existed as Modern-style units were the small Zwawa guard established by Ali Khodja Dey in 1817 to counter-balance the influence of the Odjak, and the small army of Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif, the last Bey of Constantine, who organized his army on the lines of Muhammad Ali's Egyptian Army. Ahmed Bey's army was composed of 2,000 infantry, and 1,500 cavalry. His entire army was composed of native Algerians,[338] and he also built a complex system of manufactories to support the army and invited several foreigners to train technicians and other specialists.[339]

The army was divided into 4 regions, the exact same regions as the administrational ones (Beyliks).

• Western Army, headed by the Beys of Mascara/Oran
• Central Army, headed by the Bey of Titteri
• Eastern Army, headed by the Bey of Constantine
• Dar as-Soltan army, headed by the Dey and the Agha.

These troops were headed by the Beys, and a Khalifa (general) appointed by them. The supreme commander of the army was the Agha al-Mahalla Levying these troops was the job of the Bey. The Odjak was headed by an Agha elected by the Odjak itself. When Algiers came under attack, the Beyliks would send their troops to help the besieged city, such as in 1775 during the Spanish Invasion of Algiers.[331] As the Beys were regional commanders, they also fought the wars in their own region, occasionally reinforced by troops from the Dar as-Soltan army. For example, in 1792, during the reconquest of Oran, the Bey Mohammed el Kebir, was the one to besiege the city using the army of the Beylik of the West, numbering up to 50,0000 with some additional reinforcements from Algiers. During the Algerian-Tunisian war of 1807 the Eastern army fought against the Tunisians. Its composition was 25,000 levy warriors from Constantine, and 5,000 reinforcements from Algiers.[340] Sub-commanders usually included powerful tribal sheiks, djouads, or qaids.

The Consulaire cannon (a.k.a. Baba Merzoug), in Brest arsenal.

Authentic 200 years old Pirate flag at the Åland Maritime Museum originating from the North African coast

In 1529, Hayreddin Barbarossa seized the Peñon facing the city of Algiers from the Spanish and linked the rock to the port by building the pier.[343] This allowed Algiers to become a secure port for naval and corsair companies in the Mediterranean. The city quickly became the main base for corsairs in the Mediterranean.[344] This domination enabled him to repel several attacks from a certain number of European countries, in particular, in October 1541, that of Charles V, whose troops were defeated by the forces of the regency under the command of Hassan Agha, well aided by the storm which destroyed a good part of the enemy fleet. In response Hassan Agha ordered the construction of a large artillery piece which was designed in the foundries of Dar Ennahas, near the Bab El Oued gate in 1542, by a Venetian master builder in the pay of the beylerbey of Algiers, Hassan Agha. The cannon was placed during the completion of the "Kheir Eddine pier" at the end, on the Bordj Amar.[345] The Algerians armed in war those of the captured merchant ships which seemed fit for the corso, and also bought ships in Europe. They also had construction sites, located in Bab-el-Oued for large buildings, in Bab-Azoun for those of smaller dimensions. Christian slaves were employed on these shipyards, and the management of which was often entrusted to renegades, even to free Christians as captains of armament or engineers of naval constructions, who hired their services for a time, without being for that put in the obligation to change religion. The masts, yards, sails, ropes, powder, ammunition, artillery pieces, were supplied by the government of the Ottoman Porte and by certain minor powers of Europe, the latter in the form of tribute.[346]

"A Barbary Pirate", by Giovanni Guida (1837-1895)

"A Barbary pirate", Pier Francesco Mola, 1650

According to Diego de Haedo, the fleet of Algiers (including the vessels based at Cherchell) consisted, in 1581, of 35 galliotes - including 2 of 24 benches, 1 of 23 benches, 11 of 22 benches, 8 of 20 benches, 10 of 18 benches, 1 of 19 benches, and 2 of 15 benches — and about 25 frigates (small rowing and undecked vessels), from 8 to 13 benches. More than two thirds of the Algiers galiotes are commanded by European renegades (6 Genoese, 2 Venetians, 2 Albanians, 3 Greeks, 2 Spaniards, 1 French, 1 Hungarian, 1 Sicilian, 1 Neapolitan, 1 Corsican and 3 of their sons).[318] All these renegades occupy the key positions, after the founder of the regency of Algiers, Hayreddin Barbaroassa, it is the Sardinian renegade Hasan Agha (1535-1543), the Corsican Hassan Corso (1549-1556), the Calabrian Uluj Ali Pasha (1568-1571) who ended up with the title of admiral of the fleet, then the Venetian Hassan Veneziano (1577-1580 and 1582-1583).[347] They also took part in the armies of occupation of the subjected zones like local governments before the creation of the three beyliks; of the 23 territorial bosses, 13 are renegades or sons of renegades. Haedo would be able to say :[348]

"In them, reside almost all the power, the influence, the government and the wealth of Algiers".

— Diego de Haëdo, Histoire des rois d'Alger

The rank of Reïs or commander of a corso vessel, was obtained only after an examination passed before the council of reïs, chaired by the captain (admiral) position reserved for the oldest of the reïs, who no longer sailed. Another captain, chosen by the council, commanded the fleet. The reis was the absolute master on board, where the most rigorous discipline reigned.[349]

Until the use of round vessels in the 17th century, which did away with oars, the reis composed the crews of their galleys, which were generally very low on water, with slaves whom they bought for this purpose, or whom they were procured by capture at sea, or by descent on the Christian coast. The rowers were tied to their benches; there were as many as 300 on a single vessel. When, at the beginning of the 17th century, navigation was practiced entirely by sail, the employment of slaves on corso ships diminished in notable proportions; but the reïs always employed some for the works of strength: turning with the capstan, the towing of the boats, care of cleanliness of the ships, etc.[349]

In 1625, Algiers' pirate fleet numbered 100 ships and employed 8,000 to 10,000 men. The piracy "industry" accounted for 25 percent of the workforce of the city, not counting other activities related directly to the port. The fleet averaged 25 ships in the 1680s, but these were larger vessels than had been used the 1620s, thus the fleet still employed some 7,000 men.[350]

Xebec types, by Jacob Hägg (1839–1931)

The Mediterranean was at first the main objective of the action of the corsairs, the reïs rose in the ocean as soon as they had adopted the use of round vessels. Exploring then the roads of India and America, they disturbed the commerce of all enemy nations. In 1616 the Reis Mourad the Younger (Jan Janszoon) plundered the coasts of Iceland, from where he brought back to Algiers four hundred captives. In 1619 they ravaged Madeira. In 1631, they caused damage on the coasts of England, blocked the English Channel, and would make catches in the North Sea.[351][37] Algerian pirates naval warfare was intelligent and flexible, but its countermeasures were incredibly clumsy. The Algerians used Xebecs, fast-sailed galleys, to attack individual merchant ships when there was no wind. Algerians usually hid five to seven Xebecs behind a large cliff near the coast, each with at least 100 soldier. A clifftop lookout spotted the European ships and signaled them to approach. Europeans usually surrender quickly when faced with a much superior attacking force. In the case of defense, they usually expected only the death of many sailors and certain defeat.[352]

The reïs pushed the audacity so far as to found in Livorno, with the authorization of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to whom they paid high royalties, a penal colony warehouse, where they came to deposit under the guard of the soldiers of the Grand Duke, the Christian slaves likely to obtain their freedom by means of a ransom. They still had a station at Cape Verde in order to be nearer to stopping the Indian galleons. The Republic of Genoa tolerated for a very long time the traffic in its ports of goods coming from the looting of the reis.[351]

The port of Algiers, by Alfred Wordsworth Thompson (1840–1896)

In the early 17th century, Algiers also became, along with other North African ports such as Tunis, one of the bases for Anglo-Turkish piracy. The peace in Europe forced the Norse privateers to shift their field of activity to the Mediterranean and to serve the enemies of Algiers. Yet many of those privateers converted to Islam and were enlisted in the Algerian corsair Navy. As a result of this privateer spill, international piracy activity in the region has intensified to an unprecedented degree.[218] There were as many as 8,000 renegades in the city in 1634.[238][353]

A contemporary letter states:

"The infinity of goods, merchandise jewels and treasure taken by our English pirates daily from Christians and carried to Algire and Tunis to the great enriching of Mores and Turks and impoverishing of Christians"

— Contemporary letter sent from Portugal to England.[354]

The slave market of Algiers in the early 17th century.

When a corsair ship returned to Algiers towing its booty, goods and captives were landed. The pasha would begin to take his share, or a fifth, in addition to the body and tackle of the captured ship, then, the cargo is sold. The slaves not chosen by the pasha were led into the Badestan, a long street closed at its ends, located at the site of the current street of Mahon square in Algiers. There, brokers ran the captives naked, so that the buyers could make their choice. Half of the proceeds from these sales belonged to the outfitting of the capturing vessel: individual, company, reis himself; the other half was divided into shares, of which forty went to the captain, thirty to the agha of the Janissaries on board, ten to the officers, the rest to the sailors and the soldiers.[355]

The number of european christians who fell into captivity in the city of Algeria alone was estimated at about one million people throughout the seventeenth century, equivalent to a quarter of the city's population, numbering at that time about 100,000 people. In the four Beylik prisons that were established specifically for this purpose since 1607, and most of these prisoners were released in exchange for a certain ransom, and some of them converted to Islam, a number of 8000 converted to Islam in 1634 out of a total of 25,000 prisoners, and some of them were integrated into the population and became an active element in society like many of the beleyrbeys who assumed power before the era of the pashas.[356] As for the work that these prisoners carried out, they were divided into social services and economic tasks within the city of Algiers, and agricultural work in the city of Algiers. The number of prisoners varied from year to year.

As evidenced by the following table extracted from European sources, which presents aggregate estimates for the city of Algiers according to the following years:[357]

Purchase of Christian slaves by French friars (Religieux de la Mercy de France) in Algiers in 1662

Among the most famous of these prisoners are:

Cervantes brought before Hassan Veneziano Pasha, the beylerbey of Algiers

1. Greek scientist Petrus Gyllius, captured in the year 1546 while traveling from France to Greece on a scientific mission at the request of King Francis I of France.
2. Dominique de Gourgues, the hero of Florida County, captured while traveling from Europe to America (1558).
3. Famous Italian painter Fra Filippo Lippi de Madone, imprisoned in 1435
4. Italian writer Emmanuel d'Aranda de Bruges, captured while traveling from France to Spain in 1640.
5. French comic poet, who wrote the story known as the beautiful Provençal, Jean-François Regnard, captured in 1678.
6. Famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (the author of the story of Don Quixote) and the author of the moriscan plays inspired by his memories in Algeria, he remained in captivity in Algeria from 1575 to 1580.
7. French scientist Jean Foy-Vaillant was captured in 1674, when he was on a scientific trip to study money, commissioned by King Louis XIV.
8. Italian cleric, the priest of the city of Catania, called Caraccioli, captured in 1561.
9. Italian poet Antonio Veneziano, captured along with Don Carlo Davagona in April 1578.
10. Writer Rene de Bois (Rene de Boys), captured in 1642.[356]

Privateers and enslavement of Christians originating from Algiers were a major problem throughout the centuries, leading to regular punitive expeditions by European powers. Spain (1567, 1775, 1783), Denmark (1770), France (1661, 1665, 1682, 1683, 1688), England (1622, 1655, 1672), all led naval bombardments against Algiers.[238] Abraham Duquesne fought the Barbary pirates in 1681 and bombarded Algiers between 1682 and 1683, to help Christian captives.[358]

• 
  A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthoniszoon and Cornelis Bol
• 
  A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsair by Laureys a Castro (1664–1700)
• 
  Spanish engagement with Barbary pirates by Andries van Eertvelt (1590–1652)
• 
  An English Ship in Action with Barbary Vessels by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707)
• 
  A Spanish xebec facing two Algerian corsair galiots by Ángel Cortellini Sánchez

Algerian money, and some copper household items

Initially using various forms of Ottoman and old Zayyanid and Hafsid coins such as the mangır (a sub-unit of the akçe), Algiers soon developed its own monetary system, minting its own coins in the Casbah of Algiers and Tlemcen.[359] The "central bank" of the state was located in the capital, and was known locally as the "Dâr al-Sikka".[360][361]

In the 18th century the main categories of currencies produced locally and accepted in Algiers were:

• Algerian mahboub (Sultani), a gold coin weighing about 3.2g, with an inscription detailing the year it was produced and the year it will be decommissioned. Its production was discontinued under the reign of Baba Ali Bou Sebâa (1754-1766)
• Algerian budju, and piastres, two types of silver coinage, the most widely used types of currency in Algeria. A budju was worth 24 mazounas and 48 kharoubs and was further divided into "rube'-budju" (1/4 boudjous), "thaman-budju" (1/8 budju)
• minor conversion coins made of copper or billon, such as mazounas or kharoubs
• minor coins of small value such as the saïme or pataque-chique

Algiers also had some European (mainly Spanish) and Ottoman coins in circulation.[362]

The Algerian state imposed royalties on the European countries that deal with it commercially in exchange for allowing them freedom of navigation in the western basin of the Mediterranean, and giving the merchants of those countries special privileges, including significant reductions in customs duties, and this negates the character of banditry, piracy, or assault on the freedom of global trade from the part of the Algerian navy.[363] It is noted that these royalties differed according to the relationship between those countries and Algiers, and the conditions prevailing in that period had an impact on determining the amounts of these royalties, and this is shown in the following table:[364]

Country	Year	Value
Spanish Empire	1785 -1807	After signing the armistice of 1785 and withdrawing from Oran, it was obliged to pay 18,000 francs. It contributed 48,000 dollars in 1807.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany	1823	Before 1823, it was obligated to pay the value of 25,000 doubles (Tuscan lira) or 250,000 francs.
Kingdom of Portugal	1822	It was obligated to pay the value of 20,000 francs.
Kingdom of Sardinia	1746 - 1822	Following the treaty of 1746, it was forced to pay 216,000 francs up by 1822.
Kingdom of France	1790 - 1816	Before the year 1790, it paid 37,000 pounds, and after 1790, it pledged to pay 27,000 piasters, or 108,000 Francs. And in 1816, it committed to pay the value of 200,000 francs.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1807	It pledged to pay 100,000 piasters, or 267,500 francs, in exchange for some privileges.
Kingdom of the Netherlands	1807 - 1826	After the treaty of 1826, it committed itself to paying 10,000 Algerian sequin, and in 1807, it paid the value of 40,000 piasters, or 160,000 francs.
Austrian Empire	1807	The value of the royalties paid in the year 1807 was estimated at 200,000 francs.
The United States of America	1795 - 1822	Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to Mustafa Pasha, dey of Algiers in 1800 Paid in 1795 the value of 1,000,000 dollars, of which 21,600 dollars were in the form of equipment in exchange for special privileges. In the year 1822, it committed itself to paying 22,000 dollars.
Kingdom of Naples	1816 - 1822	Paid a royalty estimated at 24,000 francs. In 1822, a royalty of 12,000 francs was paid every two years.
Kingdom of Norway	1822	Paid a royalty of 12,000 francs every two years.
Kingdom of Denmark	1822	Paid a royalty of 180,000 francs every two years.
Kingdom of Sweden	1822	Paid a royalty of 120,000 francs every two years.
Republic of Venice	1747 - 1763	Since 1747, it has paid a royalty of 2,200 Gold coins annually. In 1763, the value of the royalties imposed on it became estimated at 50,000 riyals (Venetian lira).

This is in addition to the royalties employed on some other countries, which must be paid on some occasions, and they were applied to the states of Bremen, Hanover, and Prussia, in addition to the Papal States.[364]

The Rais Hamidou: Famous Algerian Corsair from the 18th century

The spoils of the Corsairs multiplied in the first period of the regency, then began to decrease until they almost disappeared in the eighteenth century, then by the end of the deys period they witnessed a remarkable growth with the attempt to develop the navy and increase its military activity, especially during the period of Europe's preoccupation with the wars of the French Revolution and the conquests of Napoleon. The renewed activity of the Algerian Navy was linked to the efforts of famous sailors, led by Rais Hamidou (1790-1815 AD). the aquittance to the development of the naval spoils from which the state used to take the fifth and distribute the rest to the shipowners who contributed to equipping the fleet is got by reviewing the number of spoils according to the following years:

• 1628 - 1634 : 80 ships were captured during the war against France comprising 1331 people, which made the value of the total spoils in that war rise to about 4,752,000 pounds.
• 1737 - 1799 : the rais took over 376 ships among them 16 Portuguese ships were captured by Rais Hamidou in 1797 along with 118 prisoners. In 1785, some Genoese, Venetian and Neapolitan ships were captured, their spoils estimated at seventy-five million francs.
• 1800 - 1802 : The number of spoils was estimated at 575,152 francs, and 20 ships were seized, of which 19 were Neapolitan, in addition to another Portuguese ship seized by Rais Hamidou, equipped with 44 cannons, and its value was estimated at 194,231.25 francs.
• 1805 - 1815 : The value of spoils was estimated at 8 million francs, of which 1800 were prisoner with 30 ships.
• 1825 : The number of spoils reached eight ships, mostly Dutch, Spanish and English, with an estimated value of about 770415.74 francs.
• 1817 - 1827 : the value of spoils was approximately 700,000 francs.[357]

The levied taxes by the rulers of the regency included those that are subject to Islamic law, including the cushr (tithe) on agricultural produce, but added various aspects of extortion.[365] Periodic tithes could only be collected on private land near the town where the crops were grown. But instead of tithes, the inhabitants of mountainous and nomadic tribes had to pay a fixed tax, called garama (compensation), based on a rough estimate of their wealth. In addition, the rural population had to pay a tax, also known as lazma (obligation) or ma'una (support), designed to help Muslim armies defend the country from Christians. City dwellers had to pay other taxes, including artisan guild dues and market taxes. In addition to these taxes, the beys also collected gifts (dannush), which each of them had to pay every six months to the deys and their chief ministers. Every bey must personally bring dannush every three years. Meanwhile, his Khalifa (deputy) took it to Algiers.

The entrance of a Bey or his Khalifa in Algiers with dannush was a notable event, governed by a set protocol which governs how he had to be received on his arrival in Algiers and when his presents were to be handed over to the Dey, his ministers, officials and poor people. The honors that the bey received depended on the value of the gifts he had brought. Al-Zahar reported that the chief of the western province was expected to pay the dey more than 20,000 doro in cash, half this amount in jewellery, four horses, fifty black slaves, woollen Tilimsan garments, Fez silk garments, and twenty quintals each of wax, honey, butter, and walnuts . Dannush in the Eastern Province was larger and included Tunisian products such as perfumes and clothing .[365]

Kabyle Shepherd, by Eugène Fromentin (1820–1876)

The agricultural production and wealth greatly benefited the regency, even more than corsairing at some point,[50] fallowing and crop rotation were the most common way of production. Agricultural products were varied: wheat, corn, cotton, rice, tobacco, watermelon and vegetables were the most commonly grown. Taking into account exports and everything consumed locally, cereals and livestock products constitute a large part of the country's resources[366] (oil, grain, wool, wax, leather). On the outskirts of the towns, the very rich lands (the fahs) generously provided a variety of products: various fruits, vegetables, vines, rice, cotton, blackberries used for breeding silkworms, grapes and pomegranates were also cultivated. In mountainous areas of the country, fruit trees, figs and olive trees were grown. European travelers, at different times, such as Léon Africanus, Marmol, Haedo, Rotalier all left with a very strong impression, that of a very rich country.[367]

This wealth found its explanation first of all in the quality of the cultivated land, but also in the agricultural techniques which used all the means of the time (ploughs, plows dragged by oxen, donkeys, mules, camels) and in an organization millennium of agriculture, particularly in terms of irrigation (timed watering according to surface area) and ingenious water supply supplying small collective dams. Mouloud Gaid attests: "Tlemcen, Mostaganem, Miliana, Médéa, Mila, Constantine, M'sila, Aïn El-Hamma, etc., were always sought after for their green site, their orchards and their succulent fruits."[368]

Milk was not often consumed and did not form a major part of the Algerian cuisine. The price of meat was low in Algeria before 1830, and many tribes brought in large amounts of income solely through the sale of cattle leather, although after the collapse of the Deylik and the arrival of the French the demand for cattle meat rapidly increased.[369] Wool and lamb meat were also produced in very large quantities.[369]

The majority of the western population south of the Tell Atlas and the people of the Sahara were pastoralists who lived from date cultivation and the products of sheep, goat and camel breeding. Livestock breeding is also the main activity of nomads and semi-nomads who sell their products each time they go north (butter, wool, skins, camel hair), while the population in the north and east settled in villages and practised agriculture. The state and urban notables (mainly Arabs, Berbers, and Kouloughlis) owned lands near the main towns, cultivated by tenant farmers under the "khammas" system.[103] Inside the country, the large "melk" properties, belonging to local feudalism, represent the country's main wealth: vast areas of Algeria's best lands reserved for monoculture (wheat, barley, grazing). Due to the feudal nature of this regime, the distribution of usufruct is not always equitable and certain ousted members find themselves de facto excluded from their land by the tribe.[367]

Ottoman Algerian cannon founded in 1581

Manufacturing was poorly developed and restricted to shipyards. Frigates of 300 to 400 tons made from oak wood from Béjaïa and Djidjel. In the small ports of Ténès, Cherchell, Dellys, Béjaïa and Djidjel, other smaller shipbuilding activities were called upon to build shallops, brigs, galiots, tartanes and Xebecs used in fishing and the transport of goods between Algerian ports. Several workshops supporting these activities were created: repair workshops, rope making workshops. The quarries of Bougie, Skikda and Bab El-Oued made it possible to extract the stones which serve as raw materials for the construction of buildings, dwellings and fortifications of the cities of the Regency. Cannons of all sizes were manufactured in the Bab El-Oued foundries. They were commanded by the Algerian navy which mounted them on its warships. These cannons were also used for fort batteries and field artillery.[367]

Gift of pistols presented by the dey of Algiers to the Prince Regent (the future George IV of Great Britain) in 1811 and 1819, evidence of the high esteem in which these coral-decorated firearms were held.

Craftsmanship was rich and was present throughout the country.[366] Cities were the seat of great craft and commercial activity. The urban people were mostly artisans and merchants, notably in Nedroma, Tlemcen, Oran, Mostaganem, Kalaa, Dellys, Blida, Médéa, Collo, M'Sila, Mila and Constantine. The most common forms of craftmanship were weaving, woodturning, dyeing and production of ropes, and various tools.[370] In Algiers, a very large number of trades were practiced, and the city was home to many establishments: foundries, shipyards, various workshops, shops, and stalls. Tlemcen had more than 500 looms in it. Even in the small towns where the link with the rural world remained important, there were many craftsmen.[371]

Despite this, Algerian products were severely outcompeted by European products especially after the start of the industrial revolution in the 1760s.

In the 1820s modern industry was first introduced by Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif who built and opened large numbers of manufactories in the east of the country mainly focused around military production.[339]

The road system throughout Algeria was poorly developed, and often used neglected Roman roads.[372] Generally transport and trade happened on the back of mules, donkeys, and camels. Rural roads controlled by autonomous Makhzen sheikhs were often unpredictable and sometimes dangerous thanks to bandits, although a few main roads often based on old Roman ones were regularly policed and protected by authorities, such as the main road passing along the coast all the way to Tunis, and another one passing through the main cities of the inland regions.[373]

Algiers possessed its own, very well developed sewage system based on ones found in Constantinople and Iberia.[374]

Representation of Dutch shipping off the harbour and city of Algiers by Reinier Nooms (1623/1624–1664)

Internal trade was extremely important, especially thanks to the Makhzen system, and large amounts of products needed in cities such as wool were imported from inner tribes of the country, and needed products were exported city to city.[375] Foreign trade was mainly conducted through the Mediterranean Sea and land exports to other neighbouring countries such as Tunisia and Morocco. When it came to land trade (both internal and external) transport was mainly done on the backs of animals, but carts were also used. The roads were suitable for vehicles, and many posts held by the Odjak and the Makhzen tribes provided security. In addition, caravanserais (known locally as fonduk) allowed travelers to rest.[375]

Although control over the sahara was often loose, Algiers's economic ties with the sahara were very important,[376] and Algiers and other Algerian cities were one of the main destinations of the Trans-Saharan slave trade.[377]

In precolonial Algeria (and more broadly in the precolonial Maghreb), the tribe was one of the main mechanisms of centralized or peripheral political organizations. They can be in the central power itself (reigning dynasty), linked to it (makhzen system) or independent in a territory in dissidence (siba). This medieval system persists under the regency regime; Indeed, the weakening of the previous states (Zayyanids, Hafsids, Merinids) in the Maghreb, the weakening of agriculture (and therefore of the peasantry) and the slowdown in trade until the sixteenth century failed to transform the tribal system and its chiefdoms into a "feudal system". During the regency period, a complex link developed between tribes and the central state, with adaptations by the tribe to central pressure on the other hand.[380][381]

Arabs hunting heron, Algeria, by Eugène Fromentin (1820–1876)

Central authority was sometimes necessary for the consolidation of the tribe; these reports even seemed complementary.[381] Indeed, the Makhzen tribes derive their legitimacy from their relationship to the central power; without it, they are reduced to relying on their own strength. The rayas (paying the tax) and siba tribes seem to be more in conflict with the tax (reducing the productive surpluses they generate) than the notion of authority itself and depend on access to the market organized by the authorities and makhzen tribes. Even in dissent, tribes often organized themselves in the form of another authority; thus the markets outside the territories dependent on the central powers are often carried out under the authority of the marabouts or the maraboutic lineages. The latter, in the absence of the central authority, very often act as guarantors of the tribal order.[380]

Although sometimes in search of central power or in opposition to it, the tribes are often dependent and in search of a legitimate political authority. This authority may come from the power in place or from a religious lineage. The Ouled Sidi Cheikh thus from the 17th to the 19th century put the western Sahara under their authority; it is described as "principality" of Ouled Sidi Cheikh. However, it is not a central power (because it is held by the regency of Algiers), nor a dynasty, but a political confederation headed by a riyasa (a chieftaincy) in the hands of the maraboutic tribe of the Ouled Sidi Cheikh and the brotherhoods.[380]

Another scenario is the "Berber city of the Maghreb", which the ethnologist Masqueray (19th century) compares to the city-state of Antiquity. Depending on the region (Mozab, Aurès, Kabylie, etc.), these cities or villages articulate their own organization with the systems of the tribes and confederations that compose them. These cities, made up of families and therefore of tribes, would leave more room for individuality. Although dependent on a tribal society, they already constitute a distancing from tribality. However, the tribe does not disappear, it is adapted to the village framework and its weight varies according to the organizations (it remained relatively important in the Aurès)[380]

Ali bin Hamet, khalifa(deputy) of Constantina and chief of the Haracta tribe

Society was dominated by three forms of aristocracy: the djouads (a kind of nobility of war), the charifs and the marabouts (a kind of religious nobility, the first of whom claim to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad).[382] The djouads are often at the head of powerful tribes or tribal confederations which retain their autonomy like the Mokrani or Ben Gana in the western Beylik to which Ahmed bey of constantine was related.[383] They are often perceived as "allies" by the regency. The two types of aristocracy are often opposed, in the west of the regency the religious and brotherhood element is dominant; while in the East it is the great families of djouads who dominate society.[384] The tribal organization of society does not structure the feelings of belonging of individuals in an exclusive way; there is a feeling of belonging to the Muslim community and, from the eighteenth century, in a way associated with an imperial community. However, this is not an obstacle to territorial awareness; Since the 17th century there have been many texts that speak of "watan al jazâ’ir" (country of Algeria) by supplementing it with the term "our homeland". These elements suggest an intermediate situation between the modern nation and the "tribal dust".[385]

The total population of the Regency of Algiers is a highly debated subject. The best estimates put it between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000,[386] although Algerian dignitary Hamdan Khodja estimated the total population of Algeria to be about 10,000,000 before the French invasion in his book written in 1833.[386][329] In 1830, there were about 10,000 'Turks' (including people from Kurdish, Greek and Albanian ancestry[387]) and 5,000 Kouloughli civilians (from the Turkish kul oğlu, "son of slaves (Janissaries)", i.e. creole of Turks and local women).[388] By 1830, more than 17,000 Jews were living in the Regency.[389] According to Moritz Wagner, the Arabs formed the great majority of the population of the Regency of Algiers.[390] The city of Algiers held in the 17th century 100.000 to 125.000 people. The French historian Jacques Heers's recalls:[50]

More than any other Mediterranean port, Algiers surprised and astonished. It was crowded with all manner of people and with social and ethnic groups distinguishable from each other through dress, language, physical characteristics, and even hairstyle.... The population was often swamped and enlarged by waves of new arrivals.... Authors and witnesses couldn't help being dazzled and confused by the diversity which pervaded every street, alley, or stairway; they emerged charmed but a little breathless.

• 
  A Turk, a Berber, and an Arab
• 
  Berber men
• 
  Arab woman in indoors clothing and Arab man with burnous
• 
  A Moorish man and woman and a Chaouch (Police)
• 
  Urban Moors
• 
  Algerian Jews
• 
  Kouloughli man and Moorish woman
• 
  A Black man and woman

An attitude of complacency and repetition of past historical achievements prevailed among the intellectual elite. The dull influence of Sufism combined with a lack of modernization was not the only reason for the decline of the intellectuals, as the dominant political culture also played a large role in the decline of Algeria. Strongly influenced by the doctrine of meeting the threat of northern Christendom and preventing its military expansion into the Maghreb, the military-naval character of Ottoman Algeria negatively affected the development of learning and further pushed away the importance of an advanced intellectual culture to the margins . In addition to these factors, the cultural blindness prevailing among most segments of the Ottoman military elite inevitably influenced their attitudes towards education and intellectual institutions. Historical sources show little evidence that the Ottoman ruling elite had any interest in building or maintaining schools—they were just as interested in building forts, navies, and castles. This cultural imbalance has largely justified the traditional reliance of educational institutions on waqf for funding and hindered any reform of curriculum and intellectual life.[392] The ruling class saw anything from the North as an looming threat and must not be trusted, even if it is a useful or practical knowledge or product of science. Resistance to the influence of European intellectuals is manifested in the contributions of Hamdan Khwaja and Mohammad bin Annabi, as well as the initiation of European travelers, adventurers or writers who lived in or visited Algeria in the late Ottoman period resistance to any Enlightenment.[393]

Letter of invitation from Salah Bey ben Mostefa to teacher Ibn al Fara al Baghaoui to teach in the university (madrasa) of Constantine

Education in Algeria was done mainly through small primary schools focused on teaching reading, writing, religious basics and other such skills, while in rural areas especially, most of education was done by local Imams, zawiyas, marabouts, and elders. Secondary and tertiary education could be pursued in various madrasas located mainly in bigger cities of the country, often maintained through waqf and Islamic donations from the central government.[394] The levels of these madrasas varied, and the biggest madrasas functioned as both places of secondary and tertiary learning. Algiers alone had several madrasas, zawiyas, and midrashims (Jewish schools), and also having very famous bookstores "warraqates" located throughout the city.[395] The state of these madrasas depended mainly on the stance of the local authorities at the time. Initially, western Algeria, especially the city of Tlemcen was the main center of learning in the country, but thanks to negligence, these schools and universities declined with some, mainly Abu Hammu II's madrasa falling into complete ruin.[396][397] The decline was only stopped when Mohammed el Kebir, Bey of Oran made a significant investment into the complete renovation and rebuilding of several places of education throughout the region,[398] although many of these centuries old madrasas, such as the Tashfiniya Madrasa fell into ruin and neglect under French rule, and many were demolished by the French.[399] Most major mosques of the country also possessed Quranic schools in them.

Zawiya (shrine) of Sidi Abder Rahman, in the Casbah of Algiers

The coalition between the Ottoman Turkish elite and the Sufi masters (Shuyukh) led to the remarkable spread and dominance of Sufi thought, which in turn attracted the migration of Eastern and Western Sufi groups under Ottoman rule. In addition to the Qādiriyah Sufi order (founded in Baghdad in 1198 by Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī), the Shadhiliyah order also entered common thought and practice in Algeria. At the end of the 19th century, an attempt to record the number of Sufis in the region found that 13 of the original 16 sects were of Shadhiliyah origin. This cements the idea that Sufism originated outside of Algeria as a result of a series of strong Eastern and Western influences.[400] The spirit of Sufism dominated scientific life in Algeria, leading to an increase in Sufist scholarship. We find many books, letters, and poems dealing with this subject in the form of Adcar, Weldens, Virtues, and Sermons. In addition to interpretations of Sufi poetry and prophetic praises with spiritual and Sufi visions. It is also limited to explaining previous works until the work is almost far from the originality. Authors of Sufism include sermons, adhkar, wirds, and other elements of Sufism cultivated by Sufi ascetics, most notably Ahmad Bin Yusuf Al-Miliani, Ahmad Ahmad Al-Buni and Yahia Chaoui, "Sweet Nobility" and "Urjuza" by Muhammad bin Azuf al-Burji, and "The Letter of the Merid" and "Rahmaniyya Poem" by Abdurrahman Bash Tarzi.

Djamaa el Djedid and Djamma el Kebir mosques in Algiers, by Niels Simonsen (1843)

During this period Algiers developed into a major town and witnessed regular architectural patronage, and as such most of the major monuments from this period are concentrated there. By contrast, the city of Tlemcen, the former major capital of the region, went into relative decline and saw far less architectural activity.[401]^{: 234–236} Mosque architecture in Algiers during this period demonstrates the convergence of multiple influences as well as peculiarities that may be attributed to the innovations of local architects.[401]^{: 238–240} Domes of Ottoman influence were introduced into the design of mosques, but minarets generally continued to be built with square shafts instead of round or octagonal ones, thus retaining local tradition, unlike contemporary architecture in Ottoman Tunisia and other Ottoman provinces, where the "pencil"-shaped minaret was a symbol of Ottoman sovereignty.[401]^: 238[402][403] The oldest surviving mosque from this era is the Ali Bitchin (or 'Ali Bitshin) Mosque in Algiers, commissioned by Ali Bitchin in 1622.[401]^: 238 The most significant mosque of this era is the New Mosque (Djamaa el-Djedid) in Algiers,[404] built in 1660–1661 by al-Hajj Habib, which became one of the most important Hanafi mosques in the city.[401]^: 239[405]^: 433

Algiers was protected by a wall about 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi) long with five gates.[401]^: 237[406] A citadel, the qasba (origin of the name "Casbah"), occupied the highest point of the town.[406] By the end of the 18th century the city had over 120 mosques, including over a dozen congregational mosques.[406]

Interior of Dey Hassan III Pasha Palace (1791)

The lower part of the city, near the shore, was the center of the Ottoman and regency administration, containing the most important markets, mosques, wealthy residences, janissary barracks, government buildings like the mint, and palaces.[401]^: 237[406] The residential palace of the ruler in Algiers, the Janina or Jenina ('Little Garden'), was situated at the center of a larger palatial complex known as the Dar al-Sultan in the lower part of the city. This complex served as the ruling palace until 1816, when the Dey moved to the Palace of the Dey in the qasba, following a British bombardment of the city that year.[401]^: 237[406] The only example of architecture from the Dar al-Sultan complex that is still preserved today is the Dar 'Aziza Bint al-Bey, believed to have been built in the 16th century.[401]^: 242[407]

Due to the three centuries of Ottoman influence in Algeria, today many cultural elements of Algeria are of Turkish origin or influence. Lucien Goldvin, lists the following popular arts and crafts:[408]

1. Brassware: most of the copperware made in Algiers, Constantine, Tlemcen, cauldrons, bath buckets, trays, ewers, lanterns, etc., was clearly inspired by oriental models, probably imported by the Janissaries. The decorations that adorn them: tulips, carnations, cypresses, spreading flowers, are found almost everywhere, whether on chiseled or incised brass.

2. Bronzes: Tlemcen executed magnificent door knockers until around 1930. Fez constituted relays, while Algiers and Constantine had adopted more flexible forms, in loops, well known in Turkey.

3. The saddlers-embroiderers make saddles covered with velvet embroidered with gold, silver or silk thread, bridles, cast iron, saddle cloths, riding boots and belts, etc. Decorated in the same way as the elements of the decoration being pure Ottoman tradition

4. The carpenters-cabinetmakers knew how to make large leaves with small panels assembled in uprights in balustrades with refined decoration, small cupboard doors, etc. The painted ceilings bear more of the mark of Italy.

5. The Guergour rugs with a large central diamond medallion (mihrab), bordered by bands with floral compositions. The elements of the decor, as well as the compositions, recall the carpets of Ghiordés or Kula.

6. The male clothes of the various personages, Janissaries, Deys, high civil and military dignitaries, as well as religious and Barbary, were related to those known in Turkey.

7. The women's costume was inspired by Turkish women's fashion.

8. The embroideries of Algiers, the stitches executed in Algiers under the authority of a ma'allema on a horizontal loom (gargaf) were well known in Turkey.

9. Embroideries from Bône and Djidjilli, polychrome and dots flat, were similar to the embroideries executed in Turkey.

10. Algerian lace, Chebika, is similar to what was made in Turkey.

11. Jewellery, silver and gold adornments (head jewellery, ear jewellery, adornment jewellery, bracelets and anklets) were inspired by models from Turkey.

12. The illumination: the motifs of the decoration, framing of arabesques with fleurons and palmettes or supple flora, garland of carnations among others, seem unrelated to Turkish illumination.

• 
  Guergour carpet
• 
  Chandelier in a patio (casbah of Algiers).
• 
  Dinandier in Casbah of Algiers
• 
  Algerian Assabah is a jewel that Algerian women wear on their forehead in several events
• 
  19th century Algerian caftan, exhibited at the Bardo National Museum in Algiers.

Captain Walter Croker visiting a hospital at Algiers in 1816

Several hospitals were present throughout the bigger cities in Algeria, especially Algiers.[409] There existed hospitals in Algeria before the establishment of the Regency, and the first hospital built by the authorities of Algiers was built by Hassan Veneziano in the 1570s to treat military personnel.[410] Just before the French invasion, the city of Algiers itself housed two Military hospitals one known as the "Hospital of the Dey" capable of housing 2,000 sick, and another called the "Mustapha hospital" capable of housing 800.[411] When under Algerian rule from 1708 to 1732, several hospitals were built in Oran by Mustapha Bouchelaghem Bey.[412] Cities known to have hospitals were Algiers,[411] Oran,[413] Constantine, Tlemcen,[410] Médéa,[414] Béjaïa,[413] and many more.

The Algerian administration donated under charities to existing small infirmaries and hospices. it designated several lands in cities under the law of Waqf (known as hubous locally), for use of public baths, water fountains, schools and hospices and asylums for the sick and vulnerable, along with sometimes distributing corsair loot to such establishments.[394] Many infirmaries, hospitals and hospices were directly tied to mosques under waqf designation, operating next to them, or sometimes inside of them.[413] There also existed some charitable hospices maintained directly by the state made for taking care of the poor and infirm, the largest of which was the Sidi Ouali Dada hospice in Algiers, which was directly tied to the Sidi Ouali Dada mosque.[413]

There existed a Christian hospital operated by the Lazarist society used to treat Christians in Algeria and European diplomats,[415] along with a small hospital financed by the Kings of Spain and Portugal and operated by priests for treating, taking care of, and burying Christian slaves.[416][417][418] The authorities of Algiers allowed this institution to exist for a sum of $40,000/year (approximately $1,270,800 in modern-day dollars adjusted for inflation), although they personally never invested into the building of edifices made for taking care of Christians. Algiers was not the only city possessing hospitals for taking care of Christians, both free and enslaved. The city of Tlemcen possessed 12 hospitals in total, 4 of which were "Moor" hospitals (some of which were built by the Zayyanid dynasty) made for taking care of the urban Muslim population, 2 of which were Christian hospitals maintained by the Venetians and the Republic of Genoa, and 6 of which were smaller hospitals for "foreigners" (such as merchants, local tribesmen, etc.) and Jews.[413]