Regency of Algiers

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Regency of Algiers دولة الجزائر (Arabic) ایالت جزایر غرب‎‎ (Ottoman Turkish)
1516–1830
Left: One type of Algerian Regency flag Right: Flag of the Ottoman regent of Algiers[nb 1]
Motto: دار الجهاد Bulwark of the Holy War[3][4]
Coat of arms of Algiers (1516–1830)
Overall extent of the Regency of Algiers, late 17th to early 19th centuries[5]
Status	Autonomous eyalet (Client state) of the Ottoman Empire[6][7] De facto independent since mid-17th century[8][9][10]
Capital	Algiers
Official languages	Ottoman Turkish and Arabic (since 1671)[11]
Common languages	Algerian Arabic Berber Sabir (used in trade)
Religion	Official, and majority: Sunni Islam (Maliki and Hanafi) Minorities: Ibadi Islam Shia Islam Judaism Christianity
Demonym(s)	Algerian or Algerine (obs.)
Government	Stratocratic Regency 1516–1519: Sultanate 1519–1659: Pashalik 1659[12] (de facto in 1626)[13]–1830: Military republic
Rulers
• 1516–1518	Aruj Barbarossa
• 1710–1718	Baba Ali Chaouch
• 1766-1791	Baba Mohammed ben-Osman
• 1818–1830	Hussein Dey
Historical era	Early modern period
• Spanish conquest of Oran	1509
• Capture of Algiers	1516
• Ottoman–Habsburg wars	1521–1791
• Algiers expedition	1541
• Algerian-Sherifian conflicts	1550–1795
• Golden Age of the Barbary slave trade	1580–1640
• Turkish abductions	1627
• Janissary Revolution	1659
• Franco-Algerian war	1681–1688
• Maghrebi war	1699–1702
• Spanish–Algerian war	1775–1785
• Barbary Wars	1785–1816
• Invasion of Algiers	1830
Population
• 1830	3,000,000–5,000,000
Currency	Major coins: mahboub (sultani) budju aspre Minor coins: saïme pataque-chique
Preceded by Succeeded by Hafsids of Béjaïa Kingdom of Tlemcen French Algeria Beylik of Titteri Beylik of Constantine Western Beylik Emirate of Abdelkader Igawawen Kingdom of Beni Abbas Sultanate of Tuggurt Awlad Sidi Shaykh Kingdom of Kuku
Today part of	Algeria

Part of a series on the
History of Algeria
Prehistory Aterian Culture (80,000 BC) Iberomaurusian Culture (20,000 BC) Capsian culture (10,000 BC) Rock art in Oran, Djelfa, Tassili and Ahaggar Roknia Related: Archeology of Algeria
Antiquity Madghacen Jedars Phoenicians (Migration) Ancient Carthage Numidia (202–46 BC) Punic Wars (264–146 BC) Jugurthine War (111–106 BC) Roman Mauretania and Africa (146 BC–590 AD) Vandal Kingdom (435–534 AD) Mauro-Roman Kingdom (477–578 AD) Kingdom of the Aurès (484–703 AD) Kingdom of Altava (578–708 AD) Prefecture of Africa (534–585 AD) Exarchate of Africa (585–698 AD) Early African Church Partenia Fossatum Africae Gemellae
Middle Ages Arab conquest (647–709 AD) Umayyad Caliphate (703–744 AD) Ifranids (742–1066 AD) Muhallabids (771–793 AD) Rustamids (776–909 AD) Idrisids (789–828 AD) Aghlabids (800–909 AD) Fatimids (909–1171 AD) Maghrawas (970–1068 AD) Zirids (973–1152 AD) Hammadids (1014–1152 AD) Almoravids (1040–1147 AD) Almohads (1121–1269 AD) Marinids (1215–1465 AD) Hafsids (1229–1574 AD) Ziyyanids (1235–1556 AD)
Modern times Regency of Algiers (16th–19th centuries) Ottoman governors Kingdom of Beni Abbas Kingdom of Kuku Spanish Oran Barbary pirates / slave trade First Barbary War Second Barbary War French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) French conquest French governors Resistance Pacification Emirate of Abdelkader Fatma N'Soumer Mokrani Revolt Cheikh Bouamama World War II Sétif and Guelma massacre Algerian War (1954–1962) Nationalism RCUA FLN GPRA 1958 crisis 1961 putsch Évian Accords Independence referendum Pieds-noirs Harkis Oujda Group
Contemporary era 1960s–80s FFS rebellion 1965 coup d'état Berber Spring 1988 riots 1990s–2000s Algerian Civil War Timeline Massacres FIS GIA High Council of State Civil Concord Black Spring Peace Charter Insurgency in the Maghreb 2010s to present Arab Spring Hirak Movement COVID-19 pandemic
Related topics Outline of Algeria Military history of Algeria (List of wars involving Algeria) Postal history of Algeria (List of people on stamps of Algeria) History of North Africa
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The Regency of Algiers^[a][b] was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman province and tributary state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830.^[c] Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, also known as the barbarossa brothers, the Regency succeeded the crumbling Kingdom of Tlemcen as an infamous and formidable pirate base that plundered and waged maritime holy war on European Christian powers. Ottoman regents ruled as heads of a stratocracy—an autonomous military government controlled by the janissary corps—themed Garp ocakları lit. 'Western Garrison' in Ottoman terminology.

The Regency emerged in the 16th-century Ottoman–Habsburg wars as a unique corsair state that drew revenue and political power from its maritime strength. In the 17th century, when the wars between the Spanish Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England and Dutch Republic ended, Barbary corsairs started capturing merchant ships and their crews and goods from these states. When the Ottomans could not prevent these attacks, European powers negotiated directly with Algiers and also took military action against it. This emancipated Algiers diplomatically and increased its autonomy.

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

Despite wars over territory with Spain and the Maghrebi states in the 18th century, Mediterranean trade and diplomatic relations with European states expanded. Bureaucratisation efforts stabilized the Regency's government, allowing into office regents such as Mohammed ben-Osman, who maintained Algerian prestige thanks to his public and defensive works which increased revenue and fended off attacks on Algiers. British tribute payments no longer insured U.S. shipping traffic in the Mediterranean after the American Revolution, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars provided an opportunity for frequent Algerian privateering. Increased demands for tribute from Algiers started the Barbary Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, when Algiers was decisively defeated for the first time. Internal central authority weakened in Algiers due to political intrigue, failed harvests and the decline of privateering. Violent tribal revolts followed, mainly led by maraboutic orders such as the Darqawis and Tijanis. In 1830, France took advantage of this domestic turmoil to invade. The resulting French conquest of Algeria led to colonial rule until 1962.

Encouraged by the political disintegration of the Maghrebi Muslim states^[14] and fearing an alliance between the Moriscos (exiled Spanish Muslims) and the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate,^[15] the Spanish Empire captured several cities and established walled and garrisoned strongpoints called presidios in North Africa.^[16] The Spanish conquered the city of Oran and took it from the Zayyanids, as well as Béjaïa from the Hafsids in 1509, then Tripoli in 1510, making other coastal cities submit to them such as Algiers, where they built an island fortress known as the Peñón of Algiers.^[17] Added to territorial ambitions and Catholic missionary fervor,^[15] Spanish economical aims also included control over the caravan trade routes from western Sudan, Tripoli and Tunis in the east and Ceuta to Melilla in the west, passing through Béjaïa, Algiers, Oran and Tlemcen. Control over the gold and slave trade fed the Spanish treasury.^[18]

After operating as Hafsid-sponsored privateers from their base in the island of Djerba,^[19] Mytilenean-born brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, nicknamed the "Barbarossa brothers", came to North Africa at the request of the citizens of Béjaïa in 1512. They failed to take the city from the Spanish twice,^[19] but the citizens of Jijel offered to make Aruj king after his corsairs arrived with a shipload of wheat during a famine.^[20] Answering pleas for help from its inhabitants, the brothers captured Algiers in 1516 but failed to destroy the Peñón.^[21][22] Aruj executed the Algerian emir, Salim Al-Tumi,^[23] then proclaimed himself Sultan of Algiers.^[24][25] He later repelled an attack led by the Spanish commander Don Diego de Vera,^[26][27] which won him the allegiance of northern central Algeria.^[28]

Aruj built a powerful Muslim state in the central Maghreb officially termed Kingdom of Algiers^[29] at the expense of its quarreling principalities.^[30] He sought the support of the maraboutic and Sufi orders,^[31][32] while his absolute authority was backed by the scimitars of Turks and Christian renegade corsairs.^[33] "Aruj [Reis] effectively began the powerful greatness of Algiers and the Barbary", wrote Diego de Haedo [fr; es; it], a Spanish Benedictine held captive in Algiers between 1577 and 1580.^[30] Aruj continued his conquests in western Algeria, reaching Tlemcen,^[32] but a Spanish–Zayyanid coalition cut his supply route from Algiers. Aruj was killed with his companions in 1518 when he attempted to break out during the Fall of Tlemcen.^[34][35]

Hayreddin inherited his brother's position as sultan without opposition,^[30][36] although he faced threats from the Spanish, Zayyanids, Hafsids and neighboring tribes.^[34] After repelling another Spanish attack in August 1519, led by Hugo of Moncada,^[37][38] Hayreddin pledged allegiance to the Sublime Porte to obtain Ottoman support against his foes.^[39] In October 1519, a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and ulama went to Ottoman sultan Selim I, proposing that Algiers join the Ottoman Empire.^[40][41] Constantinople had doubts,^[36] but the sultan recognized Hayreddin as pasha,^[39] a regent with the title of beylerbey (lit. 'Prince of princes')^[42][30] and sent him 2,000 janissaries.^[36] Algiers officially became an eyalet, or called a "regency" in European sources;^[43] Ottoman vassal state,^[44] state-province^[45][46] or "Imperial state",^[47][48] under Selim's successor Suleiman I, in the spring of 1521.^[49] Historian Lamnouar Merouche stresses that although Algiers was an increasingly autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, it had at the same time all the attributes of a state.^[50]

Hayreddin had to return to Jijel after a coalition of the Hafsids with the Kabyle kingdom of Kuku blockaded Algiers.^[51] He and his men used their reputation as "holy warriors" to gather support from the Kabyle tribes of Beni Abbas, who were rivals of the Kuku.^[51] Hayreddin retook Algiers in 1525 after defeating the prince and founder of Kuku, Ahmad ibn al-Kadi,^[52][53] and then destroyed the Peñón of Algiers in 1529.^[54] Hayreddin used its rubble to build Algiers's harbour,^[55] making it the headquarters of the Algerian corsair fleet.^[56] Hayreddin established the military structure of the Regency,^[57] formalising a well-organized institution known as the Corsairs of Algiers by recruiting corsairs and directing their activities. It would become the model for Barbary corsairs in Tunis, Tripoli and the Republic of Salé in the 17th century.^[58] He conducted several raids on Spanish coasts^[59] and vanquished the Genoese fleet of Andrea Doria at Cherchell.^[60] Hayreddin also rescued over 70,000 Andalusian refugees from the Spanish inquisition and brought them to Algeria,^[61][59] where they contributed to the flourishing culture of the Regency.^[62]

The barbarossa brothers' turned Algiers into an Islamic bastion against Catholic Spain in the western Mediterranean,^[63][64] making it the capital of what would become the early modern Algerian state.^[65][64] The sultan called Hayreddin to the Porte to appoint him as Kapudan Pasha (admiral) in 1533. Before departing, Hayreddin named Hasan Agha his deputy in Algiers.^[66]

From 1519 onwards Algerian affairs were in the hands of beylerbeys—^[67]corsair captains appointed by the Ottoman sultan to rule.^[68] Assisted by a council of government, they took care to respect local institutions and customs under their dominion.^[47] The beylerbeys were usually strongmen who kept most of the Maghreb firmly under Ottoman control, garrisoning the main towns with troops and collecting taxes on land while relying heavily on privateering at sea.^[69] Because of their experience in fleet command, some beylerbeys became Kapudan Pasha^[56] and led the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean.^[70]

For most of the 16th century, the beylerbeys acted as independent sovereigns despite acknowledging the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan,^[71][68] who gave them a free hand but expected Algerian ships to help enforce Ottoman foreign policy if required.^[72] However, the interests of Algiers and Constantinople eventually diverged on the matter of privateering, over which the Sublime Porte had no control.^[73] Beylerbeys often remained in power for several years and exercised authority over Tunis and Tripoli as well.^[74][75] In addition, the timar system that granted fertile land to Ottoman sipahis was not applied in Algiers; instead, the beylerbeys sent tribute to Constantinople every year, after meeting the expenses of the state.^[6]

The foreign policy of Algiers aligned completely with the Ottoman Empire.^[76] Under Hasan Agha, Algiers repelled a naval attack from the Holy Roman Empire led by Emperor Charles V in October 1541.^[77][78] The victory over the Spaniards was seen as a divine mandate of the Ottoman rule.^[79] Hasan Agha submitted Kuku in the east in 1542,^[80] extended his rule south to Biskra and gained Tlemcen's support in the west.^[81][82] The Spanish defeat made Algiers the center of piracy, attracting pirates from all over the Mediterranean. The city became a bazaar for thousands of captured Christian slaves.^[83] Algiers was known in Christian Europe as "the scourge of Christendom" and a 16th-century "rogue state".^[84]

Hayreddin's son Hasan Pasha succeeded Hasan Agha. He led campaigns against Spanish ally Saadian Morocco,^[85] decisively defeating it in Tlemcen in 1551.^[86][85] He was recalled by the sultan after the French ambassador in Constantinople supported his successor Salah Rais,^[87] who would expand his rule to Berber Beni Djallab's principalities in Touggourt and Ouargla,^[86] making them tributaries.^[88] Hasan Pasha then advanced as far as Fez in January 1554, placing Wattasid pretender Abu Hassun as an Ottoman vassal there.^[85][89] Salah Reis captured Spanish-held Béjaïa in 1555,^[90] and his death ignited tensions between the janissaries and the corsairs in 1556. The janissaries supported Hasan Corso, a Corsican renegade,^[91] who refused to submit to the pasha sent from Constantinople.^[92][93] Although the pasha murdered Hasan Corso with the corsairs' support, the janissaries killed the pasha in retribution.^[94] The subsequent instability prompted Suleiman the Magnificent to restore order by sending Hasan Pasha back to Algiers,^[92] who thwarted the expedition to Mostaganem of the Spanish governor of Oran Count Alcaudete's in 1558.^[95]

The most notable figure in Algiers after Hayreddin Reis was Beylerbey Uluç Ali Pasha,^[96] who captured Tunis from Hafsid vassals of Spain in 1569^[97] before losing it to the Christian forces under Spanish commander John of Austria in 1573, leaving 8,000 men in the Spanish presidio of La Goletta;^[98] Uluç Ali recaptured the city in 1574.^[99] Meanwhile, his ships saved the Ottoman fleet from total defeat in the battle of Lepanto in 1571.^[100]

Uluç Ali's deputy Caïd Ramdan [fr] captured Fez in 1576 after defeating Saadian ruler Mohammed II and put Abd al-Malik on the throne as an Ottoman vassal.^[101][102] In 1578 his successor Hassan Veneziano led his troops deep into the Sahara to the oases of Tuat in central Algeria to respond to pleas from its inhabitants for help against Saadi-allied tribes from Tafilalt.^[103][104] A campaign against Morocco led by Uluç Ali was aborted in 1581,^[105] as Saadian ruler Al-Mansur had at first vehemently refused to serve under Ottoman sultan Murad III, but agreed to pay annual tribute afterwards.^[106] Nonetheless, the Figuig oases in the south western Maghreb were part of the Regency by 1584.^[107] Veneziano's privateers ravaged the Mediterranean and made the waters unsafe from Andalusia to Sicily.^[108] Their power reached as far as the Canary Islands.^[105]

Fearful of the growing authority of the beylerbeylik, the Sublime Porte replaced it with pashas who served a three-year term starting in 1587.^[109] The Ottomans also divided the Maghreb into the three regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.^[110] Earlier pashas such as Khider Pasha [fr] and Kose Mustafa Pasha served for multiple terms and guaranteed stability in the Regency. From the mid-17th century, pashas were isolated and deprived of local support,^[111] as they were constantly torn between the corsairs' and janissaries' demands.^[73] The corsair captains were effectively outside the pashas' control, and the janissaries' loyalty to them depended on their ability to collect taxes and meet payroll.^[112] Both groups sometimes refused orders from the sultan, or even sent the pashas appointed by the sultan back to Constantinople.^[73]

Algiers was the headquarters of probably the greatest janissary force in the empire outside Constantinople.^[113] After Veneziano, the janissary corps grew stronger and more influential, challenging the corsairs for power.^[68][69] In 1596, Khider Pasha led a revolt in Algiers in an effort to subdue the janissaries with help from Kabyles and coulouglis—offspring of mixed marriage between Ottoman men and local women and having blood ties to the great indigenous families.^[114] Although the revolt spread to neighboring towns, it ultimately failed.^[115][116] The coulouglis failed to start another coup against the janissaries,^[117] which won the janissaries sole power in Algiers.^[114]

In the 16th century, France signed capitulation treaties with the Ottomans that established the Franco–Ottoman Alliance and gave the French trading privileges in Algiers.^[118] The French built a trading center known as the Bastion de France,^[119] which exported coral legally under its monopoly and wheat illegally. The bastion was fortified and turned into a military supply base and a center of espionage, which Algerians were displeased by.^[120] Khider Pasha destroyed the bastion in 1604.^[121] The Ottoman Porte had him assassinated and replaced by the more compliant Mohammed Koucha [fr] Pasha,^[122] but the janissaries revolted in 1606 and tortured him to death.^[123] Algiers and Constantinople had different views of relations with France.^[124] The janissaries organised into the diwân (military council), the effective government of Algiers by 1626 at the expense of the pashas, who began official acts with the phrase, "We, pasha and diwân of the invincible militia of Algiers".^[125][126] According to priest and historian Pierre Dan [fr] (1580–1649), "The state has only the name of a kingdom since, in effect, they have made it into a republic."^[127]

After the battle of Lapento, the corsairs broke loose from the Sublime Porte and began to prey on ships from countries at peace with the Ottomans.^[128][129] Their tai'fa was the embodiment of state sponsored piracy, since the economical prosperity of Algiers depended on the corsairs' looting.^[130] Algiers started strengthening and modernizing its fleet; by the end of the 16th century, janissaries were allowed to join corsair ships.^[131] As the 17th century started, the corsairs adopted square-rigged sails and tapered hulls. Their ships became faster and less dependent on a steady supply of galley slaves.^[132][133] Many of the Moriscos expelled from Spain joined the corsairs, and they debilitated Spain, ravaging its mainland and its territories in Italy, where they captured people en masse.^[128][134] European converts to Islam, known in Europe as "renegades" and "turned Turks", made up a majority on the tai'fa, amongst whom were former slaves who rose to positions of power.^[135] Renegade captain Ali Bitchin became admiral of the Algerian navy in 1621^[136] and raided Spanish harbors.^[137] After the Ottoman sultan refused to compensate Algiers for its losses against the Venetians in Valona,^[138] Ali Bitchin refused to answer a summons from the sultan to join the Cretan war in 1645, then died quite suddenly.^[139][140]

The 17th century was a "golden age" for the North African corsairs. Algerian autonomy and rivalry between Christian states made the prestige and wealth of the corsairs reach its zenith^[141][142] as their intensified privateering significantly filled Algerian coffers.^[143][109] In their search for booty and slaves, corsairs traveled as far as Iceland in 1627 and Ireland in 1631.^[144][145] Historian Yahya Boaziz indicates that more than a thousand European ships were captured from 1608 to 1634, with more than 25,000 people enslaved, many of whom were Dutch, German, French, Spanish and English, making the value of the total spoils rise to about 4,752,000 pounds. Pierre Dan estimated the value of seized cargo at around 20,000,000 francs.^[146] Algiers became a thriving market in the 17th century for captives and plundered goods from all over the Mediterranean^[128] as a wealthy city with over 100,000 inhabitants.^[8] The reliance on piracy and captivity served to keep Algiers financially and politically independent from Constantinople.^[147]

The pashas sent by the Sublime Porte worked to multiply their wealth as quickly as possible before the end of their three-year term in office. As governance became a secondary issue, the pashas lost all influence and respect,^[148] and aversion to the Sublime Porte increased.^[149] In 1659, Ibrahim Pasha pocketed some of the money the Ottoman sultan had sent to the corsairs as compensation for their losses in the Cretan War, which ignited a massive revolt,^[150] and the rebellious corsairs arrested and imprisoned him.^[151] Khalil Agha, commander-in-chief of the janissaries of Algiers, took advantage of the incident and seized power,^[152][153] accusing the pashas sent by the Sublime Porte of corruption and hindering the Regency's affairs with European countries.^[130] The janissaries effectively eliminated the authority of the pasha, whose position became purely ceremonial.^[114] They assigned executive authority to Khalil Agha, provided that his rule not exceed two months. They put legislative power in the hands of the diwân council. The sultan, forced to accept the new government, stipulated that the diwân pay the janissaries stationed there.^[154] Khalil Agha began his rule by building the iconic Djamaa el Djedid mosque.^[154] The era of the aghas began^[153] and the pashalik became a military republic.^{[155][156][157]} However, the aghas who ruled Algiers since 1659 had all been assassinated.^[66] This succession method resulted in weakened authority.^[115]

In 1671 Sir Edward Spragge's English squadron destroyed seven ships anchored in the harbor at Algiers, and the corsairs killed Agha Ali,^[158] who was an autocrat sovereign that alienated the diwân, and whose conciliation policy with European states at the expense of privateering angered the corsairs.^[159] Janissary leaders wanted to appoint another agha of a sovereign Algiers, but given the lack of candidates, they and the corsairs resorted to an expedient Ali Bitchin Rais had used in 1644–45. They entrusted both the Regency and the responsibility for its payroll to an old Dutch rais named Hadj Mohammed Trik^[160][161] and gave him the titles of dey (maternal uncle), doulateli (head of state) and hakem (military ruler).^[162]

After 1671, the deys led the country,^[163] supported by members of the diwân of which the president seconded the dey and managed most of state affairs.^[164] This centralized government institutionalized relations between the janissaries, effective holders of both military and political power, and the corsairs as the Regency's economic powerhouse that would remunerate the janissaries through the deys.^[165][9] This made Algiers de facto independent of the Ottoman Empire.^[9] But the deys' power was checked by the diwân,^[166] and both janissaries and corsairs ousted deys they did not like.^[167]

Privateering operations were regulated by treaties with European powers.^[129] Algiers used privateering as a foreign policy tool to play its European counterparts against one other^{[168][169][e]} and hunt merchant ships, prompting European states to conclude peace treaties and seek Mediterranean passes to help them secure lucrative cabotage trade.^[170][171] This gave the Regency's elites internal legitimacy as champions of jihad,^[172] and according to early modern European authors, international respect for the Regency's sovereignty as an established government, despite still being a "nest of Pirates".^[173] Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) noted that "Algiers exercised the jus ad bellum of a sovereign power through its corsairs".^[174] Historian Daniel Panzac stressed:^[175]

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

Peace between the Ottoman Empire and Spanish Habsburgs in 1580 did not concern their vassals, as both the Sovereign Order of Malta and the North African Regencies pursued their holy war. Their privateers were motivated by desires of vengeance, wealth and salvation.^[176] England, France and the Dutch Republic were seen as allies by the Ottoman regencies until the end of the 16th century because of their common Spanish enemy,^[177] but when James I of England and Dutch States-General opted for peace with Spain in 1604 and 1609, respectively, and increased their shipping in the Mediterranean,^[178] Algerian and Tunisian corsairs attacked their ships. They amassed wealth from capturing slaves and goods while taking advantage of their strong fleet, maritime European weakness and Ottoman incapacity to force the regencies to respect the Ottoman capitulations.^[179] Algiers's refusal to follow Ottoman foreign policy led European powers to negotiate treaties with it directly on trade, tribute and slave ransoms,^[180] recognizing Algerian autonomy despite its formal subordination to the Ottomans.^[181]

France first established relations with Algiers in 1617,^[182] with a treaty signed in 1619^[183] and another in 1628;^[184][120] the treaties mostly concerned the Bastion de France and the rights of French merchants in Algiers,^[185][186] but the bastion was razed a second time by Ali Bitchin in 1637,^[187] as armed incidents between French and Algerian vessels were frequent. Nonetheless, a treaty in 1640 allowed France to regain its North African commercial establishments.^[187][188]

After attacks by the English in 1621^[189] and the Dutch in 1624, Algerian corsairs took thousands of English^[190] and Dutch sailors to the Algerian slave market,^[191] resulting in intermittent wars followed by longlasting peace treaties whose tribute payments terms ranged from money to weapons.^{[191][192][193]} Under Louis XIV, France built a strong navy to fend off the corsairs who raided Corsica and were everywhere in the waters off Marseilles in the late 1650s.^[124] The country launched multiple campaigns against the Regency, first in Jijel and Collo in 1664,^[194] then several bombings of Algiers were conducted between 1682 and 1688 in what is known as the Franco–Algerian war,^[168] which ended when a 100-year peace treaty was signed between Dey Hussein Mezzo Morto and Louis XIV.^[195]

Algiers entered a period of peaceful relations with Europe.^[196] The resulting decline in privateering forced Algiers to seek other sources of revenue. Dey Hadj Chabane set his sights on his Maghrebi neighbors, Tunis and Morocco.^[42] For historical reasons, Algiers considered Tunisia a dependency because Algiers had annexed it to the Ottoman Empire,^[197] which made the appointment of its pashas a prerogative of the Algerian beylerbeys.^[198] Faced with Tunisian opposition to Algerian hegemony and its ambitions in the Constantine region,^[199] the Algerian dey took the opportunity provided by the 20 years of civil war between Murad II Bey's sons to invade in 1694 and put a puppet bey on the throne.^[200][201] A vengeful Murad III Bey of Tunis allied with Morocco and started the Maghrebi war in 1700.^[197] He lost, and the Muradid dynasty was replaced by the Husainid dynasty,^[197] which failed to free Tunis from Algerian suzerainty in 1735^[202] and 1756.^[203] Tunis remained an Algerian tributary until the early 19th century.^[204]

The Alawi Sultanate opposed the Ottomans.^[199] It also had ancient ambitions in western Algeria and especially in Tlemcen.^[199] Algerian support for pretenders to the Moroccan throne^[205] was answered with several invasions by Sultan Moulay Ismail in 1678,^[206] 1692,^[207] 1701^[208] and 1707,^[209] all of which failed.^[210] Moulay Ismail was forced to accept the Moulouya River as his eastern border with Ottoman Algeria.^[211]

By the early 18th century, Algiers established a more stable form of government.^[212] Janissary-elected deys obtained the right from the Ottoman sultan to be appointed as pashas, gaining more legitimacy.^[213] The decline in privateering, fewer janissary recruits and decreased population and slaves^[214] compelled the deys to expand and exploit the interior under their control,^[215][216] impose tributes and further trade with European states and Tunis.^[217]

Determined to remove the Spanish from Oran, Algerian dey Mohammed Bektach took the opportunity afforded by the War of the Spanish Succession to send Mustapha Bouchelaghem Bey at the head of a contingent of janissaries and local volunteers to take the city. He succeeded in 1707,^[218] but in 1732 the Duke of Montemar's forces recaptured the city.^[219]

The pashas plotted in secret, created conflicts and instigated sedition to overthrow the unpopular deys and regain some of their lost authority.^[152] From 1710 the deys assumed the title of pasha at the initiative of Dey Baba Ali Chaouch and no longer accepted representatives from the Sublime Porte.^[10] When the Austrian Habsburg monarchy concluded the Peace of Passarowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1718, Dey Ali Chaouch had Austrian ships captured despite the treaty and refused to pay compensation when an Ottoman-Austrian delegation approached him.^[220] The deys also imposed their authority on the janissaries and the raïs.^[66] The latter did not approve of treaty provisions which restricted privateering, their main source of income, and remained attached to the external prestige of the Regency.^[221] But European reactions, new treaties guaranteeing the safety of navigation and a slowdown in shipbuilding considerably reduced their activity. The raïs rebelled and killed Dey Mohamed Ben Hassan in 1724.^[222]

The new dey, Baba Abdi Pasha, quickly restored order and severely punished the conspirators.^[223] He stabilised the Regency and fought corruption. The diwân was gradually weakened in favor of the dey's cabinet, known as "powers", resulting in more stability through the implementation of a quasi-bureaucracy.^[224][225] Relations with Constantinople became formalised; the sultan was assured of Algerian "obedience" in return for recruiting troops from Ottoman lands, yet the dey was not bound to Ottoman foreign policy.^[226]

On 3 February 1748 Dey Mohamed Ibn Bekir issued The Fundamental Pact of 1748, a text that defined the rights of the subjects of Algiers and of all inhabitants of the Regency of Algiers. It codified the behavior of the different army units: janissaries, gunners, chaouchs and sipahis.^[227][228] In the three beyliks (provinces), the beys relied on local notables since they had a limited number of janissaries. This allowed the coulouglis to become beys.^[229]

Baba Mohammed ben-Osman Pasha became dey in 1766 and ruled over a prosperous Algiers for a full quarter-century until he died in 1791.^[119][230] He built fortifications, fountains and a municipal water supply.^[231] He also strengthened the navy,^[232] kept the janissaries in check and developed trade.^[230] Algerian historian Nasreddin Saidouni reports that during the Spanish attacks on Algiers, the dey placed in the state treasury 200.000 Algerian sequin that he had saved from his private salary and did not take it back.^[233] His governor of Constantine, Salah Bey, managed to re-assert Regency authority as far south as Touggourt.^[234] Algiers also maintained its military superiority over its neighbors under his rule.^[235]

The dey increased the annual tribute paid by several European states^[230][182] such as Britain, Sweden, the Italian states, and Denmark, which sent a naval campaign against Algiers under Frederik Kaas in 1770. But it failed and Denmark was forced to pay heavy war compensations and gifts to Algiers.^[236][237]

In 1775 Irish-born admiral of the Spanish Empire Alejandro O'Reilly led an expedition to knock down pirate activity in the Mediterranean. The assault's disastrous failure dealt a humiliating blow to the reorganized Spanish military.^[238] This was succeeded by two bombardments, by Antonio Barcelo in 1783^[239] and 1784, also ending in defeat.^[240] Led by Mohammed Kebir Bey in 1791,^[241] Algiers launched a final assault on Oran, which was retaken after negotiations between Dey Hasan III Pasha with the Spanish Count of Floridablanca. This marked the end of almost 300 years of holy war between Algeria and Spain.^[242][214]

At the beginning of the 19th century, Algiers was plagued by political unrest and economic problems.^[243] A series of crises rocked Algiers in the early 19th century, beginning with famine from 1803 to 1805.^[243] Algerian reliance on Jewish merchants to trade with Europe was so great^[244][f] that a crisis caused by crop failure led to the assassination of Dey Mustapha Pasha [fr] and the death of Jewish merchant Naphtali Busnash. Public unrest, a pogrom and successive coups followed, beginning a 20-year period of instability.^[243] The Alawis incited a massive Sufi Darqawiyya revolt in the east and west of the regency,^[245][246] which was quelled with great difficulty by the governor of Oran, Osman Bey.^[247] In the meantime, janissary revolts were frequent due to payment delays, leading to military setbacks,^[248] as Morocco took possession of Figuig in 1805, Tuat and Oujda in 1808,^{[249][250][251]} and Tunisia freed itself from Algerian suzerainty after the wars of 1807 and 1813.^[252]

Internal financial problems led Algiers to re-engage in widespread piracy against American and European shipping in the early 19th century, taking full advantage of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.^[253] Algerian vessels attacked American merchant ships in 1785, claiming they were no longer under British protection and asserting an Algerian right to search and seizure.^[254] American president George Washington agreed to pay a ransom and annual tribute equal to $10 million over 12 years, in accordance to a peace treaty with Algiers in 1795.^[253] But Algiers was defeated in the Second Barbary War by the United States in 1815, when U.S. commodore Stephen Decatur's squadron killed Algerian admiral Raïs Hamidou in the battle off Cape Gata on 17 June 1815,^[255] ending the Algerian threat to U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean.^[255]

The new European order that emerged from the Coalition Wars and the Congress of Vienna no longer tolerated Algerian raids and viewed them as a "barbaric relic of a previous age."^[256] This culminated in August 1816, when Lord Exmouth carried out a bombardment of Algiers that ended in a British and Dutch victory, a weakened Algerian navy, and the liberation of 1,200 slaves.^[257][258] Supported by the coulouglis and the Kabyles, Dey Ali Khodja disposed of the turbulent janissaries, and transferred the seat of power and the treasury of the regency from the Djenina Palace to the Casbah citadel in 1817.^[259]

The last deys of Algiers attempted to nullify the consequences of the previous Algerian defeats by reviving buccaneering and resisting a British attack on Algiers in 1824,^[260][261] creating the illusion that Algiers could still defend itself against a divided Europe.^[262]

In Napoleon's time, Algiers benefited greatly from Mediterranean trade and France's massive food imports, much of which were bought on credit. In 1827, Hussein Dey demanded that the restored Kingdom of France pay off a 31-year-old debt dating from 1799 for providing supplies to the soldiers of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt.^[263]

The response of French consul Pierre Deval displeased Hussein Dey, who hit him with a fly whisk and called him an "infidel".^[263] King Charles X took this incident as an opportunity to break off diplomatic relations^[263] and launch a full-scale invasion of Algeria on June 14, 1830. Algiers surrendered on July 5, and Hussein Dey went into exile in Naples, this marked the end of the Regency of Algiers.^[264] Historian John Douglas Ruedy believes that the early 18th-century "deturkification" could have led to a 19th-century nationalization of the Algerian regime, but the French conquest put an end to this evolution.^[265]

The administrative apparatus of Ottoman Algeria organized itself through borrowed Ottoman systems, maintained by regular recruitment of military personnel from Ottoman lands in exchange for tribute sent to the Sublime Porte, and local traditions inherited from the Almohad Caliphate and adopted by the Marinids, Zayyanids, and Hafsids.^[266]

The corsairs waged holy war against the Christians through gunpowder and the resources of the Ottoman Empire, and exploited their political and military superiority to defeat weak local emirates and impose a foreign elite on a divided Maghrebi society.^[267] Power was in the hands of the Odjak;^[268][32] a well trained, resolute and democratically spirited Anatolian Turkish janissary corps.^[269][270] Even though they reflected the Ottoman ruling class, the Turkish administrators still referred to themselves as Algerians.^[271][166] But natives and coulouglis were excluded from the Odjak, which was religiously endorsed and acted as a military order analogous to Hospitaller Rhodes.^[32]

Some contemporary observers described the Regency of Algiers as a "despotic, military-aristocratic republic".^[272][g] Montesquieu considered the Algerian government consisted of an aristocracy with republican and egalitarian characteristics, elevating and deposing a despotic sovereign, while historian Edward Gibbon considered Algiers a "military government that floats between absolute monarchy and wild democracy".^[273] It was unique among Muslim countries in having limited democracy and elected rulers. Democracy was at the time extremely unusual in 18th-century Europe, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau found Algiers impressive in this respect.^[274] Merouche described the janissary corps of Algiers as a "collective regime", a "sovereign community" and a "military republic".^[275]

Unlike modern political democracies based on majority rule, transfers of power, and competition between political parties, politics in Algiers relied on the principle of consensus (ijma), legitimized by Islam and by jihad.^[274] It centered on Ottoman military elite separated from tribal and self-ruled indigenous society in the countryside, which still gave allegiance and paid taxes to a military authority that respected their marabouts^[276] and defended them against Christian powers.^[h][277]

Algiers underwent numerous political developments with the transformation of the Ottoman Empire from strength and expansion to weakness and stagnation as a local government that accepted Ottoman legitimacy.^[278] American historian John Baptist Wolf noted that this 17th century military democracy was later hampered by the absolute rule of the deys, starting from Baba Ali Chaouch in 1710.^[279] The Marquis d'Argens compared 18th century Algiers to the Roman Empire under Nero and Caligula and called it a republic, even though he also called the dey of Algiers a king.^[273]

French historian Charles-André Julien wrote that the dey of Algiers was head of an elective but absolute monarchy.^[280] He was charged with enforcing civil and military laws, ensuring internal security, generating necessary revenues, organizing and providing regular pay for soldiers, and assuring relations with the tribes.^[281] But his power was still limited by the corso captains and the diwân of janissaries, since any member of either body could aspire to become dey.^[67] His fortune came from his civil list that didn't exceed that of the highest paid member of the janissaries, and although he could still receive gifts from consuls, beys and shares of privateer booty, his fortune reverted to the public treasury in the event of assassination.^[282][283] This led some authors who compared the dey to the king of Poland–Lithuania to call him a "despot without liberty",^[280][284] a "king of slaves and slave of his subjects", and a "man of wealth but far from a master of his treasures".^[285][286]

Electing the dey was accomplished in absolute equality by unanimous vote among the armed forces.^[287] Ottoman Algerian dignitary Hamdan Khodja wrote:^[288]

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

Election was required for confirmation from the Ottoman sultan, who inevitably sent a firman of investiture, a red kaftan of honor, a saber of state and the rank of Pasha of Three Horsetails in the Ottoman army.^[289] However, the dey was elected for life and could only be replaced on his death. Overthrowing the current leader was thus the only path to power, so violence and instability flourished. This volatility led many early 18th-century European observers to point to Algiers as an example of the inherent dangers of democracy.^[274]

The dey appointed and relied on five ministers (plus an agha), who formed the "council of the powers" to govern Algiers:^[290]

• Khaznaji [fr]: treasurer in charge of finances and the public treasury.^[291] Often also translated as vizier of the dey, or "principal secretary of state".
• Agha al-mahalla [fr]: Commander-in-chief of the Odjak and minister of internal affairs, he was also responsible for governing the Dar Es-Soltane [fr] region of Algiers.
• Wakil al-Kharaj [fr] : Minister of the navy and foreign affairs,^[291] he was the Kapudan rais or head of the tai'fa of rais. He was also responsible for matters relating to weapons, ammunition and fortifications.
• Khodjet al-khil [fr]: Responsible for relations with tribes, fiscal responsibilities and tax collections, he usually headed expeditions to the tribal interior. He also had the ceremonial role of "secretary of horses" and was assisted by a Khaznadar (treasurer).^[292]
• Bait al-Maldji: Responsible for the state domain (makhzen) and for rights devolved to the treasury such as vacant inheritances, registrations and confiscations.^[292]

The dey also nominated muftis (Islamic jurists) as the highest echelon of Algerian justice. ^[293]

The diwân of Algiers was established in the 16th century by Hayreddin Reis. To manage state affairs and govern the country, he relied on carefully chosen janissary members of the diwân council.^[294][295] This assembly, initially led by a janissary Agha, evolved from an administrative body within the Odjak, into a primary institution holding true power in Algiers.^[296] By mid-17th century, it elected the head of state.^[67]

The diwân expanded into two subdivisions:^[150]

• The private (janissary) diwân (diwân khass): Any recruit could rise through the ranks, one every three years. Over time, he would serve among 24 janissary bulukbasis (senior officers), who voted on high policy.^[297] The commander-in-chief or "Agha of Two Moons" was elected for a term of two months as president of the diwân through a system of "democracy by seniority".^[298] During the Agha period (1659–1671) he was the ruler of the Regency, holding the title of Hakem.^[150] The Agha was the holder of the Fundamental pact ('Ahad aman) of 1748.^[299] It was often considered the constitutional basis of the Regency.^[275] According to Hamdan Khodja:^[300]

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

• The public, or Grand Diwân (diwân âm), composed of 800 to 1500 Hanafi scholars and preachers, the raïs, and native notables.^[301] By early-mid 17th century, the Pasha, the Agha of the janissaries and the Admiral of the corsairs were heads of their respective factions in the Grand Diwân, holding decision-making power^[302] and sharing sovereignty in Algiers.^[303] Starting from the Agha period however, the Grand Diwân was reunited only for peace and war decisions and resolving serious disputes within the government.^[302] At the beginning of their mandate, the deys consulted the diwân on all important questions and decrees. This council in principle met weekly, depending on the dey. By the 19th century, he could ignore the diwân whenever he felt powerful enough to govern alone.^[304][305]

The Regency was composed of various beyliks under the authority of beys (vassals):^[306]

• Dar Es-Soltane [fr] included the city of Algiers and nearby ports.
• The eastern beylik of Constantine had its capital in Constantine
• The beylik of Titteri in the centre was established in 1548, with its capital at Médéa.
• The beylik of the West was established in 1563, with its capital at Mascara, then Mazouna in 1710. It moved to Oran in 1791

These beyliks were institutionally distinct and enjoyed significant autonomy.^[307]

Under the beylik system, the beys divided their beyliks into chiefdoms. Each province was divided into outan, or counties, governed by caïds (commanders) under the authority of the bey to maintain order and collect taxes.^[87] The beys ran an administrative system and managed their beyliks with the help of commanders and governors among the makhzen tribes. In return, these tribes enjoyed special privileges, including exemption from taxes.^[308]

The bey of Constantine relied on the strength of the local tribes particularly the Beni Abbas in Medjana and the Arab tribes in Hodna and the M'zab region. The chiefs of these tribes were called Sheikh of the Arabs.^[87] This system allowed Algiers to expand its authority over northern Algeria for three centuries.^[309]

Algerian corsairs captured many people on land and at sea from Mediterranean shores to Atlantic high seas.^[310] and brought them to the slave market in Algiers, through which passed between 25,000 and 36,000 slaves of many nationalities,^[143][311] totalling over one million European slaves in the early modern period. This trade made slavery the cornerstone of the Algerine economy.^[312]

After they were paraded naked, examined and inspected to assess their qualities, social position and value,^[313] captured individuals were divided into three groups:^[314]

• Those believed ransomable: Usually rich and better referred to as "captives", they were an important source of revenue. Their owners spared them the hardest tasks to preserve their value, as they were to be ransomed as quickly as possible.^[315] "The captive was a piece of merchandise which it was to no one's interest to damage," noted Julien.^[316]
• Those not believed ransomable: Poorer-class and lower-priced like their Muslim counterparts in France,^[317] these prisoners often became galley slaves, or were assigned to other forced labor like moving rocks. A few were chosen as household domestic slaves.^[310]
• Those freed without ransom, in exchanges for Muslim captives, to honor prior agreements between states, or because of a war had been lost.

Government-owned captives were held in prisons called "bagnos". Six of these operated in Algiers.^[316] Privately owned captives were housed by their owners,^[318] often rich individuals or privateering collectives.^[319]

In Spain, France and the Dutch Republic,^[315] ransom funds came from the captive's family, the state, or religious orders of the Catholic church who negotiated in Algiers for the captives.^[320] Missions such as the Trinitarians and the Mercedarians^[317] were instructed to identify captives in danger of apostasy, captives whose family and friends had raised money, and valuable individuals before reachine a ransom agreement.^[321] Captives who could buy their own freedom were allowed to move freely in Algiers, and often managed its taverns.^[316]

Christians were exchanged for small sums in the early 16th century. In the 17th century however, redemptionist missions paid 100 and 200 to 300 pounds or more for their freedom. Persons of distinction were almost priceless: the governor of the Canary Islands bought himself back in 1670 for 60,000 pounds.^[322]

After ransom was paid, additional fees for customs duties were still required, over fifty percent of the agreed ransom:^[323]

• 10% for customs
• 15% for the pasha or dey
• 4% for the khaznaji (secretary of state)
• 7% for the wakil al-kharaj (harbourmaster)
• 17% for prison guards

Slaves with special skills, such as surgeons and master carpenters who built or repaired ships, often could not be ransomed at any price.^[324]

Algiers charged its European trading partners royalties for freedom of navigation in the western Mediterranean, and gave the merchants of those countries special privileges, including lower customs duties.^[325][119] Royalties were also imposed on Bremen, Hanover, and Prussia, in addition to the Papal States at times.^[325] These royalties were paid annually or biennially and differed according to the relationship between those countries and Algiers, and the conditions prevailing in that period had an impact on determining their amounts, shown in the following table:^[325]

Royalties: Late 18th century to early 19th century

Country	Year	Value	Current value (USD)
Spanish Empire	1785 –1807	After signing the armistice of 1785 and withdrawing from Oran, was required to pay 18,000 francs. It paid 48,000 dollars in 1807.	*equivalent to $36,378,413 in 2022 (1785) equivalent to $998,836 in 2023 (1807)
Grand Duchy of Tuscany	1823	Before 1823, 25,000 doubles (Tuscan lira) or 250,000 francs.	*equivalent to $486,945,880 in 2022
Kingdom of Portugal	1822	20,000 francs	*equivalent to $40,365,783 in 2022
Kingdom of Sardinia	1746 - 1822	Under the treaty of 1746, 216,000 francs by 1822.	*equivalent to $435,950,459 in 2022
Kingdom of France	1790 - 1816	Before 1790, it paid 37,000 livres. After 1790, it pledged to pay 27,000 piastres, or 108,000 francs, and in 1816 committed to pay 200,000 francs.	*equivalent to $5,745,110 in 2023 (–1789) equivalent to $197,370,758 in 2022 (1790–) equivalent to $304,396,795 in 2022 (1816)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1807	It pledged to pay 100,000 piastres, or 267,500 francs, in exchange for certain privileges.	*equivalent to $400,705,897 in 2022
Kingdom of the Netherlands	1807 - 1826	In the treaty of 1826, it committed to paying 10,000 Algerian sequins, and in 1807, it paid 40,000 piastres, or 160,000 francs.	*equivalent to $239,674,555 in 2022
Austrian Empire	1807	In 1807, paid an estimated 200,000 francs.	*equivalent to $299,593,194 in 2022
United States	1795 - 1822	In 1795 paid 1,000,000 dollars annually, and $10 million over 12 years, in exchange for special privileges. Equipment accounted for 21,600 dollars.[253]	*equivalent to $17,952,941 in 2023 (1795 alone) equivalent to $179,529,412 in 2023 (over 12 years)
Kingdom of Naples	1816 - 1822	Paid royalties estimated at 24,000 francs. Starting 1822, paid a royalty of 12,000 francs every two years.	*equivalent to $36,527,615 in 2022 (1816) equivalent to $24,219,470 in 2022 (1822)
Kingdom of Norway	1822	Royalty of 12,000 francs every two years.	*equivalent to $24,219,470 in 2022
Denmark	1822	Paid 180,000 francs every two years.	*equivalent to $363,292,049 in 2022
Kingdom of Sweden	1822	120,000 francs every two years.	*equivalent to $242,194,699 in 2022
Republic of Venice	1747 - 1763	From 1747, it paid 2,200 gold coins annually, which in 1763 became an estimated 50,000 riyals (Venetian lira).	*equivalent to $803,955,274 in 2020 (1763)

Along with tribute payments, Algerian wheat exports to Europe replaced privateering as its primary source of income in the 18th century, and became the core factor in trade relations between Algiers and Britain, Genoa and France.^[291] The French Compagnie royale d'Afrique [fr] controlled French wheat imports in 1741 from the Algerian Constantinois.^[326] Merouche wrote:^[327]

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

Algerian exports mostly went to Marseille, mostly by sea. Exports included, according to historian William Spencer, "carpets, embroidered handkerchiefs, silk scarves, ostrich feathers,^[328] wax, wool, animal hides and skins, dates, and a coarse native linen similar to muslin".^[329] The sea trade was run by the Bacri and Busnash families, who had settled in Algeria by 1720.^[330] After acting as mediators in the Christian slave trade in the heyday of privateering,^[330] they entangled the public interest of the Regency with the private interests of their own companies through their European contacts.^[244] These merchants amassed massive wealth from dealing in goods such as wheat and leather and from their monopoly on olive oil and customs taxation. They become the financiers of the dey and mediators between Algiers and Europe, both in diplomacy and in trade.^[330]

Large caravans of 300 mules went overland to neighbouring Tunisia twice a year.^[331] The city of Constantine was a meeting point for caravans from the Sahara, Tunis and Algiers, loaded with woven fabric, carpets, chechias, luxury goods and coffee. Caravans from the south brought dates and wool products like burnouses and haiks.^[332] In the west, Tlemcen was linked by trade routes to as far as Tafilalt in Morocco and Timbuktu in the Sudan. The former brought salt, spices, Moroccan leather, silk and gun wood, and the latter ostrich feathers, ivory, slaves, vermillion, copper and gold.^[332] "Desert oases have historically been essential, strategic locations in trans-Saharan routes," wrote Chaibou and Bonnet, naming "Bilma (Niger), Ouardane (Mauritania), In Salah (Algeria), Taoudenni (Mali), Iférouane, Chinguetti (Mauritania), Kufra, and Murzuk (Libya)."^[333] Trade didn't flourish however. The state awarded monopolies, often to the highest bidder, as a source of guaranteed revenue, and imposed a 2.5 percent duty on exports and 12.5 percent on imports. Trade in military assets such as cannon and small arms was prohibited.^[334]

Overland trade used animals to transport goods, mainly on their backs. Carts could be used on suitable roads. The many official posts of the Odjak and the makhzen tribes along the way provided security for caravans. In addition, caravanserais, locally known as fonduk, gave travelers a place to rest.^[335] Products such as wool from the tribal interior were traded b in cities at markets known as souks. These took the names of tribes preceded by days of the week, for example: Souk Al Arbaa Al-Attafs lit. 'Wednesday market of Al-Attaf tribe'. Souks formed hubs for trading agricultural products such as grain, olives, cattle, sheep and horses.^[336] In urban marketplaces they bought imported jewelry textiles and pottery. Jewish intermediaries helped furthering such exchanges between cities and countryside.^[336]

Administrative control over the Sahara was often loose, but Algiers' economic ties to it were very important,^[337] and Algiers and other Algerian cities were among the main destinations of the trans-Saharan slave trade.^[338] In the late eighteenth century the Regency "appears to have witnessed considerable commercial activity in the Algerian Sahara, related perhaps to the period of stability and prosperity under Dey Baba Mohammed ben-Osman, who ruled at Algiers from 1766 to 1791," Donald Holsinger wrote, "despite the picture of commercial decadence which has sometimes been painted for the Regency."^[328]

Some of the taxes levied by the Regency fell under Islamic law, including the cushr (tithe) on agricultural products, but some had elements of extortion.^[339] Periodic tithes could only be collected from crops grown on private farmland near the towns. Instead, nomadic tribes in the mountains paid a fixed tax, called garama (compensation), based on a rough estimate of their wealth. In addition, rural populations also paid a tax known as lazma (obligation) or ma'una (support), that paid for Muslim armies to defend the country from Christians. City dwellers had other taxes, including market taxes and dues to artisan guilds.^[340] Beys also collected gifts (dannush), every six months for the deys and their chief ministers. Every bey had to personally bring dannush every three years. In other years, his khalifa (deputy) could take it to Algiers.^[341]

The arrival of a bey or khalifa in Algiers with dannush was a notable event governed by a protocol setting out how to receive him and when his gifts would be given to the dey, his ministers, officials and the poor. The honors that the bey received depended on the value of the gifts he brought. Al-Zahar reported that the chief of the western province was expected to pay more than 20,000 doro in cash, half that in jewelry, four horses, fifty black slaves, woollen tilimsans, silk garments from Fez, and twenty quintals each of wax, honey, butter, and walnuts . Dannush from the Eastern Province was larger and included Tunisian perfumes and clothing.^[339]

Agricultural production eventually overtook privateering as a source of Regency revenue.^[56] Fallowing and crop rotation were widely practiced. Wheat, cotton, rice, tobacco, watermelon and corn were the most commonly grown products.^[342] Cereals and livestock products especially constituted much of the export trade after providing for local consumption of oil, grain, wool, wax and leather.^[343]

The state owned very fertile lands termed fahs. Located near the main towns, these lands were granted to Turkish military personnel, coulougli families, makhzen tribes and urban notables under the azl system.^[344] Fahs lands were cultivated by tenant farmers who received a fifth of the harvest under the khammas sharecropping system for common land.^[345] The Metija, breadbasket of Algiers, provided it with various fruits and vegetables.^[346] Algerine wine was particularly sought after in Europe for its quality.^[347][346]

Vast areas of Algeria's land were known as arsh, where animal husbandry predominated.^[348] Historian Mahfoud Kaddache [fr] stresses: "Arsh land, land of the tribes, belongs to the tribal community, it is frequently divided into two parts; the larger part, undivided, is used by the entire tribe and forms pasture areas, the second part is reserved for crops and allocated between families."^[344] The melk lands were possessed and heritable by individuals and were under customary Berber law.^[345][349]

Algeria's agricultural wealth came from the quality of the cultivated land, but also from agricultural techniques that used all the means of the time (ploughs dragged by oxen, donkeys, mules, or camels) and irrigation and ingenious water systems that supplied small collective dams. Mouloud Gaid [fr] wrote: "Tlemcen, Mostaganem, Miliana, Médéa, Mila, Constantine, M'sila, Aïn El-Hamma, etc., were always sought after for their green sites, their orchards and their succulent fruits."^[350] South of the Tell Atlas, the majority of the western population and the people of the Sahara were pastoralists, nomads and semi-nomads who grew dates and bred sheep, goats and camels. Their products (butter, wool, skins, camel hair) were traded north^[351] in their annual migration to summer pastures.^[352]

Manufacturing was restricted to shipyards, which built frigates of oak sourced from Kabylia. The smaller ports of Ténès, Cherchell, Dellys, Béjaïa and Djidjelli built shallops, brigs, galiots, tartanes and xebecs used to fish or transport goods between Algerian ports.^[353] Christian slaves were employed in these shipyards, often managed by Christian renegades, and sometimes even free Christians as captains of armament or engineers of naval constructions, whose services were hired without a requirement to convert to Islam.^[354] Several workshops supported repairs and rope-making.^[355] The quarries of Bab El-Oued extracted stone, raw material for buildings and fortifications.^[356] The Bab El-Oued foundries produced cannons of all sizes for the warships of the Algerian navy and for use as fort batteries and field artillery.^[353]

Cities were established centers for artisanry and served as hubs for international trade.^[343] Residents of Nedroma, Tlemcen, Oran, Mostaganem, Kalaa, Dellys, Blida, Médéa, Collo, M'Sila, Mila and Constantine were mostly artisans and merchants. The most common crafts were weaving, woodturning, dyeing, rope-making and tool-making.^[357] Algiers was home to foundries, shipyards, and workshops. Tlemcen had more than 500 looms. Artisans were prevalent even in small towns.^[358]

At most 6% of the population lived in cities.^[359] In 1808 Algerian society included around 10,000 Turks, and a class of coulouglis emerged, offspring of Turkish soldiers and Algerian women.^[360] In the 17th century the population of Algiers was dominated by refugees from Andalusia and also included about 35,000 White Christian slaves working on the docks and in quarries and shipyards.^[361] By the late nineteenth century that number had dropped to about 2000, and was only about 200 in 1830.^[361] About 1000 Black slaves worked as household servants and many freed black slaves worked also on the docks as masons.^[361] In the 18th century French and Italian Jewish merchants began to arrive, a distinct and much more affluent group than the Jewish minority among the earlier Andalusian arrivals.^[361] Moors could hold legal and police powers within Algiers as mayors.^[362] Guilds regulated most trade, and like city neighborhoods headed by amins hedged against emergencies, and strengthened community solidarity.^[363] The Muslim faith prevailed in every aspect of life.^[364] Public business was carried out in both Arabic and Osmanli.^[365]

In addition to butcher shops and grocery stores, Ibadi Mozabites operated bath houses.^[363] The shops and bazaars clustered around the alleys off the single main street of the lower city near the harbor,^[366][359] as well as coffeehouses overlooking the sea in the lower town, or strategically located at crossroads, where friends met over mint tea.^[367]

The fraternal relations in the hierarchical system of the urban Algiers were devoid of rivalry between the few great merchants in the wealthy upper class, and the poorer lower classes of shopkeepers, craftsmen and scholars.^[368]

The tribe was a primary social and political structure based upon family.^[369] Competition among tribes for land and water was mediated through a sense of unity based on consanguinity, shared Islamic faith and their economic need to trade with each other, preventing dangerous social frictions and allowing union against external threats.^[369]

This system persisted under the Regency. The traditional isolation of the city from the hinterland ceased, ending the traditional divide between urban and rural areas of the central Maghreb.^[370] Cities and villages articulated their own organizations within the tribal systems and confederations.^[371] Although they depended on tribal society, cities distanced the population from tribes, which adapted but did not disappear. Their importance varied from region to region; they remained relatively important in the Aurès for example.^[372]

A complex link of interdependencies developed between tribes and the state as they adapted to government pressure.^[372][373] They were assigned social roles; the Biskri Berbers were charged with street maintenance and guarding quarters, and the Berbers of Kabylia and Aures frequently worked in Algiers.^[374]

The state was sometimes necessary for the consolidation of the tribes. These relations even seemed complementary.^[373] Makhzen tribes derived their legitimacy from their affiliation to the government, protecting urban areas, collecting taxes and exercising military control of the state in the countryside. The rayas tribes were tax-paying subjects and siba tribes were dissidents who opposed taxes, which reduced their surplus production.^[375] But they still depended on market access organized by the state and the makhzen tribes. The markets outside the territories dependent on the state were managed by the marabouts who very often acted as guarantors of tribal order.^[372]

The political authority of the tribes depended either on their military strength or their religious lineage.^[372] These two aristocracies, the religious brotherhoods who dominated the west, and the djouad [fr] strongman families of the east, often opposed one another.^[376] Algerian society had three separate aristocracies:^[377]

• djouads: warriors, often heads of powerful autonomous tribes or tribal confederations,^[378] like the Berber Mokranis, Beni Abbas or Ben-Gana family of the Arab Hilalian confederations in the eastern beylik. The latter were related to Ahmed Bey of Constantine. The Regency often saw these tribes as allies.^[379]
• sharifs: a religious nobility who claimed descent from the prophet Muhammad, and often members of the Naqib al-ashraf institution of the Ottoman Empire.^[380] The author Al-Zahar was a member of this nobility. Other sharifs were members of Sufi zawiyas, like the Emir Abdelkader, who was affiliated with the Qadiriyya tariqa.^[381]
• marabouts like Awled Sidi Cheikh ruled the western oases until the 19th century.^[382] The oases were a principality, a comedy princedoms, vassals of Algiers. Not a dynasty but a political confederation headed by a riyasa (chiefdom) of the Awlad Sidi Cheikh maraboutic brotherhoods.^[372] Marabouts also shared in corsair booty.^[383]

Education in Algeria mainly took place in small primary schools (kuttabs) that focused on reading, writing and religion, especially in rural areas.^[384] Imams, zawiyas, marabouts, and elders did most of the teaching.^[385] Literacy was so effectively taught in these religious schools that in 1830 the literacy rate in Algeria was higher than in France.^[386] Qadis or muftis often taught at the madrasas of the larger cities, maintained through waqf and central government funding.^[384] The students received education on Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic medicine. Afterwards they became teachers, join the qadis and muftis or pursued further education in the universities of Tunis, Fez or Cairo.^[384]

In the Zayyanid period Tlemcen was a primary center of Islamic culture, but schools and universities there declined due to neglect. Abu Hammu II's madrasa, known as Yaqubiyya, especially fell into complete ruin,^[387] as the military and naval Ottoman elites' strong belief that northern Christendom needed to be prevented from military expansion into the Maghreb hampered the development of learning, and pushed intellectual culture to the margins.^[388] They were more interested in building forts, navies, and castles.^[389] This decline ended only when Mohammed el Kebir, bey of Oran, significantly invested in renovating and rebuilding several new educational facilities in the region.^[387]

Architecture in Algiers during this period showed a convergence of Ottoman influence with local traditions.^[391] Mosques began to be built with domes under Ottoman influence, but minarets generally still had square shafts in the local tradition, not the round or octagonal shafts seen in other Ottoman provinces, where pencil-shaped minarets were symbols of Ottoman sovereignty.^[392][393] The oldest surviving mosque in Algiers was commissioned by Ali Bitchin in 1622.^[392] The New Mosque (Djamaa el-Djedid), built in 1660–1661, became one of the most important Hanafi mosques in Algiers.^[394][395] Architecturally one of the most significant remaining mosques of this era, it exemplifies a mix of Ottoman, North African, and European design elements, with its main dome preceded by a large barrel-vaulted nave.^[390] By the end of the 18th century, the city had over 120 mosques, including over a dozen congregational mosques.^[396]

Of the emblematic Ketchaoua Mosque, built by Dey Hassan III Pasha, Moroccan statesman and historian Abu al-Qasim al-Zayyani wrote in 1795: "The money spent on it...was more than anyone could allow himself to spend except those whom God grants success."^[397] Originally similar in design to the Ali Bitchin Mosque, its appearance radically changed under French colonial rule.^[392]

After the Ottomans arrived, architectural ceramic tiles replaced zellij tiles decorated with stars and polygons used in geometric patterns in the medieval Maghreb.^[398] Square decorative ceramic tiles were widespread in Algiers and Constantine, with simpler examples in Tlemcen.^[399] In the Turkish era tiles were characterized by...motifs in Islamic art such as epigraphic, geometric, and floral motifs."^[400]

In addition to landscapes, seascapes, ships and animals, the tiles came in three types: Turkish, Tunisian, and European, from Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.^[401] They decorated interior walls and floors, forming bands, patterns and frames around door jambs, window frames and balusters.^[399]

Algiers was protected by a wall about 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi) long with five gates.^[402] Seafront fortifications were supplemented by forts outside the city, including the "star fort", built above the qasba in 1568, defending the landward approaches to the city,^[403] the 'twenty-four hour fort', and the Eulj Ali burj covering the Bab al-Oued beach, built in 1569. Facing south was the "Emperor fort" or Sultan Kalassi, built between 1545 and 1580.^[404] A citadel, the qasba, occupied the highest point of the city. The lower town near the harbor was the center of Regency administration and contained the most important markets, mosques, palaces, janissary barracks and government buildings such as the mint.^[402]

Djenina Palace ('Little Garden'), also called the Pasha's palace, was begun in 1552 by Salah Rais and finished in 1556.^[405] Ali Bitchin's Spanish captive Emmanuel de Aranda described it as "a public structure for those who are advanced to that charge [i.e., the position of governor], well built after the modern way of Architecture." He added: "The most beautiful house in Algiers is that of Bacha [Bassa], or Viceroy, which is almost in the middle of the city. [It has] two small galleries one above the other, supported by a double row of columns of marble and porphyry."^[406] The Djenina was located at the center of a larger complex known as the Dar al-Sultan until 1817, when Dey Ali Khodja moved to the Palace of the Dey in the qasba.^[402] The only building from the Dar al-Sultan complex that remains today, the Dar 'Aziza Bint al-Bey, is believed to have been built in the 16th century.^[407]

Three centuries of Ottoman influence in Algeria left many cultural elements of Turkish origin or influence, wrote Lucien Golvin.^[408]

• Brassware imported by janissaries likely inspired copper lanterns, trays, and ewers made in Algiers, Constantine and Tlemcen with Ottoman decorative elements like tulips and carnations.^[408]
• Ornate bronze door knockers were manufactured in Tlemcen until about 1930. Algiers and Constantine produced simpler examples.^[408]
• Saddlers made velvet-covered saddles embroidered with gold or silver thread, and bridles, belts, saddlecloths and boots with traditional Ottoman ornamentation.^[409]
• Ghiordés rugs and rugs from Kula seem to have influenced the early 19th-century adoption into the rugs of Hammam Guergour, Nemencha and Harakta tribes of large central lozenge-shaped medallions with arched lobes in a mihrab pattern, bordered by bands of floral elements. Those produced at the Qal'a of the Banu Rashid displayed multiple medallions in a more Andalusi style, and in the Amour mountains the Amour tribe [fr] continued to produce traditional tent rugs in geometric patterns.^[409]
• Clothing of janissaries, deys and other dignitaries was distinctive enough to be known in the Mediterranean as "Algerian style", including turbans and red sheshias, burnouses, kaftans, vests (sédria) embroidered with patterns, wide and baggy trousers belted with broad silk sashes, and babouche slippers. They were frequently armed with yatagans.^[410]
• needle lace (chebika) and embroidery from Algiers were made under a ma'allema (teacher) on a horizontal loom (gargaf). Embroidery from Annaba and Djidjilli was multicolored, with flat dots.^[408]

New arrivals from Anatolia and Al-Andalus brought music to Algiers. A very accented Ottoman military music with Sufi bektashi origins was played by janissary bands called mehterân.^[411] Andalusi classical music brought to Algiers by Moriscos developed three styles; Tlemcenian gharnati, Constantine's ma'luf and sanaa in Algiers.^[412] It was widespread in coffeehouses and often played by orchestras of tar, oud and rebab.^[411]

Contemporary Algerian chaabi musician El-Hachemi Guerouabi recounts the exploits of corsairs against the Knights of Malta in his song Corsani Ghanem (English: Our ship captured a prize) based on 16th-century Algerian Arabic poetry by Imad Al-Din Doukkali.^[413]

Europeans saw Algiers as "the center of pirate activity -- that captured the imagination of Europe as a fearsome and vicious enemy."^[414] The 19th century French historian Henri de Grammont said:

"It gave the world the singular spectacle of a nation living from privateering and living only by it, resisting the incessant attacks directed against it with incredible vitality, submitting three quarters of Europe and the United States of America to the humiliation of an annual tribute; all this, despite unimaginable disorder and daily revolutions, which would have killed any other association, and which seemed to be essential to the existence of this strange people."^[415]

British historian James McDougall called this claim a "colonial myth". He pointed out that after the 17th century, termed by Merouche the "century of privateering",^[416] less lucrative privateering remained symbolic of a corsair state. Tribute payments to guarantee peace, trade, customs, taxation and increased agricultural production brought in most of the revenue of the Regency in the 18th century,^[119] which Merouche termed the "century of wheat".^[416]

American historian John Baptist Wolf argued that the local population resented occupation by a republic of foreign "cutthroats and thieves", and the French "civilizing mission", although carried out by brutal means, did offer much to the Algerian people.^[417] However British historian Peter Holt indicates that this antagonism never took a nationalist aspect and was balanced by strong ties such as shared faith, social structure and culture.^[418] Nacereddin Saidouni argues that although Algeria was not a nation in the modern sense, it was nevertheless a local political entity that helped deepen the sense of community among large segments of the Algerian population in the countryside and cities.^[278] Yahia Boaziz noted that the Ottomans repelled European attacks and convinced the population to abide by the decisions of a centralised state.^[419]

Historians John Douglas Ruedy and William Spencer write that the Ottomans in North Africa created an Algerian political entity with all the classical attributes of statehood and a high standard of living.^[420][j] Historian Mahfoud Kaddache [fr] considered the Ottoman period "catalytic to the modern geopolitical and national development of Algeria."^[421] Saidouni affirms that Algeria took a similar path as the rest of North African states that gradually imposed their sovereignty, as it was no different from Muhammad Ali's Egypt, Husainid dynasty's Tunisia and Alawi's Morocco.^[278] Yet, Ruedy notes, the end of tribal rivalries and the emergence of a true nation state occurred only after long years of brutal French conquest and colonial implantation and unrelenting Algerian resistance, culminating in the Algerian war of independence in 1954.^[422]

36°47′6″N 3°3′45″E / 36.78500°N 3.06250°E / 36.78500; 3.06250