Algiers (
Arabic:
الجزائر, al-Jazā’er;
Algerian Arabic pronunciation: دزاير Dzayer,
Berber: Dzayer tamaneɣt,
French: Alger) is the capital and largest city of
Algeria. According to the
1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630.[1] In 2009, the population was about 3,
500,
000. An estimate put the population at about 3,574,000 in
2010. Algiers is located on the
Mediterranean Sea and in the north-central portion of Algeria.[2]
Sometimes nicknamed El-Behdja (البهجة) or alternatively
Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the
White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 122 metres (400 ft) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.The city name is derived (via French Alger and
Catalan Alger[3]) from the
Arabic name الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, which translates as "
The Islands", referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-Jazā’ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name جزائر بني مزغانة Jaza'ir
Bani Mazghana, "The Islands of the
Sons of Mazghana", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and
Yaqut al-Hamawi.A
Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim which later developed into a small
Roman town called
Icosium existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la
Marine follows the lines of what used to be a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given
Latin rights by
Emperor Vespasian. The bishops of
Icosium are mentioned as late as the
5th century.The present-day city was founded in 944 by
Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber
Zirid–
Sanhaja dynasty. He had earlier (935) built his own house and a Sanhaja center at
Ashir, just south of Algiers. Although his
Zirid dynasty was overthrown by
Roger II of Sicily in 1148, the
Zirids had already lost control of Algiers to their cousins the
Hammadids in 1014.[4] The city was wrested from the Hammadids by the
Almohads in 1159, and in the
13th century came under the dominion of the Ziyanid sultans of
Tlemcen. Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own due to
Oran being the chief seaport of the Ziyanids.
As early as 1302 the islet of Peñón in front of Algiers harbour had been occupied by
Spaniards. Thereafter, a considerable amount of trade began to flow between Algiers and
Spain. However, Algiers continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion of the
Moors from Spain, many of whom sought asylum in the city. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of
Africa, the Spaniards fortified the islet of Peñon and imposed a levy intended to suppress corsair activity.In 1516, the amir of Algiers,
Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers
Aruj and
Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards. Aruj came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the
Spanish in the
Capture of Algiers (1516). Hayreddin, succeeding Aruj after the latter was killed in battle against the Spaniards in the
Fall of Tlemcen (1517), was the founder of the pashaluk, which subsequently became the beylik, of Algeria.
Barbarossa lost Algiers in 1524 but regained it with the Capture of Algiers (
1529), and then formally invited the
Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent to accept sovereignty over the territory and to annex Algiers to the
Ottoman Empire.Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the
Barbary pirates. In October 1541 in the
Algiers expedition, the
King of Spain and
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their
Pasha,
Hassan.
The bombardment of Algiers by
Lord Exmouth, August 1816, painted by
Thomas Luny
Ornate Ottoman cannon found in Algiers on 8 October 1581 by Ca'fer el-Mu'allim.
Length: 385 cm, cal:178 mm, weight:
2910 kg, stone projectile. Seized by
France during the invasion of Algiers in 1830.
Musée de l'Armée,
Paris.
- published: 11 Sep 2015
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