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Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, Standard
Arabic: Al Jaza'ir IPA: [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir],
Algerian Arabic: Dzayer ([dzæjer] (From
Berber pronunciation), [[Berber languages|of
the largest in the Maghreb[1] (behind
Casablanca).
Nicknamed El-Bahdja (البهجة) or Alger
la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the
glistening white of its buildings as seen
rising up from the sea, it is situated on the
west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea.
The city name is derived from the Arabic word
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
jazā'ir banī mazghannā, "the islands of
(the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early
medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and
Yaqut al-Hamawi. Algiers is the only Algerian
city with an English name different from its
French name.
The modern part of the city is built on the
level ground by the seashore and 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, 400 feet
(122 m) above the sea. The casbah and the two
quays form a triangle.
commercial outpost called Ikosim, 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 a Roman street. Roman
cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab
Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by
Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are
mentioned as late as the 5th century.
City and harbour of Algiers, circa 1921
City and harbour of Algiers, circa 1921
The present city was founded in 944 by
Buluggin ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber
Zirid-Senhaja dynasty, which was overthrown
by Roger II of Sicily in 1148. The Zirids had
before that date lost Algiers, which in 1159
was occupied by the Almohades, and in the
13th century came under the dominion of the
Abd-el-Wadid sultans of Tlemcen.
Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen,
Algiers had a large measure of independence
under amirs of its own, Oran being the chief
seaport of the Abd-el-Wahid. The islet in
front of the harbour, subsequently known as
the Penon, had been occupied by the Spaniards
as early as 1302. Thereafter, a considerable
trade grew up between Algiers and Spain.
Algiers from this time became the chief seat
of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541, 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 Spaniards,
was defeated by the Algerians under their
Pasha, Hassan. From the 17th century,
Algiers, by then only formally part of the
Ottoman Empire but essentially free of
Ottoman control, sited on the periphery of
both the Ottoman and European economic
spheres, and depending for its existence on a
Mediterranean that was increasingly
controlled by European shipping, backed by
European navies, turned to piracy and
ransoming. Repeated attempts were made by
various nations to subdue the pirates that
disturbed shipping in the western
Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as
far north as Cornwall. The United States
fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary
Wars) over Algiers' attacks on shipping.
In 1816, the city was bombarded by a British
squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of
Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algerian slave
raid in 1715), assisted by Dutch men-of-war,
and the corsair fleet burned. The history of
Algiers from 1830 to 1962 is bound to the
larger history of Algeria and its
relationship to France. On July 4, 1827, on
the pretext of an affront to the French
consul — whom the dey had hit with a
fly-whisk when he said the French government
was not prepared to pay its large outstanding
debts to two Algerian Jewish merchants — a
French army under General de Bourmont
attacked the city, which capitulated the
following day. Algiers became a French
colony.
In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle
in which up to 1.5 million Algerians died at
the hands of the French Army and the Algerian
Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria
finally gained its independence, with Algiers
as its capital. Since then, despite losing
its entire European or pied-noir population,
the city has expanded massively. It now has
about 3 million inhabitants, or 10 percent of
Algeria's population — and its suburbs now
cover most of the surrounding Metidja plain.
Having hosted the All-Africa Games in 1978,
Algiers will again host the games in 2007.
Algiers is also the "Capital of Arabic
Culture" for 2007.
In August 2007, The Economist magazine ranked
Algiers as the least livable city in a survey
of 132 cities.
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